YŎNGJO, King of Korea 英祖.

Ŏje kiguyŏn hoerok 御製耆耇宴會錄 [Imperially Composed Record of the Banquet of Elders].

]. [1], 46 folding leaves. Small folio (346 x 227 mm.), orig. yellow semi-stiff wrappers (lightly rubbed), title in manuscript on upper cover, old stitching. [Hansŏng]: Un’gak, 1773.

First, and apparently only, printing of the official record of “linked songs” composed at the royal banquet of elders on the occasion of King Yŏngjo’s (r. 1724-76) 80th birthday in 1773, printed the day after the banquet and presented to its guests. The title is not in WorldCat or KORCIS; we locate only two other copies, both in Korea.

In the intercalary third month of the 50th year of his reign, King Yŏngjo — the longest reigning monarch in Chosŏn history — held two birthday banquets within the Kyŏnghŭigung 慶熙宮 palace complex. According to the colophon, the first was a banquet of high-ranking officials held at the Sungjŏng Hall 崇政殿 on the first day of the month. The second, which took place a day later, was a gathering of elders at the Kimsang Gate 金商門, “to reminisce about the events of the kingdom’s past.” The suggestion for these banquets came from the Grand Heir (wangseson 王世孫, enthroned as King Chŏngjo in 1776) and was accepted by King Yŏngjo only reluctantly. The high-ranking official Sŏ Myŏng-ŭng 徐命膺 (1716-87), who composed the colophon, describes the festive banquet of elders as follows:

“On this day, the rain ceased and the sky cleared. A gentle breeze blew softly. Looking up at the throne, one saw [the King] standing tall beneath the colorful canopies, the table to his left and staff to his right. Looking down at the banquet hall, one saw white-haired elders and toothless seniors, their faces glowing amidst the delicacies. When the bells and drums were about to sound and the cups were not yet raised, the elderly commoners, delighting in this joyous gathering, cast aside their staffs and rose to dance. Stooping and stumbling, they advanced forward while shouting: ‘May the King live a thousand years!’”

King Yŏngjo, smiling at this sight, composed a short verse that invoked the famous Song of Great Wind (Ch. dafeng ge 大風歌) of Liu Bang 劉邦 (256-195 B.C.E., the first king of the Han dynasty), likewise written during an auspicious gathering of elders. He then asked the Grand Heir and other officials at the banquet to each compose a song echoing his own, in three enneasyllabic lines ending with the sinographs sul 述, baek 百, and ŏk 億, respectively. The sequence of “linked songs” thus composed — together with the names and positions of their authors — were collected and printed to ensure the longevity of their transmission. The colophon continues,

“King Gao of the Han, in the prime of his life, happily celebrated with the elders of his village. This was, of course, a common occurrence. Yet, he did not know that, throughout the four quarters of the realm, ritual and music take precedence; instead, he was preoccupied with recruiting fierce warriors...Now our sovereign, achieving the seniority of Yao and Shun, observes the flourishing rites of Yu and Xia. The sagely ruler honors the longevity of his subjects, and his subjects, likewise, revere the longevity of the sage ruler. This is truly something unheard of among the rulers of the Han and Tang dynasties.”

Sŏ Myŏng-ŭng believes that the format of linked songs, which brought together King Yŏngjo and his subjects through reciprocal “winds of transformation” (K. p’unghwa 風化), elevated this Korean banquet above its various Chinese precedents and into closer proximity to the sagely rites of old. Writing on the transregional tradition of linked songs in East Asia, Amy Y. Zhang observes the “ubiquitousness of linked verse as a potential means of constructing, defining, and negotiating community” and, when adapted by the Korean monarchy, it became “a way to cultivate harmonious relations with his subjects and to ensure continued prosperous rule”–Zhang, “Writing Communities into Being: The Art of Linked Verse” (PhD diss., Harvard, 2025), pp. 243-44.

Based on the presentation inscription on the front endpaper in our and another copy (see below), the woodblocks for the Record were likely carved overnight so that imprints could be distributed to guests of the banquet the next day, “the third day of the intercalary third month of the 38th year of the Qianlong reign.” The title-page states that the woodblocks were carved at Un’gak 芸閣 (i.e., the kyosŏgwan 校書館, the royal printing house) and kept within the royal archives (K. sago 史庫). Our copy was presented to Sin U-sang 申禹相 (1730-99), the Assistant Director of the Ministry of War (K. pyŏngjo chwarang 兵曹佐郎), whose name, together with the song he had composed at the banquet, appears on f. 36r of the Record. Facing the title-page and on the first leaf of the royal Preface is the Seal of Presentation (K. naesa’in 內賜印), which reads sŏnsajigi 宣賜之記. The oldest of five seals of presentation used throughout Chosŏn history, the sŏnsajigi seal appears in royal presentation copies from 1534 to 1778, as Lee & Song demonstrate in “A Study on Naesabon Preserved in Kyujanggak” (in Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society 43, no. 2).

The title, though recorded in traditional Korean bibliography, is not in WorldCat or KORCIS. We locate only two other copies, one held at the Academy of Korean Studies in Sŏngnam (call no. MF35-2211) and the other at the Sudang kot’aek 修堂古宅 residence of the Yi clan in Yesan. The front endpaper of the Academy of Korean Studies copy is not digitized, while the Sudang kot’aek copy bears a similar royal presentation inscription, dated to the same day as our copy. It was presented to Yi Su-il 李秀逸 (1705-79), whose composition is recorded on f. 30r-v.

Excellent copy, a few leaves lightly stained on upper corner.