Carved on both sides & with the orig. wooden handles, containing leaves 5-6 of an apparently unknown text, carved with classical Chinese text.
Woodblock (550 x 210 mm.). [Korea: late Chosŏn].
Woodblocks are invaluable historical artifacts in East Asian history, serving as key instruments in the preservation and dissemination of knowledge. The printing process involves brushing ink onto the carved surface, pressing a sheet of paper onto it, and rubbing it with a printing pad or brush to transfer the inked negative impression. Korea has a long and distinguished history of woodblock printing, with remarkable achievements such as the Tripitaka Koreana (13th century). Nevertheless, only a few original woodblocks have survived, as they were vulnerable to wear, war, and environmental decay. Extant examples, extremely rare outside of Korea, are especially valuable for understanding early modern printing culture, scholarly networks, and book history.
This woodblock preserves manshi 輓詩, elegiac poems mourning the dead and honoring their lives, from Chosŏn-period (1392-1910) literati culture. These poems served a distinctive social function: rather than expressing private family grief, they publicly declare that the deceased’s learning, friendships, and moral character were valuable to the broader intellectual community — and therefore worth preserving and circulating. Leaf 5 here holds three short laments: one for the “retirement [from life]” of scholar Kim, one mourning Ch’oe Hanggyŏng 崔恒慶 (1560-1638), and one for scholar Yi. Leaf 6 continues with a longer elegy for Master Hangang 寒岡 Chŏng Ku 鄭逑 (1543-1620), a major 17th-century Confucian scholar who shaped regional academies and established an influential scholarly lineage.
These poems gain their significance from the profound personal and intellectual relationships they document. Ch’oe Hanggyŏng was Chŏng Ku’s most trusted disciple and close collaborator in scholarly work. The fact that both master and disciple appear as subjects of elegy within a single commemorative block suggests the manuscript’s compiler was likely part of their intellectual lineage. We are uncertain whether this woodblock was carved for a commemorative booklet, local scholarly circle, or wider circulation — making this object a rare physical witness to how remembrance itself was edited, formatted, and made reproducible in early modern Korea.
The block remains in excellent condition, complete with wooden handles for printing, except for the title section at the pillar, which seems to have been deliberately — mysteriously — carved out.
Price: $5,500.00
Item ID: 11422
