KIM, Si-hwa (or KIM, Ch’ŏl-lam) 金始鏵

Sambongji 三峰志 [Gazetteer of the Three Peaks]

31 folding leaves. Large 8vo (305 x 190 mm.), orig. patterned semi-stiff wrappers (wrappers slightly soiled), new stitching. Yeongju: 1774.

First edition, and very rare, of this gazetteer for the Confucian Three Peaks Academy (WorldCat 46318280). The word “gazetteer” is used in reference to a genre of East Asian historical and geographical texts generally known in Korea as ŭpchi 邑志, which translates roughly to “local treatises.” The now rare word “gazetteer” is used in analogy with a similar genre that existed in British India. It was not unusual for Korean gazetteers to be published by a local Confucian academy, as seems to be the case here.

Confucian academies were important centers of intellectual life in Chosŏn Korea. Several of the leading thinkers of the era spent parts of their career teaching at academies, thus creating a following. The Three Peaks Academy (Sambong sŏwŏn 三峰書院) was founded in the village Valley of Three Peaks (sambonggol 三峰谷) in 1654. The colophon explains the genesis of the gazetteer: “The late Mr. Ch’ŏl-nam 鐵南 [i.e., Kim Si-hwa 金始鏵, 1662-1772] wrote and edited the gazetteer, taking note of the geographical features and dates of buildings, the positions and names of halls, houses, ponds, and lookouts, and recording them for posterity.” Kim Si-hwa furthermore recorded key events in the lives of scholars who had taught at the academy. Kim Wi 金㙔 (1709-89), who authored the colophon dated 1774, wrote about the updates that had been made to Kim Si-hwa’s text for our edition. We find no record of an earlier printing; probably, Kim Si-hwa’s text was first published in this edition.

Nice copy. WorldCat locates only the Berkeley copy.

References

Digital culture encyclopedia for Yeongju 디지털영주문화대전. http://www.grandculture.net/yeongju

Korean Old and Rare Collection Information System 한국고문헌종합목록. https://www.nl.go.kr/korcis/index.do

Pŏk’ŭlli taehak Tongasia tosŏgwan sujip Han’guk kojŏnjŏk mongnok 버클리대학 동아시아도서관 수집 韓國古典籍目錄. Seoul: Koryŏ taehakkyo minjok munhwa yŏn'guwŏn, 2009.

“Sambong ha sambong sŏwŏn maŭl ‘Sambonggol’” 삼봉(三峯) 下 삼봉서원(三峯書院) 마을 ‘삼봉골(三峯谷)’. Yŏngju simin sinmun 영주시민신문, November 26, 2018. https://www.yjinews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=49174.