• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.12-26
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• 2023

Recently, 『Gyeongja(庚子)/Daetongryeok(大統曆)』(1600), a memorandum record of Yu Seong-ryong during the reign of King Seonjo(宣祖) of the Joseon Dynasty, was returned to Korea from Japan, and about 4,000 letters in cursive characters have been interpreted by Ro Seung-suk. The contents for 203 days written in the margin of 『Gyeongja(庚子)/Daetongryeok(大統曆)』 are mostly new, and are meaningful in understanding Yu's life and social association circumstances. There are daily routines of each day, contemporary figures, diseases and oriental medicine prescriptions. In particular, the combat record of Admiral Yi Sun-shin in 83 letters on the cover is very important to understand the situation in those days. It seems that the reason for writing the combat situations a year and a few months after Admiral Yi died in war was to honor his distinguished military service for a long time by King Seonjo's order according to the public opinion of the royal court. The record can be classified into two categories. First, Admiral Yi sighed when he heard about Yu's dismissal from the office in Gogeumdo, and was always alert with clear water on the boat after the Battle of Waekyo Castle. Second, he was killed by bullets shot by the enemy while directly encouraging battle, not listening to his men who tried to dissuade him from leading the naval battle at Noryang. This only contained contents of devoting his life desperately, which is an important proof of the theory of his death in war. It also contains nine methods for making liquor and another method that wasn't known to the public, and seems to include popular alcohol brewing methods or newly devised ones. In addition, there is a detail that Heo Jun, the author of 『Donguibogam』, introduced medicine to Yu, along with being unable to attend ancestral rites and relieving the poor written in red. There are also stories about Kang Hang(姜沆) returning to Korea after being captured by Japan and Lee Deok-hong(李德弘)'s son, who introduced Gugapseondo(龜甲船圖, the first picture of the Turtle Ship in Korea) to King Seonjo. In the light of the above, 『Gyeongja(庚子)/Daetongryeok(大統曆)』is an important historical record to empirically research not only figures related to Yu but also the circumstances of those days since it contains new facts that are not in the existing literature. In particular, the big accomplishment of this study is to correct the mistakenly known theory of Admiral Yi's suicide and to find out the new fact that Heo Jun provided medical information. In this respect, this book is expected to serve as a testament to the future study of the history and characters related to Yu in the mid-Joseon period.