Ganchal (簡札, handwritten letters) was one of the most widely used forms of written communication by which the men of old could exchange information among themselves. The form and substance of ganchal differed according to the relationship between ...
Ganchal (簡札, handwritten letters) was one of the most widely used forms of written communication by which the men of old could exchange information among themselves. The form and substance of ganchal differed according to the relationship between the sender and the recipient.
Studies on ganchal are stagnant because ganchal is not only hard to understand but illegible in most cases due to the difficulty in understanding the writing style in cursive (草書) or semi-cursive (行書) script.
This paper analyzes the contents and the characteristics on ganchal which was sent by Lee Jae (李縡, 1680~1746, pen name of Doam 陶菴) to Kim Soo-Jong (金守宗, 1671~1736, pen name of Chwiseongdang 醉醒堂) and has been handed down within the Buan Kim family since then. this study shows the aspects of their companionship.
Lee Jae is from Woobong Lee clan (牛峯李氏) and Kim Soo-Jong is from Buan Kim clan (扶安金氏). They were closely related to each other because the two families were connected through marriage in that the mother of Kim Soo-Jong was a daughter of Lee Man-Hee (李晩熙) from the Woobong Lee clan.
Of the 50 ganchal sent to Kim Soo-Jong by Lee Jae, 19 included in the book entitled Gancheop (間帖, Collection of Ganchal) and 31 in Doam sudok (陶菴手牘, Handwritten Letters by Doam) have been handed down to date. These 50 ganchal were not included in the Doamjip (陶菴集, Collection of Doam's Works) at all, and Kim Soo-Jong's works were not published in the form of a book in his life time, much less posthumously.
However, the ganchal with which literary men like Lee Jae and the family of Kim Soo-Jong corresponded are very valuable materials to Buan Kim clan, resulting in the publication of collected works. Gandok (簡牘, Printed Version of Ganchal from Doam and Other Scholars) is one book divided into three chapters with 116 ganchal sent by 44 people. The third chapter includes 28 ganchal sent by Lee Jae sent to Kim Soo-Jong.
Lee Jae, a scholar in the late Joseon dynasty period (朝鮮), was an outstanding scholar in calligraphy. The characteristics of the 50 ganchal which he sent to Kim Soo-Jong are as below:
First, ganchal written by his own hand with which he corresponded with Kim Soo-Jong for 41 years from 1701 to 1742.
Second, Lee Jae lived in Seoul, Injae (麟蹄) in Gangwon Province, and then Hwajeon (花田) in Goyang, etc, and Kim Soo-Jong lived in Wooban-dong in Buan.
Third, ganchal was not sent or received from Doam when Kim Soo-Jong was involved in the Musin Rebellion (戊申亂) of 1728 and suffered hardships. This seems to be due to his attempt to avoid any suspicion of being linked to the rebellion.
Fourth, the content of the ganchal varied, ranging from asking after the welfare of the recipient as well as the daily activities in purchasing and management of the farm.
Due to the fact that the Woobong Lee clan and the Buan Kim clan were related by marriage, not only Lee Jae but four generations from his grandfather, Lee Suk (李?, 1626~1688), and his father's older brother, Lee Man-Sung (李晩成, 1659~1722), to his son, Lee Jae-Won (李濟遠), and a niece of collateral family corresponded with each other.
The contents of ganchal are various as follows ① asking after the welfare; ② sending of condolences; ③ sending of gifts or expressing gratitude for gift and warm friendship; ④ introducing his friend who was being exiled and asking for adequate arrangements for him; ⑤ sending of congratulations and admonitions; ⑥ entrusting of household affairs; ⑦ writer's recent state of affairs.
The contents of ganchal, however, did not contain scholarly attainments, moral cultivation, opinions on the current state of politics.
Through ganchal, the scholars of old kept in touch with each other by exchanging news of neighboring families, relatives, friends, and the government. If we analyze ganchal in conjunction with other documentary records, ganchal can become a valuable foundation for understanding matters that cannot be clearly understood through other material