A Tradition of Donggwan(彤管) and Gender Politics on Daily Lives Lee, Kyung-Ha One topic of this essay is that women's Haengjang(行狀), records of a dead person's life, and Myojimyong(墓誌銘), a kind of epitaphs, originated from a tradition of Donggwan(彤管). In ancient China, Donggwan originally meant documents that Yeosa(女史), a female historiographer, recorded daily lives of queens, and the meaning changed to 'a history of ideal women' in Joseon Dynasty. In this essay, I regard women's Haengjang and Myojimyong as writing belonged to tradition of Donggwan as well as tradition of 'writing for the dead'. Another topic is to discuss what value women's Haengjang and Myojimyong have as historial materials. Scarcity of materials and historical records is one of big problems in studies of women's classical literary history. In this viewpoint, Haengjang and Myojimyong are very important sources for women's history. Because so many women's Haengjang and and Myojimyong were written during Joseon Dynasty and the documents often contained many kinds of informations about women's daily lives. However, women's daily lives were usually represented as very normative forms, which spoke for gender politics in women's daily lives in the Middle Ages.

A Tradition of Donggwan(彤管) and Gender Politics on Daily Lives Lee, Kyung-Ha One topic of this essay is that women's Haengjang(行狀), records of a dead person's life, and Myojimyong(墓誌銘), a kind of epitaphs, originated from a tradition of Donggwan(彤管). In ancient China, Donggwan originally meant documents that Yeosa(女史), a female historiographer, recorded daily lives of queens, and the meaning changed to 'a history of ideal women' in Joseon Dynasty. In this essay, I regard women's Haengjang and Myojimyong as writing belonged to tradition of Donggwan as well as tradition of 'writing for the dead'. Another topic is to discuss what value women's Haengjang and Myojimyong have as historial materials. Scarcity of materials and historical records is one of big problems in studies of women's classical literary history. In this viewpoint, Haengjang and Myojimyong are very important sources for women's history. Because so many women's Haengjang and and Myojimyong were written during Joseon Dynasty and the documents often contained many kinds of informations about women's daily lives. However, women's daily lives were usually represented as very normative forms, which spoke for gender politics in women's daily lives in the Middle Ages.

Donggwan(管), Yeosa(女史), women's history, Haengjang(行狀), Myojimyong(墓誌銘), daily lives, gender politics.