earticle

한국어

This study examines the physical characteristics of the editions of the Vernacular Edition of the Family Rituals published in 1632 (the 10th year of King Injo’s reign) by conducting a comprehensive investigation and analyzing their physical features. It also compares these with the editions of the Family Rituals (家禮) written in Chinese characters to clarify their genealogy. The Vernacular Edition of the Family Rituals is a Korean translation by Shin Shik (申湜, 1551-1623) of the Family Rituals by Zhu Xi (朱熹) from the Song Dynasty. His son, Shin Deukyeon (申得淵, 1585-1647), published it as a woodblock edition in 1632 while serving as the Governor of Gangwon Province. Currently, woodblock editions and manuscript editions of the Vernacular Edition of the Family Rituals have been identified. Although all woodblock editions share the same form as the original 1632 edition, they differ in their printing periods, with most being bound in four volumes. The manuscript editions differ in the number of lines and the arrangement of characters per line, but their content, including the layout and illustrations of the family rituals, is consistent with the woodblock editions. The format of the Vernacular Edition of the Family Rituals’s text follows the explanations given in the preface, indicating an intention to preserve the original form of the Family Rituals written in Chinese characters. However, it is presumed that the source text for the Vernacular Edition of the Family Rituals was not the Great Compendium of Human Nature and Principle (C. Xingli Daquan 性理大全) or the Great Compendium of Family Rituals (C. Jiali Daquan 家禮大全), which were widely circulated in Joseon at the time, but rather the seven-volume Family Rituals, which was divided into sections according to different rites and had its text segmented into finer paragraphs. The text of the seven-volume Family Rituals was revised starting from the 1726 edition, but the Vernacular Edition of the Family Rituals referred to an edition that did not modify the text from the Great Compendium of Human Nature and Principle.