Sŏngmun chip [or] Seongmun jip 石門集 [Writings from Stone Gate]

Two pages of woodcut cursive calligraphy. Metal movable (?) type. 78; 99 folding leaves. Five juan in two vols. Large 8vo (327 x 195 mm.), orig. brown semi-stiff wrappers (wrappers somewhat soiled), new stitching. [Korea]: Torim kangdang 道林講堂, 1874.



First edition and quite rare.


Shadows rise among the distant trees;


Fragrant foliage, the evening sky;


The white heron recognizes my leisurely disposition;


And drops the poem by my side.



Thus reads "Returning to Stone Gate" (sŏngmun kwiro 石門歸路), the opening poem in this collection of verse and prose by O I-ik 吳以翼 (1618-66). It was posthumously published in 1874 by the author's descendants, a common practice in late Chosŏn Korea.


O had an official career, but retired after having been exiled for a period. In rural retirement, beautifully captured in his poem, O called himself "the hermit of Stone Gate" (sŏngmun kŏsa 石門居士), hence the name of his posthumous oeuvre.


O's ancestral home was Naju in present-day South Jeolla province, and his descendants apparently still lived there seven generations later. The undated Preface by Yi Kyŏng-jae 李景在 (1800-73) undated Preface tells of how O Kŭng-gyu (or O Geung-hyu) 吳恆圭 came from Naju with a collection of his ancestor's writings, seeking to publish them. "I washed my hands and read them," Yi wrote, "finding among them poems exchanged with Mr. Kwich'ŏn. I could not help but gently put my hand on the scroll and let it touch me; Mr. O had been an old friend of my own ancestor." According to the colophon written by O Chun-sŏn 吳駿善 - an eighth-generation descendant of O I-ik, and thus one generation below O Kŭng-gyu - O I-ik had left behind over 500 poems.


O Chun-sŏn's colophon is dated 1874, which is also the date of the imprint. The work in addition contains an undated colophon signed by Ko Si-hong 高時鴻.



References


Encyclopedia of Korean Culture 한국민족문화대백과사전. https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/


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