Jingbirok

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Jingbirok
First page of the Jingbirok, 1695 Japanese edition
Korean name
Hangul	징비록
Hanja	懲毖錄
Revised Romanization	jingbirok
McCune–Reischauer	chingbirok

The Jingbirok (

Ryu Seong-ryong (1542–1607) was born in

After the war in 1598, Ryu was ousted from office by factional infighting, although he was later rehabilitated he refused to serve again in high office. The Jingbirok was written and compiled at this time by Ryu in his home village, now preserved in the Hahoe Folk Village, in today's Andong, North Gyeongsang Province.

Aim of the Jingbirok

Ryu Seong-ryong wrote the Jingbirok in order to prevent such an invasion from happening again, reflecting on the mistakes.^[2] In the preface he writes that during the conflict the Joseon state suffered "the loss of three capitals, and collapse everywhere" (三都失守，八方瓦解) reflecting on his own role in this he wrote that he was "not up to the task the nation entrusted, the ills that nation suffered was because of threats not grasped, this cannot be swept away, nor can death atone for this guilt" (無似受國重任，於流離板蕩之際，危不持，顛不扶，罪死無赦). Ryu placed the blame for the disaster suffered by Joseon on his own inadequate emphasis on national security, and was therefore resolved to properly document hard lessons dearly paid for, with the hope that following generations could avoid the mistakes that he had made. Although the Jingbirok includes details of Japanese atrocities, the focus of the Jingbirok is on Joseon failures, and Ryu is harsher in his assessment of his own side than he is of the enemy.

Publication history

Structure

The early form of the Jingbirok was completed by the time of the 37th year of King Seonjo's reign (1604) and consisted of sixteen scrolls and a coda:

• Scrolls One and Two, are written in the form of an
  annal, being a chronology from 1586 to 1598 of events between the Joseon-Ming allies and the Japanese
• Scrolls Three to Five, Roots (芹曝集), background leading up to the invasion
• Scrolls Six to Fourteen, Jin-Sa Records (辰巳錄), documents, orders and proclamations made by the author as prime minister[notes 1]
• Scrolls Fifteen to Sixteen, Military transcripts (軍門謄錄), transcripts and the author's correspondence between 1595 and 1598 regarding the conflict
• Coda, A Record of the Crisis (亂後雜記), a record of events during the conflict

By 1633 (11th year of King Injo's reign) this had evolved into a widely read two volume format known as the Seoaejip consisting of the Jingibrok and Ryu Seong-ryong's The Anthology of Seoae (Korean: 서애집; Hanja: 西厓集)). In 1647 the Jingibrok was issued as a single stand alone volume.

Known printed editions

Classical Chinese

• 1647, published by
  Gyeongsang-do governor Jo Su-ik^[1]
• 1695, Japanese Kanban edition published in Kyoto in two volumes^{[notes 2][1]}
• 1913, as part of a multi volume collection of Joseon works, Classic Joseon Books Publication Society.^{[links 1]}

Modern Korean (Hangul)

Japanese (translations)

• 1876, Translation of Joseon Ryu's Chōhiroku, in one volume, translated by Osanai Ryotaro and Minoru Suzuki^{[links 2]}
• 1894, Joseon Chōhiroku, ^{[links 3]}
• 1921, Chōhiroku, translated by Nagano Naohiko^{[links 4]}
• 1966, Chōhiroku, translated by Soga Masataka, ^{[links 5]}
• 1979, Chōhiroku, translated by Pak Chong Myung, The Eastern Library,
  ISBN 4582803571

• The Book of Corrections: Reflections on the National Crisis During the Japanese Invasion of Korea, 1592-1598, an English translation of the Jingbirok, Ryu Seong-ryong, translated by
  ISBN 1557290768

• The Jingbirok: A Memoir of Imjin War
• The Second World War (book series)

Notes

References

• This article is based on the Chinese Wikipedia article on this topic 懲毖錄, and include details taken from the Japanese 懲ヒ録 and Korean 징비록 articles.

External links

• Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean)