Ijaenango, 'Joseon Dynasty's Time Capsule' returns to Gochang county

연합뉴스 / 2021-04-30 16:14:52

▲ This photo shows Ijaenango, which hold the records of Joseon Dynasty. (Yonhap)

GOCHANG, South Korea, April 30 (Yonhap) -- Ijaenango (頤齋亂藁), a masterpiece of Hwang Yun-seok (黃胤錫, 1729-1791) who retained his life records during the Joseon Dynasty, has returned to Gochang County in North Jeolla Province.

Gochang County announced on the 30th that Hwang Byung-moo, the eight descendant of Hwang Yun-seok, donated 58 books of Ijaenango and 100 woodblocks of Ijaeyugo have been deposited at the Jeonju National Museum of Korea before returning to Gochang county.

Ijaenango, which holds historical value, was designated as Jeonbuk Tangible Cultural Heritage No.111 in 1984.

Hwang Yun-seok is known as a great scholar from Gochang, North Jeolla Province, and is famous for his great achievements in astronomy, epidemiology, history, mathematics, linguistics, geography, art, music, and religion.

Ijaenango is a diary that was written by Hwang Yun-seok for 53 years, starting from the age of 10 to the age of 63.

Among the existing diaries of Joseon, the Ijaenango is the largest in size and the content covers various fields, which therefore hold great historical value.

The Mayor of Gochang county, Yoo Ki-sang, said, "Hwang Yun-seok's descendants have made a big decision to donate the Ijaenango and Ijaeyugo to the Gochang county, which will become a benefit to our society."

"We will do our best to promote the Ijaenango, one of Korea' representative cultural heritage and a repository of cultural contents during the Joseon Dynasty, to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage," he added.

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