Reconstructed Seoul of the Late 17th Century: Insights from Yeohang-in(閭巷人)’s Perspective: Focusing on Choi Seung-tae’s Hanyang-hang(漢陽行)

In this paper, we analyze Choi Seung-tae's Hanyang-hang (漢陽行) to understand the aspects of Seoul in the late 17th century from the perspective of Yeohang intellectuals. Through this analysis, we reveal how Seoul was laying the foundation for urbanization following the war and the great famine. There are two main reasons for focusing on Choi Seung-tae's Hanyang-hang. First, there has been insufficient research on works created in Seoul during the 17th century. Second, to understand the evolution of Seoul’s image and spatial perception from the early to the late Joseon Dynasty, it is essential to analyze works from the 17th century and examine their characteristics. The 17th century was a period marked by war and severe famine. For Seoul, it was a time of recovering the city walls destroyed by conflict and restoring the national highway’s status, as well as overcoming the national crisis brought about by widespread famine. Choi Seung-tae's Hanyang-hang (漢陽行) was created against this backdrop. This work consists of seven poems, which can be divided into two thematic groups: Poems 1 to 3 and Poems 4 to 7. In Poems 1 to 3, Choi Seung-tae depicts Seoul through its surrounding mountains, rivers, and palaces. The portrayal of the capital's natural features emphasizes a space of peace and prosperity rather than merely serving as a protective barrier. In Poems 4 to 7, Choi focuses on the leading classes of Seoul at the time: the royal family, interpreters, senior officials, and military officers. He highlights the opulence of the royal family's mansions, reflects on how interpreters accumulated wealth through diplomatic missions and emerged as a new social class, and depicts military officers who enjoyed leisure and flaunted their power. Through these poems, Choi Seung-tae captures the dynamic changes in Seoul's social hierarchy during this period. In this way, Choi Seung-tae conveyed the multi-layered aspects of Seoul through Hanyang-hang (漢陽行), a work he produced at a personal level as a Yeohang-in (閭巷人). Rather than portraying Seoul as an ideal capital from his own perspective, Choi Seung-tae crafted Hanyang-hang to reflect the social realities of the time. Through this approach, he depicted Seoul as a city on the brink of urbanization and commercialization, emerging after the war and the great famine.