Kim Ryeo’s Records of Women and His Consciousness of Biographical Writing : Focusing on Hansukwonjeon

Hansukwonjeon(韓淑媛傳) is Kim Ryeo(金鑢)’s Jeon(傳, biography) about a palace woman whose name is Han Bohyang(韓保香). Kim Ryeo used Gongsa-gyeonmunrok(公私見聞錄) as the textual basis for Hansukwonjeon. Thus, this paper analyzes differences between Gongsa-gyeonmunrok and Hansukwonjeon, and identifies Kim Ryeo’s modifications in Hansukwonjeon. In contrast to Gongsa-gyeonmunrok, Kim Ryeo highlighted Han Bohyang as a “yeolsa”(烈士) figure. He evaluated Han Bohyang not merely as a respectable “woman” but as a honorable “person.” Kim Ryeo’s later literary works demonstrate his deepened understanding of women. In Sayuakbu(思牖樂府), He depicted Yeonhui(蓮姬) as an equal personality. Moreover, In poem written for Lady Sim(古詩爲張遠卿妻沈氏作), he characterized a woman of low social status but of noble character. In other works, such as Yeonhui-eonhaengnok(蓮姬言行錄), He also showed interest in women of diverse social statuses. These writings attest Kim Ryeo’s consciousness of biographical writing, intended to record lives and voices of women in marginal groups. Kim Ryeo’s writings expanded records of woman in late Joseon dynasty.