What to Teach, What to Learn: The Development of Royal-Centered Publishing Culture and the Formation of Reading Culture in Early Chosŏn

This study examines the development of royal-led publishing culture and the formation of reading practices in early Chosŏn. The Chosŏn court institutionally defined the content and method of canonical reading through the importation and reprinting of the Yongle emperor's imperially commissioned Sishu wujing daquan and Xingli daquan, the compilation of comprehensive annotated editions such as the Sajŏngjŏn hunŭi on the Zizhi tongjian, and the kugyŏl projects of the Sejo reign and the vernacular translation projects of the Sŏnjo reign. Through analysis of the Ŭrhaetype editions of the Nonŏ taemun kugyŏl and the Sŏjŏn taemun preserved in the Hwasan Collection at Korea University Library, this study identifies at least two distinct kugyŏl traditions existing between the Sejo-period kugyŏl project and the Sŏnjo-period vernacular translation project. It further demonstrates that Yi Hwang’s Kyŏngsŏ sŏgŭi reveals the persistence of a flexible scholarly environment in which multiple interpretations coexisted despite the state’s efforts to establish a single authoritative standard. Through analysis of Yi Sik's “Si ason tŭng,” this study additionally shows that the reading practices of Chosŏn literati unfolded within a dual structure shaped by the tension between state-sanctioned canonical reading and the pragmatic goal of examination success. This tension between what the state sought to teach and what literati actually sought to learn is understood as an enduring issue that resonates with contemporary Korean educational culture.