Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

III. Far East, South and South-East Asia / Дальний Восток, Южная и Юго-Восточная Азия Доклады Международного конгресса по источниковедению и историографии стран Азии и Африки. Т. 1. 2020 421 on their personal needs and tastes and printed them utilizing public resources. In Chosŏn, this is a notable characteristic of the early phase of private publications of printed books. 7. Conclusion Until early Chosŏn, most printed books were “books for public interests,” such as Confucian texts, religious scripts, textbooks for the preparation of civil examinations, and practical manuals. Individuals could write their poems and essays in manuscript forms but hardly publish them in prints. Also, there was no way of purchasing others’writings. In order to get a Chinese book, for example, one would have to either borrow a copy and have it hand-copied, or purchase a copy through an envoy to China. During the Japanese invasion (the Imjin War), the Korean government maintained a closer diplomatic relationship with Ming, China. Through the envoys, a variety of popular contemporary Chinese books were imported to Korea, which created a considerable demand of such books among the literati elite. However, there was no private system to meet this demand in Chosŏn at that time, and the interested readers had to resort to public resources to print the books they wanted. Yi yuan zhi yan and Shi shuo xin yu bu as discussed in this presentation are such cases. I view these cases as a step from official printing toward commercial printing. Extant copies of Yi yuan zhi yan and Shi shuo xin yu bu are all movable type prints. This means that the demand for these books were still not great enough and the copies were circulated in small numbers around Seoul. It also suggests that the readers were a very privileged few who had enough power to control the central government or regional print system. Because the reader circle was very narrow and consisted of the elite officials of Seoul, there was no reason to send these to regional offices to have woodblock print copies made. According to the late 18 th century record by Yu Manju 兪晩柱 (1755–1788), no one in the Kyŏngsang Province, even among the most renowned literati , had Shi shuo xin yu 世說新語 in their collections. Almost one hundred years after the Hyŏnjong Sillok Type copies of the book were printed, they were still not circulated in provinces. Publishers and collectors of Yi yuan zhi yan and Shi shuo xin yu bu were high officials and members of prestigious families. With their economic and cultural power, they monopolized the most current information on Chinese literature and publications. Using their authorities and networks, they utilized public resources and facilities to print books of their own personal tastes. In a larger context, these cases indicate a growth of a group prioritizing personal taste and individuality, which eventually led the literary trend of late Chosŏn.