In 2006, the Seoul government announced that the Guksa Pyeonchan Wiwonhoe (National Institute of Korean History) had undertaken the digitization of the Joseon Wangjo Sillok, that is, the “Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty”, 1,893 books distributed across 888 volumes written in Chinese characters. These chronicles document the successive reigns of the monarchs of that dynasty, arguably the longest-ruling dynasty in world history: five centuries, from 1392 CE to 1865 CE, a period known as Great Joseon.

The Joseon dynasty replaced the Koryo, who had ruled since 918, unifying the Later Three Kingdoms in 936 to establish the Kingdom of Goryeo (from which modern Korea derives its name, referring to a territory once located in southern Manchuria). The Goryeo expanded its borders to encompass nearly the entire Korean Peninsula and established Buddhism as the official religion. They experienced a golden age, but in their later years, they faltered due to a Mongol invasion followed by internal divisions, ultimately leading to their downfall.

The court was split into two politically opposed factions: one led by General Yi Seonggye, who aligned with the Ming, the newly established ruling dynasty of China, and the other led by General Choe, who resisted China’s demand to return the northern territories of Goryeo. It was this latter faction that initially prevailed, implementing a military strategy to attack the Liaodong Peninsula, then under Chinese control. King U approved the proposal but placed Yi Seonggye in command, a decision that Yi leveraged to stage a coup and overthrow the monarch.

Veritable Records Joseon
Period portrait of King Taejo. Credit: Sithijainduwaraparanagama / Wikimedia Commons

Yi then installed a puppet monarchy, which he later deposed when it attempted a restoration. Subsequently, Yi eliminated any opposition and founded his own dynasty, naming it Joseon in honor of the ancient Korean state of Gojoseon, securing Ming China’s approval. Yi himself adopted a new name, Taejo. His descendants secured the throne, holding it for an extraordinary five centuries, during which they documented their reign from the outset to lend an air of legitimacy to the new era.

This practice of documenting reigns was not new. The tradition of keeping records for each reign dated back to 6th-century China and was later emulated by Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. It was a state-sponsored initiative carried out by eight government-employed historians, who meticulously recorded legal and executive actions across various domains: political, economic, military, and personal. Typically, these records were compiled after the reigning monarch’s death, though data collection often began earlier, eventually evolving into a practice carried out during the monarch’s lifetime. A standardized style was used to ensure formal unity.

Although the historians were government officials (part of the Chunchugwan, or Office of State Records), they were obligated to strive for objectivity to maintain the quality of their work for posterity. Consequently, the texts were strictly off-limits to anyone, including the reigning monarch, until the compilation was complete—a rule so rigorously enforced that violating it was punishable by death (as was revealing the contents prematurely). Even the monarch had to wait, though this rule was not always upheld.

One notable breach occurred during the reign of Yeonsangun, the 10th Joseon king, who ruled from 1494 to 1506. Insisting on reading the Annals, he reacted with fury, unleashing repression against several of his critics mentioned in the records and even executing five historians. Yeonsangun was regarded as a tyrant, and his actions became a cautionary tale; henceforth, access to the Annals by reigning monarchs was further restricted, and in certain cases, revisions were assigned to opposition historians to mitigate potential backlash.

Veritable Records Joseon
Watercolor portrait of Yeonsangun following the descriptions that attribute to her a very white skin and almost feminine beauty. Credit: Валерия Кореева / Wikimedia Commons

As these accounts suggest, historians accompanied the king in his daily activities, recording everything in what was known as the Seungjeongwon ilgi, the Diary of the Royal Secretariat. Supervised by the three State Councillors, the Chunchugwan also functioned as the official archive, housing the Sacho, or raw notes, taken by historians to later produce the formal drafts of the Sillok, or Veritable Records, written in classical Chinese.

The compilation of the final version was the responsibility of a committee called Sillokcheong, comprising additional scholars and high-ranking officials who incorporated supplementary material, including private historian memoranda, diaries, administrative statistics, and more. The process unfolded in three phases: first, gathering sources and drafting an initial version; second, preparing a revised draft reviewed by senior officials; and third, writing the final document, typically after the monarch’s death or shortly before it.

Next, those sketches, the Sacho, and all private sources were shredded with water to turn them into simple pulp and destroy them, preventing potential leaks. The purpose of this was to erase any commentary that a historian might have included under political influence. The Sillok was then archived in the Chunchugwan and three copies sent to the counties of Chungju, Jeonju, and Seongju, where they were safeguarded for posterity and served as the starting point for the next Sacho, corresponding to the new ruler.

Historians were protected by law and had the duty to record everything, even things that displeased the king (the previously mentioned case was an exception). A good example of this is the Annals of Taejong, who fell off his horse when it stumbled while he was hunting a deer. Embarrassed, he muttered under his breath that the historians should not find out; they ignored him, and, as can be seen, not only recorded the incident but also his futilely expressed wish.

Veritable Records Joseon
Ancient painting depicting the Japanese landing in Busan. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Taejong was the third ruler of the dynasty and reigned from 1401 to 1418; at that time, the Sillok were still handwritten. This means that those of his two predecessors (his father, the aforementioned Taejo, who reigned from 1392 to 1398, and his brother Jeongjong, who ruled for only one year, from 1399 to 1400) were also composed this way. However, starting with Sejong, Taejong’s son and successor, they began to be printed (there were already movable-type presses, both wooden and metal), with Korea becoming the first country to do so. This allowed for an innovation in 1445: producing three copies of each original to ensure their survival in case of disaster.

Unfortunately, harsh reality intervened. Between 1592 and 1598, during the invasions by Japanese regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s troops in his campaign to conquer China (of which Korea was a vassal state), all the works were destroyed, except those stored in Jeonju, which were saved from the flames thanks to the intervention of several students. After the war ended, the government decreed that the number of copies be increased by four, archiving them in Myohyang-san, Taebaeksan, Odaesan, and Manisan.

This was not the only time damages occurred. The copies in the Chunchugwan were lost again in 1624 during Yi Gwal’s Rebellion (a general who attempted a coup to prevent his son’s arrest, as he was being forced to confess his father’s participation in a previous conspiracy), and those in Manisan disappeared in 1636 during the second Manchu invasion (by the Chinese Qing, who sought to sever Korea’s collaboration with the Ming, whom they aimed to overthrow).

These misfortunes prompted the relocation of documents to Jeoksangsan, on Ganghwa Island, in 1633 and 1678, respectively. The following three centuries were calm in this regard, but in 1910 the Japanese invaded Korea again and remained until the end of World War II in 1945. Under their administration, the archives from Jeongjoksan and Taebaeksan were transferred to the holdings of Keijō Imperial University (Seoul), which they founded, while those from Odaesan were moved to the University of Tokyo.

Veritable Records Joseon
Another edition of the Annals of the Veritable Records of Joseon Dynasty. Credit: Cultural Heritage Administration / Government of South Korea / Wikimedia Commons

In 1923, the Great Kantō Earthquake (Kantō is a vast plain that spans the central region of Honshu Island) shook the city of Yokohama and the prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, and Tokyo for several minutes. In the latter, it triggered a firestorm that consumed everything in its path, burning tens of thousands of people alive. Korean immigrants subsequently suffered a bloody pogrom, accused of being responsible; among the losses from Korea was most of the looted Annals of Joseon.

Only forty-seven books were saved, which Japan did not return until 2006. It is worth noting that the annals of Korea’s last two emperors, Gojong and Sunjong, are usually excluded from the collection because they are considered biased, as these rulers were puppet monarchs under Japanese influence, which interfered with their compilation. For this reason, they are also excluded from designation as a National Treasure and the UNESCO Memory of the World Program. The last admitted book is that of Cheoljong, compiled in 1865.

As an epilogue, the Jeoksangsan copies were partially looted on August 15, 1945, Korea’s National Liberation Day, while another portion of their books was taken to North Korea sometime between 1950 and 1953 during the Korean War. The remaining copies are preserved in the Kyujanggak (Royal Library) at Seoul National University and the National Archives, headquartered in Busan. The latest news is that they will be translated into English by 2033.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on December 5, 2024: Anales de Joseon, las crónicas del reino coreano que abarcan cinco siglos, son las más largas e ininterrumpidas de una sola dinastía en la historia

SOURCES

Bernard Reich, A brief history of Korea

Kang Jae-eu, The land of scholars. Two thousands years of Korean confucianism

Ki-baik Lee, A new history of Korea

Veritable Records of the Joseon Dinasty

Wikipedia, Anales de Joseon

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