2024-03-29 04:15:59
Looking at the paintings of Kim Hong-do and Shin Yun-bok, it seems that Joseon noblemen lived very happily. However, if you look at the diaries written by ordinary noblemen and scholars, you will see that the life of a nobleman who has to support his family and pass the civil service examination can be a series of extreme trials that are difficult for us to imagine today.
Noh Sang-chu’s tearful story of passing the civil service exam is a contemporary story of the diary left by Noh Sang-chu, a native of Seonsan, Gyeongsangbuk-do, who served as a military officer during the reign of King Jeongjo. Readers can easily read the process of how a 17-year-old scholar passed the civil service exam at the age of 34. This is a book written to help you.
Volume 1, ‘Young Head of Household’, is the story of Noh Sang-chu, who was born as the third son in the Angang Noh family, and was deeply heartbroken when his eldest brother died, so he became the head of the family in place of his father, who went on a cruise. Volume 2, ‘Holding the Bow’, is a story about preparing for the civil service exam and then switching to the military service exam, and volume 3 tells the story of traveling to and from Hanyang City for nine years to take the military service exam and pass it.
This book contains the everyday but shocking stories of ordinary Joseon people who have not been illuminated by historians. Droughts and floods occur repeatedly, causing poor harvests, epidemics and pestilence occur, people die, and tigers larger than bulls come down and bite people to death. Women die countless times during childbirth, and even babies born in difficult circumstances die before their first birthday. A gisaeng who served a former governor was taken to the government office and beaten to death with a club because she did not come down from her palanquin to greet the monks, and the directors of a seowon wrote a letter opposing the placement of a scholar-born person in a seowon, which offended the governor and led to the death of Gyeongsang Province. The daily lives of the Joseon people in this land 260 years ago, including being imprisoned, are surprising to us today.
In particular, the scene where Noh Sang-chu sells his last remaining piece of land to raise travel expenses to go up to Hanyang to take the civil service exam despite repeated failures, and finally passes, is an inspiration to young people taking the exam today.
Choi Yong-seok, Donga.com reporter duck8@donga.com
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- great
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- I’m so sad
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- I’m angry
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- I recommend it
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2024-03-29 04:15:59