Seoyu Gyeonmun

′Seoyu Gyeonmun′′ (西遊見聞) is a book written in 1895 by Yu Kil-chun, in mixed Korean-Chinese script (gukhanmunhonyongche), recording what he saw and learned while studying in the United States. It consists of 20 chapters. It is the first modern encyclopedic work in Korea that covers the entire range of Western culture.¹

Content

Gudang Yu Kil-chun was a pioneer of the modern enlightenment movement in Joseon. His representative work, Seoyu Gyeonmun, is the first introduction of the West written in modern Korea, and it is a book containing his diverse Western experiences—gained through studying in Japan and the United States and traveling through Europe—and his enlightenment thought. This article attempts to place the book in cultural history by comparing it with Fukuzawa Yukichi's Seiyō Jijō, said to have influenced it, and with Kim Ki-su's Ildonggiyu, from the Japanese Sinsa mission a few years earlier, while also examining the consciousness of writing that shaped the book. Of the 556 pages in 20 volumes and 71 items following the "Preface" and "Notes," Chapters 1, 2, 19, and 20 mainly cover the world's human geography, such as an introduction to the globe, the distinction of countries, the world's rivers, races and products, and the world's major cities. Chapters 3 through 18 introduce Western political systems and the actual state of civilization. Meanwhile, this Seoyu Gyeonmun confirms that it is not merely a travelogue but a model of modern translation that "translates and compiles the works of others," and also shows the figure of a grammarian who, going beyond the "path of a man of letters," pays attention to the stylistic rules of mixed Korean-Chinese writing. There is no doubt that this view of language, extending from the orthography of Seoyu Gyeonmun to his grammatical studies, became the forerunner of modern Korean language research.

After the enlightenment government failed and Yu Kil-chun went into exile, the book was banned. However, it is evaluated as the national textbook of the enlightenment period, having had the greatest influence in the modern enlightenment era as a textbook for the new age, from elementary schools to politicians. In this book, he both introduced modern Western civilization into Korea in earnest and advocated autonomous enlightenment suited to Korean conditions, namely "practical enlightenment" (silsang gaehwa). His enlightenment thought was formed under the influence of the Silhak theory of commercial opening, the Yangwu and reform theories of China, the civilization and enlightenment theory of Japan, and the Western theories of natural rights and social contract. Its contents include the introduction of a constitutional monarchy, the promotion of commerce and trade, the establishment of a modern currency and tax system, and the implementation of a modern education system. These reform theories became the theoretical background of the .