A Brief Analysis of Lee Bok-won(李福源)’s Guangewen(館閣文)

This study examines the Guangewen(館閣文) of Lee Bok-won(李福源), a leading scholar-official in the Kyujanggak(奎章閣) during King Jeongjo(正祖)’s reign in the late Joseon Dynasty. Focusing on Lee’s rhetorical strategies and stylistic choices, the paper explores how literary production functioned as a key instrument in implementing Jeongjo’s political visions and cultural initiatives. Lee Bok-won, a member of the Yeonan Lee clan with a strong scholarly lineage and political affiliation with the Soron(少論) faction, rose to prominence as the first chief scholar[提學] of the Kyujanggak after Jeongjo’s accession. His writings, particularly prefaces in works such as Kyujanggakji(奎章閣志) and Seonwongyebo-Giryak(璿源系譜紀略), demonstrate a refined appropriation and elaboration of the king’s own writings. By grounding institutional legitimacy in the precedents of the Song(宋) and Ming(明) dynasties and invoking Confucian moral principles, Lee reinforced the ideological underpinnings of Jeongjo’s governance. Notably, Lee contributed to the discourse surrounding the posthumous rehabilitation of Crown Prince Sado[思悼世子] by crafting texts that balanced political delicacy with moral clarity. His writings responded to Jeongjo’s rhetorical direction while subtly reconfiguring them to assert moral justification and institutional continuity. Through this case study, the paper addresses two core questions: how state power shaped discursive practices in literary production, and how political affiliation and scholarly background left identifiable traces in literary form and content. Lee’s court writings reveal the Kyujanggak not merely as an archive or bureaucratic office, but as a cultural field where symbolic capital was negotiated. His texts illustrate how literature became a space of political intervention, institutional legitimation, and cultural competition in late Joseon court culture.