A Study of Chaekchibu by Hakbong Kim Seong-il

Surviving records of private book collections from early Joseon are strikingly scarce. Representative evidence to date comprises: (1) a single surviving leaf listing books from the Hoejae household’s Dongnakdang (獨樂堂); (2) references embedded in Yi Mun-geon’s Mukjae ilgi (默齋日記) and Yu Hui-chun’s Miam ilgi (眉庵日記); and (3) the Chaekchibu (冊置簿) compiled in 1586 by Bae Sam-ik (裵三益) and his son Bae Yong-gil (裵龍吉). Among these, the Bae family Chaekchibu has long been regarded as the only extant early-Joseon private library catalogue of substantial length and coherent structure. In earlier work, I partially reconstructed the holdings of Kim Yeon (金緣) and his son Kim Bu-ui (金富儀) from surviving volumes and compared them with the Bae family Chaekchibu to gauge the size and profile of early-Joseon collectors’ libraries. Building on that line of inquiry, this study identifies, within the holdings of the National Institute of Korean History, a one-volume Chaekchibu dated 1588 that documents the private library of Hakbong Kim Seong-il (鶴峯 金誠一, 1538-1593). Close examination of this newly surfaced Chaekchibu yields the following findings. First, I introduce the catalogue to scholarship for the first time, establish Hakbong Kim Seong-il as its compiler, and clarify its transmission: the autograph once owned by Shirakami Jukichi (白神壽吉) is now untraced; the extant copy is a colonial-era transcription that passed through the Joseonsa Pyeonsuhoe before entering the National Institute of Korean History. Second, across eight folios the list records 146 titles in 998 volumes. Although the entries were not originally organised by class, retrofitting them to the fourfold scheme (經/史/子/集; gyeong/sa/ja/jip) yields: gyeong 32 titles / 248 vols.; sa 20 / 316; ja 48 / 178; jip 46 / 256. Works identified as Chinese editions are flagged as dangbon or dangpan (seven titles in total, including Geunsarok 近思錄). The catalogue also notes borrowers of certain books and—on one occasion—the original owner of a borrowed item. Dots above some titles most likely function as collation marks against physical copies. Unlike the Bae family Chaekchibu, which specifies formats such as naesabon (palace edition), Joseon woodblock (Joseon mokpan), Joseon movable type (Joseon hwalja), and dangpan, the Hakbong list records only Chinese editions and otherwise omits format details. Third, placing the Hakbong Chaekchibu alongside the Bae family catalogue affords a more three-dimensional picture of the scale and character of elite Yeongnam libraries in the sixteenth century. This, in turn, deepens our understanding of Yeongnam book culture centred on Toegye and his jikjeon jeja (direct disciples). Although substantial books and documents survive today in the Hakbong lineage house, no historical catalogue was previously known; the present discovery therefore provides a valuable basis for cross-checking the family’s extant holdings.