An Examination of the Transcription Period of Namgye Yeondam

This study investigates the bibliographic features and calligraphic characteristics of the Jangseogak edition of Namgye Yeondam(南溪演談), a Hangul manuscript of the Joseon Dynasty, to determine its date of transcription. Three extant witnesses are identified—the Jangseogak edition, the Seoul National University edition, and the Kim Gwang-sun edition—and they exhibit divergent Sino-Korean character notations for “Yeondam”. The Jangseogak edition of Namgye Yeondam follows the refined court-style regular script (gungche jeongja) and shares notable similarities with the Jangseogak edition of Okwon Junghoeyeon in terms of disposition, brushwork, and character structure. Such affinities suggest that the scribes of the two manuscripts received comparable training or participated in the same calligraphic tradition. Moreover, the vernacular translation (eonhae) format observed in vol. 2 and the mid-section of vol. 3—phonetic transcription of classical Chinese poetry in the upper register, with smaller Hangul vernacular translation below—conforms to a widely attested manuscript convention from the late eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, allowing the transcription to be dated to the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. A comparative analysis with six contemporaneous manuscripts further clarifies the work’s position within late Joseon Hangul manuscript culture. Overall, the study demonstrates that Namgye Yeondam is a key source for understanding the development of court-style regular script and late Joseon Hangul manuscript practices, and it calls for follow-up research on inter-witness variation in script and orthography.