The Korea Heritage Service (Commissioner Heo Min) announced on the 12th that the handwritten and edited manuscript of "Seoyu Gyeonmun" (Observations on a Journey to the West) by Yu Gil-jun (1856-1914), a politician and thinker of the late Joseon and Korean Empire period, has been registered as a National Registered Cultural Heritage.
The "Seoyu Gyeonmun Handwritten and Edited Manuscript" is the corrected original manuscript of "Seoyu Gyeonmun," in which Yu Gil-jun recorded his experiences while studying in the United States using a mixed Korean-Chinese script. It consists of nine volumes in a single collection. "Seoyu Gyeonmun" is an encyclopedic introduction covering the geography, history, administration, and customs of Western countries across 20 chapters. It is regarded as an important resource for understanding global affairs and Western civilization from the perspective of a 19th-century Korean.
The edited manuscript contains traces of character corrections, sentence refinements, and content revisions made in black and red ink. This allows researchers to examine the editing process and the original text's state prior to printing, making it highly valuable for historical and bibliographical studies.
The Korea Heritage Service stated, "We plan to actively cooperate with the relevant local government and the owner (manager) to ensure that the newly registered 'Seoyu Gyeonmun Handwritten and Edited Manuscript' is systematically preserved and utilized."