A question between history and desire

The notes open on Shin Suk-ju with a question, not a verdict. In the political turns from Sejong to Sejo, Seong Sam-mun, Park Paeng-nyeon and others resisted at the risk of death. He, watching those colleagues, cooperated with Sejo’s government and later, as a hungu meritorious official who held land and nobi from late Sejo to early Seongjong, had to face the attacks of younger scholars. How, they ask, is an intellectual’s life realized between the direction of history and private desire?

They then call him a leading minister of early Joseon, a man of striking ability, and turn to the years under Sejong.

The exams, and a mission to Japan

In 1438, at twenty-one (Sejong 20), he passed the saengwon and jinsa exams together, and the next year he took third place in the munkwa. Until Sejong’s reign ended he moved through the Jiphyeonjeon posts of busuchan (junior sixth), eunggyo (senior fourth), and jikjehak (senior third), and through the Sahonbu posts of jangryeong (senior fourth) and jibui (junior third).

A scene they mark as important comes in 1443 (Sejong 25), when he was twenty-six: he joined a mission to Japan as seojanggwan, the official who recorded the journey and wrote the diplomatic documents — a post, they say, usually given to an outstanding young civilian officer of the fourth to sixth rank. He set out despite a fairly serious illness. Passing through the Japanese mainland and Tsushima, he made a name for his writing and helped settle several diplomatic matters. Persuading the lord of Tsushima to fix the number of annual tribute ships is recorded as a major result.

Ming envoys, thirteen journeys, and Hunminjeongeum

In 1450 (Sejong 32), when Ni Qian and Sima Xun came as Ming envoys, he received them and showed a literary gift that is still often told: Ni had written a rhapsody on climbing a tower after snow, and when Shin matched the rhyme while walking, Ni likened him to Qu Yuan and Song Yu.

The notes add that, when Hunminjeongeum was being made, Sejong sent him with Seong Sam-mun thirteen times to Liaodong, to question Huang Zan — a former Hanlin academician of the Ming, then in exile — about the Zhengyun, and to study phonology. He was fluent, they write, in idu as well as in Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian, and Jurchen, seven languages in all, and so could take the largest role in creating Hunminjeongeum. The notes leave him there, at that work. A longer form of the same Korean report is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. The notes, a student reading of Shin Suk-ju: the 1438 exams, the 1443 mission to Japan and the tribute ships, the 1450 Ming envoys, thirteen journeys to Huang Zan, and a role in Hunminjeongeum.

Last updated: 15 November 2026