Certificate of Meritorious Subject Issued to Sim Ji-baek

Basic information

Designation

National Treasure No.69

Category

Books & Records

Era

조선 태조 6년(1397)

Designated year

1962

Location

서구, 부산광역시— 부산광역시 서구 구덕로 (부민동2가, 동아대학교부민캠퍼스) 동아대학교박물관

Coordinates

35.104699, 129.019336

Issued by the Superintendency for the Affairs of Meritorious Subjects (Gongsindogam) in 1397 according to a decree by King Taejo (r. 1392-1398) of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), this document certifies that its recipient, Sim Ji-baek, was given the title Meritorious Subject. The certificate, measuring 140 centimeters long and 30.5 centimeters wide, had been kept by the Sim’s family who settled in Pado-myeon, Dancheon-gun, Hamgyeongnam-do. The system of honoring officials with special titles and prizes for outstanding and distinguished services rendered in relation to the foundation of the Joseon Dynasty produced a total of about 1,400 meritorious subjects during the period 1392 ~ 1397. Sim Ji-baek was one of the 74 recipients of the title to whom prizes were also granted, i.e., 15 hectares of land for each. Titles and lands were given to their parents and spouses, too, as well as titles to their offspring. The historic event was never recorded in the Joseon wangjo sillok (Annals of the Joseon Dynasty), making the document the only remaining record about it. The text in this document contains a lot of Idu scripts, an archaic system of writing the Korean language by borrowing Chinese characters; thus providing a valuable source of knowledge on medieval Korean language and wooden movable types used for printing it. The printing quality of the document is rather poor, largely due to the unevenness in typesetting and the size of types; nonetheless, it is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of materials printed during the early Joseon by using wooden movable types and is consequently a very valuable part of the heritage with respect to the development of wooden movable-type printing in Korea.

Location