The most representative town chronicle which appeared in the mid Chosun era was a record of the town, written by residents who lived in each region. Since its content is full of ample resources, it can be a basic data on recognizing the status and structure of the Chosun era. In addition, since it includes various regional status from natural geography, history, culture, society, politics, administration, economy to military, it is an important basis for administrative actions. Accordingly, town chronicle as a regional resource has high importance as a historical fact.
Although the town chronicle is an edited version, with original source hard to find, it has high importance in the fact that it can provide specific resource on specific regions. Also, it is highly valuable in that it details a lot of information on the region. Due to its specifications, the town chronicle is constituted as an abidance which can be a new study material of historical recording, so further studies to recognize its values are needed.
In this thesis, the existing seven types of town chronicles were taken as samples at the Hoedeok area of Choongcheong-do. Its abidance, category, and contents were comprehensively compared and analyzed.
The seven Hoedeok town chronicles were categorized into 5 government and two personal chronicles, according to the author. The government town chronicles were written for the use of regional control, with comprehensive contents, mostly with economic and administrative contents. In the meanwhile, the personal town chronicle was published to establish regional residents’ status, with no items on economic and administrative contents, mostly comprised of social and cultural contents.
In terms of content of the Hoedeok town chronicle, the native tribes’ participation was strong, mostly comprised of Cho family whom its influence was very strong, particularly in Hoedeok, Chooncheong-do. Likewise, Hoedeok is one of the villages where confucius culture strongly prevailed in the late Chosun era.
When analyzing these town chronicle in terms of historiological perspectives, it has the features of the archive. In terms of personal town chronicle, it has its special characteristics as being included in both archives and manuscripts. Since it is all included in the historical records which describes the village culture in the late Chosun era, further studies on the town chronicle should be focused on history.
These town chronicle will provide basic data on studying the regional histories, with our ancestors’ recording culture. In addition, by recognizing the authentic regional features, it can be widely utilized in vitalizing the regional culture and creating culture contents.