옛 것을 밝혀 오늘날 잃어져 가는 우리 고유의 가치위에 새로운 문화를 만들어 가는 것은 아름다운 일이다. 물질적 풍요 속에 정신적 가벼움으로 인한 많은 문제에 부딪칠 때마다 꿋꿋이 올 곧은 자기 것을 지켜내려는 선비 정신이야말로 오늘을 사는 우리에게 꼭 필요한 삶의 지표가 될 것이다. 「최척전」은 약 400년 전 현곡 조위한이 쓴 한문소설이다. 원본이 존재하지 않기에 그동안 필사본을 중심으로 연구가 진행 되어 왔다. 그 중 서울대본(규장각본)과 고려대본이 널리 이용되어 왔는데 서울대본은 행초서체로 필사되어 초보자가 읽기에는 난해한 글자들이 있고 4면이 낙장 되었으며, 고려대본은 해서체로 필사 되어 읽기는 쉬운 편이나 그 또한 1면의 낙장과 후반부의 생략으로 완전한 의미를 전달 할 수 없다. 그 결과 글을 제대로 해석하여 의미를 파악하기 위해서는 두 본을 결합하여 상호 보완하는 작업이 절실히 필요하다. 지금까지 많은 노력이 이어져 왔으나 지금도 여전히 필사본을 잘못 읽는 문제점이 있어 이를 극복하고자 두 본을 비교하여 올바른 한문본을 제시하는데 최선의 노력을 다했다. 두 필사본을 비교하여 한문본을 제시하고 그 내용을 인물 중심과 구조 중심으로 분석했다. 「최척전」은 임진, 정유재란을 겪은 최척의 실질적 이야기로 그 가치가 지대하다. 많은 연구자들이 밝혔듯이 전쟁에 바탕을 둔 피로문학 계열로, 최척과 옥영의 끈끈한 부부애를 흠모한 애정 전기소설로, 만복사 장육불의 음덕을 기리는 불교계 소설로 여러 분야에서 논의 되고 있다. 뿐만 아니라 몽선 부부는 국경을 넘어 다문화 가정을 이루는 모델이 될 수도 있어 그 생명력이 오늘날 까지도 이어지고 있다.
Reviewing the old and learning the new. It is valuable to renew the culture by reviving the old lessons on basis of traditional values fading out recently. Every time encountering problems due to the lack of mental prudence surrounded by material abundance, what does matter to those who live today is the spirit of ‘Sunbi,’ referring to the Korean classical scholar, that takes a firm stand to keep what he believes right. The Chronicles of Choi, Chuck is a novel written in Chinese by Cho, We-han, pen-named Hyun-gok, about four hundred years ago. It has been studied by analyzing copies transcribed by hand since the original script has not been found yet. Of copies, the Seoul University versions and Korea University versions have been widely used. While the Seoul University version written in semi-cursive and cursive style contains many characters hard for the novice to read and, critically, four pages miss, the Korea University version written in semi-cursive style is easy to read. However, the latter also misses the first page and abbreviates the last part so that it is impossible to comprehend the whole story. As a result, it has long been desired to combine and study both versions together in order to understand the whole meaning. In spite of huge efforts from many scholars, the fact that it is unable to read the original script has continued. In that context, this study puts the whole efforts in presenting the ‘original script’ through the comparison of both versions. Since The Chronicles of Choi, Chuck, read his own stories experienced in period of both wars which happened in 1592 and 1597, it is a valuable work of art from the many perspectives. As many previous scholars have pointed out, it is a story in the line of fatigue literature based on the real war. The novel does not contain only a ardent love story between Choi, Chuck, the protagonist, and Ock-young, but a desperate human story to overcome the horrible reality of war times. As a salvation method of the couple, the author adopted a trick widely used in Buddhism literature which especially depends on the mercy of Manboksa Jangyookbool. It is also said that Mongsun’s episode in which he went abroad and formed a multi-cultural family have an implication for the way to live a comtemporary life. There has been quite deal of studies to figure out the whole original story. The scholarly efforts have resulted in a variety of versions such as translated versions in Korean, Ganhoyoon version by Yoo, Eum-sok, and Chuly University version. As such, it is right to perform various comparative studies among many versions. There are still lots of uncertainties in the novel. Where is Keumgyo? What happened to Kim, Tae-hyun? it is certainly an error to refer to the trigram of fire-wind-pod from the Book of Changes due to the ignorance of identifying old saying. It is also expected to study the relationship between this novel and the Keumohshinwha by Kim, Si-seup, the first novel written in Chinese and the effects of Choi, Chuck story on the novels published after 17 century.