This study sought to study and decipher the illegible letters of Ohsukjae Song Ik-heum (1708~1757) written in Korean alphabet and to assume the ganji (sexagenary cycle) of the letter. Accurate deciphering of the letters written in Korean alphabet in the scripts of the Joseon era is a prerequisite task of the humanities studies, as a basic material for all studies. This is because, without the presumption of proper decoding, many errors may occur in articles due to misreading. This article examined the three pieces of ‘Hangeul Ganchal (Korean Old Vernacular Letters) 52,’ ‘Hangeul Ganchal 59,’ and ‘Hangeul Ganchal 61,’ which seems related in its contents to ‘Boa (Boeun Guana where public officials handled government works), Jesa (ancestral ceremony), Balin (coffin bearing ceremony) among the 15 letters written by using Korean alphabet, sent by Song Ik-heum to his wife Yeo Heung-min.
The previous decoding and deciphering of the letters written in Korean alphabet by Song Ik-heum has been published into a book, and this research sought to revise the conflicting parts by referring to this book.
The three pieces of the letters written in Korean alphabet by Song Ik-heum, ’52,’ ’59,’ and ’61,’ contain the original plates of each letter in the decoding and interpretation sections, and parts conflicting with the existing decoding were underlined and marked in bold, and the letters conflicting with the existing decoding were compared in the decoding details section. In the interpretation section, the archaic words were written in an easy way in contemporary language to allow easy understanding based on the revisions made in the decoding and annotation sections. In the section providing general explanation of the letters, the contents of each letter were analyzed to estimate the ganji. In the actual decoding section, conflicting letters were compared by individual decoding of the initial consonant, vowel, and final consonant by comparing with the other letters and writings of Song Ik-heum.
The letters of Song Ik-heum have an issue of readability, but his writings show consistency. The initial consonant ‘ㅇ’s were finished by writing it twice, but, due to the difficulty of distinguishing it with ‘ㄴ,’ a conflict appeared with the existing decoding. In addition, the two horizontal strokes of the vowel ‘ㅕ’ had to be written in a solid line, but it was written in an imaginary line, and the connecting line between the two horizontal strokes had to be written in an imaginary line, but it was written in a solid line. Therefore, a conflict was shown with the existing decoding due to the difficulty in decoding. The vertical stroke of the final consonant ‘ㄱ’ was written in a left skewed direction, but it was decoded into ‘ㄴ’ in the existing decoding, resulting in a conflict.
The three pieces of the letters written in Korean alphabet by Song Ik-heum all lacked ganji, and thus, was estimated only based on the contents and dates of the letters of the ‘Boa, Jesa, Balin.’ The ‘Boa’ written in the three letters means ‘a place where public officials handled government works at Boeun,’ while Song Ik-heum served as a Boeunhyeongam. The period whern he served as a Boeunhyeongam was from December 8, 1754 to November 10, 1757. ‘Balin’ means the death of Lee from Wansan, the second wife of Song Byeong-ik, the brother of his grandfather, on April 4, 1756. ‘Jesa’ means the ancestral ceremony held on April 5 for his grandfather Song Byeong-ha (1646~1697.4.5). The letters relating to ‘Boa,’ ‘Jesa,’ and ‘Balin’ are ’52,’ ’61,’ and ’59,’ which were sent between the eleven days from April 16, 1756 to April 26, 1756. As a result, these letters have connected contents, as they were sent while Song Ik-heum served as a Boeunhyeongam. Therefore, it could be assumed that ‘52’ was written on April 16, 1756, ‘61’ on April 22, 1756, and ‘59’ on April 26, 1756. Consequently, when considering the contents of these letters, the letters should be compiled in the order of ‘52’ à ‘61’ à ’59.’Although the decoding and reading of the 15 letters written in Korean alphabet by Song Ik-heum have been published in a book, some parts of the book differ from this writer’s perspective. Therefore, the decoding, annotation, decoding details, and interpretations were modified by making comparisons. Assuming the ganji of the letters written in Korean alphabet by Song Ik-heum provided a key to accurately understanding the connected contents of the letters. The re-deciphering of the letters written in Korean alphabet by Song Ik-heum may allow to prevent in advance the errors that may occur in articles due to misreading.