Seo Yu-gu

Seo Yu-gu's family history was highly respectable. His great grandfather was Seo Jong-ok (서종옥, 徐宗玉) who served as the minister of interior. His grandfather was Seo Myeong-eung (서명응, 徐命膺), who was the head of the Royal Academy. His father, Seo Ho-su (서호수, 徐浩修), also served as the minister of the interior. He was adopted to his uncle Seo Cheol-su (서철수, 徐澈修).

Following his family tradition, he passed the state examination as well as the King-ordered specific selection test (초계문신, 抄啓文臣) in 1790, and was appointed as the country governor in rural areas.

Like his father and grandfather, both of whom were interested in agriculture and farming, and authored some agricultural books, Seo Yu-gu collected a lot of books about agriculture at home and from China. While staying at Sunchang, Jeolla-do, he made a suggestion to King Jeongjo that agricultural specialists should be stationed to each province to research and experiment indigenous farming technologies of the country and the whole collection of such research results be published to help and educate farmers and citizens in the country. Though his suggestion was not adopted by the Royal Court, it was the beginning of his own encyclopedia.

In 1806 when his uncle was expelled from the government as an accomplice of treason, Seo Yu-gu went to self-exile. He stayed in his farm land for 18 years. Later, returning to the capital city, he served as the minister of interior, minister of finance and the chief of the Royal Library.

In his self-exile, Seo Yu-gu came back to his hometown at Jangdan, and practiced farming and fishing, sometimes making food and rice wine by himself. For more than thirty years, he was indulged in writing and editing the huge volumes of his life work with one collaborator - his son. Upon completion, he tried to publish the whole series to no avail. However, he passed away at the age of 82 while listening to the music of Geomungo with a hope someday his countrymen could realize their value.

The 113-volume Encyclopedia Koreana on Rural Living contains 2,520 thousand Classic Chinese characters and 28 thousand items in 16 areas.[3]

1. Farming (본리지, 本利志) Volumes 1-13 (13) cover general process of farming from plowing a field, planting seeds to harvesting, and include field allotment, irrigation, cultivation, fertilizer, improvement of soil quality, agricultural climate, and even illustrations of farming equipment and irrigation system.
2. Edible plants and Herb (관휴지, 灌畦志) Volumes 14-17 (4) deal with various edible plants and herb medicine including various vegetables, sea weed, and cultivation and usage of those plants.
3. Horticulture (예원지, 藝畹志) Volumes 18-22 (5) deal with 50 kinds of flowers and garden plants explaining cultivation, watering, timing of sowing and appropriate soil.
4. Fruit trees and wood (만학지, 晩學志) Volumes 23-27 (5) explain 31 kinds of fruits and 15 kinds other vines including pumpkin, water melon and cucumber, and 25 kinds of trees.
5. Silk and fabrics (전공지, 展功志) Volumes 28-32 (5) explains how to raise mulberry and silkworms, and how to obtain silk from silkworms, and how to make and dye silk fabric, and to make and use other fabric.
6. Weather and climate (위선지, 魏鮮志) Volumes 33-36 (4) deal with weather, climate and astrology related with agriculture.
7. Stock farming and fishery (전어지, 佃漁志) Volumes 37-40 (4) deals stock farming, fostering, hunting and fishery including kinds of domestic animals, fish and wildlife, their diseases and medicine.
8. Food and brewery (정조지, 鼎俎志) Volumes 41-47 (7) introduce various recipes of Korean food and nutritious meals on the basis of medical knowledge. A variety of seasoning and spices, and 160 methods of brewing traditional wines.
9. Architecture and home appliances (섬용지, 贍用志) Volumes 48-51 (4) cover construction of houses, related technologies, measurements, appliances and tools with illustrations in comparison with those of China.
10. Well-being and health (보양지, 葆養志) Volumes 52-59 (8) are treaties about well-being, dietary treatment and health by month, and meditation based on Taoism.
11. Medicine and famine relief food (인제지, 仁濟志) Volumes 60-87 (28) deal with medicine and therapies, and 260 kinds of famine relief food in the end.
12. House ceremonies (향례지, 鄕禮志) Volumes 88-90 (5) explain ceremonial occasions and rituals in the country.
13. Reading and hobbies (유예지, 游藝志) Volumes 91-98 (6) deal with reading, archery and other useful techniques for gentlemen.
14. Leisure life (이운지, 怡雲志) Volumes 99-106 (8) deal with gentlemen's cultural hobbies and leisure.
15. Geology (상택지, 相宅志) Volumes 107-108 (2) describe the geology of Korea as a whole.
16. Economy and business (예규지, 倪圭志) Volumes 109-113 (5) deal with economic life, savings and thrift, accumulation of wealth, trading and industry including the dates of country market across the nation..

Notwithstanding the practical nature of the books, the author was not affluent enough to publish the huge volumes at his own expenses without any subsidy from the government. At that time, few bureaucrats could acknowledge the practical value of his works.

So there remain only three copies: original at Seoul National University Gyujanggak Library (규장각, 奎章閣), one copy at Korea University Library. Another copy maintained by Seo family clan is preserved at the Osaka City Library.

Only a part of the works have been translated into Korean and published step by step in a series because of financial constraints.[4] Their first introductory book Imwon Gyeongjeji was published in June 2012 by Sower Publishing Co.

This project for translation and publication of Imwon Gyeongjeji has been staged by the Imwon Gyeongje Institute (임원경제연구소) founded by Jeong Myung-hyun and his fellow researchers in March 2008.[5]

Though all the participants take a great pride in making a brilliant ancestor's works public, the speed of work is very slow because most of participants are part-timers. For example, in 2015, they hosted an experimental event in association with Pungseok Cultural Foundation (풍석문화재단). Their purpose was to prove that Pungseok was a great chef by actually making several dishes as illustrated in Imwon Gyeongjeji.[6]