Many of them were destroyed, and only 75 copies of the Silok and 82 copies of the Ark of the Covenant have been handed down.
"Through the Five Mountains Manuscript, we can glimpse the traces of our ancestors' efforts to pass on the records of the Joseon Dynasty to future generations. When the manuscript was destroyed during the Imjin War (1592-1698), it was placed in a deep mountain where there were few people, and efforts were made to preserve it." (Jung-min Seo, Researcher of Art)
After the Imjin War burned down the sasang that housed important books, the Joseon Dynasty hastily built a "foreign sasang" (外史庫) deep in the mountains to store the records. There were four: Jeongjoksan, Red Mountain, Taebaeksan, and Odaesan Sago. The latter was an auspicious place where water, fire, and wind could not invade, and the king assigned Woljeongsa Temple as a guardian temple for security.
However, during the Japanese occupation, Shilok suffered hardships. After forcibly taking over Korea's sovereignty in 1910, Japan began to destroy cultural properties in earnest. The Odaesan Sago cultural property was no exception. The original Odaesan Sago was brought to Tokyo Imperial University in 1913 during the Japanese occupation, but was partially destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. The casket was taken to the Japanese Imperial Palace in 1922, along with 105 royal books and 1205 volumes.
Carrying the pain of national history, the Joseon Dynasty's Shilok and the Ark of the Covenant were able to return to their homeland through the Korean repatriation movement that began in the 2000s. In 2006 and 2017, the Shilok was returned, and in 2011, the Ark of the Covenant was returned. Many of them were destroyed, and only 75 copies of the Silok and 82 copies of the Ark of the Covenant have been handed down.
After a hard life of exile...the return of the Joseon Dynasty Silk Records after 110 years© Provided by E-Daily
'Seongjong Silok', a manuscript from the Odaesan accident (Photo: MOCA).
After 110 years of 'Taehyangsal', the silk robe and coffin in the Odaesan Mountain accident have returned to their rightful place. The National Joseon Dynasty Shilok Museum, which stores and exhibits the Joseon Dynasty Shilok and the coffin, officially opened on the 12th in Odaesan, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do. Previously operated by the Seongbo Museum in Woljeongsa Temple, the dynasty seal book