Biography
Seo Jong-tae (徐宗泰) was born in 1652, under King Hyojong, into the Daegu Seo clan. His father, Seo Munsang, was a vice-director at the Ministry of War; his mother was a daughter of Yi Myeong-han, and he married a daughter of Yi Hwon. A Korean Wikipedia entry links him to the descent of the eminent scholar Seo Geo-jeong. In 1675 he took first place in the licentiate examination (saengwonsi), then in 1680 passed the special civil service examination (munkwa byeolsi).
His career began in 1681 as a censor (geomyeol), and he took part in compiling the Annals of King Hyeonjong. He served in the Office of Special Advisers (Hongmungwan) and in the remonstrance offices. In 1689, the Gisa political crisis, which saw Queen Inhyeon deposed, removed him from affairs; he was then prefect of Cheorwon according to the notice in his collected works, and afterwards lived far from the capital. The reversal of 1694 (Gapsul) brought him back to power. He became grand academician (daejehak), inspector general, minister of Public Works, of Civil Service and of other ministries, then vice chief state councillor of the Right, vice chief state councillor of the Left and finally chief state councillor (yeonguijeong), a post to which he was appointed several times. In 1716, he was honorary adviser (haengpan jungchubu-sa).
In 1703, he led to China the embassy that left Seoul in late autumn, in the tenth lunar month. The two entries of the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describe it differently: a New Year congratulatory mission in one, a winter solstice dispatch (dongjisa) in the other, without naming Beijing. The journey is recorded in poems in classical Chinese; the original title given by our edition is Yeonhaeng japrok (燕行雜錄), and the sources consulted give neither this title nor the date of composition of the notebook. The author's poems, more than three hundred and sixty in all, are arranged in chronological order in his collected works. On his return, he was named minister of Civil Service; in 1704, he supervised the building of the Daebodan, the altar raised to the memory of the Ming dynasty.
Korean Wikipedia places him in the Soron faction and says he was close to several statesmen of his time, including Kim Chang-jip, Yi I-myeong, Yi Geon-myeong and Jo Tae-chae. His writings were not limited to poetry. His collected works contain memorials to the king, largely requests to resign, ritual texts, epitaphs, biographies and funeral eulogies. In it he notably wrote the biographical notice of his grandfather Seo Jeong-ri.
He died in 1719, though the sources consulted do not give the day. The king granted him the posthumous name Munhyo. His two sons, Seo Myeong-nyun and Seo Myeong-gyun, are named by Wikipedia. His work is transmitted by the Manjeongdang jip (晩靜堂集), eighteen volumes in nine fascicles printed in movable type, whose date of publication is unknown and is placed approximately under King Yeongjo. Copies are held at the Kyujanggak of Seoul National University, the Academy of Korean Studies, the Jangseogak Archives and the National Library of Korea. We have found no modern edition or translation of his travel notebook.
