The Journal of Culture Contents ISSN:2287-2256(Print) 2671-7026(Online) 문화콘텐츠연구

This study aims to examine how legends of historical figures that share similar motifs and narrative structures diverge into supraregional and local traditions when associated with different historical figures and spaces of transmission. It also seeks to identify the aspirations of local communities reflected in this process. For this purpose, the study compares two legends of King Jeongjo, “The Sudden Examination Success of Yi Saengwon of Ganchon” and “King Jeongjo and the Gifted Geomancer,” with two tales of King Sukjong, “King Sukjong Reveals the Civil Service Examination Topic” and “King Sukjong and Geomancy.” The two groups of narratives share a common structure in which the king travels incognito, discovers the problems or abilities of ordinary people, and resolves their difficulties by helping them pass the civil service examination or appointing them to official positions. This indicates that the legends of King Jeongjo were formed by incorporating narrative resources from widely transmitted tales of royal incognito travel, civil service examinations, and geomancy. Despite this shared structure, however, the narratives acquire different spatial, emotional, and social meanings according to the historical figures and spaces with which they are associated.
At the spatial level, the tales of King Sukjong are set in unspecified locations that are not tied to particular historical sites. This spatial indeterminacy allows them to be accepted and transmitted across various regions, thereby giving them a supraregional character. In contrast, the legends of King Jeongjo are closely connected to specific places, particularly Hyeollyungwon and the royal procession route. These places evoke historical memories of the death of Crown Prince Sado, the construction of Hyeollyungwon, and King Jeongjo’s royal processions, thus forming the locality of the legends. At the emotional level, King Sukjong is represented as an ideal ruler who relieves the suffering of unjustly treated people and discovers talented individuals who have remained unrecognized. King Jeongjo, by contrast, is remembered as a historically grounded and deeply human figure who seeks to overcome the loss and deprivation caused by the tragedy of Crown Prince Sado. By sympathizing with Jeongjo’s filial devotion and historical endeavors, local residents incorporate his personal memories into the collective memory of their community. At the social level, the tales of King Sukjong are structured around a one-directional relationship in which the king discovers and resolves the problems of his subjects. The legends of King Jeongjo, however, establish a reciprocal relationship in which the king and local residents compensate for one another’s deficiencies. Jeongjo resolves the practical difficulties of local residents and acknowledges their abilities, while local residents contribute to his historical endeavors through their accumulated knowledge and shared historical memories. This relationship reflects the aspiration of local residents to be recognized not merely as passive recipients of royal favor, but as active agents in the construction of local history and collective memory.
This study demonstrates that the locality of legends of historical figures is not an attribute isolated from supraregional narratives. Rather, it is the result of shared motifs and narrative structures being selected, transformed, and reinterpreted through the historical experiences and place-based memories of local communities. The legends of King Jeongjo should therefore not be regarded simply as local variants of the tales of King Sukjong. Instead, they constitute an independent body of local legends through which local residents actively reconstructed their own places, memories, emotions, and collective aspirations by drawing upon widely shared narrative resources.