Examined in this article, is the structure of 『Ah’ah-rok』, which was compiled during the latter half period of the 18th century. Also examined here are certain characteristics of the perspective and stances reflected in it. The things that should be noted from 『Ah’ah-rok』, in terms of its writing and its point of view, can be summarized as follows.
First, 『Ah’ah-rok』 was meant to be a documentation of the political history of the Joseon dynasty, with the perspective and opinion of the author (or the supporting party of faction) most clearly presented. A variety of materials were used and consulted, yet the author’s stance is not at all buried under them, and instead it is most vividly presented. This is what is unique about 『Ah’ah-rok』, compared to the other ‘political history’ writings we can find from this period, which usually just presented original materials and reference texts.
Second, 『Ah’ah-rok』 was written under the explicit intentions to legitimatize the stance of the “Elder” No’ron/老論 faction of the Westerners party[西人]. It wanted to emphasize the fact that the Nor’on faction’s political position was right from the beginning and throughout the entire history of Joseon. This is an attitude that was actually shared by other records created by factions such as So’ron/少論(Westerners party’s ‘Junior’ Faction) or the Nam’in/南人(Southerners) party, which all compiled political material books in order to portray their own parties as have been on the ‘good side’ of all the conflicts which continued throughout the latter half of the Joseon dynasty.
Third, 『Ah’ah-rok』 tried to understand the major events of the Joseon political history as “Political Purges(‘Sa’hwa, 士禍’).” It was an effort to emphasize the importance of ‘Sa/士(the Scholars),’ which was the officials’ own identity, and to examine the world from a viewpoint of a ‘scholar.’
Fourth, 『Ah’ah-rok』 wanted to determine the meaning of “Righteous Obligations(‘Jeol’eui/節義’)” through the political history of Joseon. This was out of a sentiment to define and emphasize this obligation as an ideology that would dominate the Joseon politics internally.
『Ah’ah-rok』 was not a mere material book or a reference compilation, but was a systemic documentation of the Joseon dynasty’s political history from a specific viewpoint and ideology. All the materials compiled inside were specifically selected and interpreted according to such political view. It was a new way to document and compile a party-politics manual, compared to the other publications of the time. We can see that 『Ah’ah-rok』 was not only a Party Position Manual(Dang’ron-seo/黨論書), but also a historical writing of the Joseon dynasty’s political history, and an evolutionary form of political documentation which was also enabled by all the previous efforts to document the political history of Joseon.