Abstract
Five prospective young men in their twenties from the Goryeo dynasty were admitted to the National Academy(太學) of the Northern Song, the most influential Confucius institute in the 12th century Northeast Asia. It was Goryeo King Yejong(睿宗), who dispatched them, who finally implemented the indispensable step of the reformation project of the Goryeo National Aacademy(國學) which had been passed on from his deceased father, previous king Sukjong(肅宗). This paper traces back the five men’s experience in the northern Song and their lives afterward mainly with the records on Gwon Jeok who had been enlisted last but who had won the first prize at the Song Emperor’s final exam. Among three who managed to return home, he is the only one that we could find the epitaph, personal writings, and diverse literature by other Goryeo literates. Gwon Jeok’s life and the memories around are quite intriguing subjects to investigate the unusual experience of studying abroad in the premodern period of Korea and to grasp the positive distortions of the memories on his life. How the national policies and the interrelations among dynasties could have intervened and influenced an individual’s life is also one of the main foci of the paper.
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