Abstract

In this paper I have focused my interest on the process of Seo, Chan- kyu(徐贊奎)’s challenge for the Small Royal Examination(小科) and Royal Examination(文科). Especially I have tried to figure out how much he had struggled hard to succeed in these two Examination, and what was the feature of his constant efforts. Seo, Chan-kyu was a intellectual man of Daegu(大邱) city in the late of Choseon Dynasty. He was some rich but his lineage went down for a long time, so he must passing the Royal Examination to restore the family fortunes. For this he have taken his first step to approach above two Exam around his 20 ages. It was not so hard for Seo, Chan-kyu to pass the Small Royal Examination. In 1846 he got the JinSa(進士) title at one go. In his lineage for a couple of hundred years there was no one who passed the Small Royal Examination. So his title was an honor to him and his family. Because of this he had performed party so many times. But the Small Royal Examination was not his final Goal. To rebuild his declined family and enter government service he must pass the Royal Examination. And then he began the long and hard journey to it at the end of 1846. He had taken Royal Examination so many times but only failed to. First of all he had no luck on it. So in 1854 he gave up his challenge for it. Instead of that he took care of his son's road to success. And he had engrossed in practical learning and got the great fame in it.