A Study on Fruits Characteristics of the Chosen Dynasty through the Analysis of Chosenwangjoeshirok Big Data
Using the big data analysis of the Choseonwangjosilrok, this research aimed to figure out the fruits’ types, prevalence, seasonal appearances as well as the royalty’s perspective on fruits during Choseon period. Choseonwangjosilrok included nineteen kinds of fruits and five kinds of nuts, totaling 1,601 cases at 72.8% and 533 cases at 24.2% respectively. The text recorded fruits being used as: tributes for kings, gifts from kings to palace officials, tomb offerings, county specialties, trade goods or gifts to the foreign ambassadors, and medicine ingredients in oriental pharmacy. Seasonally the fruits appeared demonstrating an even distribution. Periodic characteristics were observed in decreasing quantity chronologically. From fifteenth century to nineteenth century, the fruits with timely features were seen: 804 times at 36.6%, 578 times at 26.3%, 490 times at 22.3%, 248 times at 11.3%, and 78 times at 3.5% respectively. In fifteenth century: citrons, quinces, pomegranates, cherries, permissions, watermelons, Korean melons, omija, walnuts, chestnuts, and pine nuts appeared most frequently. In sixteenth century: pears, grapes, apricots, peaches, and hazelnuts appeared most frequently. In seventeenth century: tangerines and dates appeared most frequently. In eighteenth century, trifoliate orange was the most frequently mentioned fruit.