Authorship The original author of
Hong Gildong remains an open question. Opinion comes down on one of two sides, with one believing that
Hong Gildong was written by a 16th-century Korean scholar and thinker,
Hŏ Kyun (1569–1618), and the other believing that it was written by an author whose name is lost. • Arguments for Hŏ Kyun's authorship Authorship of the novel is sometimes attributed to
Hŏ Kyun, a radical intellectual who long dreamed of changing Korea into a fair society with less strict class hierarchies. The first written attribution to Hŏ Kyun is in the writings of 'Taek-dang' Yi Sik (이식 李植 1584–1647), his former student, or
The works of Taek-Dang, which he compiled with the help of others. In the 15th kwon, or script, of the separate collection of Teak-Dang-jip, 「산록(散錄)」, it is written that Hŏ Kyun wrote Hong Gildong with an homage to Water Margin. Proponents of this theory, alongside speculating that Hŏ Kyun might have wrote the book during the late 16th or early 17th century with inspiration from the Chinese novel
Water Margin, believe that this possibility is likely as Yi Sik, being Hŏ Kyun's pupil, and only being 15 years apart, would have known him firsthand, making him a reliable witness. Notable advocates of this theory include Sim Chae (심재 沈梓, 1624 - 1693) and Hong Hanju (홍한주 洪翰周, 1798- 1868), Who both wrote in each of their own books 송천필담(松泉筆譚) and 지수점필(智水拈筆) that Hŏ Kyun wrote Hong Gil Dong, Citing Yi-Sik's Taek Dang Jip. Sim Chae was an extremist
Southerner, and Hong Hanju was the grandson of the cousin of
Hong Guk-yeong, a Sedo (세도) family-man of early
Jeongjo's rule, which can serve as proof that Yi Sik's testament was convincing to some contemporary figures, regardless of political parties and background. Furthermore, Hŏ Kyun is said to be the author because of his radical ideas of political revolution, which are projected in Hong Gildong's journey from secondary son to king. • Arguments against Hŏ Kyun's authorship Academics, who argue against Hŏ Kyun's authorship on the other hand, attribute the authorship to another figure or a lost individual. Professor Lee Yoon-suk argues that even though Hŏ Kyun lived in the late 16th to the early 17th century, , a late 17th-century figure, who was a bandit in real life, and Sun-hye-chung,
선혜청(宣惠廳), an 18th-century institution, appears in the novel, making it impossible for him to have written it, alongside the circumstantial evidence of all other pure
Hangul novels emerging in the late 18th century. Instead, he argues that the original of Hong Gil Dong Jeon was written by 'Ji so' Hwang il Ho (황일호1588~1641), as Noh hyuk Jeon (노혁전 盧革傳), in Jiso-sunseng-mun-jip (지소선생문집), or
the works of the scholar Ji-So. Lee goes to emphasize that In Noh hyuk Jeon, or
the story of Noh Hyuk, Hwang Il Ho states early on that "Noh-Hyuk's original surname is Hong, and his given name "Gil-Dong", and (he) truly is from a notable family in our nation...", making sure that the character was Hong Gil-Dong. In a 2013 article in
Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture,
Minsoo Kang argues that the claim for Hŏ Kyun as author of the novel is based on flawed and biased scholarship. He proposes instead that the extant version of the novel was written around the mid-19th century, or not long before that, "by an anonymous writer of secondary or commoner status". ==Cultural legacy==