Genre compositionshare
Share of letters
Share of own works that are letters (書簡類), by century.
13.4%of own works are letters
Key point
Letters are 13.4% of own works: 0.3–2.5% in the 12th–15th centuries, then 5.7% (16th), 15.0% (17th), 15.1% (18th) and 30.2% (19th); the 9th century (Choe Chi-won) stands at 32.9%. The direction matches the rising trend Kwak (2026) reports.
- Formula
- Letter works / own works
- Caveats
- Only letters selected for the printed collection, not all letters written.
- Reliability card
- exactExact count — read straight from the source XML
Classification quality: a stratified sample of 300 own works (major class × century) was blind-coded from titles; 97.3% agree with the ITKC major class (Wilson 95% 94.8%–98.6%; 3 undecided counted as disagreement; a second coder re-coded 30 of them blind with 97% agreement). Known block error: 284 works of 湖陰雜稿 (ITKC_MO_0126A) filed as 冊文類 carry poem titles; they are left as classified and noted here.
| Century | Works | Own works | By works | By characters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9th century | 128 | 389 | 32.9% | 23.2% |
| 12th century | 53 | 2,130 | 2.5% | 7.2% |
| 13th century | 21 | 1,309 | 1.6% | 4.8% |
| 14th century | 39 | 12,768 | 0.3% | 0.9% |
| 15th century | 316 | 35,198 | 0.9% | 2.2% |
| 16th century | 8,005 | 139,356 | 5.7% | 9.3% |
| 17th century | 29,668 | 198,054 | 15.0% | 18.9% |
| 18th century | 22,695 | 150,496 | 15.1% | 16.9% |
| 19th century | 20,898 | 69,085 | 30.2% | 33.2% |
| birth year unknown | 19 | 709 | 2.7% | 10.0% |