King Jeongjo paid attention to the writings of the Tang and Song Dynasties as a solution to the formalized and impractical countermeasure and lyrical prose of the time. Jeongjo published Tang Song Palja Baekseon by paying attention to the practicality of the Tang and Song Dynasties and their writings. Through the publication of Baekseon, Jeongjo implicitly asserted that he inherited the orthodox culture by excluding the Manchurian Qing Dynasty standards and selecting only the standards of the Ming Dynasty, and tried to eliminate the Joseon literary style that imitated the literary style of the Qin and Han Dynasties and change it to an atmosphere that emphasized the content-oriented discussion and formal practicality of the Tang and Song Dynasties. King Jeongjo had a clear goal of literary reform and wanted to select only 100 works, so the weight of the eight great writers was clearly different. King Jeongjo, who had progressive tendencies, indirectly revealed his intention through the publication of Baekseon, giving more weight to writers who showed reformist tendencies and systemic changes than to writers who took a conservative stance and systemic stability.
In the 18th century, during the Qing Dynasty and the late Joseon Dynasty, the status of Han Yu and the three Su rose further, while the positions of Ouyang Xiu and Liu Zongyuan declined relatively. In line with this trend, the weight of each writer in Baekseon was similar to that of the Qing Dynasty’s contemporary Tang Song Bajiawen Duben, rather than the Ming Dynasty’s Tang Song Badajia Wenchao. However, it is noteworthy that Baekseon differs from Duben in that it gave greater weight to Liu Zongyuan and Wang Anshi. Jeongjo, who wanted to reform the writing style, listed the authors by writing style when publishing Baekseon. If Wenchao andDuben prioritized the authors, Baekseon emphasized writing style over the authors.
Palgasukwon is a book in which Jeongjo selected excellent phrases that he liked and could recite by heart. Through the phrases extracted fromPalgasukwon, we can guess why the works selected for Baekseon were selected. In terms of content, Jeongjo selected works in Baekseon that could teach people lessons, were persuasive through appropriate examples and personification, and were valuable for people to learn from. And in terms of form, Jeongjo selected works that appropriately utilized not only parallelism but also comparison, metaphor, Class overlap, and intricate, thereby presenting models of writing for the literati of the time.