淵齋 宋秉璿의 學脈과 作品世界

The Scholastic Mantle and the World of Works of Song, Byeonng-Seon

Yeonjae (a pen name) Song, Byeong-seon, who succeeded to the pedigree of moral philosophy dated from Song, Si-yeol, became a chief instructor (宗匠) of the Kiho district school (畿湖學派) toward the end of the Joseon Dynasty. When the Eulsa Protectorate Treaty between Korea and Japan was concluded in 1905, Song, Byeonng-seon established the mental footing of raising justice for anti-Japanese sentiments and a national independence movement through the proclamation of saints' awareness of moral philosophy and the spirit of Chunchudaeui (春秋大義) by killing himself for his country after he had reported to the throne that King Gojong should declare a great cause to the world by abrogating the treaty and gouging out the five traitors. 1,100 persons of his disciples registered on the literary men's list. He could foster so many disciples because he conducted real lecture activities and held a lot of lecture meetings with local scholars on a tour of the whole country. As a result of analysing his Chinese poetry by dividing into both severance of the pedigree of moral philosophy and thought of Wijeongcheoksa (衛正斥邪), Song, Byeong-Seon's literature turned clearly out to include the literary characteristics of moralists who saw literature as an instrument to teach morality. In those days of chaos, the only method to save the country and redeem the traditional culture was to proclaim the great justice of Chunchudaeui (春秋大義) and spread out the campaign of Wijeongcheoksa (衛正斥邪) in order to practice it. The world of Song, Byeonng-seon's Chinese poetry was the literary revelation of his own consciousness of this sort, and his spirit of martyrdom for moral justice and his own country was succeeded to his disciples who unfolded a resist-Japanese independence movement for a recovery of national rights. In writing literary works, Song, Byeonng-seon showed his features as a moralistic literary man rather than those of aesthetics. In his works which dealt with the world of consciousness of moralistic literature, he represented mainly the contents of cultivating the spirit of Chunchudae-ui (春秋大義) and conducting the campaign of Wijeongcheoksa (衛正斥邪) to maintain national rights. These features mean that at a request of the needs of the times. he used literature as a great medium to overcome his own country's difficult situations caused by severance of the pedigree of moral philosophy and invasion of the power of a foreign country.