한문학에 나타난 處士의 전형

The Paragon of Recluse Mentioned in the Traditional Korean Literature Written in Chinese

" 1. There are a variety of concepts to describe the mode of being for human life, which were developed in the ‘Traditional Korean Literature written in Chinese’ [Korean classics]. Among them, there is a term of ‘recluse’ referred to as a character who does not accept any government post but is entitled to a paragon of great personality. Meanwhile, in the Korean classics, the term of recluse takes a limited historical implication, which is different from the general concept. In the Korean classics, ‘recluse’ is referred as a seeker after truth in the province where is not far apart from human society. In the traditional society, the Korean classics was based on the consciousness of worry about the real world, and the first justice of it was the responsibility consciousness[Verantwortungsethik] to reform reality and build an ideal society up. However, when ideology is estranged from reality, a human being must concentrate his efforts to ‘improve himself alone.’ There were men who had the consciousness of worry about the real world but did not reveal a will to revolutionize the reality directly and who got himself absorbed in the individual and personal self-discipline [individuelle und persónliche Selbstbildung], retiring to hermitage in the mountains and forests. Such a mode of character is ‘recluse.’ 2. Around the mid-sixteenth century of the Yi dynasty, there were a good many of recluses whose purposes were to put the Confucian philosophy [moral philosophy] practice. For instance, characters such as Gyung-Duk Seo, Un-Jeok Yi, Hwang Yi, Sik Jo were representative recluses who produced many recluses of distinguished talent. Also, in the latter part of the Yi dynasty (that is, after the seventeenth century), there were a great number of characters who took the life of recluse, retiring to hermitage in the mountains and forests. The mountains and forests where they retired to hermitage are not spaces where they ‘live together with birds and beasts’ [鳥獸同群] but provincial societies where they ‘strive to put daily justice in practice’ [勉日用]. However, in the earlier Yi dynasty (before the seventeenth century) recluses took a life of moralist ‘sustaining the pious attitude and simultaneously pursue reason’ [居敬], while in the later Yi dynasty (after the seventeenth century) recluses did not necessarily become ‘moralists.’ It is because the content of philosophical pursuit was changed then. In addition, some of characters could not help taking a life of recluse as they failed the civil service examination. However, in general recluses lived a truth-seeking life to acquire essentiality, denying a daily mode of reality. 3. The study discussed the mode of being for recluses and examined their oriented consciousness, centering on the literature of ‘Toe-Kye’ Hwang Yi. In addition, as the separation literature from human being cannot be considered in the Confucian practice, the study discussed literature in the relation to the life of the subject of literature practice. This is derived from the historical characteristics of literature before the modem time. The shape of recluse is not presented in the completed form but appeared indirectly in the total orientation of life and literature. The recluses seek the unity of objects and self that is the finality of moralistic mind boundary. That is, they attached importance to the state where the external objective and the internal spirit is united, which indicates ‘freedom from avarice and understanding’ [景與意會]. This attitude of truth-seeking is shown in Gyung-Duk Seo or Un-Gap Yi, but the representative character who took such attitude is exactly Hwang Yi. He decided to retire to hermitage in order to ‘sustain the pious attitude and simultaneously pursue reason that is a law of universe’ [居敬窮理].