This research studies the implications on the life-long education that could be drawn from Chusa (秋史) Kim Jeong-hee (金正喜, 1786-1856)’s calligraphies and paintings from the cultural literacy’s point of view. Cultural literacy which means ... This research studies the implications on the life-long education that could be drawn from Chusa (秋史) Kim Jeong-hee (金正喜, 1786-1856)’s calligraphies and paintings from the cultural literacy’s point of view. Cultural literacy which means to understand the cultural and artistic background knowledge allows people to read not only the artworks but also the life, ideology, and creative background of the artists, hence the humanistic approach. This is especially useful in learning the Korean ancestors life styles for they had put much emphasis on both the academics and arts. With cultural literacy life-long education, a person can learn the literature, the history, and the philosophy in the Korean traditional culture and arts. Therefore, cultural literacy allows capitalistic modern people to remind themselves of a spiritual value that leads to a valanced life. A step forward from an existing life-long education’s practical cultural-art education, cultural literacy prepares a person to grow a suitable character to the aesthetics acquired from cognitive and aesthetic understanding of arts and cultures. Cultural literacy, comprehensively, could be defined as a knowledge on cultural sphere. Here, cultural literacy is defined as “the understanding of background knowledges that helps the appreciation of arts and culture, and the process of learning those knowledges.” Especially, this research will focus on the importance of traditional culture and traditional arts. As a cultural literacy’s educational material, Chusa (秋史) Kim Jeong-hee (金正喜, 1786-1856)’s calligraphies and paintings were studied and implications from life-long education were drawn. Based on the liberal arts learning and aesthetic education, this research looked into the artist’s intellectual thinking process, life experience, and artworks wholly. This research will expand the criteria of literacy education by with background knowledge of cultures and arts, and will reset the meaning of literacy education in life-long education from the cultural literacy’s point of view. Three research questions follow: What does the cultural literacy mean in the life-long education? Which differences arise when Chusa’s calligraphies and paintings are seen in the cultural literacy’s dimension? Which implications are drawn when Chusa’s calligraphies and painrings are read with cultural litearcy? Methodologically, this study is based on literature research and included materials on Chusa and traditional calligraphies and paintings education to enrich the contents. In this study, <Dae’paeng’gho’hoi (大烹高會) Dae’ryun (對聯)> which was written in Chusa style calligraphy (Chusa’che, 秋史體), <Se’hahn’doh (歲寒圖)>, and <Buhl’yi’seon’ran’doh (不二禪蘭圖)> were reviewed from the cultural literacy’s perspective. The implications of cultural literacy on life-long education could be discussed in three dimensions which are the importance of aesthetic exploration in life-long education, the need of development of humanities, and the preparation for the quality life. Firstly, Chusa tried to perfect his artistic value by studying his writing throughout his life. Such exploration is important because it holds both the aesthetic appreciation and the continuity of learning. Though life-long education has neglected the education on beauty, aesthetic exploration should be emphasized so that the students could continue on practicing life-long education. Secondly, what Chusa had experienced during his days in exile teaches people of building relationship and emphathy with others. Humanities, the way of living like a human being, needs to be developed through the understanding of literature, history, philosophy, and arts. Finally, because of his preparation, Chusa could draw an orchid that reflects his personal traits. Being ready to complete the life goal and enjoying leisure with arts are ways of preparing for the quality life. <Dae’paeng’gho’hoi (大烹高會) Dae’ryun (對聯)> is written in official writing style of Chusa’che. Here, two lines that make a pair were written in two pages separately. Here, a humble happiness that could be enjoyed was represented. Chusa emphasized the uniqueness that would perfect writing style’s aesthetic. He used ten rocks and thousands brushes for 70 years to study his writing. <Se’hahn’doh (歲寒圖)> is a painting that was given to Chusa’s student who showed limitless respect to then-exiled teacher when Chuwa was exiled to Jeju island. This work could be fully understood when the background knowledge is available. Also, because there is a delicate metaphore represented on the picture, it could show the diverse dimension of cultural literacy. Originally it only contained the picture and a postscript, but scholars of Qing had written poems over the picture after enjoying it, enriching the value of the creation. In <Buhl’yi’seon’ran’doh (不二禪蘭圖)>, Chusa’s relaxation toward his life is well depicted. Chusa viewed drawing an orchid was a training for studying (格致之學) and had drawn an orchid for the first time in the twenty years. Here, the stage of celestial mind (性中天) and no-otherness (不二) were shown in the writing style. The life-long educational implications are the life that studies, the life that reflects, and the life that plans. <Dae’paeng’gho’hoi (大烹高會) Dae’ryun (對聯)> shows the life that studies. This spirit is composed of aesthetic study on the best of one’s life, study on aesthetic action based on wide learning and deep engagements (博學篤行), and study of aesthetic value in one’s daily life. Chusa’s struggle for the achievement of the best calligraphic style throughout his life illustrates a life-long education’s value. <Se’hahn’doh (歲寒圖)> shows a life that reflects. The life that reflects is composed of the reflection of human nature, reflection of classical knowledge, and training for artistic refinement. In the artwork, the goodness of human nature is depicted and what is written in the postscript highlights the liberal art’s knowledge and the literacy on Chinese letters. Not only the artist but the appreciators also need cultural refinements. Finally, life that plans could be drawn from <Buhl’yi’seon’ran’doh (不二禪蘭圖)>. Finding the real me, preparing for life goals, and preparation for philosophical life constitute life that plans. Chusa had been so ready to draw an orchid for the first time in twenty years that his painting catched the real mind (性中天). Also, from his teaching on orchid drawing, not deceiving oneself, not dropping out in the middle, and striving hard could be learned. These traits are very important in daily life too, not just in arts. Finally, the relaxed lifestyle Chusa had shown led the researcher to think about life-work balance based on arts. Literacy which means the ability of understanding letters, first aimed to lift up the life quality by convenient use of language and escaping the poverty. Then, literacy expanded its meaning as it began to refer to the practice and understanding of a specific knowledge and niche segments which were the byproducts of societal developments. In the past, literacy education of Korea based itself on the functional perspective and focused on reducing the number of illiterate publics. The education had reached its goal pretty fast. Ironically, after it had been neglected from the government after its success, it encountered a hiatus. It was 2007 when it gained the place in the life-long education after the law for the life-long education had been renewed. It achieved the status of adult basic literacy education. Even though the literacy education had to be understood as an adaptation for societal, technological, cultural environment and a improvement of the quality of life of the learner, it was captivated in the discourse of literate versus illiterate. Therefore, it failed to provide its traits as a life-long education. Literacy education should expand its targets to everyone so that each person could have a better life and should extend its contents from the understanding of written language. To sum up, by reviewing Chusa’s artworks, it is concluded that the background knowledge that a learner has could lead to different levels of understanding and appreciation. Also, as expanding the learning materials to culture and arts, literate learners could still learn literacy— the cultural literacy, which means that the post-literacy education is needed and literacy education’s meaning could be reset from the life-long education’s dimension. Since cultural literacy on traditional paintings and calligraphies puts its goal on practicing it in modern life, it reaches the value of ‘when a person has newly learnt something while studying the old, the practicing it will be limitless’ (溫故而知新). Therefore, the process of cultural literacy is suitable for the education for arts and culture when improving humanities, the understanding of cultures and arts, and practicing what has been learned are considered.
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