This article is to investigate the writing methods of poetic literature and the direction by Dong Ju Min Goo Lee (1589∼1670) who was a writer in the seventeenth century, and to confirm the developmental background and the substance of his viewpoint ... This article is to investigate the writing methods of poetic literature and the direction by Dong Ju Min Goo Lee (1589∼1670) who was a writer in the seventeenth century, and to confirm the developmental background and the substance of his viewpoint on the literature, and the relations between his viewpoint on the literature and Chinese poetry. The ultimate goal of this article is to find out the meanings of his poetic literature in the history of literature by doing these. Min Gu Lee, who was born as the son of Ji Bong Soo Kwang Lee known as the frontier of practical science and the descendent of the royal family that founded Chosun, passed the exam of liberal arts in 1612 based on the inborn intelligence and literary talent and worked the governmental services actively in Injo era. However, since he was exiled due to the penalty not to defense Gangwha Island well during Byungja Horan, he could not recover his position again. On the other hand, his literature talent was acknowledged by lots of literary scholars, and especially he was named on the poetic root of Namin at the first time by Bun Am Je Gong Chae who was a political leader of Namin in late eighteenth century. Da San Yak Yong Jung called him as ‘poetic hero’ in Gosi Esipsasoo summarizing Dong Ju’s poor life story. The comments from Je Gong Chae and Yak Yong Jung showed Min Goo Lee’s poetic literature position well among Namins. Besides, we could infer his literature talent by various anecdotes related to Min Goo Lee that appeared in many poems. Min Goo Lee has the great potential as the study subject considering his position in Namin as well as the literature talent. Although Min Goo Lee was positioned at the first time in Namin, few studies have been conducted on his poetic literature. Probably, this is due to the numerous poems and writings that recorded in his writing collections. Because of that, the previous studies on Min Goo Lee focused on the aspect of literature history rather than the aspect of his literature. Though Min Goo Lee had his literature talents, the studies on his literature were not sufficient. Hence, a study on Dong Ju Min Goo Lee’s poetic literature was performed to find out his literature viewpoint, capabilities of his poetic literature, and literature values in this article. In addition, this was to investigate the reason why Min Goo Lee had been called as a master of Namin poetic root. Moreover, this study is considered to confirm not only the poetic root of family scholarship from Soo Kwang Lee to Min Goo Lee, but also the characteristics of early seventeenth century literary circles and early Namin. The woodblock-printed book to be considered as the review subject in this article was Dong Joo’s Collection which was reproduced by National Culture Motivation Committee. The correct publication details of Dong Joo’s Collection had not been known, however, the remained woodblock-printed books are stored at Gyoojanggak, National Central Library, Jangseogak, and so on. Among these, the first editions are stored at Gyoojanggak and Central Library in Yonsei University, and Dong Joo’s Collection by National Culture Motivation Committee is the reproduced one from Gyoojanggak which was published during Sookjong era. Therefore, the study was performed based on this Dong Joo’s Collection reproduced by National Culture Motivation Committee as the basic textbook. There are two distinguished characteristics in terms of the organization in Dong Joo’s Collection. First, poem collections were significantly more than writing collections. Poem collections were 33 while writing collections were 10, over 3 times of poem collections as many as writings. The selections of the contents were made by Min Goo Lee himself. The fact that the quantity of the poems was much more than that of writings can be considered he had regarded himself as a poet with the characteristics in the poems. Second, all the other poem collections except for Myoyourok were collected made with those when Min Goo Lee went a place away from his home. We can imagine Min Goo Lee’s unfair life from this. Likewise, Dong Joo’s Collection can show his bent life and love only with the organization. It is important to review Min Goo Lee’s perception on the reality first so as to understand his viewpoint on the literature. It was confirmed that Min Goo Lee was a realistic person from the fact that he had the strong desire on the participation in the politics, which was the driver for him to have practical and realistic viewpoint on the literature. Also, Min Goo Lee got influenced a lot from his father, Soo Kwang Lee. The first one was a family academy and the second one was to develop the relationships of admiration and association by his father. His father Soo Kwang Lee was the character to be regarded as the frontier of Shilhak, and he viewed the truth very important in the creation of literature under the serious consideration of realistic and practical experiences. In the social movement to be strengthened with Sung Confucianism Ideology since Imjin War against Japan, he had interests not in the orthodoxy Neo-Confucianism but in the doctrines of Wang Yang-Ming, which could make him to meet the pupils’ ideas without negative perception beside the doctrines of Wang Yang-Ming. Min Goo Lee who could meet a variety of theories other than Sung Confucianism could accept the aspect of arts in the literature and utilize it as the media to expose his feeling actively. Similarly, Min Goo Lee regarded the exile which was the most dramatic event in his life as the momentum to jump up his literature. Min Goo Lee who was based on Jaedokwan set the first goal with the utility of the literature. The utility of the literature for him did not mean the personal cultivation but the social utility, implicating to write the literature to affect the real society directly. Hence, he considered to have to write those to meet the reality rather than those pedantic or metaphysical to be used in the real society and empathized the realism as the tool. All the while, he empathized apprehension upon acknowledging the literature. Min Goo Lee who pursued the uniqueness by apprehension prioritized the natural expressions of the person’s characters and wrote the poems with the subjects that he saw and felt from his surroundings. Also, he endeavored to express his feeling sincerely together with his hobby, travelling hills and rivers. It is very crucial to review Min Goo Lee’s Chinese poems in the point that the sincere expression of feeling resulted in the uniqueness he had empathized. Mainly three categories were reviewed for his poetic world including ‘recognition and monologue on the irrationality in the reality,’ ‘contemplation surroundings,’ and ‘pursuit of uniqueness by characterful expression.’ With respect to ‘recognition and monologue on the irrationality in the reality,’ his works written on the personal and social irrationality that Min Goo Lee felt in the real life were reviewed dividing by ‘revealing bad luck and frustration,’ and ‘critic description on the reality.’ For contemplation surroundings, they were reviewed dividing by ‘taste in the leisure life,’ and ‘impressive experience and reflection in the life.’ Min Goo Lee made the subjects of the poems from the detections of special things near the ordinary surroundings or wrote them with leisure taste and feeling that could feel in the ordinary life. Regarding pursuit of uniqueness by characterful expression, they were reviewed dividing by ‘sincere expression of feeling in the nature,’ and ‘poetic subjects from the moment capture and six-word poems.’ Focusing on Min Goo Lee’s love to hills and rivers, the poems on hills and rivers were reviewed which a variety of feelings from the nature had been expressed sincerely without exaggeration. Also, Min Goo Lee’s personality could be found in the features that had revealed the subjects of the poems by capturing the moments and creating skilled six-word poems. Chosun dynasty in the seventeenth century was the period with severe social disorder due to multiple domestic and international affairs. With the social disorder, the scholars at that time who perceived it as the failing of justice tried to strengthen ideology of Confucianism by classical writing theory, on the other hand, the scholars who accepted the independent value on the literature appeared. Although Min Goo Lee stressed Jaedokwan, he was the close person to the scholar rather than a moralist. He performed the literature works with interests in the surroundings, and his hobby on the travelling hills and rivers worked as the strong motives of writing poems. His poems from these were empathized with truthful expression of the feeling as well as the realism, which could reflect Min Goo Lee to be a scholar who tried to seek the new poems actively in terms of meeting with the trend of poems emerged in the eighteenth century. Min Goo Lee’s literature performance could succeed to the descendants as the family academy to continue the tradition of the literature scholars. His association and admiration were not limited to the specific political parties, however, the association and admiration with major people in Namin were worked as the momentum to be on everyone’s lips of Namin scholars near Gyunggi later and to be influenced to Namins in the eighteenth century. As a result, Min Goo Lee became a leader of Namin poets by Je Gong Chae.
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