조선시대 梅花詩의 전개와 특징

Abstract

The plum blossom is regarded as the tree embodying most fully the principleof continuously giving life in the Neo-Confucian tradition, because it beginsto flower in the cold winter. For this symbolic signification, the plum blossombecame one of the most beloved subjects of Neo-Confucian literati's poetryin Joseon Korea. In this paper, I divide the history of plum blossom poetryin Joseon Korea into three time periods and discuss some representative poetsand their salient features in each period. In the early period, Seo Geo-jeong, Kim Si-seup and Kim An-ro producednotable poems on the subject of plum blossom. The image of an outsiderrejecting the hoi polloi and leading a cloistered life was expressed in Kim'sSi-seup's and playfulness was fully exploited in Kim An-ro's. In the middleperiod, Yi Hwang, his disciples, and an Andong Kim family (Su-jeung,Chang-hyeop, and Chang-heup) are noteworthy. Yi Hwang, who studied deeplythe learning of mind-and-heart and emphasized the self-cultivation of innerlife, not just composed many poems on the plum blossom but also enjoyed poemgiving-and-taking with his disciples. In fact, Yi invented a new style of'plum-blossom conversation poetry' by composing a poem repeating a patternof poet's questioning and replying to his imagined interlocutor plum blossom:about the meaning of pureness and truthfulness and the principles of advancingtoward/retreating away from government service. This style attracted manyreaders and influenced several later poets, to a great extent. Kim Su-jeung,Chang-hyeop, and Chang-heup felt doubts seriously about the political life andfactional strives of Joseon court and searched for ways of becoming the truehermit. In so doing, they composed many poems on the plum, where we cansee some influences of Shao Yong's numerological cosmology. In the late period, we can see developments of poetry societies and their collective works of plumblossom poetry especially in the late 18th century: for example, Noron (the Elderfaction) literati's poem entitled "Bingdeung jobin yeon" (A winter night feastfor poets), a Seoulite plum society's poems, and Yi Deok-mu's and his friends'poems on the plum blossoming in the spring month of the lunar calendar. Allthese exhibited a new trend that emerged in the late period of Joseon Korea. In the 19th century, Sin Wi, Jeong Hak-yeon, Jo Byeong-hyeon, and YiHak-gyu created respectively scores of poems on the plum blossom. Inparticular, adopting the style of Ju Yunming's "Meihua baiyong" (One hundredsongs of the plum blossom), Sin and Jeong wrote several serial poems on theplum blossom. The most strong and consistent meaning of plum blossom poetry in JoseonKorea can be seen as coming from the symbolic signification of the hexagramFu (returing) in I Ching. The underlying reason why such many Korean Neo-Confucian literati did persistently write poems on the subject of plum blossommight be that the blossoming of plum in the winter solstice offered them somemoments to reflect on nature's principle of continuously giving life and therebyencouraged them to realize Heaven's way in accordance with their Neo-Confucianism.