성호 이익 시 비평 연구

Abstract

This essay investigates The Miscellanies of Seongho(星湖僿說) in terms of poetry criticism, which has been mostly studied in the field of Silhak(實學). I focus on its chapter of poetry and prose. Seongho explores thoroughly which works can be appreciated as classical poetry, analyzing different texts of East-Asian poetry created in the previous eras. He emphasizes the inclination of the poet revealed in poetry because he regards poetry as the intellectual inclination(志) towards truth. From his perspective, these classical works are reconfirmed as the true classics of East-Asian classical poetry: The Classic of Poetry (試經), The Songs of the South (楚辭), and The Nineteen Old Poems(古詩十九 首). It is not because they are automatically assumed as classical poetry but because they share the timeless, heart-wrenching agony for man and history. As he objectifies the history of East-Asian classical poetry, he also objectifies the history of Chosun Sino-Korean poetry. Instead of being immersed in the pre-existent literary discourses of the Ming Dynasty on classicism, which were highly influential in late Chosun, he evaluates the limits and achievements of Chosun poetry per se on the basis of his close reading and objective attitude. Meanwhile, he establishes an objective understanding of East- Asian literary history concerning China and Chosun. Also, he never lets real politics influence excessively the field of literary criticism. He rather represents the lives and works of the wretched and abandoned subjects in real politics and demonstrates that the aesthetic achievement of poetry is actually related with the ethical attitude towards the life, death, and sufferings of the other. In sum, Seongho's poetry criticism is the literary ideal that combines ethics and aesthetics, which has been lost in modernity.