<公無渡河歌>에 나타난 仁의 형상

Abstract

Most of the previous researches on Gongmudohaga[公無渡河歌, a song entitled “Sweetheart, don’t cross the river”] paid attention to a background tale, thereby having made a relatively rough analysis on lyrics. The purpose of this study is to clarify a motive of creative writing and a meaning of lyrics, rather than discussing about author, writing period, and creation space. The identity of Gwangbu[狂夫] was raised many opinions, but needs to be regarded as having a meaning of “crazy man.” The narrative as saying of “having lifted a liquor bottle with shaking own hair out loose” is proper to be seen as a passage of elaborating a meaning of Gwang[狂, crazy]. Still, the dejection of this paragraph leads to having possibility available for being interpreted as a behavior of a person who turned own back on the world. What is important more than the identity of Gwangbu is the behavior of a wife who wrote lyrics. What stops the action of the husband who tries to cross a river or what cries bitterly to the sky after witnessing her husband's death corresponds to human nature. A problem relies upon being difficult to understand or sympathize with the action of singing with playing Gonghu[箜篌] and the act of going into the river. The explanation about this can be found in the idea of music in those days. The music, which is a mean of making a recovery into the state of harmony through restraining the expression of the excessive emotion, is closely associated with courtesy of embodying order in a relationship with others through recognizing each other's differences. What plays Gonghu and sings a song becomes the action of newly prescribing a relationship between the dead husband and oneself as well as of recovering a peace of mind. What tries to resume a relationship with others with getting over the excessive emotion directly becomes a case of Geukgibokrye[克己復禮, control oneself and recover one’s courtesy]. The last passage with saying “What shall I do for you?” must not be interpreted as a self-centered meaning dubbed “How will I live alone without you?” The last paragraph needs to be considered to be the you-ism comment dubbed “How can you live alone beyond the grave without me?” The state of Gwang, which is expressed with Pibaljeho[被髮提壺, having his hair loose and holding liquor bottle in his hand], implies to be unavailable for living independently in this real world. The wife, who regained her composure through music, comes to realize that there cannot be a person who will take care of this husband beyond the grave. The mind of being unavailable for enduring this situation, namely, Cheukeunjisim[惻隱之心, pitiful mind] and Bulinjisim[不忍之心, unbearable mind] brings about the drastic action called throwing oneself. The wife's image, which practices a will to hold on to the mind of love and sympathy for the husband to the end with recovering courtesy through controlling this as music in the wake of expressing extreme sadness enough to reproach heaven, is similar to the image of Gunja[君子] who practiced In[仁, virtue] that is Confucian's ideal type of human being. What Gongmudohaga could be steadily transmitted and recreated for a long time seems to be accredited just to this reason.