『삼강행실도』의 폭력성 재고 -열녀편을 중심으로-

Abstract

Samganghaengsildo is a literature that praises basic Confucian morals such as royalty, filial piety and women's devotion. Samganghaengsildo contains many episodes related to royalty, filial piety and devotion, which are characterized as irrationality and cruelty. The distribution of Samganghaengsildo led to trends of following such episodes contained in the literature. Since firstly issued in the period of King Sejong, the literature had been distributed to the public throughout the whole period of Choseon, though changed in form. The Choseon regime tried to distribute the literature in great quantities over a long time. Such morals urged by Samganghaengsildo as royalty, filial piety and devotion are principles that force people in low social position to unilaterally serve those in high social position. Under the name of Confucian principles, the literature is the very means of violence to the weak. The Choseon regime actively recommended such trends and in this sense, Samganghaengsildo was ethical violence to the weak. However, it remains unclear yet what the self-violence of faithful women means. It's not enough to explain the meaning of faithful women's suicide and self-injury as a result of forcible indoctrination education for women's devotion. This study was designed to re-considerate such general explanation of women's self-violence in general feminist opinion. In this paper, analysis of 110 faithful women's narratives shows that self-violence of faithful women in upper class was an inevitable choice to keep their honor, not only their purity, and self-violence for their honor was a symbol of ethical authority.