<전우치전>의 奪財 양상과 의미

Abstract

This study begins with attention on the aspect of seizing among several incidents caused by Taoist magic from the protagonist Jeon Woo-chi in the classic novel Jeon Woo-chi Jeon. For this purpose, I first investigated the cause of the seizing through the social appearance of the middle and late Chosun Dynasty, the background of the classic novel Jeon Woo-chi Jeon, the living space of the actual person Jeon Woo-chi. In Chosun, which was no different than ruins after Im Byung Yang Ran, the decrease in crop harvests led to a decrease in the amount of tax, causing a crisis in national finance. The ruling class's lack of discipline and corruption caused many social problems. They were busy fattening their stomachs by suffocating people who had a hard living and taking their wealth. In addition, in the late Chosun Dynasty, the market economy was induced, financially ruined noblemen increased and there were frequent stories of common people who were refused business raising their identity by receiving official proclamations. This led to a more serious collapse in the identity order, and in this process, taking assets was a crime and at the same time became a means for survival. Next, I analyzed Jeon Woo-chi Jeon and investigated the detailed appearance of seizing in this novel. Jeon Woo-chi, who had enormous power by eating Hojung(fox’s spirit) and using Taoist magic, was not excluded from the taking of wealth in several incidents which is striking. The process by which Jeon Woo-chi intoxicates the fox using Hojung and Chunseo is a kind of seizure, and taking the golden beam by deceiving the king or helping the poor using scrolls can be considered seizing Hojo's assets through Kojigi. Conversely, it is not seizing based on Jeon Woo-chi, but management appearance of seizing common people and the appearance of a thief which is a country problem also displays the aspect of seizing. Through this taking of assets, Jeon Woo-chi's appearance of resisting the ruling class or helping the lives of common people is shown. Finally, I investigated the meaning of seizing shown in Jeon Woo-chi Jeon. The artistic work aspect of Jeon Woo-chi Jeon is shown. It is different from the general composition of classical novels by the so-called illustrative editorial composition of accepting the odd narratives of the real figure Jun-Woo Chi and making them novels. The appearance of middle to late Chosun Dynasty society where the ruling class is shaken and the identity system is collapsed due to inducement of the market economy can be seen in the tale of the odd real character Jeon Woo-chi and according to need, is expanded and adapted into a novel. Here, the strong wishes of common people in those days is supplemented, giving birth to an entirely different hero appearance than those in existing hero novels. The protagonist Jeon Woo-chi Jeon is a different noble hero since birth who is not a perfect individual hero, he is a hero without absolute power who fights for common people's relief. His birth was normal, no different than any other person, but he obtained unique capabilities through Hojung and Chunseo, and consequently, this has led to the life of a friendly, but clumsy, hero. This is a work that more sharply shows social problems and more fervent wishes of the common people through the somewhat odd protagonist who is close to the common people and who the common people want, rather than realization of a perfect hero who has resistance consciousness over the ruling class or who provides relief to these weak people.