전통적 개념으로서의 놀이와 놀이성에 대한 고찰－戱, 玩, 遊의 의미 분석을 중심으로－

Abstract

The idea that working and playing are opposed to each other has been around for some time and we have associated working with achievement or success and playing with laziness or failure. This view can be seen in our daily lives. For example, we often hear that we should keep studying without playing. Also, we tell those who can’t find a job that they should not waste their time. However, we need to consider these questions; “For what purpose do we have to work?” and “Is playing just bad?”A number of scholars and activists since ancient Greece have sought the answers about what playing regarded as the leisure for our mind and body specifically means to us and what its characters are. The philosopher Heraclitus, for instance, described the creation of the universe as playing chess by children. Nietzsche criticized the idea that playing has metaphysical and moral value, interested in non-purposive, noncausal and immoral characteristics of playing. Huizinga found that the civilization had been developed with playing in his book titled ‘Homo Ludens” and Caillois tried grouping playing in his book titled ’play and human’. Chuang-tzu(莊子) also made it clear that we could find transcendent view of the world and that we could free ourselves from restraints through playing In his book ‘逍遙遊’. These thoughts and attitudes towards playing can be seen different depending on the situations, but they tell us how important element playing is in our lives. Despite a lot of efforts to find the properties of playing, no one can exactly say what they are. Especially, the discussions on the properties of conventional playing are insignificant among Korea, China and Japan. On the issue of playing, I tried to find typical properties of playing through the meaning of a Chinese character. I tried to find the properties of playing by studying the number of strokes of Chinese characters xì(戱), wán(玩), yóu(遊) meaning playing. In this case, I found out that each stroke 戈, 玉, 辵 from the characters 戱, 玩, 遊 in turn was the clue to finding the properties of playing. That is to say, the relational, creative, and empirical characteristics were shown from the strokes gē(戈), yù(玉), chuò(辵), which can be regarded as the core properties of playing as a conventional concept. On the basis of these concepts, I realized that the properties shown in the conventional concepts correspond with the value current education system is seeking. I want this study to help correct a mistake about playing and to be the chance to recover true playing culture.