許筠의 陽明左派 수용에 대한 再論 -『乙丙朝天錄』을 중심으로-

Abstract

This study set out to investigate whether and when Heo Gyun accepted the Left Wing of Yang-ming School with a focus on his last collection of poems Eulbyeongjocheonrok(乙丙朝天錄). The major findings of the study were as follows:first, there is a record saying that he committed adultery with a Gisaeng during the mourning period of his deceased mother. It is not a fact but a slander created by his political opponent Lee Hong-ro(李弘老). Even though Heo refused to follow the hypocritical teachings about courtesy, he did respect courtesy itself as a system of revealing man's moral emotions. Second, he read the works of Lee Ji(李贄), a thinker in the Left Wing of Yang-ming School, before 1608 when he went into retirement in Buan and supported his ideas and literature. During his retirement years in Buan when he became familiar with the ideas of Lee Ji, he created an intense collection of works characterized by individual thinking and unconventional forms such as Hominron(豪民論) and Namgungseonsaengjeon (南宮先生傳). Third, Lee Sik wrote that Heo was a literary figure in the Left Wing of Yang-ming School and the author of Hong Gil-Dong Jeon(洪吉童傳), which was based on the facts he witnessed himself. He had exchanges with Heo during his retirement years in Buan. Since he witnessed first-hand the words and acts of Heo when his consciousness underwent rapid changes under the influence of Lee Ji, he was able to leave records not found in the books of others. Fourth, Heo supported the reform literature of the Left Wing of Yang-ming School instead of the classical literature of Jeonhuchilja(前後七子). His literature went through three major changes. The period of his admiration for the classical literature was limited to his younger years when he learned poetry from Lee Dal(李達) and Heo Bong(許篈). The literature he was oriented toward since he became 40 years old was closer to the literature of the Gongan School influenced by the Left Wing of Yang-ming School. Finally, he denied the Taegeuk(太極) theory of Confucianism and found the origin of the world in the truth of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu and Buddhism beyond Taegeuk and Hyeonggi. He sought after a world where there were no boundaries between saints and common people, between Confucianism and the ideology of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu and Buddhism, and between China and the barbarians. In short, Heo Gyun was a revolutionary literary figure that pursued truthful and original literature after giving up his life as a low clown following the dead, saints, Confucianism, and China.