17세기 유학자의 일상과 의례생활－『모당일기』를 중심으로－

Abstract

Son Cheo-nul(1553~1634) was a Confucian scholar in the Daegu area, actively in the 16th and 17th centuries. He gave up on the career in public office and spent most of his life outside the government while practicing the Neo-Confucian philosophy centered around Jujagarye. Such lifestyle is shown in the Modang Journals written from January 8, 1600, until January 1630. Accordingly, this paper tried to understand the development of Jujagarye at the time by examining the everyday life and rites of Confucian scholars in the 17th century through the Modang Journals. Son Cheo-nul began to write journals at the age of 48 in 1600, which continued until January 1630 when he turned 78. The Modang Journals were written by Cheo-nul when he was living as a scholar after giving up on public office, amid the social mood trying to establish the Neo-Confucian order while overcoming the chaos created by the Japanese Invasion. For this reason, the Modang Journals are mostly about practicing Ye based on Jujagarye while accumulating Neo-Confucian ideas. This study looked into the everyday life of Son Cheo-nul unfolded over the course of 30 years to examine the specific aspect. Types of everyday activities that appeared in the Modang Journals were summarized as rites, reading, exchange, education, livelihood, family occasion, and visiting of sick persons. The interesting point is that regular patterns appeared in these everyday activities. The first pattern was formalities, like worship and rites repeated daily or monthly. These rites were performed at fixed times. Daily reading of Neo-Confucian scriptures was also a repetitive pattern. The second pattern was repeated periodically in the course of everyday life, involving educational activities of reading with comments or preaching at a Confucian school or lecture hall, exchange activities of enjoying the arts while drinking with friends, and livelihood activities of cultivating crops and gathering fruits. These activities can be seen as the midpoint between the typical and atypical because they are repeated in the journals written for 30 years, though without a fixed schedule. The third pattern was performed non-regularly whenever issues occurred, including visiting of customs as a guest, attending wedding ceremonies, offering condolences, and visiting sick relatives and friends. The third pattern is almost atypical in that these activities were only carried out when there was a cause. As such, based on everyday life recorded in the Modang Journals, rites showed the highest frequency and intensity of patterning, followed by reading and education. This aspect can be seen as a common type of Confucian scholars in the Joseon Period. Especially, the ratio of rites in everyday life further increases by including relatively atypical events like customs, weddings, and funerals. Likewise, the ratio of academic activities is increased by adding reading with comments and preaching to the reading category. As such, the everyday life of Confucian scholars in the 17th century was centered around rites and learning, expressing their commitment to practice Jujagarye and deepen the Confucian theory. Various family rites appear in the Modang Journals, such as ancestral rites, seasonal rites, grave rites, rites for parents, and Sokjeol rites performed at solar terms. Ancestral rites took the biggest part, and Son Cheo-nul performed different kids of ancestral rites (including birthday rites) in 30 years. Thirteen of them were ancestral rites, and three were birthday rites. The ancestral rites targeted direct ancestor, maternal ancestors, and wife’s ancestors. The birthday rites targeted Son’s grandfather, father, and mother. Based on these rites, customs like non-agnatic ritual succession was continued in the 17th century instead of settling the paternal system grounded on Jujagarye. This general tendency was already shown in other journals written during the same time period. Meanwhile, paternal superiority also appeared in rites. In other words, whereas rites for the maternal family and wife’s family were limited to grandparents, father-in-law, and mother-in-law, rites for direct ancestors included the progenitor of the family (great-grandparents). This is probably because rites for the maternal family and wife’s family were ‘emotional rites’ performed due to the absence of a descendant to perform the rites while rites for direct ancestors were ‘formal rites’ carried out succeed the family lineage. In this way, Confucian scholars in the 17th century faithfully practiced Jujagarye in everyday life in pursuit of the Neo-Confucian philosophy. Rites and academic life were at the center of their everyday life. They attempted to establish social order through the practice of Jujagarye while pursuing inner devotion to the Neo-Confucian ideology. Moreover, the development of rites in the Modang Journals showed that bilineal properties and unique customs were blended in the 17th century, instead of settling down the normative principles of Jujagarye.