정자(亭子) 문화에 관한 철학적 시탐(試探)

Abstract

This paper examines the culture of the pavilion and scenic pavilion from a philosophical perspective. In the past, literati in the East wanted to enjoy a life with nature through pavilions. The letter ‘jeong (亭)’ in the pavilion has the meaning of ‘staying and resting (停)’. If the reason for ‘staying and resting’ is clarified at the philosophical level, it contains the philosophical meaning of ‘being negative once’ in the process of changing nature, ‘being negative once and becoming positive once.’ In addition, the pavilion, located in an open natural space, is understood to vomit and inhale the energy that runs in nature in terms of ‘holding empty things’. Accordingly, the pavilion is meaningful as a building that learns the vitality and motility of nature. In this regard, the pavilion was intended to be built by selecting a place where it is possible to climb a high place and look at a far place with the back of the mountain and the space where the water is in front of it. The purpose of building the pavilion is very diverse, and it is worth paying attention to the pavilion culture built at the private level rather than the pavilion in the form of a public pavilion built for the purpose of resting the mind and body tired of political affairs. This is because such a private pavilion contains the worldview that the literary aimed at. The pavilion culture at the private level contains the reason for pursuing pleasure through a natural life. Specifically, in terms of comparing it to human morality, it contains a life that is friendly to nature, symbolized by Confucius’ loving mountains and liking water. In addition, it contains the joy of coming back from bathing and singing at the Yi water’s edge, which Zengdian said, and the pursuit of a clear and clean life, reading a poem in the blowing wind and teasing the moon, which Zhōu Dūnyí recited. Sometimes there was a feeling of returning to the countryside after abandoning his government post, a life aimed at saving the world by retiring his body after retirement, and a reason for pursuing a necessary life. In this regard, the core of the pavilion culture pursued by the literati was the reason that the name and reality were superior in comparison to human morality, that is, the virtue of the person who built the pavilion through the pavilion. This is the reason why pavilion shows everything about the human being. Among the various reasons contained in the pavilion culture, the most important was the so-called ‘empty mind’ of emptying things such as secular power, honor, and wealth by ministrying the body and mind. In this respect, the pavilion has a unique status in Eastern literary culture. As seen above, the pavilion that appeared in the literature culture of the east was regarded as a ‘humanities-level building’ or a ‘philosophical-level building’ containing the philosophy and aesthetics of the literati, away from the simple natural space.