朝鮮後期 漢文小說 『劍女』를 통해 본 韓ㆍ中 女俠의 세계

Abstract

In Joseon Dynasty, which was established on the Confucian feudal patriarchal system, women’s life were in poor surroundings. An Seok-Kyung’s short novel, “Gum-Nye”, published at the late of Joseon Dynasty, showed a main female character having highly skilled martial arts and courage avenged her master’s murder, got a suitable match for her own and left after disappointment with him. She was a rare brave against the governing social system. Meanwhile in Chinese literature, appearances of female chivalry were more often from former times. First female chivalry was “Yue-Nu” who touched King of “Yue” with good art of sword and trained his army. Thereafter there were female chivalries like “Nie Yin niang”, “Hong Xian” of Tang Dynasty’s novels and “Xia Nu”, “Shang San Guan” in “Liao Zhai Zhi Yi” of Qing Dynasty’s mysterious novel. This article inquires into female chivalries’ character and attitude toward life at that time with comparing the images of them depicted in Korean and Chinese classical literature. They were all having excellent martial art skills, talents and virtues. They helped the poor, punished covetous officials and established the social order by vengeance. In addition, they had independent and leading attitude against conventional and traditional values in the areas of marriage and housekeeping. They were treated as heresy by traditional standard that marriage and family are main goal of their lives, by choosing husband by themselves and not clinging to marriage and household themselves.