金聖嘆의 『水滸傳』 비평 (9)

Abstract

This study examined the criticism by Jinshengtan on the 58th to 70th episodes of Water Margin largely with focus on three aspects. The first focus was the criticism on characters and adaptation phase to this end. Jinshengtan criticized the characters in Water Margin on the basis of the historical writing method in Spring and Autumn Annals and Historical Records and attempted the adaptation to express the characters’ personalities more clearly depending on cases. Second, this study focused on identifying and materializing the aesthetics of narrative plot. Jinshengtan attempted the delicate criticism on the plotting method which creates the characters’ personalities and dynamic flow only by arranging episodes. He also eliminated or added substantial parts. The concept of ‘sentence rules’ adopted by Jinshengtan includes the overall structure in terms of the expression. The next focus was to examine the reading method identifying the significance of a small insignificant part at the big picture of narrative and writing method using the colloquial style of the lower class and literary style of the upper class as well as mixing citation and creation. Jinshengtan was in the heart of history of novels in the East Asia in the mid-17th century. He was the story lover, critic, author and publisher. He crossed the internal world of novels and reality. He was at both sides of a novel. This study presented the analysis results on the diverse aspects of Jinshengtan related to the novels with focus on the last 13 episodes of Water Margin which comprised 70 episodes.