17, 18세기 韓中 鬼神·妖怪談의 逸脫과 欲望

Abstract

This study examined deviation and desire in the ghost and apparition tales of Chosun and China in the 17th and 18th century from the perspective of comparative cultural history. Cheonyerok and Haksanhaneon of Chosun demonstrate infinite interest in surrealistic beings but tended to emphasize the rational and logical explanations of ghosts and apparitions due to the rigid Sung-Confucian ideology of the times while telling ghost and apparition tales. In Chosun, while ghosts and apparitions were negative surrealistic beings, mountain wizards placed between god and ghost held positive significance among literary figures even though their implications were the denial of reality and desire for transcendence. Shin Don-bok, in particular, was devoted to the Taoist ideology, and his Haksanhaneon was in line with such devotion of his. He found criticism of reality and desire for deviation, which could not be expressed openly, in mountain wizard tales. Unlike Chosun's ghost and apparition tales that were told in a compromising way with social ideology, Jabuleo and Yojaejii of Ming and Qing Dynasty are full of free imagination. They exhibit the dominant human nature and attitude of highlighting sexual desire in those days, criticizing and satirizing the irrational reality with all kinds of unrealistic materials including ghosts, apparitions, mountain wizards, and foxes. They were especially unhesitant about expressing a bizarre taste such as corpse and body damage, which was the product of imagination breaking down the daily norms and social institutions. The most fundamental reason behind such differences in ghost and apparition tales between Chosun and China in the 17th and 18th century derives from different subjects of creation. While Im Bang and Shin Don-bok of Chosun belonged to the Noron society and the mainstream of the times, Won Mae and Po Song-ryeong of China did not belong to the mainstream even though they were literary figures. Their values and ideological orientations were very flexible and free. In addition, the period background of Ming and Qing Dynasty that emphasized the free emotions of man also contributed to the free imagination in Yojaejii and Jabuleo.