謫降 모티프를 통해 본 <關東別曲>의 주제

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to interpret clearly the theme of Gwandong-byeolgok written by Jeong Cheol, a famous writer of Korean classical poems. By now some opinions on it have been presented by some critics; ones analyzed the writer's political senses, an others read his desire to be free man from all the affairs of human society, and the others insisted that the two conflicting mental activity revealed his inner conflict as one of human beings. However, they had not concerned the fact that the work was based on the motif that a Taoist hermit with super-natural powers descended to this world for his redemption and return to the Heaven, the motif was used as a literary device or convention by bureaucrat-writers (including Confucians) who were exiled or relegated from the political capital to side areas of the country, outer of the boundary gates. Using it, the writer presented that he, as a deputy of the King, domesticated the Gangwon Province successfully. So all the nature and societies in the world of the work were represented purely, lightly, and beautifully. So the device could be the very effective device to signify that he was making a royal tour, and that completed its goal successfully. According to this interpretation, that the writer described himself as a figure of Taoist hermit who exiled from the Heaven means not revealing his inner desire to be free man from human societies, but being the very man to make a royal tour through the province and to domesticate the nature and societies of the province.