조선후기 한시에 나타난 ‘소[牛]’의 형상과 그 의미

Abstract

This article aims at clarifying the image and meaning of 'cow' appearing in Sino-Korean Poems in the late Joseon period. The cow, which appears in Sino-Korean Poems in the late Joseon period, is gradually drawn at various angles beyond the fence of farmhouse. The poems with a material of 'cow' in the previous period are dominated by the warm and stable atmosphere. However, the poems in the late Joseon period are let down with shadows of cataclysm and the suffering of cow is emphasized. While still representing the life and ideas of the Confucious agricultural society, on the one hand, it can be seen to be incorporated into the huge flow of commercial economy in the late Joseon period. In this flow, human desire has paid attention to the instrumental value of cow, and as the instrumental utility increased, the pain of cow was increased. On the other hand, as it is intertwined with the problems such as the war (戰亂), the differentiation (分化) of the class of Sadaebu (士大夫 階級) and the class of peasant(農民 階級), struggles (政爭), taxation system (稅制), slaughter (屠殺), and cattle plague (牛疫), etc., the cow has the meaning of productivity, an indicator of economic power, a symbol of justification and orientation, and the stronghold of a shaky agricultural system. The desire of humans under cow evoked the reflexive thinking of Sadaebu, and this leads to deep concerns about the breakdown of medieval agricultural society. Cows often appear as a reflection of ruined reality and as a medium to emphasize human greed. Above all, from the perspective of the image series, the character as a symbol of the agricultural society walking on the road of dismantling becomes clearer. In Sino-Korean Poems, the image change of cow is constantly responding to a string of flow, that is, the formation of the pastoral ideal in the Confucian agricultural society and gradual disintegration.