修巖 柳袗의 「임자록」 硏究

Abstract

This paper studies the motivation behind the writing of the Imjarok and its narrative style. Sooam(修巖) Ryu Jin(柳袗) wrote the Imjinrok(임진록), a record of his experience during the Japanese Invasions of Korea(1592-1598). The Imjarok(임자록) is a record of his imprisonment after he was implicated in the rebellion of Kim Jik-jae(金直哉의 逆獄). I believe that both were written in 1634, during the latter part of his life. Imjarok exists in both a Chinese and a Korean version; the Chinese version is called Imjailrok(壬子日錄). The Imjinrok exists only in a Korean version, although some scholars suspect that a Chinese version may exist. For the purposes of this paper, only the extant Korean version could be examined. Ryu Jin wrote the Imjarok to tell of the sorrow in his life. He used the word “sorrow”(서러움) to express his guilt concerning his father and brother, to express his outrage when imprisoned and his contrition. He intended for his family to truly understand his sorrow and take it to heart as a moral instruction. And in the Imjarok he explained that his imprisonment was unjust. I believe these were reason that he wrote Imjarok. Dialogues and descriptive passages are the most distinctive features of Imjarok. Ryu Jin used dialogues to make sense of reality and to control the tempo of the narration; furthermore, this technique is more interesting than straight reportage. The detailed description reflects the situation at that time and effectively conveyed the author’s emotion to the readers. It also gave the story an appropriately dramatic ending.