해주 남붕의 생애와 퇴계학의 계승

Abstract

Haeju Nam Bung(1870~1933) left his records of daily life for approximately 50 years from the age of 17 to the day of his death. He started his study in Chinese classics under his grandfather Nam Hyo-dal at the age of seven and devoted his entire life to the reading of Confucian classics and works of Zhu Xi and Toigye. He lived in a period characterized by new sciences whose flood was taking over the nation, the Japanese ruling that put the nation in modern turbulence, and the sharp conflicts between the old and the new and the radical clashes between different values. Trying to resist this period, he set up "Confucian Corporation" to promote the laws of Confucianism and dreamed of a life of ethics and morality to elude the ignorance of animals and barbarians. This study set out to understand his academic world based on his respect, worship, and inheritance of Toigye Lee Hwang among his diverse aspects recorded in his Haejuilrok. His inheritance of Toigye studies was examined in three aspects: first, his did Wanmi of Toigye's works. He approached various texts in Toigyejip in three aspects of ① learning, ② example of sentence creation, and ③ methods of governing the world and their practice. Second, he wrote Woondojeongeumjuhae, whose title was a combination of 'Woon' from Zhu Xi's(1130~1200) pen name Woongoksanin and 'Do' from Toigye's pen name Do-ong. This work contains his annotations and epilogues of Zhu Xi's Chinese poems of 53 Jes and 93 Sus and Toigye's Chinese poems of 78 Jes and 178 Sus. Finally, Nam Bung imitated Toigye's style of writing. He copies 91 Sus of Toigye's poetry about the Japanese apricot flowers in his Maehwasicheop over and over again out of his admiration for Toigye. By copying and writing after Toigye's handwriting, he tried to immerse himself in the noble form of Japanese apricot flowers and resemble Toigye's character and level of poetry creation. Nam Bung learned and wrote about Toigye's views of life and the universe established based on Neo-Confucianism and his world of literature and truth represented in Maehwasicheop, being absorbed into the "Ihak world of pure good" where everything derived from Yi and was thus good[發於理而無不善]. The ultimate goal of his life was to worship and respect sages, rise in studies, and evade ending up as a Soin. He committed himself to Wigijihak through the practical performance of Jonsim and Hamyang. He tried to live with no shame for the Heaven and Earth through the life of Sugi, Dokhak, Jonseong, and Heunghak sought after by classical scholars in Joseon.