[구운몽]의 제목에 대하여

Abstract

On the Ku unmong Yi Chae(1680∼1746), after declaring Kim Manjung(1637∼1692) to have authored the book Ku unmong, remarked that it contained much of the spirit of Sao of the Chu kingdom(楚騷), a comment which deserves some attention. The fact that the hero is a man of Chu is curiously emphasized throughout the novel. Moreover, in his travel throughout China, he follows the pattern of mystical journeys in Chu and Han literature: Qu Yuan's Lisao, Yuanyou(“Far off journey") and the Daren fu(“Fu of the Great Man”) by Sima Xiangru(179-117 B.C). This sheds some light on the meaning of the title: Yunmeng(K. Unmong) was a location in the Chu kingdom that appears frequently in this literature. In Sima Xiangru's Fu of Zixu it has even been linked with the number nine when one of the characters of this book derides the Chu envoy's boasts about the wide hunting grounds in the Yunmeng area, saying that his own kingdom could easily swallow a kingdom eight or nine times the size of Yunmeng. In Chinese tradition, Sima Xiangru's poems were reputed to satirize the emperor. However, there has been no documentary evidence attesting to the fact that Ku unmong was ever intended, understood or, still less, used in that way. More likely, to Kim Manjung, a person well aware of traditional interpretations, such literary parallels and allusions were just a means of pleasing himself by suggesting his feelings about the king's behavior.