龜峯 宋翼弼의 修養論 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review Gubong(龜峰) Song Ik-pil(宋翼弼)'s Self-Cultivation Theory. This paper examines how he who lived a miserable life overcame his agony and breakdown in life and established his own field of study and how he self-cultivated himself in order not to lose his attitude as a true scholar. For this purpose, the paper first looked into Confucianism's idealism and traditional view of scholars and reviewed the Chosun Dynasty scholars' discussion about what it means to be a true scholar(眞儒). Moreover, by exploring Gubong himself's own efforts to overcome unfortunate family history and real frustration he suffered, the paper presents scholar's attitude towards realistic hardship and internal sublimation process. Gubong strived to stay calm internally by sublimating his own situation he suffered due to irrational status system and unfair etiquette system by sublimating his poems and thereby reaching internal peace through refined language. In this respect, how etiquette system became an important part of his studies may have been one of the solutions for solving social and systemic contradictions that he experienced in his miserable life. Furthermore, in a situation where 'governing people'(治人) from 'governing people through self-cultivation'(修己治人), which is the ideal (理想) of Confucianism(儒學) and final goal of scholar's study, is fundamentally blocked, the options that Gubong can choose from was very restricted. The only option Gubong had was to prepare a stable space for self-cultivation by living in seclusion and through this, he practiced self-cultivation of no desire(無慾) and quietness(主靜) and tried to stay content about life(知足).