華夷觀과 ‘중국의식’의 시각에서 본 ≪水滸傳≫

Abstract

Using the 120-chapter edition Water Margin as the main research object, this paper studied the ‘Perspectives of Chinese and Barbarian’ and ‘China consciousness’ shown in Water Margin, and examined the characteristics of the text and the contexts of forming it. The traditional idea of Chinese and Barbarian including the Chinese order of the all-under-the-heaven system is revealed in Water Margin, but ‘China consciousness’ of the nationalistic features as a ‘nation’ is more clearly emphasized. The Song Jiang group described as loyal heroes can also be a result to reflect contemporary context in several layers in the long process that the relevant stories were created and novelized. The country’s safety was dangerous in the late Northern Song Dynasty itself, the background of the story. The Southern Song Dynasty that Shuihu’s heroic tale began to be in fashion was the period right after the ruin of the Northern Song Dynasty by the Jin Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty, when Shuihu hero-related plays were prevalent, was ruled by Mongolia. The period that it was created as the novel was around the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty which was overflowing with the anti-Yuan feeling. In the late Ming Dynasty that it began to be in fashion as the novel, when nationalistic sentiment was rising again due to the invasion of Japanese pirates, the rise of the Manchus, and furthermore the invasion of the ‘Western barbarians’. In the context which can be a perceptual change in the civilization map from ‘the all-under-the-heaven system’ to ‘a nation’ like this, the story of Song Jiang group had difficulties in escaping from the framework of the nationalistic idea to be again born and widely welcomed as a hero in the novel, and on the contrary, such appearance was more required. ‘Loyalty’ of ‘defense of the fatherland’ was put up as the primary value in Water Margin as a natural consequence. In addition, the point that they became the greatest hero that ever lived in the tragic ending and the value of loyalty and righteousness which is paradoxically more emphasized through this tragic also can be regarded products in this framework after all. Like this, Water Margin is in a pivotal position in terms of Chinese nationalistic hero narratives and made a considerable contribution to expansive reproduction of the Chinese nationalistic feeling as it was in fashion as very popular reading. And the meanings and values of the Song Jiang group’s tragic which could not be sublimated into the more universal level leave somewhat to be desired, but this should be seen as the basic limit resulting from the story of Water Margin and the historical context of forming it.