명대 유교주의와 《청평산당화본》 속 역사인물 관계 고찰

Abstract

This paper selects works that deal with historical figures among the works published by 洪楩 in China‘s first collection of literary novels published by him during the 嘉靖 of the Ming Dynasty period, and then analyzes that each character and theme in them is closely related to Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty. In this paper, the class of “紳”, which can be assumed to be the main readership of the time, including 洪楩 who published the novel, is the center of the establishment of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty, so it can be said that the publication and dissemination of novels were also centered on them. Most of the works covered in this paper are presumed to have been created during the Song and Yuan period, and the characters and plot lines that appear are also set in pre-Ming Dynasty history. However, it can be found that the theme consciousness and characters of these works, edited and published during the Ming Dynasty, work as a medium to further ideologize and enhance “Confucianism” and “Sinocentrism” to be faithful to the historical situation of the Ming Dynasty. The group called ‘gentry’ in the Ming Dynasty was the core class that solidified ‘Confucianism’. Confucianism can be said to be the ideological framework that was rebuilt from the Ming emperors to the Han Chinese Confucian scholars in order to overcome the trauma of the Mongol rule, the previous dynasty. The ‘Confucianism’ that I refer to in this paper refers to the neo-Confucianism compiled by Zhu Xi. The Ming Dynasty strengthened its identity as a ‘Han Chinese’ in the process of blocking invasions by external enemies such as the Mongols and Japanese pirates. In the process, it can be said that ‘gentry’ became a core class that simultaneously transmitted the centripetal and centrifugal forces of ‘Confucianism’ in Ming Dynasty society. As a specific example, we were able to find that the historical characters included in the 《淸平山堂話本》 are all people who symbolize the ideologies of “filial piety,” “loyalty,” and “trust,” and that they are people who embrace the psychology of Confucian scholars who “did not meet the talent” as well as successful people in the civil service examination system. 《淸平山堂話本》 is a collection of short stories aimed at readers published in the Ming Dynasty. In other words, it has the characteristics of a collection of short stories that have been passed down through folk tales from the past in the form of oral narration, and that are interesting, reflect the social conditions well, and can also encompass moral themes. ‘Interesting’ represents the literary characteristics of a novel, ‘social conditions’ refers to the original role of a novel as a mirror of the times, and ‘instructive’ means that it must satisfy the moral standards and education of the ‘gentry’ group, which can be called the reading class of the nobility. The framework of the works discussed in this paper is mostly presumed to be from before the Ming Dynasty, but due to the special nature of the ‘話本’, which is the storytellers’ original text, it is presumed that the stories included in the 《淸平山堂話本》 underwent large and small textual changes before being published by the editor ‘HongPian’ in the Ming Dynasty. Among the 27 works that remain today, many of the historical figures are from the Han Dynasty, and I believe this is because there are many historical similarities between Liu Bang, who founded the Han Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang, who founded the Ming Dynasty. Among the 27 existing works included in the 《淸平山堂話本》, the works that deal with historical figures as their main subjects can be largely divided into two categories. The first is works that present exemplary figures of virtues such as “filial piety,” “loyalty,” and “trust” as their main characters in order to further solidify “Confucianism.” The second is works that reinforce Han-centered nationalism, symbolized by “Sinocentrism.” The special significance of these works can be found in the fact that the literary function of novels during the Ming Dynasty was to guide the moral ideas of not only the main readership of the “gentry” but also the general public, and even to take charge of historical education.