조선 국왕의 곤충 인식 고찰

Abstract

This article examines the general perceptions of insects as well as the perceptions of individual insects such as butterflies and bees, crickets and cicadas, flies and mosquitoes, and bookwormsi n the writings of the king of the Joseon Dynasty. Insects most often seen were butterflies and bees. Butterflies and bees are depicted as beings who announce spring and diligently raise their young. However, they showed a perception that humans value work and downplay play, saying that it is a waste of time to enjoy. Crickets were described as being that signaled the season and were perceived as negative beings transitioning from warm to cold seasons, but cicadas were also praised for their appearance in autumn. Sukjong and Yeongjo wrote about flies and mosquitoes, and Yeongjo wrote many articles, especially about them. Most of them are written as annoying beings, but Yeongjo's old age writings describe them as welcome beings that come, making one feel how desperate the isolation of human beings is. For the king of the Joseon Dynasty, insects were communicated with the five senses in real life, so they could grasp the difference between the content and the actuality of the previous article, and some raised questions when they were different from the previous article. However, it did not reach the stage of correcting the wrong biography.