琉球의 憂國志士 林世功의 삶과 사상

Abstract

Yim Se-gong(林世功) is a patriot of Ryukyu, who died with his country's death. At that time, he was only 39 years old. He was from Kume Village(久米村), the mecca of Confucianism, and was a state scholarship student in Shuri(首里), which can be said to be Sungkyunkwan in Ryukyu. In 1865, at the age of 25, he was accepted as a government student(官生), and in September 1869, he entered the Gukjagam of Beijing, where he returned home after completing mathematics in 1873. He was the best scholar in the Ryukyu. At that time, he was only 34 years old. However, his fate was gradually ending. In August 1875, Japan's Meiji government banned the dispatch of envoys to Qing. Therefore, 1876 was the year of vacuum, but no vacuum ship could be dispatched. On the other hand, the party of Chae Dae-jeong(蔡大鼎), including Yim Se-gong, fled to China to avoid the eyes of Japanese guards and carried out national salvation activities against the Qing government. He spent three years in Fuzhou, China, and more than a year in Beijing, but failed to achieve any results. Rather, in 1879, he heard the news of the ‘Ryukyu disposition’(琉球處分), and in 1880 he heard that the ‘Japan and China Agree on the Ryukyu Issue’. And Yim Se-gong then made a self-determination in Beijing in protest. He was only 39 years old. According to the footprints of Yim Se-gong's activities and poetry, He died with the death of his country because of his loyalty as a scholar. In addition, he clearly expressed this point in the poem which he left when he died. In other words, all he wanted while giving his life was to preserve Sajik(社稷). And his poem ‘I got a letter from my parents in Beijing’ and ‘Leaving this world’ are filled with heartbreaking feelings and affection for parents and brothers.