<天淵臺>에 표현한 退溪의 즐거움 硏究

Abstract

Yi Hwang, whose pen name is Toegye, spent his latter years in Dosan-Seowon, devoting himself to research and teaching, and composing poems about Dosan-Seowon and its landscape. Toegye’s 26 verses with five words to each line and 18 verses with seven words to each line have been passed down in his book, Dosan-Jabyeong. As Toegye stated, his works were written to document heartfelt pleasure by itself. Thus, the poems in Dosan-Jabyeong are crucial for research on essences of Toegye’s pleasure experienced by living in nature. Cheonyeondae, one of the Toegye’s poems written in Dosan-Jabyeong, is analyzed in the present study. In this poem, Toegye explored the order of nature in the beautiful scenary of Cheonyeondae, internalized it, and then recited Myeongseong three times. His recitation of Myeongseong is one of the workings of the human mind, through which the human nature can be understood. Human beings are given the human nature by the heavens, and it works to accomplish the perfection of the moral self and to form a ideal society. The human nature, however, sometimes becomes blind with avarice and darkened by greed. It is through the workings of the mind that people are aware of the darkened mind and regain the brightened one. Through the workings of the mind, human beings can achieve an integration of the heavens and the man, which is the coincidence of the order of nature and the human nature. Myeongseong, which enables people to attain an integration of the heavens and the man, leads to Toegye’s heartfelt pleasure by itself. Myeongseong is one of the workings of the human mind for the perfection of the moral self and for the formation of an ideal society. Thus, the pleasure expressed in Cheonyeondae is to regain the human nature by feeling a sense of oneness with the order of nature through learning and discipline.