연민 이가원의 퇴계학(退溪學) 연구에 대한 소고

Abstract

Yi Kawŏn was an eminent Classical Chinese scholar of early modern Korea. He was a leading scholar of Yi T’oegye as a fourteenth-generation descendant and member of his scholarly lineage. Yi studied literature growing up, later studying his ancestor’s literary writings, particularly his poetry. He focused on T’oegye’s poems appreciating landscapes, as they were imbued with his philosophy of Heaven and Man being one. Yi also translated all the poems in T’oegye’s first edition anthologies, helping to disseminate them widely and set the groundwork for research on his poetry. In A History of Sino-Korean Literature (Hanguk hanmunhak sa), he expounded on the three categories of Classical Chinese writing (especially of his own ancestor), sijo poetry, and kasa poetry. This book confirmed T’oegye’s place in Korean literature by demonstrating how his writing encapsulated his moral philosophy as a grandmaster of the rural Neo-Confucian scholars Yi Kawŏn also traced the scholarly lineages of T’oegye’s disciples through five centuries, broadening the T’oegye school’s reach and exploring the reciprocal relationships between individual scholars. In particular, he demonstrated how the Noron faction, based on the Kiho school, found its origins in the T’oegye school as a helpful example of combining intellectual lineages. Biographies of T’oegye’s Disciples (T’oegye jeja yŏlchŏn) was an important work on the scholarship of the T’oegye school. With more biographic details on the relationship of the disciples with their master than Record of the Gentlemen Disciples of Tosan (Tosan kŭmmun chehyŏllok), it was remarkable for its in-depth analysis of their scholarship and ideologies. Yi also ranked their importance according to his own judgement. Through these scholarly endeavors, Yi Kawŏn was primarily responsible for reviving T’oegye studies in the modern day. Although his specialization in literature limited him from studying Yi T’oegye’s philosophy or Neo-Confucianism, his research allowed him to become the greatest scholar on providing a comprehensive view of the man.