조선 후기 送痘神文의 창작 양상

Abstract

I noted the continuous creation of the Songdusinmun in the late Joseon Dynasty. So this paper is aimed to examine the background and contents of the Songdusinmun and the meaning of the creation of the Songdusinmun. Smallpox was a fear disease that claimed many lives during the Joseon Dynasty. As a result, the practice of serving a god of smallpox was widespread in the private sector. Not only among the general public, but also among the family members of the nobility and the royal family, the shamanic ritual was held to serve the god of smallpox. As shaman rituals to worship the god of smallpox became popular, ‘smallpox’, which was not the main theme of the poem, became a theme of the poem. Lee Hyun-suk’s “Seongduga” is the first literary expression of the sacredness of smallpox. Lee Hyeon-seok wrote “Seongduga” to celebrate King Sukjong’s recovery from illness. Lee Hyeon-seok praised smallpox in his work. Lee Hyun-seok’s “Seongduga” had a direct and indirect influence on the creation of the Songdusinmun. During the Joseon Dynasty, Confucian scholars criticized the shaman rituals to worship the god of smallpox. But in the absence of a sure cure for smallpox, it was hard to deny the existence of the god of smallpox. The Songdusinmun is the literary style that emerged from this contradiction. Writers of the Joseon Dynasty tried to reasonably explain the mystical forces of the god of smallpox through the Songdusinmun. For example, Chae Ji-hong identifed the god of smallpox as “the energy of yin and yang that goes back and forth”. Kang Pil-sin identified the god of smallpox as the ghost who cannot receive ancestral rites. Most other writers believed that there was the god to be incharge of smallpox, because smallpox’ symptoms were carried out regularly. Although they differed from the perspective of seeing the god of smallpox, they generally acknowledged the mystical forcesr of the god of smallpox, and argued that the way to properly worship the god of smallpox was to send the god off by making poems, not by the shamanic style. The Songdusinmun, which was created against this backdrop, consists of three stages: the beginning, the development, and the ending. The opening part describes the existence of the god of smallpox, the development part describes the progress of smallpox, and the ending part sends the god of smallpox off. As smallpox’s smooth progress is the key reason for the worship the god of smallpox, most the Songdusinmun beautifully depict the regular progress of the disease. On the other hand, the style of the Songdusinmun transformed into literature to reveal writer’s philosophy of life. From the current point of view, it can be considered unreasonable for writers of the Joseon Dynasty to lean on the god of smallpox and pray for their blessings. However, considering the background of the emergence of the Songdusinmun and its contents, the continuous creation of the Songdusinmun cannot be dismissed as unreasonable acts. The creation of the Songdusinmun was part of the efforts of writers in the Joseon Dynasty to explain the epidemic with their own logic and overcome the fear of smallpox.