Naming in Korean Wonlim : Poetic Aesthetics and Spatial Metaphor

Abstract

(Background and Purpose) The act of naming things by human beings is a way of expressing their mental essence. People giving names to buildings in the past is also in this context. In particular, in traditional Korean architecture, Wonlim is an area where the act of naming appeared most prominently. In building a Wonlim, scholars gave names to architectural spaces, natural elements, and many other objects with implicit meanings and wrote many poems corresponding to individual names. The architectural intentions and philosophical thoughts of the time were expressed as poetry, and passed down to the later generations as a form of poetry. Therefore, the process of understanding the meaning of these poems can clarify the significance of naming done in Wonlim. Also, the implicit meaning of the spaces metaphorically revealed by poetic aesthetics expressed through naming will be analyzed. (Method) For this study, previous studies and literature regarding Wonlim were studied, and data on naming were collected. Since scholars in the past wrote poetry in Chinese characters instead of Hangeul (own Korean language), the poetry has been translated into Korean and English by referring to many pieces of literatures to understand the meanings. By conducting many field surveys between 2017 and 2020, the poetry was compared and identified with actually existing things. Through this process, the names of the buildings, natural objects, and things that constitute the Wonlim were examined and the meanings of the spatial metaphors of the names were analyzed. In addition, many poems written using the names as themes were examined to review the effects of the meanings metaphorically expressed by the names on the poetic emotions of the scholars. (Results) Through this process, the following results were derived. First, numerous names born by 'naming' became the poetry themes by scholars and created various poetic aesthetics. The act of naming things in nature and writing poetry infused vital power to the things and became the starting point of construction of the poetic world of scholars. Second, the names given to spaces and things in Wonlim imply the meanings of spatial metaphors. The meanings are communicated to us as poems and interpreted as poems. We in modern times can understand the architectural intentions behind the formation of Wonlim through the poems and are helped by the poems in understanding the philosophical meanings contained in the spaces. (Conclusions) As such, Interpreting poems related to space is to understand the metaphors, symbols, and mental backgrounds of the names given, and it is more valuable than understanding the physical structure of the Wonlim. In addition, their act of naming and the poetic aesthetics revealed due to the act enables the representation of the architectural significance of Wonlim in Korea.