산수미 구성: 청량산에서 금강산으로

Abstract

The transition of Jeong Seon from an ordinary painter of Mt. Geumgang to a nationally renowned artist became the initial stimulus for this paper. He was also viewed as an epitomized painter of the true-view landscape painting. By tracing the meaning of an appreciable landscape, the paper essentially examines the context of how particular natural beauty is constructed and the effects of such construction. Mt. Geumgang was regarded as the ideal place for sightseeing with its unparalleled scenery since the end of Goryeo, and its reputation as a Buddhist shrine also spread to the neighboring countries. However it was not as recognized as before in the latter half of the 16th century. During this time, it was actually a small mountain located in the Andong area called Mt. Cheongryang that gained nationwide acclaim amongst the intellects. One of the chief reasons why Mt. Cheongryang received such significant attention was due to The record of Mt. Cheongryang sightseeing written in 1544 by Ju se-bung. The primary intention of the record was to highlight Mt. Cheongryang, which was unappreciated for a thousand years, as a remarkable landscape that gave birth to several notable Neo-Confucianists. For this reason, Ju se-bung revised certain place names of the mountain to present it as a sacred mountain of Neo-Confucianism. So then, could the new reflection of the beauty of Mt. Geumgang as the most important topic of literature and art be examined in the context of constructing landscape beauty? Gim Chang-heup, who took lead in the progressive academic traditions and literature of late 17th and early 18th century Seoul, claimed that “great poetry comes from great mountains,” implicating that one had to personally explore the nature and perceive the true landscape in order to achieve poetic inspiration. Since the most noted mountain to him was Mt. Geumgang, his statement evinced that outstanding poetry had to come from that mountain. However, the passing points for the sightseeing of Mt. Geumgang in Gyeonggi and Gangwon Province were interestingly an economic base of Gim family’s property. For this reason, Gim Chang-heup was able to visit Mt. Geumgang seven times and accentuate his illuminating realization of the true qualities of Mt. Geumgang in his poems. Yet it was not easy to visit Mt. Geumgang that many times, much less vividly remember the landscape features and create poetry and prose that depicts the scenery. The followers of Gim Chang-heup must have needed the drawing by Jeong Seon to produce picturesque poetry. The sightseeing of Mt. Geumgang that was granted a new meaning by Gim Chang-heup, the new development of the landscape poetry, and the trueview landscape painting by Jeong Seon were all a discussion of equivalent significance.