A study on the pursuit of reality and elegance expressed in Jungchull's Sijo

정철 시조에 나타난 현실 지향과 풍류의 성격

Jungchull(정철) was a very famous poet of Kasa(가사), Sijo(시조) and Hansi(한시) during the middle period of the Chosun kingdom. He has been studied by modern scholars mainly as a poet of Kasa(가사). These days, however, his Sijos are being studied as an important literary achievement. The purpose of this study is to analyze the pursuit of reality and elegance expressed in Jungchull's Sijo in order to understand his Sijos more deeply. In the process of this discussion, I will take a look at some of his Kasa(가사), Hansi(한시) and biography also, and I will compare his Sijo(시조) with that of his teacher's, friend's and senior's. Jungchull considered it important to become an official in the royal court because he was a Confucian scholar who believed in jugi-theory (주기론), in which all realistic phenomena is evaluated(Confucianism is very realistic in essence), and he had a happy life in the royal household until he was ten years old. I found that characteristics of his "realistic pursuit" are represented in his Sijo by two situations: the one is when he is apart from the King, and the other when he is together with the King. In all situations, though, he pursued an official position in the royal court. When he was apart from the king, his absolute resolution to follow the King was expressed in his not being able to sleep. In his sijo, he asks the wild duck to inform him of the King's welfare. He tries to flap his wings, to be the water or the moon in order to reach the royal household where the King was living. When he recognizes it's impossible, he expresses his perfect loyalty to the King in his Sijo by using literary paradox. According to this, he describes himself as not an able scholar, but also not a flattering scholar. In his sijo, he reminisces about working for the King in the royal household, when he had a good relationship with the King. But when he was an official in the province in a good relationship with the King, he expressed his intention of coming back to the royal household in order to be with the King again. From this we can ascertain that his pursuit of reality means to occupy an official position in the royal household, to serve the King and to have political power among of the officials. His elegance, expressed in his sijo, is deeply related to his absolute political pursuit of the King. He describes two kinds of elegance: nature related elegance and drinking alcohol related elegance. Two kinds of nature related elegance were delineated in his sijo, depending upon his political situation. When he had a good relationship with the King, occupying an official position, he delineated his gladness and free-heart in harmonizing with nature. But when he lost his official position. he expressed his purity using nature, and exclusion from nature. These kinds of nature related elegance were different from that of the usual Confucian scholar, for example, contemporaries Lee Hwang Next, two kinds of drinking alcohol related elegance were delineated in his sijo depending upon his political situation. More often he depicted excitement and composure of mind in his sijo by drinking alcohol in good situations than in efforts to overcome his agony in bad situations. The tradition of overcoming one's agony by drinking alcohol in bad situation was discovered by this writer in Jungchull's teacher's, and also his junior's sijo. Lastly in my next research paper future, I will look at the reason why certain various themes are represented in Jungchull's sijo, and what their the relationships are, to understand his literary works as a whole.

이 논문에서는 정철 시조에 나타난 현실 지향과 풍류의 성격을 논의했다. 정철은 일반 유자들이 가지는 현실지향의 근본적 성격을 바탕에 가지면서도 근기 지역의 기호 사림의 일원으로서 주기적 세계관-을 가짐으로써 더 현실지향성을 가졌고 유년에 행복한 궁중 생활을 체험함으로써 그의 현실 지향은 구체적으로는 궁중 지향으로 나타났다. 시조에서 군주와 단절된 상황일 때에 절대적 지향성을 가지고 단절을 극복하지 위한 갖가지 노력을 했고 자아의 정체성을 역설적으로 드러내어 군주를 향한 절대적 지향의 당위성을 드러냈다. 군주와 관계가 지속되는 상황에서 작자는 궁중에서의 관직 생활을 행복한 추억으로 기억하였고 지방관으로 나가 있을 때에는 현직에 복무하면서도 군주가 있는 궁중 지향을 그치지 않았다. 현실 지향성과 관련하여 자연과 음주는 정철에게 있어 풍류의 중요한 요인이 되었다. 자연과의 관계에서 정철이 군주와 긍정적인 관계를 유지할 때에는 유흥과 호방함의 정서를 드러냈고 군주와 부정적 관계 속에 처했을 때에는 자연을 통하여 자신의 결백함을 드러내거나 자연과 단절된 자신의 모습을 표현했다. 물러나 자연과 친화하며 심성을 연마하고 후진을 양성하던 일반 유자들과는 달랐다. 음주에 있어서 정철은 군주와의 우호적 관계에서는 술을 통하여 여유와 유흥을 주된 내용으로 표현했고 군주와 단절된 상황에서는 고뇌와 근심을 씻기 위하여 통음에 자신을 내맡기는 감성적 행동을 시조에 표현했다. 술을 통하여 고뇌를 이기려는 성향은 그의 스승 김인후 한시나 그의 후배인 신흠의 시조에서도 확인되어 음주 풍류의 한 전통을 형성하고 있었다.