• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.139-153
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• 2014

This study contemplates the utopian landscape recognized by the scholars with twenty three pieces of 'travel record'. Consequently, five key words - Mureungdowon(武陵桃源), Byeolcheonji(別天地), Dongcheon(洞天), Chonghakdong, Eungeoji(hermitage) - are chosen for comprehending the utopia and their landscape characteristics are organised as follows. Mureungdowon in Jirisan Mountain which the scholars dreamed of is a flatland with the full energy for local vegetation and domestic animals in the mysterious and deep gorge. This utopia eventually reflects the rural landscape. Byeolcheonji is a utopia combining the concept of a fairyland and beautiful scenery. The scholars also used the term 'Dongcheon' for naming the enclosed landform which is suitable for seclusion and defining the some areas of beautiful scenery. Cheonghakdong, which is set only in Jirisan Mountain, has been formed by the stone scenery of gorges and Buril waterfalls around the whole area of Burilam Hermitage, the vegetation scenery of pine trees and bamboos with the legend of Choi Chiwon and his engraved inscription on a rock. Adding to the utopia passed down, the scholars perceived the village with geographical features with back to the mountain and facing the water, the river practising the trade, the flatland enclosed by bamboo forests, the vegetation mainly consisting of fruit trees and beautiful scenery as the utopia realized on earth. It is equivalent to the world of human beings laboring appropriately and living in Mother Nature. As mentioned above, this study has significance for apprehending the relevance between the culture of strolling in the mountains by the scholars of Joseon Dynasty and the fairyland and explaining the various traditional utopias from the inherited concepts from China to the naturalized realistic utopia.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.40 no.2 s.107
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• pp.172-186
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• 2005

I examine in this paper how the contemporary sacredness of Mt. Chirisan has been modified through the reworking of the embodied experiences of the mountain. 1 examine the theme of escapism through the cases of mountain men and Chonghakdong. The two mountain men, Huh Man-Soo and Ham Tae-Sik, tacitly suggested a modem aesthetic and environmentalist view of nature by articulating a typical form of appreciating nature in a transition period from pre-modern to modern society. Mountain men mediated their own personal dreams of revitalizing the Taoist utopian place with their social practices of modernizing and democratizing the appreciation of nature. Ultimately, the appearances and practices of mountain men symbolize the end of the pre-modern geographical imagination of the mountain as distinctive plate outside society (real world). Therefore, the vision of modem civic-national landscape, national park, was made concrete at the very site where the people's dreams of utopia, the inherited sacredness of the mountain and people's religious beliefs in its protective power were terminated.