• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

"Dokseoyeoga Do"(An Enjoyable Pleasure with Reading) is a work included in a collection book of both poems and works called as "Gyunggyo Myungseung Cheop"(Collections of Beautiful Scenary in the Suburb of Seoul) with a promise that a great painter Gyumjae Jung-Sun(謙齋 鄭敾) and his lifelong friend, Sacheon Lee Byung-Yeon(李秉淵) should hopefully exchange their poems and painted works. So far, general perspective of art history toward this work is either self-portrait of Gyumjae himself or genre painting of the aristocrat. The purpose of this study is to interpret in-depth meanings implied in this work with various considerations of plant elements appeared in this work. As a result of this study, We could draw newer and additional meanings beyond the existing perspectives of art history research categories, and the details can be summarized as following below. First of all, we could approach a new interpretation implying that Gyumjae and Sacheon hopefully wished their well-being, friendship, and reunion. Second, as a means of expressing this meaning, plant elements like old juniper(Juniperus chinensis L.), orchid(Orchidaceae), and peony(Paeonia lactiflora var. hortensis) were used. Third, each plant element can be literally seen as an icon implying message that Gyumjae desired to give to Sacheon. To be more detailed, experience and greenness of old juniper imply well-being of two people, and orchid implies fragrant friendship, and peony implies the feeling that Gyumjae hopefully desired to make a reunion with a parted friend. The significance of this study is that throughout old paintings, we could observe substantial examples of recognizing the meanings of plant elements in a category of traditional landscaping and utilizing them. Moreover, adding various point-of-views of many professional categories like Korean Landscaping history in the traditional painting research, we could also recognize the potentials for making rich interpretation toward implicated meanings of old paintings.