• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.35
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• pp.101-133
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• 2009

Shi Zhen Wang has established his own comprehensive poetics; diachronically, he integrated the main theories on poetry from Wei and Jin to Ming and synchronically the major themes and concerns including 'pure and far-off', 'strong and firm', 'Adoration of Tang', 'Adoration of Song', 'gentle and mild', 'manly and broad minded', 'Nothern Song Ci' and 'Southern Song Ci', etc. The constant goal he sought in this integration process was to represent the intrinsic value of the literary on the basis of the absolute and objective standard without leaning toward a certain value. The standards and values, which are originated from the theory of Shenyun, are founded, more exactly, on 'to reach to it with no written word', 'the meaning outside of the meaning', 'intuitional feeling', 'the nature', 'elegance and righteousness', etc. Because of this, he was able to find good points from each work without prejudice and have full use of his critical talents with objective attitude.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.56
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• pp.35-73
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• 2014

This paper examined the poem world of Simjae(深齋) Cho Geung-seop(曺兢燮: 1873-1933) in the turning point of the modern era, focused on his Hwaunsi (和韻詩: Poems written by using the rhymes of other poets' poems). In his poems, there are lots of Hwaunsi on the poems of Tu Fu(杜甫) and Su Shi(蘇軾), especially. This makes him regarded as a medieval poet, engaged in Chinese poem creation in the most traditional method in the turbulent period. Looking at the Hawunsi(和韻詩) alone, Simjae's creative life became the starting point of turnaround at around 40 years old. Before the age of 40, the poets in the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty and Korean figures like Lee Hwang(李滉), as well as Tu Fu and Su Shi were the subjects of his Hwanunsi. After the age of 40, some examples of writing poems using the rhymes of other poets' poems, especially Korean figures related to regions, are often found, reducing Hwaunsi on Tu Fu and Su Shi. Simjae called Tu Fu the integration of poets, talking about the integrity of poetic talent and his being highly proficient in mood and view. As reflecting such an awareness, the themes and moods and views are demonstrated diversely in Simjae's Hwaunsi. Although, he did not reveal his thinking about the poems of Su Shi, he seemed to love Su Shi's poems to some degree. The closeness to the original poems, the poems of Tu Fu are relatively higher than those of Su Shi. Roughly speaking, Simjae tried to find his own individuality, intending to follow Tu Fu, but, he seemed to attempt to reveal his intention using Su Shi's poems, rather than trying to imitate. To carefully examine, Simjae wrote Hwaunsi, but he did not just imitate, but revealed the aesthetics of comparison and difference. In many cases, he made new meanings by implanting his intentions in the poems, while sharing the opportunity of creation, rather than bringing the theme and mood and view as they are. The Hwaunsi on Su Shi's poems reveal the closeness to the original poems relatively less. This can be the trace of an effort to make his own theme and individuality, not being dominated by the Hwaun(和韻: using the rhymes of other poets' poems) entirely, as he used the creative method having many restrictions. However, it is noted that the Hwaunsi on Tu Fu's poems was not written much, after the age of 40. Is this the reason why he realized literary reality that he could not cope with anymore with only his effort within the Hwaunsi? For example, he wrote four poems by borrowing Su Shi's Okjungsi(獄中詩: poem written in jail) rhymes and also wrote Gujung Japje(拘中雜題), in 1919, while he was detained. In these poems, his complex contemplation and emotion, not restricted by any poet's rhymes, are revealed diversely. Simjae's Hwaunsi testifies the reality, in which Chinese poetry's habitus existed and the impressive existence mode at the turning point of the modern era. Although, the creation of Hwaunsi reflects his disposition of liking the old things, it is judged that his psychology, resisting modern characters' change, affected to some degree in the hidden side. In this regard, Simaje's Hwaunsi encounters limitation on its own, however, it has significance in that some hidden facts were revealed in the modern Chinese poetry history, which was captured with attention under the name of novelty, eccentricity and modernity.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.4-23
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• 2018

Seo Byeong-o (徐丙五, 1862-1936) played a central role in the formation of the Daegu artistic community-which advocated artistic styles combining poetry, calligraphy and painting-during the Japanese colonial period, when the introduction of the Western concept of 'art' led to the adoption of Japanese and Western styles of painting in Korea. Seo first entered the world of calligraphy and painting after meeting Lee Ha-eung (李昰應, 1820-1898) in 1879, but his career as a scholar-artist only began in earnest after Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910. Seo's oeuvre can be broadly divided into three periods. In his initial period of learning, from 1879 to 1897, his artistic activity was largely confined to copying works from Chinese painting albums and painting works in the "Four Gentlemen" genre, influenced by the work of Lee Ha-eung, in his spare time. This may have been because Seo's principal aim at this time was to further his career as a government official. His subsequent period of development, which lasted from 1898 until 1920, saw him play a leading social role in such areas as the patriotic enlightenment movement until 1910, after which he reoriented his life to become a scholar-artist. During this period, Seo explored new styles based on the orchid paintings of Min Yeong-ik (閔泳翊, 1860-1914), whom he met during his second trip to Shanghai, and on the bamboo paintings of Chinese artist Pu Hua (蒲華, 1830-1911). At the same time, he painted in various genres including landscapes, flowers, and gimyeong jeolji (器皿折枝; still life with vessels and flowers). In his final mature period, from 1921 to 1936, Seo divided his time between Daegu and Seoul, becoming a highly active calligrapher and painter in Korea's modern art community. By this time his unique personal style, characterized by broad brush strokes and the use of abundant ink in orchid and bamboo paintings, was fully formed. Records on, and extant works from, Seo's early period are particularly rare, thus confining knowledge of his artistic activities and painting style largely to the realm of speculation. In this respect, eleven recently revealed nanjukseok (蘭竹石圖; orchid, bamboo and rock) paintings, produced by Seo in 1889, provide important clues about the origins and standards of his early-period painting style. This study uses a comparative analysis to confirm that Seo's orchid paintings show the influence of the early gunran (群蘭圖; orchid) and seongnan (石蘭圖; rock and orchid) paintings produced by Lee Ha-eung before his arrest by Qing troops in July 1882. Seo's bamboo paintings appear to show both that he adopted the style of Zheng Xie (鄭燮, 1693-1765) of the Yangzhou School (揚州畵派), a style widely known in Seoul from the late eighteenth century onward, and of Heo Ryeon (許鍊, 1809-1892), a student of Joseon artist Kim Jeong-hui (金正喜,1786-1856), and that he attempted to apply a modified version of Lee Ha-eung's seongnan painting technique. It was not possible to find other works by Seo evincing a direct relationship with the curious rocks depicted in his 1889 paintings, but I contend that they show the influence of both the late-nineteenth-century-Qing rock painter Zhou Tang (周棠, 1806-1876) and the curious rock paintings of the middle-class Joseon artist Jeong Hak-gyo (丁學敎, 1832-1914). In conclusion, this study asserts that, for his 1889 nanjukseok paintings, Seo Byeong-o adopted the styles of contemporary painters such as Heo Ryeon and Jeong Hak-gyo, whom he met during his early period at the Unhyeongung through his connection with its occupant, Lee Ha-eung, and those of artists such as Zheng Xie and Zhou Tang, whose works he was able to directly observe in Korea.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.66
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• pp.331-362
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• 2017

The paintings of the Eight Drunken Immortals refer to the paintings based on an influential poem called "The Song of the Eight Drunken Immortals" by Du Fu, a Chinese poet from the Tang Dynasty. This poem is about the eccentricity of the Eight Immortals known for their love of drinking. The Eight Drunken Immortals have been widely appreciated among East Asian intellectuals, and their stories have also been translated into paintings. Greatly influenced by Li Gonglin's Painting of the Eight Drunken Immortals, people in China have the tendency to create similar scroll paintings, using contour drawing tools. Meanwhile, in Korea, the paintings of the Eight Drunken Immortals have been widely appreciated both as a type of visual art embodying the Drunken Immortals' taste for the arts and as a meaningful object conveying the people's wish for longevity and eternal friendship. According to historical records, the paintings of the Eight Drunken Immortals from the Ming Dynasty were drawn on eight-fold folding screens using a sophisticated ink wash painting technique. In the meantime, the Painting of the Eight Drunken Immortals appreciated by King Jeongjo from the Joseon Dynasty was a colored landscape painting with small human figures on an eight-fold folding screen. Since the recent discovery of Yi Han-cheol's Painting of the Eight Drunken Immortals on an eight-fold folding screen, it has now become possible to imagine how renowned artists such as Kim Hong-do and Kim Yang-gi would have made the narrative figure paintings. In particular, the story of Li Bai, one of the Eight Immortals, was the most famous one often told in the paintings. After the 19th century, there was even an entire panel of narrative folding screen made about Li Bai. As painting manuals and outline drawings were pervasively used, the narrative paintings on Li Bai were mass-produced among commoners. As you can see from this, the Eight Drunken Immortals have been visually represented as thirsty souls who are not disconnected from the world, as honest men of refined taste for the arts, and as protagonists of an object that conveys the people's wish for longevity and eternal friendship. In other words, the paintings of the Eight Drunken Immortals embody multiple undertones: as paintings based on Du Fu's poems and as narrative paintings on the Eight Immortals.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.48
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• pp.91-116
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• 2012

Writing is a process and work of expressing one's own feelings and thoughts that are not contained in rigid forms; however, the literary trend and environment during the Late Joseon was not so tolerant. A revivalist approach to writing was dominant during this period, which was summarized in the expression that "Prose must be written in the style of Qin and Han; and Poetry in that of High Tang. "Hence, it was practically a taboo to express one's raw emotions and disregard the custom and regulations of writing. Nevertheless, literati, who got tired of the dogmatic rule of Neo-Confucianism at the time that refused to see the changing world and the pseudo-archaic writing that merely imitated the outside and was empty inside, attempted new styles of writing to escape from the model or example and what was familiar. Lee Yong-hyu, who was in the middle of such transformations, learned the trends of Late Ming and Early Qing through the newly imported Chinese books and created his own style that reflected his personality. His writings refused the Neo-Confucian system of thoughts, which was a dominant ideology of the time, paid attention to the human nature and emphasized the restoration of the self. His writing could be described as being anti-pseudo-archaic and criticized the pretentious trend of the time. He argued that in order to restore the true self, one must recover the innocent mind that was bestowed on human by heaven/nature (cheon-li, 天理), and for this purpose, one must straighten out one's mind (sim, 心). His argument is similar to that of "Yangming School of Mind," which could be represented by the phrase, "Mind is the Principle (心卽理)." Yangming School claimed that moral principle existed within one's mind; and this was in stark contrast with the Neo-Confucian idea that "principle (li)"was external and transcendent, and was spoken by the great Confucian masters and written down in Confucian Classics. By denying the externality of the principle and underscoring its immanence, the idea that centralized Confucian Classics and canons was dismantled. Lee Yong-hyu's writing styles that denied the model and emphasized the restoration of the self was influenced by such thoughts. However, one must neither hastily judge that he is an advocate of Yangming School of Mind, nor determine the anti-pseudo-archaic writers' ideological basis as the philosophy of Yangming School. Once it is rigidly defined, be it Zhu Xi's philosophy or Wang Yangming's philosophy, it becomes another model that one must abide by, and again the self disappears. Thus, Lee Yong-hyu defied any kind of model that claimed authenticity or precedence and wished that people would live independently as oneself, and left such claims and wishes in writing. That is the reason, after more than two hundred years later, we still read his writings.