• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.37
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• pp.377-410
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• 2009

In the East Asian Confucianism society, Hakmun was aimed to bring human beings and nature into harmony, and to explore a unity between knowledge and conducts. For example, Neo-Confucianism aspired they could explain the human existence and society through a single concept of Iki(理氣, the basic principles and the atmospheric force of nature). In this philosophy, humanics and natural sciences had not been differentiated at all. The East-West cultural interchanges at the beginning of modernity caused a crack in the traditional academic concepts. Through the Hundred Days of Reform(變法自疆運動, a movement of Strenuous Efforts through Reforming the Law), the Western Affairs Movement(洋務運動) in China, Meiji Restoration(明治維新) in Japan, or Innovation Movements(開化運動) and the Patriotic Enlightenment Movement(愛國啓蒙運動) in Korea, the traditional meanings of Hakmun was degraded while it became a target of the criticism of the enlightenment movements. Accordingly, East Asians' perception of Hakmun rapidly began to change. Although there had been the Silhak(實學, practical science) movement in Korea, which tried to differentiate its conceptualization of Hakmun from that of Neo-Confucianism during the 18th and 19th century, the fundamental shift in meaning occurred with the influx of the modern Western culture. This change converted the ultimate objective of Hakmun as well as its methods and substances. The separation of humanics and natural sciences, rise in dignity of the technological sciences, and subdivision of learning into disciplines and their specialization were accelerated during the Korean enlightenment period. The inflow of the modern western science, humanized thought, and empiricism functioned as mediators in these phase and they caused an irreversible crack in the traditional academic thoughts. Confronting the western mode of knowledge, however, the East Asian intellectuals had to explain their new learning by using traditional terms and concepts; modification was unavoidable when they tried to explain the newly imported knowledge and concepts. This presentation focuses on the traditional concepts of 'gyeogchi'(格致, extending knowledge by investigating things) and 'gungni'(窮理, investigation of principles), pervasively used in philosophy, physics and many other fields of study. These concepts will mark the key point with which to trace changes of knowledge and to understand the way how the concept of Hakmun was converted into a modern one.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.230-250
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• 2013

possessed by Dong-A University Museum is designated as Treasure No. 595, and has been known for a more exquisite, delicate and realistic expression and a colorful three-dimensional structure compared to the 'grass and insect painting' work and its value in art history. However, it has not been analyzed and studied in fabric craft despite it being an embroidered work. This study used scientific devices to examine and analyze the Screen's fabric, thread colors, and embroidery techniques to clarify its patterns and fabric craft characteristics for its value in the history of fabric craft. As a result, consists of eight sides and its subject matters and composition are similar to those of the general paintings of grass and insects. The patterns on each side of the 'grass and insect painting' include cucumber, cockscomb, day lily, balsam pear, gillyflower, watermelon, eggplant, and chrysanthemums from the first side. Among these flowers, the balsam pear is a special material not found in the existing paintings of grass and insect. The eighth side only has the chrysanthemums with no insects and reptiles, making it different from the typical forms of the paintings of grass and insect. The fabric of the Screen uses black that is not seen in other decorative embroideries to emphasize and maximize various colors of threads. The fabric used the weave structure of 5-end satin called Gong Dan [non-patterned satin]. The threads used extremely slightly twisted threads that are incidentally twisted. Some threads use one color, while other threads use two or mixed colors in combination for three-dimensional expressions. Because the threads are severely deterioration and faded, it is impossible to know the original colors, but the most frequently used colors are yellow to green and other colors remaining relatively prominently are blue, grown, and violet. The colors of day lily, gillyflower, and strawberries are currently remaining as reddish yellow, but it is anticipated that they were originally orange and red considering the existing paintings of grass and insects. The embroidery technique was mostly surface satin stitch to fill the surfaces. This shows the traditional women's wisdom to reduce the waste of color threads. Satin stitch is a relatively simple embroidery technique for decorating a surface, but it uses various color threads and divides the surfaces for combined vertical, horizontal, and diagonal stitches or for the combination of long and short stitches for various textures and the sense of volume. The bodies of insects use the combination of buttonhole stitch, outline stitch, and satin stitch for three-dimensional expressions, but the use of buttonhole stitch is particularly noticeable. In addition to that, decorative stitches were used to give volume to the leaves and surface pine needle stitches were done on the scouring rush to add more realistic texture. Decorative stitches were added on top of gillyflower, strawberries, and cucumbers for a more delicate touch. is valuable in the history of paintings and art and bears great importance in the history of Korean embroidery as it uses outstanding technique and colors of Korea to express the Shin Sa-im-dang's 'Grass and Insect Painting'.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.81-89
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• 2011

The results of tracking the symbolism of plants in the introduction factors of Sokhwa(folk painting) are as the following. 1. The term Sokhwa(俗畵) is not only a type of painting with a strong local customs, but also carries a symbolic meaning and was discovered in "Donggukisanggukjip" of Lee, Gyu-Bo(1268~1241) in the Goryo era as well as the various usage in the "Sok Dongmunseon" in the early Chosun era, "Sasukjaejip" of Gang, Hee-mang(1424~1483), "Ilseongrok(1786)" in the late Chosun era, "Jajeo(自著)" of Yoo, Han-joon(1732~1811), and "Ojuyeonmunjangjeonsango(五洲衍文長箋散稿)" of Lee, Gyu-gyung(1788~?). Especially, according to the Jebyungjoksokhwa allegation〈題屛簇俗畵辯證說〉in the Seohwa of the Insa Edition of Ojuyeonmunjangjeonsango, there is a record that the "people called them Sokhwa." 2. Contemporarily, the Korean Sokhwa underwent the prehistoric age that primitively reflected the natural perspective on agricultural culture, the period of Three States that expressed the philosophy of the eternal spirits and reflected the view on the universe in colored pictures, the Goryo Era that religiously expressed the abstract shapes and supernatural patterns in spacein symbolism, and the Chosun Era that established the traditional Korean identity of natural perspective, aesthetic values and symbolism in a complex integration in the popular culture over time. 3. The materials that were analyzed in 1,009 pieces of Korean Sokhwa showed 35 species of plants, 37 species of animals, 6 types of natural objects and other 5 types with a total of 83 types. 4. The shape aesthetics according to the aesthetic analysis of the plants in Sokhwa reflect the primitive world view of Yin/yang and the Five Elements in the peony paintings and dynamic refinement and biological harmonies in the maehwado; the composition aesthetics show complex multi-perspective composition with a strong noteworthiness in the bookshelf paintings, a strong contrast of colors with reverse perspective drawing in the battlefield paintings, and the symmetric beauty of simple orderly patterns in nature and artificial objects with straight and oblique lines are shown in the leisurely reading paintings. In terms of color aesthetics, the five colors of directions - east, west, south, north and the center - or the five basic colors - red, blue, yellow, white and black - are often utilized in ritual or religious manners or symbolically substitute the relative relationships with natural laws. 5. The introduction methods in the Korean Sokhwa exceed the simple imitation of the natural shapes and have been sublimated to the symbolism that is related to nature based on the colloquial artistic characteristics with the suspicion of the essence in the universe. Therefore, the symbolism of the plants and animals in the Korean Sokhwas is a symbolic recognition system, not a scientific recognition system with a free and unique expression with a complex interaction among religious, philosophical, ecological and ideological aspects, as a identity of the group culture of Koreans where the past and the future coexist in the present. This is why the Koran Sokhwa or the folk paintings can be called a cultural identity and can also be interpreted as a natural and folk meaningful scenic factor that has naturally integrated into our cultural lifestyle. However, the Sokhwa(folk paintings) that had been closely related to our lifestyle drastically lost its meaning and emotions through the transitions over time. As the living lifestyle predominantly became the apartment culture and in the historical situations where the confusion of the identity has deepened, the aesthetic and the symbolic values of the Sokhwa folk paintings have the appropriateness to be transmitted as the symbolic assets that protect our spiritual affluence and establish our identity.