• Journal of Korean Classical Literature and Education
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• no.15
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• pp.329-353
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• 2008

Tasan Jeong Yak-yong is great scholar, who makes a synthesis of Sil-hak[實學, Practical Science of Korea], reformer of society, and a poet in the Joseon Dynasty. He expressed contradiction and conflict of those days by intellectual language, and reperceived basic ideology of the Joseon society. Also he theorized dissatisfaction of the people about those days and its system as form of religion. We can divide Tasan's life into two times. The first part is his ages 16~39 in the period of Jeong-jo(1777~1800). The second part is in the period of Sun-jo(1801~1834). In this period, he was exiled into Gang-jin for 17 years. After banishment, he lived a quiet life for the rest of his life in his hometown. His allegoric poetry were written in this second period. The special feature of allegoric poetry is strong satire. An allegory would be that is 'king's ear', which the barber has sight, or the barber's voice, which has divulged king's secret among the bamboos. Otherwise it would be that is the sound 'king's ear is donkey's ear' in the bamboos. This sound is divulging of the true donkey's ear. It doesn't travel to audiences, but travels trough wind in the bamboos. The narration exists just as story that barber can't stand to keep silence about king's secret. There are exposure of true and critical motive as allegoric expression. Tasan's allegoric poetry stand on the basis of his love for the people. Also there reveals his thought deeply with an enormous amount of reading and self-communion. Moreover there are his warm mind with his sharp insight in which captures alive lives as allegoric materials. Most of allegoric poetry satirize actuality of those days to make an excuse for external distinguishing marks of animals and plants. However Tasan's poetry are different from them. After he grasped serious problems from his contemporary actuality, and then choosed allegoric media to express correctly. Because he grasped the special features of lives after minute observation, he could exposure controversial point of the actual. His sharp insight was not limited to allegoric media. He noticed his period and the current of his society sensitively. It made his allegoric poetry as important materials to make us to know the condition of the people in the Joseon Dynasty. Tasan's allegoric poetry is inherited by Baek Seok[白石, 1912~1995] as regular juvenile literature. Baek Seok's juvenile stories are the results of expansion and transition for Tasan's allegoric poetry. Allegoric poetry was the shout of barber to prosecute about social irregularities and contradiction, and the sound of the bamboos to travel moaning of the people in the past. Now allegoric poetry create new emotion to make us to speculate ourselves with our surrounding. This changes are caused by special feature of allegoric poetry as a form to reflect our general lives.