• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
• /
• no.71
• /
• pp.71-98
• /
• 2018

This study is aimed to figure out the way Yoon Hee-sun perceived the real situations of the society under the Japanese ruling and responded to overcome difficulties in the process of anti-Japanese independence movement. Yoon Hee-sun played an important role as a female activist of the righteous army movement in Kangweon-do and Manchuria. She was a daughter-in-law of Yu Hong-seok, wife of Yu Jae-won, and mother of Yu Don-sang. Three generations of her family had taken the lead in anti-Japanese independence movement. The Yus belonged to a school of 'Hwaseo' and devoted their lives to the independent movement based on the thought of 'wijung chuksa sasang', which means 'defending orthodoxy and rejecting heterodoxy'. They desired to go back to the past and recover as it was rather than building a new society. Therefore, their fights against Japan's invasion were not for establishing a modern nation-state but for recovering the royal authority of the existing order. Both her maiden home and her in-laws belonged to a school of 'Hwaseo' and Yoon Hee-sun couldn't go out of the boundary of her family background. Also, the motivation of her participation in the righteous army movement was based on the confucian values such as loyalty to the king, filial piety and fidelity. In particular, she possessed a high level of self-awareness not only as a wife but also as a woman. On the basis of this, she faced up to reality. For the more effective way of revolt against Japan's invasion, she determined to change the perception of women identified only as a wife of somebody. She thought her duty was to enlighten women through 'education'. As a result, manifestoes and songs supporting the righteous army movement were used as a powerful method.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
• /
• no.57
• /
• pp.407-435
• /
• 2014

Gusadang Kim, Nak-Haeng is a scholar of 18th century in Yeongnam region who wrote about 130 Chinese poems. In this study, I searched Gusadang's inner world by interpreting his Chinese poems. His life is closely related to his father Jesan Kim, Seong-Tak who was exiled. The fact that he devoted himself to his father for 10 years shows he had strong standards in making decisions in life. In short, Gusadang was a person who looked gentle but was tough inside and he remained firm in his faith even with outside pressure. He could not achieve glory because he spent time serving his father in his thirties. Although he heard compliments from others that he was talented enough to succeed as a scholar, he lacked time and mental energy to study. Also, he was a moralist and wrote some poems about impressive events in his life even though he did not fully devote himself to writing poems. In this study, I searched his inner world focusing on how he felt and thought about outside world by analyzing his poems. In conclusion, I found three characteristics from his poems. Firstly, depressed feelings are shown based on excessive self-consciousness in the poems related to his father. Secondly, his will to keep balance in life is shown because he wanted a harmonious life as a seeker after truth. Thirdly, a sense of isolation is shown because he had to keep a distance from outside world.

• Journal of Korean Classical Literature and Education
• /
• no.32
• /
• pp.327-355
• /
• 2016

This study aims to identify petit bourgeois desires through the characters in "Oksosun Stories" from Cheonyerok, an eighteenth-century Yadam anthology. The desires and motivations of the characters are quite secular and egocentric. Because of this, their shared characteristics are similar to those of the petit bourgeois, as neutral existence begins to emerge during the transition from feudal to modern society. The concept of petit bourgeois generally means the public and the working class of modern society. The main character's behavior in the story differs little from general petit bourgeois attitudes. An important belief in petit bourgeois is not the ruling ideology in society but the achievement and stability of realistic and ordinary desires to fulfill their lives' satisfaction. Also selfish or antisocial attitudes and boundary characteristics appear in the process, depending on whether subject having any desire. However, the character's actions are limited in the governance system of a huge reality. And It is characterized by end goal being to meet their upward mobility and stability. This corresponds with Seang's (書生) actions of turning his back on his family and country as well as promising Jaran his love; and, he redeems himself with his family and society by acquiring stability after he passed the state examination. Furthermore, the contemporary significance of this work demonstrates Seang (書生) discovering his desires for human love; therefore, in order to affirm and gratify this desire, he endures the societal state of semi-feudalism against filial duty (不孝), disloyalty (不忠), and non-chastity (不烈), and he acts independently. In addition, on the strength of his pursuit of his desires, Oksosun frees herself from the caste restraint called gisaeng (妓生) and affirms her desire to become a subject of love, but she then deviates from the social system. Moreover, the limitations and achievements of the petit bourgeois are indicated in the actions of recognizing the social threshold of their past in the process, making independent efforts using their capabilities, fulfilling success in the state examination with their intellectual capacity, and re-entering society. From the late Chosun Dynasty to modern times, there is not only the type of contemporary people who hunger for fulfillment of their personal desire and live in free will, but there is also the feudal type that is still lacking in the understanding of independent life. This is not as different as in these present times. This literature asserts the meaning of awakening one's self-existence and assigning great value to the fulfillment of self-desires against the odds that are created by socio-political, cultural, economic norms of the era. "Oksosun Story" affirms the small efforts and successes of private individuals in reality. It also validates the search for life happiness through positivity. In this sense, even the contemporary reader would derive valid meaningfulness from this literature.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
• /
• no.56
• /
• pp.47-80
• /
• 2018

The traditional laws of Korea have undergone various stages of development over time. This includes the voluntary standards of the clean society. Korea's traditional legal systems, ranging from those of the Goryeo(高麗) to those of the Republic of Korea, have taken Confucian Phiosophy as their major ideological bases. At the center of these Confucian ideals, particularly in regards to pre-Qin Confucian Philosophy(先秦儒家思想) from where these ideals originated, lie the core ideals which emphasize the responsibility of each individual regardless of the social status(正名), the needs for a democracy in which people are empower and guide the state(民本), the importance of reigning with benevolence, moral excellence, and rite (仁義), and the differential love centered on kinship and humanity(親親愛人). These were the ideas as set forth by Confucius(孔子), Mencius(孟子) and Xun Zi(荀子). The current laws of Korea, especially in regards to the Constitution and the Civil and Criminal Laws, include a number of provisions that contain the Confucian Ideas of Law. The Constitution, in particular, which is also supported by the judgement of the Constitution Court, reflects several core Confucian ideals including filial duty (孝) and respect for ascendants and the traditional culture. The Court also suggested the two important standards of the constitutional legitimacy of the Traditional Culture. One is 'Age Compatibility (時代 適合性)', the other is 'Manifested Universally Validity(現在的 普遍妥當性)'. So we have burdened with the reestablishment of the Universal Ethics of the Confucian Ideology.