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Internal Principle of ‘WanHo’ (玩好) and Dignity System of ‘Chwimi’ (趣味) in the Joseon Dynasty
The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art
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In East Asian aesthetics, concepts related to “taste” play the role of evaluating the pleasure and displeasure of objects. Among such concepts, gimi (氣味) and chwimi (臭味) were derived from the idea of gi (氣) in the Pre-Qin (先秦) period. In addition, chwimi (趣味), derived from the concept of chwi (趣) joined gimi and chwimi, so that the meaning system of identifying the taste of objects by the subject's chwimi was made. In the Joseon dynasty, the concept of chwimi (趣味) exposed its presence clearly in the aesthetic category together with gimi and chwimi. In this stream, one of the focuses is on the internal principle of wanho (玩好; liking) explained by the concepts of gimi and chwimi (臭味; 趣味). That is, the issue of wanho is linked to pleasure depending on the subject's aesthetic sense, which leads to the intentionality of the mind liking external things. In this process, the subject's chwimi forms a meaning structure that realizes a hobby as tasteful activities about wanho's objects, which are evaluated as tasty through a kind of tasting. In particular, the self-identity of the literati in the Joseon dynasty was formed by symbolizing their elegant chwimi as their social class position. In this process, the dignity of wanho's objects was identified with the dignity of the person's chwimi, so that chwimi established a system representing a kind of cultural class.
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