KJCKorea
Journal Central

Baekheon Lee, Kyeong-seok was a writer who lived during the reigns of the Joseon period king Seonjo and Hyeonjong(1595-1671)(Seonjo 28-Hyeonjong 12). As a statesman who served the state during two wars, he compiled the “Samjeondobimun” and suffered banishment to Baekmasan Fort in China. For about ten days after his release from exile in China in the ninth month of 1651, he traveled to the Keumgang Mountains and wrote “Pungakrok”. The work includes prose and 52 verses inserted into the prose text devoted to expressing his sentiments on the journey. It is noteworthy that at the end is included a long prose-poem work of 150 rhymes and 5 syllables. This paper examines the nature of “Pungakrok” to see how the author used poetry in Chinese in his travel writing and the effects of the poetry as viewed in combination with the prose narrative. “Pungakrok” is contained in the Shigo (詩稿) section in vol. 10 of Lee, Kyeong-seok’s Collected Works entitled “Baekheon jip”. The work is centered on the author’s trip to the Keumgang Mountains with verses added to the prose. But in terms of content the prose sections of the work relate the author’s sentiments and experiences and may therefore be seen as an organically independent “travel record[遊記]”. So it is in the main a prose work with verses intermittently added. (詩揷入型 散主韻從). The prose narrative in the work is fairly concise and objective in nature, and shows many similarities with other similar prose narratives. But it also pauses in places within the prose and inserts a Chinese poetry to express his joys, sadnesses and empathy with respect to the special situations of the author’s experiences during his journey to the Keumgang Mountains. Chinese poetry is used as a device to impart to the reader whose emotions not easily conveyed through prose. In addition, the inserted Chinese poems in Pungakrok are often “romantic descriptions based in the authorial imagination”, and express what the author saw and experienced through fantastic poetry, as well as what fascinated him. These Chinese poems stand in sharp contrast to the objective prose narratives in the work. In other words, “Pungakrok” may be said to offer two distinctive functions: “objective information” and “fantastic environment and fascination” which mutually supplement each other. In conclusion, “Pungakrok” contains both poetry and prose in a single work, a Keumgang Mountain travel record in which both components are used to complement each other’s special characteristics.

Lee Kyeong-seok, Pungakrok, Keumgang Mountains, nature travel, Excursion Travels, inserted poetry