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A Study on the Outlook on Facing Righteousness and Death Poem of Ŭidang(毅堂) Pak, Se-hwa(朴世和)

최 식 1

1성균관대학교 대동문화연구원

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ABSTRACT

This paper studies Ŭidang(毅堂) Pak, Se-hwa(朴世和, 1834~1910)’s life who strived to concentrate on the educational activities and founded a school based on Jecheon, Chungbuk in a turbulent era. At that time, a considerable number of intellectuals chose their life in various ways, such as suicide, asylum and struggle. Ŭidang agitated for ch'ŏk-sa-wi-chŏng(defending orthodoxy and rejecting heterodoxy, 斥邪衛正) and chon-hwa-yang-i(respect for China and drive out the barbarians, 尊華攘夷), and provided socialists of ch'ŏk-sa-wi-chŏng with theoretical basis, but he could not participate in the struggle on account of illness. Also, he planned to seek asylum in West-Gando, China to leave chosŏn, but he fell by the wayside. He focused on training younger students all his life, not to take up a public office, and decided to suicide at the end of the Korean empire period. His last choice was suicide based on loyalty neither asylum nor struggle. He thought that two watermelons cannot be held under one arm and there are no two kings for the people, and that China cannot be a barbarian and Human cannot be birds and beasts. It is important for him to keep an outlook on facing righteousness(處義觀) depending on ch'ŏk-sa-wi-chŏng and chon-hwa-yang-i. Ŭidang wept bitterly hearing news of a country perishes differ from Intellectuals that believed in Zhu Xi(朱子) who insist that a country might perish but Tao(道) might not perish. Ŭidang thought that it would be better to die than to live so disgracefully, and then decided to suicide. He fasted for twenty-three days before death, and left a will that showed his outlook on facing righteousness. In addition, he wrote two death poems that revealed his awareness of a reality.

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