본문 바로가기
  • Home

Familism and Dualistic Worldview in Yuchungryuljeon(劉忠烈傳)

  • The Research of the Korean Classic
  • 2025, (68), pp.49~83
  • Publisher : The Research Of The Korean Classic
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature > Korean Literature > Korean classic prose
  • Received : January 21, 2025
  • Accepted : February 11, 2025
  • Published : February 28, 2025

Kim, Suh-Yoon 1

1경상국립대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Yuchungryuljeon(劉忠烈傳) is regarded as a work that gives priority value to family unity and prosperity. The view that family narratives have their own status separated from national narratives can be seen as influenced by the blood-familisim of modern standards, which distinguishes them from the state-familism of traditional society, which regarded family and state as harmonious coexistence. Both blood-familism and state-familisim are supported in Yuchungryuljeon, and the priority is different according to the characters. Through the loyal patriarchal figures such as Yusim and Kangheeju, the belief in state-familism is promoted as a positive value, but the negative view of its realistic helplessness is also revealed. Through female characters such as Mrs. Zhang and Mrs. So, the realistic utility of blood-familism is revealed, but the risk of conflict and division caused by it is bounded. The two types of characters reflect the limitations of state-familism and blood-familism respectively. On the other hand, the specialty of Yuchungryul is due to the fact that he is a person with dual identity who lives both in the heavenly and earthly worlds. The celestial self gives Yuchungryul an independent personality that transcends blood relations and the basis of a powerful ruling ability that enables the reconstruction of the state. Through the abilities and freedoms given by the heavenly world, Yuchungryul breaks the limits of the terrestrial state and the blood group and promotes a change that integrates the two types of familism. In Yuchungryuljeon, the coexistence of the heavenly world and the earthly world is interpreted as a product of a sense of balance that aims to change reality and continue its existing value. In the situation of the 19th century when the crisis of nation aggravated burden of blood family and the abandonment of politics based on bloodshed worsend crisis of the state, the meaning of the state and the blood family was challenged and the means of recovering the state and blood family was asked by novel readers, to which Yuchungryuljeon contains the result of exploration.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.