2007, Vol.25, No.

The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.81

pISSN : 1229-0246
https://journal.kci.go.kr/ksasa

A Study on Primary Concepts and Views of Buddhist Aesthetics Mi-Jin, Jang* The Buddhist formative and non-formative inheritance has formed an important part in our traditional culture and also the spiritual effect of Buddhist on Korean art is very deep and extensive. In Such concern, this essay selected primary concepts and views on Buddhist aesthetics and studied on symbolical and philosophical contexts. For example, the condition of Buddhist practice opend the world of Buddhist figures and symbolical images, and such a thing is captured by the conception of ‘the state’ which is called Buddhist aesthetics. This essay on Buddhist aesthetics contains an study on various state’ of philosophical concepts, such as ‘naught’ and ‘vacancy’, ‘the whole’, ‘non-discord’, ‘one-dimensionality’ and so on. So this study builded up logic like as following and is in substance as follows: (chap. Ⅰ) Religion and Art, and aesthetics, (chap. Ⅱ) Primary Concepts of Buddhist Aesthetics, (1) Symbolical System of Buddhism and Buddhist Aesthetics, (2) Category of ‘Beauty’ on Nature, Art, Human- nature, (chap. Ⅲ) The Freedom of Consciousness through the Denial of Consciousness: the ‘Mind-theory’ of Buddhism and Self-regulation of Aesthetic Experience, (1) Inside-meaning of Concepts of ‘vacancy’ and ‘the Whole’, (2) Dropping a Useless Languages and Thoughts-Indeterminacy of Aesthetic Meaning, (3) ‘Non-discord’ or ‘Indiscrimination’, and Ecstasy- Aesthetic ‘Unavariciousness’. In conclusion, I edited the significance and problems of study on Buddhist Aesthetics, and also suggested various problems by which the scholars is confronted.

Rhetoric of Spiritual Awakening : Aesthetic Consciousness in Buddhistic Literature of Goryeo Dynasty Joo-Sik Min* This paper aims to illuminate the aesthetic consciousness in the poetic literature of Buddhistic priests of Goryeo dynasty. Buddhism was the state religion in Goryeo dynasty, and so there were a lot of priests. Almost of them were birth of intellectual class and had intimate contact with the first rank scholars of that period. Priests of high virtue had written metaphysical poetry, which expressed artistic fragrance with metaphor and symbol. In the middle of Goryeo dynasty, Jinul had brought a greate conversion in the history of ideas through integrating the Seon(禪 or dhyana) philosophy and investigating deeply the problems such as human existence, life and death, and cosmos and nature. This spiritual abundance spread to the realm of arts, and Seon poetry made a sudden rise. The poetry of Seon Buddhism was not different from the customary poetry merely in literary form, but had many differences in expression. At a glance, it seems to be difficult. It may be that the difficulty is the peculiarity of the Buddhistic poetry. Seon priests pursued the unification of mind and body through meditation, and proceeded to awakening. Their poetry was in need of peculiar style in presentation in order to show the ideal world view. The mind of priests was based in the world of religious meditation and spiritual enlightenment. It originated from the attitude to drive a question and to negate conventional value around the secular affairs. It often drew the new invention to change and renovate the common average sense of value, and presented new ways of seeing, thinking and living in poetry. We could feel the specific vitality or taste in that poetry. The expression was indebted to the specific rhetoric of Seon Buddhism.

Angelology and the Image of Angels in Dante’s Divine Comedy San-Choon Kim* Angels symbolize the belief that there is indeed an invisible world in God’s creation which we cannot grasp with conventional vision. We can distinguish three approaches to this world of the invisible. One is philosophical angelology which investigates the very existence of the invisible world. Theological angelology, on the other hand, begins with the belief that there is indeed world beyond our conventional vision. I look however to the Aesthetics of Angelology which depicts the invisible world through allegory in literature and visual art. Such Aesthetics already suggests that Ancient People were familiar with the world of the invisible, and thus could represent it in visual art. With modernity, people came to depend on empirical examination, and skepticism about the invisible world. Insensitive to the realm of the invisible, modernity led to superficiality. This is critical even in the realm of self-knowledge where people have become reluctant to examine their invisible selves. I investigated the Christian tradition of angelology, especially the writings of the Fathers of the Early Church. For the Fathers, the mission of the angels was the salvation of human beings. For instance, Dionysius Areopagita wrote that the angels worked to help humankind to be like God in ceaseless love and wisdom. Much later, we find angels as a model of sanctity. For instance, St. Francis is described as a “seraphim in love,” and St. Dominic became like the “cherubim in wisdom.” This reflects sensitivity to an invisible world in an earlier literature and visual art.