KJCKorea
Journal Central

Gosan Yoon Seondo, who left as many as 75 Sijo works, is recognized, together with Songgang Jung Cheol, as one of the two best authors of Korean classical poetry in the Chosun Dynasty era. Yoon Seondo left Sijo works only, whereas Jung Cheol created works in both fields of Sijo and Gasa, the two major genres of Korean classical poetry. In particular, Yoon Seondo’s works that encapsulate nature are regarded to have shown a new cognition of nature. Contentment in living in nature and resulting elevated excitement are demonstrated in his works, which is the reason why Yoon Seondo is regarded as the summit of Korean classical poetry in the Chosun Dynasty era. In this article, the cognition of nature appearing in <Eobusashisa> is investigated and Yoon Seondo’s oeuvres and consciousness as an author are discussed. For these objectives, the signification of Bogil Island, the spatial background of <Eobusashisa>, in his life is examined. Based on a number of documentations Yoon Seondo left, we can estimate why he chose Bogil Island as his country retreat and how the signification of the island was encapsulated in the work. The images of four seasons reflected in the work are based on the authors experiences; the characteristics of each season were taken appropriately and contracted into an idealized daily life. In particular, the meanings of various old stories included throughout the work that the author intended to present were investigated. It is required to pay attention to the ‘refrain’ added to each sub-work and the ‘Eobusa Yeoeum’ that plays a role terminating the entire work when discussing the oeuvres of <Eobusashisa>. The ‘refrain’ encompasses all sub-works (10 for each season) given in parallel into a unified stream, thereby assigning organic nature to the work. Eobusa Yeoeum expresses ‘yearning toward the king’ that is not mentioned explicitly in 40 sub-works, thereby presenting the theme of work deliberately. In other words, Eobusa Yeoeum demonstrates that the author still has a lingering affection for real politics though he is chanting self-contained life in nature. The nature encapsulated in <Eobusashisa> never appears as a single character. Therefore, it is very important to examine the narrator‘s cognition of nature shown in the work and extract its signification. In this article, we investigate Yoon Seondo’s life and creative motivation and discuss how the ‘nature’ encapsulated concretely in the work is recognized.

Yoon Seondo, Eobusashisa, Sijo, Congnition of Nature, Yearning toward the King, Oeuvres etc