The literature of Lee-Sang has been evaluated in various ways because of its difficult external and its complicated intern factors. His literature has been mysteriously recognized from the understanding of his works to distorted misunderstanding throu...
The literature of Lee-Sang has been evaluated in various ways because of its difficult external and its complicated intern factors. His literature has been mysteriously recognized from the understanding of his works to distorted misunderstanding through false texts. These days, after sixty years of his death, it is necessary for Lee-Sang's literature to be examined on the whole. We should not leave his literature as the legend of a genius writer who died so soon or as the riddle which is to hard to be solved. Because literature is the vessel which contains various forms of lives, Lee-Sang's literature is also rooted in the real lives of us, and we are able to discover the correct real meaning of lives in his works.
Through 'O-gam-do', Lee-Sang's 15 series poem, we have corrected the falsely given texts and observed what the writer wanted to talk. 'O-gam-do' is not the poem which is separated from his other works.
This poem is toward one clear theme and explores further in 15 series parts. We should stop to study and to research this poem piece by piece.
Instead, we should bring this poem to the space of understanding which is one of the purposes of writing this thesis. This is based on the fact that the works of literature at least exist not for analysis, but for wholistic understanding through reading. Therefore, firstly, this study tries to correct the distorted misunderstandings through the exact analysis do the text. Secondly, this study examined the current research results which are heavily inclined in form analysis. Thirdly, this study tries to examine in concentration the interpretation of the various meanings which occurs from the difficult poetic form.
The main logical point which the writer, Lee-Sang, pursued in 'O-gam-do' is self-recognition. He was in conflict between two self-recognitions which are exemplified as essence vs phenomenon, reality vs ideal. and Libido vs Id. In his literature, he dreamed to accomplish the unification between these two concepts. But, these two self-recognitions could not be unified into oneness, so writer's conflict and frustration circulated again and again unceasingly like the band of Moebius.
The main characteristic factor, as the most charming factor of Lee-Sang, is his trial to overcome the current conflicts. Therefore, his literature is not rotten and not sexually provoking. Instead. his works have proclaimed the sound message by showing the clear will to overcome the conflict between reality and ideal.
Man-hae is one of the greatest figure in the history of our country, He led the Sam-il Movement(this happened in March, first of 1919 for the liberation of Korea from Japan) and he publicized 'The Silence of the beloved', one of the highest level of modern poem. Moreover he wrote a lot of books about Buddhism, as shown in the book of 'the dissertation of the renovation of Buddhism', 'the great dictionary of Buddhism', 'The note on Anchal's ten dialogues of Zen and so forth, He is regarded as one of the greatest thinker of that times.
Summarizing his fundamental thoughts, we can classify them as following.
1. the one-mind thought of Garland Sutras.
2. the thought of Nirvana's emptiness.
3. the thought of Zen, especially the Zen in the daily life.
4. the thought of renovation of Buddhism
5. the nationalism and the liberalism,
Man-hae's poetry in Chinese character is classified as three kinds,
1. the poems which were sent or received for a communication in a letter by poets.
2. the poems of Zen.
3. the poems of patriotism.
And these poems are characterized by
1. He has a preference far 'the style which has stanza composed of 4 lines, each of which is made up of four of seven words.
2. He used a lot of negative words, far example, 莫mak, 未mi, 無mu, 不pu, 非pi-all these words have approximate meanings of not or no.
3. He enjoyed singing the pastoral poems mainly concerning water and cloud, These pastoral objects are main materials of his poems on which his thoughts and feelings are based. Through such materials he sang the calmness and leisure of the life.
4. He didn't make much of the poetic forms and rhymes. To the contrary he ;put the higher importance on the content and meaning of his poems, He created his poems through the experience and imagination which were associated with his direct relation to the persons or things, This is the great character of his poems.
5. He strove laboriously to create the Chinese poems, And He would be absorbed deeply in that work. This endeavor to make poems was the very origin of creating such a masterpiece, 'the silence of the beloved'.
We should not, however, make a little of his poems in Chinese character because his masterpiece, 'the silence of the beloved' is very highly thought of, There were few poets as proficient as he those times.
As mentioned earlier, Manhae's Chinese poems are the foundation of his Korean ones and, considering that his Korean poems are the core of our unique poems that surpass the level of the modern literature, they can be considered as at least the basement that enables his poems to be modern literature. But we should not neglect the fact that this can be accomplished through his transcendent understanding which surpasses the logic that were carried out by his practice of Zen, by the courage and temperance that was kept throughout his lifetime, and by his uncompromising movement for the liberation and the love of our nation. These are the dense content which exist in his Chinese and Korean poems.