조선 전기 귀신 담론 연구 = (A)study on the Guishin discourse of the early Joseon dynasty

목차 (Table of Contents)

• This study focuses on the research of the discourse of Guishin (Korean ghost) which plays an important role in the Korean literature and history of thoughts. Among them, the study has the more deep investigation of the Guishin discourse of the early period of the Joseon Dynasty when the history of thoughts experienced dramatic change, especially, of what systems and contents the discourse had.
• The course of Guishin is mainly comprised of two axes of Guishin stories and the theory of Guishin, which represents the characteristics of the early period of the Joseon Dynasty. Discussions about such stories and theory are frequently found in many documents of the times of the Three States and Goryeo respectively, both all before the Joseon Dynasty, but in the era of the Joseon Dynasty Confucian scholars wrote intentionally the theory of Guishin and also collected relative stories. From this, in this study the primal proposition lies in that the discourse of Guishin formed at that time is greatly contributed as a basis for creating Guishin discourse, still available from the later period of the Joseon Dynasty until the present.
• The Guishin stories and theory are closely correlated and form a discourse. Guishin stories are philosophical and theoretical debates about Guishin, which is the result from the arguments consciously made among Confucian scholars. On the hand, Guishin stories, regardless of the theory of Guishin, has long been transmitted from generation to generation and collected in the early period of Joseon Dynasty. Such stories show a record of direct encounter with Guishin that happened in the real life experience of people, rather than theoretical. A basic system of the two discourses of Guishin stories and theory exists itself in combining them in complementary aspect, or in sometimes getting involved in competition and exclusiveness each other. The relations between the theory of Guishin and their stories make the Guishin discourse of the early Joseon Dynasty have a concrete direction.
• To that end, as a time condition necessary for the formation of Guishin discourse, I focus on the early time of the Joseon Dynasty in particular. As mentioned before, Joseon has seen a very important transition in ideology by integrating all the social thoughts into Sung Confucianism. Among them, the most important ideological and intellectual change was a radical conversion of the thought of life related to Guishin. From the very outset, the Joseon Dynasty publicly pronounced that it will completely break off from the Buddhism which was served as a dominant ideology in the former Goryeo. Such an ideological break was a very important task to the ruling groups who were supposed to criticize existing society and open a new one. Therefore, the gentry tried to establish firmly their ideological superiority while excluding Buddhism, shamanist practices and Taoism. In addition, by explaining a basic principle of life and death with Sung Confucianism ideology, they tried to show that the ideology was an effective solution to ethical and political difficulties and was also a great system capable of explaining natural phenomena comprehensively.
• This intention is maximized through the concrete language activities of the ruling groups. The language played more vital role in forming not only ideological and academic activities but discourse during the Joseon era than any other times before. The ruling classes such as the gentry and royal families at the time strongly believed that the main function of language is to accurately deliver only truth or facts, far away from faked or delusional words. And the viewpoint of language has influenced all creative activities and the practice of discourse of the gentry. So, even when invisible Guishin''s activities were discussed, the language describing that should be reliable and true. Under the proposition, the gentry have started forming Guishin discourse, based on discussions and stories of Guishin.
• The analysis of the discourse system starts with the analysis of the dialogue structure of the theory and stories of Guishin. All discourse is fundamentally based on dialogue. A discourse is formed centered on any event in the dialogue system. Events are the basis in the formation of discourse and also are served as a foundation interpreting texts as well. In the theory of Guishin, it could be confirmed that argumentative events take place. The dialogue of theory of Guishin consists of questions and answers between teachers and students, or answers and questions issued by writers themselves. And whatever cases, the structure of questions and answers to them was a central dialogue in the theory. Under the structure, the most important question is to ''whether Guishin exists or not.'' As the primary question, it determines to go to the next step or not by answering ''yes'' or ''no.'' When asked this question, most Confucian scholars concluded that Guishin exists and then sought possible reasons of how Guishin exists. And the second important question is about what qualities Guishin has and how Guishin gets relation with human beings. The scholars clearly distinguished Guishin favorable to humans from evil one and also mentioned duties that should be observed by men and Guishin respectively.
• The knowledge of the theory of Guishin through this is theoretical and transcendental one, which was accepted as an unquestionable truth. In order to expand the credibility of the theory of Guishin, many Sung Confucianism scholars depended on ''talk (Mal in Korean)'' spoken by the Chinese saints. The scholars used existing authority and accepted it down the line so the dialogue of the Guishin theory has nearly almost maintained a sort of ''consent'' dialogue.
• Under such ideological system, however, some changes by minorities are seen. The minorities used Sung Confucianism symbols, but their ''boundary'' talk, being away from the main stream of Sung Confucianism, guaranteed the diversity of the theory and was contributed to acquiring various opinions of the theory.
• On the other hand, the most important dialogue in the Guishin stories is a direct dialogue between a man and a Guishin by the meeting of both of them. That is to say, making a relation between a vivid ''talk'' by the evil and the man is the key event in the stories. Along with this, Experimental reasons, different from the theory of Guishin, are formed through comments which are inserted on the stories. All the stories of Guishin shown on this study are from miscellanies published in the early Joseon Dynasty, all of which use indicators that emphasize truth. In other words, it means that such stories are believed as facts or experiences so that the knowledge made by stories and comments is also recognized as trust-worthy. But on the contrary to the theory of Guishin, the knowledge of the stories is not itself a firm element of truth, rather considered variable and hypothetical one, which is caused by the context that Guishin stories get. Therefore, the Guishin stories have various opinions which are not included in the theory of Guishin, and the law of co-existence and acceptance rather than exclusion mainly works. In that sense, just even stories which are excluded as heretical in public place are accepted dauntlessly. So, the discourse formed in the stories could be told a kind of mutual discourse, where talks away from Sung Confucianism boundary have formed a mainstream.
• The stories and theory of Guishin have a correlational system and form a concrete discourse one. The theory provides the explanation of the existence of Guishin as well as natural philosophical logic. Through this, Guishin becomes entities that could be understood through reasonable and theoretical knowledge. Additionally, being explained of a concrete relation between Guishin and humans by using Sung Confucianism logic and ideology, a great deal of the Guishin stories ultimately got to be elucidated and understood with the help of the Guishin theory. In particular, the stories of ancestral Guishin and vulnerable evil spirits are explained by the logic of the theory, which strengthens somewhat a public and dominant discourse of Guishin. And it in turn helps the boundary of Sung Confucianism much stronger and also reinforces the religious and ideological characters of Sung Confucianism. However, it is true that there are some of the stories of Guishin that could not be utterly explained by any Guishin theory. It accounts for mainly evil spirit stories and is responsible for breaking down the system made by the Guishin theory and revealing problems facing the society at that time. Such unofficial discourse of Guishin has functions of catching problems of the ruling groups and overthrowing the dominant order they keep. Here, the Guishin stories could remain independently irrespective of the Guishin theory. And in the circumstances of such discourse, the Guishin theory is an opinion of minorities who are not part of the mainstream.
• It could be judged that such a double standard-discourse system is applied on the comprehensive society of the Joseon Dynasty. During the later Joseon Dynasty, various unofficial historical tales and other stories were created and collected and the Guishin theory also had more changed. In closing, the development process of the Guishin discourse during the later Joseon Dynasty and what relations this has with many a modern Guishin stories and its theory would be discussed henceforth.
• [Abstract]
• A Study on the Guishin Discourse of the Early Joseon Dynasty
• This study focuses on the research of the discourse of Guishin (Korean ghost) which plays an important role in the Korean literature and history of thoughts. Among them, the study has the more deep investigation of the Guishin discourse of the early period of the Joseon Dynasty when the history of thoughts experienced dramatic change, especially, of what systems and contents the discourse had.
• The course of Guishin is mainly comprised of two axes of Guishin stories and the theory of Guishin, which represents the characteristics of the early period of the Joseon Dynasty. Discussions about such stories and theory are frequently found in many documents of the times of the Three States and Goryeo respectively, both all before the Joseon Dynasty, but in the era of the Joseon Dynasty Confucian scholars wrote intentionally the theory of Guishin and also collected relative stories. From this, in this study the primal proposition lies in that the discourse of Guishin formed at that time is greatly contributed as a basis for creating Guishin discourse, still available from the later period of the Joseon Dynasty until the present.
• The Guishin stories and theory are closely correlated and form a discourse. Guishin stories are philosophical and theoretical debates about Guishin, which is the result from the arguments consciously made among Confucian scholars. On the hand, Guishin stories, regardless of the theory of Guishin, has long been transmitted from generation to generation and collected in the early period of Joseon Dynasty. Such stories show a record of direct encounter with Guishin that happened in the real life experience of people, rather than theoretical. A basic system of the two discourses of Guishin stories and theory exists itself in combining them in complementary aspect, or in sometimes getting involved in competition and exclusiveness each other. The relations between the theory of Guishin and their stories make the Guishin discourse of the early Joseon Dynasty have a concrete direction.
• To that end, as a time condition necessary for the formation of Guishin discourse, I focus on the early time of the Joseon Dynasty in particular. As mentioned before, Joseon has seen a very important transition in ideology by integrating all the social thoughts into Sung Confucianism. Among them, the most important ideological and intellectual change was a radical conversion of the thought of life related to Guishin. From the very outset, the Joseon Dynasty publicly pronounced that it will completely break off from the Buddhism which was served as a dominant ideology in the former Goryeo. Such an ideological break was a very important task to the ruling groups who were supposed to criticize existing society and open a new one. Therefore, the gentry tried to establish firmly their ideological superiority while excluding Buddhism, shamanist practices and Taoism. In addition, by explaining a basic principle of life and death with Sung Confucianism ideology, they tried to show that the ideology was an effective solution to ethical and political difficulties and was also a great system capable of explaining natural phenomena comprehensively.
• This intention is maximized through the concrete language activities of the ruling groups. The language played more vital role in forming not only ideological and academic activities but discourse during the Joseon era than any other times before. The ruling classes such as the gentry and royal families at the time strongly believed that the main function of language is to accurately deliver only truth or facts, far away from faked or delusional words. And the viewpoint of language has influenced all creative activities and the practice of discourse of the gentry. So, even when invisible Guishin''s activities were discussed, the language describing that should be reliable and true. Under the proposition, the gentry have started forming Guishin discourse, based on discussions and stories of Guishin.
• The analysis of the discourse system starts with the analysis of the dialogue structure of the theory and stories of Guishin. All discourse is fundamentally based on dialogue. A discourse is formed centered on any event in the dialogue system. Events are the basis in the formation of discourse and also are served as a foundation interpreting texts as well. In the theory of Guishin, it could be confirmed that argumentative events take place. The dialogue of theory of Guishin consists of questions and answers between teachers and students, or answers and questions issued by writers themselves. And whatever cases, the structure of questions and answers to them was a central dialogue in the theory. Under the structure, the most important question is to ''whether Guishin exists or not.'' As the primary question, it determines to go to the next step or not by answering ''yes'' or ''no.'' When asked this question, most Confucian scholars concluded that Guishin exists and then sought possible reasons of how Guishin exists. And the second important question is about what qualities Guishin has and how Guishin gets relation with human beings. The scholars clearly distinguished Guishin favorable to humans from evil one and also mentioned duties that should be observed by men and Guishin respectively.
• The knowledge of the theory of Guishin through this is theoretical and transcendental one, which was accepted as an unquestionable truth. In order to expand the credibility of the theory of Guishin, many Sung Confucianism scholars depended on ''talk (Mal in Korean)'' spoken by the Chinese saints. The scholars used existing authority and accepted it down the line so the dialogue of the Guishin theory has nearly almost maintained a sort of ''consent'' dialogue.
• Under such ideological system, however, some changes by minorities are seen. The minorities used Sung Confucianism symbols, but their ''boundary'' talk, being away from the main stream of Sung Confucianism, guaranteed the diversity of the theory and was contributed to acquiring various opinions of the theory.
• On the other hand, the most important dialogue in the Guishin stories is a direct dialogue between a man and a Guishin by the meeting of both of them. That is to say, making a relation between a vivid ''talk'' by the evil and the man is the key event in the stories. Along with this, Experimental reasons, different from the theory of Guishin, are formed through comments which are inserted on the stories. All the stories of Guishin shown on this study are from miscellanies published in the early Joseon Dynasty, all of which use indicators that emphasize truth. In other words, it means that such stories are believed as facts or experiences so that the knowledge made by stories and comments is also recognized as trust-worthy. But on the contrary to the theory of Guishin, the knowledge of the stories is not itself a firm element of truth, rather considered variable and hypothetical one, which is caused by the context that Guishin stories get. Therefore, the Guishin stories have various opinions which are not included in the theory of Guishin, and the law of co-existence and acceptance rather than exclusion mainly works. In that sense, just even stories which are excluded as heretical in public place are accepted dauntlessly. So, the discourse formed in the stories could be told a kind of mutual discourse, where talks away from Sung Confucianism boundary have formed a mainstream.
• The stories and theory of Guishin have a correlational system and form a concrete discourse one. The theory provides the explanation of the existence of Guishin as well as natural philosophical logic. Through this, Guishin becomes entities that could be understood through reasonable and theoretical knowledge. Additionally, being explained of a concrete relation between Guishin and humans by using Sung Confucianism logic and ideology, a great deal of the Guishin stories ultimately got to be elucidated and understood with the help of the Guishin theory. In particular, the stories of ancestral Guishin and vulnerable evil spirits are explained by the logic of the theory, which strengthens somewhat a public and dominant discourse of Guishin. And it in turn helps the boundary of Sung Confucianism much stronger and also reinforces the religious and ideological characters of Sung Confucianism. However, it is true that there are some of the stories of Guishin that could not be utterly explained by any Guishin theory. It accounts for mainly evil spirit stories and is responsible for breaking down the system made by the Guishin theory and revealing problems facing the society at that time. Such unofficial discourse of Guishin has functions of catching problems of the ruling groups and overthrowing the dominant order they keep. Here, the Guishin stories could remain independently irrespective of the Guishin theory. And in the circumstances of such discourse, the Guishin theory is an opinion of minorities who are not part of the mainstream.
• It could be judged that such a double standard-discourse system is applied on the comprehensive society of the Joseon Dynasty. During the later Joseon Dynasty, various unofficial historical tales and other stories were created and collected and the Guishin theory also had more changed. In closing, the development process of the Guishin discourse during the later Joseon Dynasty and what relations this has with many a modern Guishin stories and its theory would be discussed henceforth.