만해의 『님의 침묵』에서 중도(中道)의 미학 = The Aesthetics of the Middle Way in The Silence of the Beloved

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study analyzes Yong-un Han's poetry collection, The Silence of the Beloved, by categorizing it into: (1) Love―the Middle Way between feudal chastity and free love; (2) Subject―the Middle Way between the modern subject and the Buddhist self; (3) Art―the Middle Way between beauty and ugliness; (4) Nirvana―the Middle Way between desire and nirvana. It examines how these binary oppositions, mediated by the Middle Way, are sublimated towards truth.
The poem “Free Chastity” considers chastity and free love from the perspective of the Middle Way, presenting the most ideal love as one that freely engages in romance but, once in love, remains chaste and devoted solely to one beloved. “I Saw You” depicts the modern subject and Buddhist self through the Middle Way. Whenever the modern subject experiences tragedy, recognizing that its root cause lies in ‘the absence of the beloved, colonialism, or ignorance,’ it goes beyond merely longing for the presence of the beloved, and orients toward a subject who coexists with the other interdependently. “The Artist” understands beauty and ugliness in a Middle Way relationship, acknowledging modern art while also singing of an aesthetic that expresses rustic yet ultimate truth beyond it. “The Monk's Sermon” interprets desire and nirvana through the Middle Way, expounding that the three poisons, including desire, are not obstacles to nirvana but can be a ladder towards it.
In this way, Han reconciled various opposites into a single entity through Middle Way thinking, aspiring towards the truth. The conflicts between Buddhism and Western Enlightenment thought, national and Western identity, traditional and modern poetry, and a secular human and a monastic monk could also be harmonized within himself due to this Middle Way thinking. Therefore, expanding this research to encompass Han's literature, philosophy, and his life overall could open up new interpretations.