This study set out to investigate the life and imaginative geography of Baekam Kim Reuk with his collection of poems 「Yimyeongrok」 he wrote when he was demoted to the Busa of Gangreung during the early days of Gwanghaegun``s reign. On the second y...
This study set out to investigate the life and imaginative geography of Baekam Kim Reuk with his collection of poems 「Yimyeongrok」 he wrote when he was demoted to the Busa of Gangreung during the early days of Gwanghaegun``s reign. On the second year of his reign in 1610, Gwanghaegun decided to worship his birth mother Gongbin Kim, who had been dead for 30 years, granted her the title of Queen of Jasukdaningongseong, and gave an order to move her tomb to Seongreung. Kim Reuk submitted 「 Bongjajeonchusunghu Cheongjeongjinhabansagye」 discussing how his decision to worship Gongbin Kim and move her tomb would violated the decorum and insisting on the retraction of his decision. He was subsequently demoted to the Busa of Gangreung in June, 1610 and was dismissed from office and driven to the country in December the next year. His 「Yimyeongrok」 clearly shows his psychology shifting between the extreme ends of agony and transcendence. His mental images in the collection can be categorized into ① his yearning for a fairyland, ② his unchanged loyalty, ③ his complaints, and ④ his resignation. His mental images were replaced, symbolized, or represented in such words as ‘fairyland’, ‘plum blossom’, ‘single-heartedness’, ‘tears’, ‘Taoist hermit with miraculous powers’, and ‘the crane’. The clear manifestation of his psychological changes and symbols was the result of him reflecting the disharmony between his in and outside and his compulsive metaphors. ‘Jisubu’ and ‘Chaguigeoraesa’ offer some clues to understand his extreme psychological changes derived from his mental fatigue and wounds caused by the gap between his internal orientation and the confusion political situations during the reign of Gwanghaegun. For him, water represented by ‘Jisu’ was the imagery of ‘purity’, ‘moral training’, and ‘invariability’ and the medium of finding his way to the path of noble man. His Guigeoraesa displays an intersection between his lingering affection toward Seoul and his hope of returning to his hometown rather than his psychology of abandonment for eternal farewell.