The matter of ‘Simseong' or ‘spirit' is one of primary issues of Korean history in Confucian thoughts. Then, the introduction of Catholicism first became a decisive opportunity that Confucian scholars in Joseon researched the mater of spirit in earnes ...
The matter of ‘Simseong' or ‘spirit' is one of primary issues of Korean history in Confucian thoughts. Then, the introduction of Catholicism first became a decisive opportunity that Confucian scholars in Joseon researched the mater of spirit in earnest. Matteo Ricci introduced spirit as a translation from Korean, anima in Latin at first in De Deo Verax Disputatio(1595) and discussed the in-depth idea in considerable amount of the book. As Catholicism has been propagated in Joseon Dynasty since 17th century, the spirit idea has been widely well-known among advanced intellectuals. They criticized the unrealistic aspect of Catholicism, generally based on Neo-Confucian world view, but the connection with the heterogenous reasoning system made the meaning structure of authentic Neo-Confucianism transform considerably. Though Jeong, Yak-yong was a Catholic once but immediately became a renegate, his original academic achievements were closely connected with nothing less than Confucianism. For example, ‘moral human' that he pursued, was the ideal of life only if the existence of divine emperor or the Lord of heaven was based upon the premise, unlike previous Neo-Confucianism. However, Jeong, Yak-yong would not eventually accept the idea of ‘immortal' soul, though he translated Simseong with ‘Yeongche' and thought that the existence of Lord of heaven was based on the moral human. On the other hand, Park, Eun-sik, a protagonist for ‘Gukhon’, inspired the soul into nationalistic immortality, utilizing ‘Yangji', a keyword of the doctrines of Wang Yangming. Park, Eun-sik sufficiently recognized the close relationship between Yangji and soul or between the doctrines of Wang Yangming and Christianity except the argument for Simseong in traditional Confucianism and raised his own unique Dongdoseogiron(. So the case of Kitamura Tokoku, a pioneer of Japanese romantic literature, interestingly did in the situation. In short, Simseong, Yangji and soul etc. having different discoursive genealogy in 1900s, were widely exercised as the words indicating certain inner sources that could make a modern ego form, but ‘soul' imbued with the romantic implication ruled the root as the young intellectual accepting the western culture through studying in Japan, were highly appeared since the late 1910s.
For instance, in a broad sense, the fact that Hirata Achtane arranged a theoretical ground in justifying the nationalism from the ‘discourse of ghost’ discussing thoroughly the whereabouts of a soul after death, in a limited sense, a series of modern affairs that Hattori Yosika mentioned the core of free verse as the inner breath of individuals and realization of its new rhythm, all were closely associated. At the process of organizing a modern individual or people, a unparalleled ripple effect of the idea of soul acquires an apparent illustration from epoch-making changes formed in literary discourses at the time of Joseon, corresponding the stated changes in Japan. Hwang, Seok-woo sought the potential of Korean free verses through a new word, ‘Yeongryul’ whereas Lee, Gwang-su developed the romantic implication included in ‘soul’ and established so-called national literature. However, another literary expressions were possible for the realistic recognition that the romantic unity inherent in ‘soul’ was no more available in the early of 1920's. Severe criticisms for ‘soul’ per se that young artists in Joseon in the colonial era showed, aroused the contradiction and paradox of colonial modernism that Korean society should face.