Song sun(1493~1582) is one of the most famous writers in the 16C in Chosun dynasty. He lived all his life as an politician and poet. Song sun, born at Bongsan, Damyang in Chunnam, was especially instrumental in developing korean poetry. He is said to have written over 30 poems and korean poetry such as Myungangjeongga, which is Gasa and he is also credited with more than 500 Hansi. With these writings, he is frequently called the greates of korean poets. Our ancestors admired NATURE much more than any other nation. This is why most of their works are focused on natural poetry. Natural poetry made a start with the foundations from the poetry of Corye. This nature became the object of poetry in Chosun dynasty. From "Ganghosasiga" written by Mang sasung, nature came to be the stage of poetry. Thus, korean could find a true natural beauty in Chosun dynasty and many natural poems appeared in the world of poetry. But this nature is not the same to anyone. People have an apparently different point of view on nature. In the East, people were under the control of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Consequently it is natural that people who had a different thinking and philosophy had different sights on nature. In Buddhism, they thought nature as forest itself. In Taoism, they understood nature as a motionless one. and they regarded nature as an object which is considered to be looked at far in the distance in confucianism. Confucian often called it "Gangho" poems. The earlier natural poems of Song sun were not yet in harmony with Gangho, since he was still sttached to the reality. They became identical with nature in the late period. In this paper, we investigate the character and quality of Song sun's natural poems, that is, wide varieties of natural poems. It deals with the form of natural poems, the meaning of nature, the identification with nature and the view point on nature.
The book 'Collection of Filial Stories' was first edited by Jun Kwon with Chinese representative stories of 24 pieces which book was, then, dedicated to his father Mr, Pu Kwon. His father further added more 38 cases to the original edition, asking for his son-in-law, Jay-Hyun Lee, to compose Commendable Rhymes or Chan(贊) to each of the stories who was at that time famous on his writings. It was his grandson, Kun Kwon, who was one of the representative scholars of the new dynasty Choson and managed to publish the final vesion with his own annotations further appended. Although his Commendable Rhymes duplicated the contents in the text, Jay-Hyun Lee tried to give some changes in form in order to avoid monotony. This would be one reason, the writer suspects, that these Rhymes should deserve their value except the rarity. In the first part devoted to the preceeding 24 pieces, Lee composed twelve pair-lines with four letters in a line with diffenrent forms of rhyming foot. Firstly, all pair-lines keep the same final rhyme syllable. Secondly, half of them keep the same one but the other half from the 8th line adopt a different one. Thirdly, the 6th and l0th pair-lines have different rhyme syllables so that all three rhymes are observed. And lastly, two rhymes mutate themselves each other every two pair-lines. The second part, however, has only 8 pair-lines. The similar pattern in changing rhyme words is also observed. His rhymes were seem to be evaluated highly from his days in the sense that his works were adopted seriously in 'Three Modes of Moral Behaviour with Pictures' published by the government to teach lay people in early Choson dynasty. Unfortunately, since no rhymes were included in his publication, nobody mentions about it yet. It would be a merit, at least, of this paper which digs out his Commedable Rhymes for the first time.
About the time of the purge of Confucian literati(士禍), especially the period of King SungJong(成宗) to King MyongJong(明宗) is the period that many scholars devoted themselves to mental culture and learning as hermits in the country rather than entering into an official career and that the Royal Court called them frequently. They retired from the world, but they were an influence no less than those who entered into an official career with social reputation and influence, nevertheless their real value were denied because of their rejecting of the Royal Court's calling. About that time, Hoogye(后溪) Kim Beom(金範)(1512-1566) was the scholar who was a hermit at Sanjoo(尙州) for life, who devoted himself to the Principles of Human Mind and Nature(性理學), and who was called by Myongjong because of his cultivation and knowledge. Though Hoogye was held in reverence and reputation that time, like many hermits, he was underestimated after ages. Thus, this study have the first aim of revealing an scholar's real value, which has not known in the world. By considering of Hoogye's scholastic tendency as well as the particular study of him, this will be of help to the study not only of scholars who devoted themselves to the Principles of Human Mind and Nature as hermits, of their scholastic tendency, but of their universal consciousness at that time through Hoogye's scholarly mind as a traditional philosopher. In short, this study is a part of the study of traditional philosopher who was underrated, compared with a man who has a strong influence about real world, and this study will continue.