柳宗元(773~819)은 唐代의 정치계･사상계･문학계에서 뚜렷한 업적을 남긴 당송팔 대가 중의 한 분으로서 중국의 산문사(散文史)를 대표할만한 문장가이다. 왕숙문(王 叔文)이 이끄는 혁신집단에 참가하여 정치개혁을 추진하지만 실패하여 14년이라는 긴 세월을 영주(永州)와 유주(柳州) 두 폄적지(貶謫地)에서 보내게 된다. 죄인의 신분 으로 정치적 이상을 펼칠 수 없게 되자 “시대에 도움을 주고 만물에 영향을 주는 道 를 지금 펼칠 수 없다면 마땅히 후세에 남겨야 할 것이다. (輔時及物之道, 不可陳於 今, 則宜垂於後)”라는 신념으로 국가･사회･백성들을 위한 우언을 창작하였다. 따라서 본고에서는 柳宗元의 우언에서 보여주는 “보시급물(輔時及物)”과 “이안원원(利安元 元)”사상에 주안점을 두고 두 사상의 정의와 창작배경을 정리하고 또 이 두 사상이 내포된 우언 작품을 문학적인 관점에서 분석해 보았다.

A choice in temporal discounting is often made on one preferred option between a sooner but smaller reward and a later but larger reward. In temporal discounting, a consumer undergoes an evaluation process concerning the trade-offs between time delay (i.e., a choice between sooner and later receipts) and the amount of reward (i.e., a choice between smaller and larger rewards). It has been evidenced that a surprisingly large number of consumers is inclined to choose a sooner option with a lower economic value. Those consumers tend to apply an excessive temporal discounting rate to the time delay and as a result, the sooner option with lower economic value stands out to be more attractive. However, there is another group of consumers who deliberately promote the long-term perspective in the evaluation process. Those consumers show a high tendency of choosing a later option with greater economic value. A key factor affecting the evaluation process is the sensitivity to time delay a consumer entails. The sensitivity to time delay could systematically affect the representations of hedonic pleasure being projected at different time delays and is the basis of individual differences in hedonic orientation. An anhedonia, a person with the ability to control physical pleasure, is likely to be less sensitive to time delay and apply a lower discounting rate for delayed rewards because he processes the presently available pleasure less intensively than do ordinary consumers. Thus, anhedonic consumers are more likely to choose a delay reward in temporal discounting choices. In a famous fable by Aesop, “The Ant and the Grasshopper” suggest a possible linkage between hedonic orientation and temporal discounting tendency. The story goes that the Grasshopper enjoys whatever is on its hands and does not give much thought to what is going to happen in the future, while the Ant takes on the hardship denying the current pleasure as he plans for the difficult winter time. We conducted an experiment to investigate the relationships among individual differences in hedonic orientation, and the behavioral choices in temporal discounting trials by examining the EEG theta (4-8 Hz) correlates. A hedonic orientation questionnaire was developed using twenty selected items from Physical Anhedonia Scale, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and Impulsive Buying Scale. Using the questionnaire, the hedonic orientation of fifteen participants was analyzed. Among them, five participants were classified into anhedonia (Ant-like, AN) group and ten participants were into hedonic pleasure dependent (Grasshopper-like, GH) group. Participants conducted ten temporal discounting trials and, in each trial, a choice was made between two options, either a smaller reward today (the “now” option) or a greater reward to be received after a specified time delay (the “future-oriented” option). The absolute theta activations while viewing a future-oriented option in each trial were analyzed as the neural correlates of temporal discounting. The results indicated that the hedonic orientation of participants had a high prediction power of not only behavioral choices in temporal discounting but also EEG theta activations in the frontal brain region. In analyzing temporal discounting tendencies, the discounting rate of AN group was found to be lower than that of GH group. In addition, EEG theta analysis shows two interesting activation patterns in the frontal region. First, AN group showed higher frontal theta activations than GH group indicating its deliberate engagement to future-oriented options. Second, theta activations in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC), more specifically AF3 and AFz, were negatively correlated with the discounting rate of participants. Neuroscience researches often refer that DLPFC is associated with deliberate and analytic information processing. Therefore, the high theta activations in DLPFC could be considered as a distinctive neural indicator of high anhedonia traits and low temporal impulsivity.