Koreana Winter 1994 (English)

KOREAN ART & CULTURE

Lotte, The VIP's Choice

"The service mainly. It's impeccable:'

Earl s. Moore. Jr.-President of Asia Pacif ic Marketing

We're pleased that a good and growing number of our guests come back to stay with us.

Why? As Mr. Moore of Asia Pacific Marketing, explains, it's the "impeccable service" they appreciate most.

"Discrete and unobtrusive," in Mr. Moore's words.

While the reasons vary from one return guest to the next, they all share an uncompromising taste for excellence.

And at lotte they find excellence in service and facilities.

Shouldn't the lotte be your hotel in Seoul?

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HOTEL LOTTE SEOUl KOREA

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:First, KOREAN has been expanded from .with additional space to strengthen our coverage of'_, this issue. We will us~ · ~his Korean culture and art ··in the main focus section and to" introduce ·.o ur . r~<des to-a btoa-gh :spectrum of Kor ' e . ~n liter~u ~ , Uh . a separate l-itera. . lure section. ·..•.• · ·· ~

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will be published in a Second, I am pleased to announc_e that K0R~4NA In an effort to reach _ fifth lahguage beginnit;lg ·with the Spring 1995 is~readers in all the . world's majoda'nguages, we are adding a FJ;ench edidon _ . ' to the English, Japanese, Sp,anish and Chinese editions Jhat we are_. already puBlishing.

-. · ·e vt:n arder in the future so that .we -We at KOREANA promise to ~6rk ~ay better -serve all those interested ·irt Korea and Korean culture.

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52 Looking T

by Hahn Yeong-joo oward the Future 526

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munno 5-ga, Chung-gu, Seoul100-095 , Korea PUBLISHER-EDITO SONChuWh - an R

ee Ufan

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Hong Soon-il ART DIRECTOR Park Seung-u

INTERVIEW

Sin Cha H ong byKi m Kyoung-ae

70 DTISCOVERING KOREA

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he Red p·1ne .

y Ylll1 Kyong-bin

74 CURRENTS

Building .

Latin of Und erstanding: A a B. ndge E,,..'J'encan Museum

by Soof!

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by Yu Jong-ho

LOESS v.AUEY Translated by John Holstein The Road irOIIl the V'dlage Translated by Hyun-jae Yee Sallee

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e orea Fo d All rights res un ation 1994 publication maer'f:ed No part of this form withouithe ;eproduced in any of The Korea ;;lOr permission The opi . oundation. ruons expressed do not necessa . by the authors those of the d' nly represent or The K~/to of KOREAN A KOREAN . ea oundation magazme · with A, the regtstered M' . as a quarterly (Registration N~ntry of Information Aug. 8, 1987) is ai a-1033, dated Japanese, ch' mese . soand published S . in Printed · pamsh. mDecembe amsung Moon r 1994 by S 167-29, Hwayang-d ong, wha Pnnting Co. Songd Tel: (02)468~ng-u, Seoul

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BEAUTY OF KOREA

P'unggyong

A Buddhist temple is a quiet place of meditation and study. Most Korean temples are nestled in the mountains, secluded from the bustle of secular society. Their mystical atmosphere is heightened by the gentle tinkling of the p'unggyong, wind bells that hang from the temple eaves.

P'unggyong are believed to have developed from the handbells of ancient China. Small bells with thin iron fish dangling from their clappers, p'unggyong produce a gentle tinkling sound that varies with the changing mountain breezes. This natural, unaffected sound has become part of the Korean spirit, evoking strange feelings of warmth

and at the same time loneliness. P'unggyong may have a p1 actical use as well: Their gentle sound is a kind of weather vane for monks chanting in -the temple.

But hy a fish? Fish have long been symbols of water, nd therefore health and life, in East Asian cultur . They also symbolize vigilance, both in Buddhism and traditional folk religion, for the fish never closes its eyes. Are the p'unggyp'ng fish guarding the temple? Traditionally Chinese believed that fish and birds were interchangeable for both are oviparous animals. Perhaps this is why the p'unggyong fish sing such a beautiful tune. â&#x20AC;˘

·:KOREAN ART & CULTURE '"-~1

COVER: Sando!, the "Standing Rock" on the upper reaches of the Han River in Y6ngwol, Kangwon-do Province, is one of many mountains looming tall and strong in the Korean consciousness. The source of legends and songs, the subject of paintings and poems, a treasured escape from the hustle and bustle of human society, the mountain is an indispensable element of every Korean community, of every Korean mind.

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Mountains

in Korean Life and Culture 4

Korea's Landscape and Mindscape

by Choe Chungho

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Mountains: Home of Korean Thought

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by Keumjang-tae

18 Koreans and Their Mountain Paintings

by Yi Song-mi

26 Sounds of the Mountains Sounds of the Heart

by Han Myong-hee

34 The Mountain in Contemporary Fiction

by Yu ]ong-ho

38 ON THE ROAD

The Stone Pagodas of Horse Ear Mountain

by Kim]oo-young

44 SEOUL 600

The Han and Its Legacies

by Kim Byung-mo

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Korea Foundation 1i!~.-PI'

. MOUNTAINS HOMEOFKOREANTHOUGHT Keum Jang-tae Professor, Religious Studies Seoul National University

(The poems quoted in this article were translated by Kevin O'Rourke)

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ountains are a fact of life in -Korea: we live with them all around us. Nice sunny mountain slopes have always provided a home to communities large and small. We have dug wild greens on such mountains, and collected firewood to stoke our household fires. In the era before cities developed, we were born on mountain slopes, lived there, and eventually were buried there. This was the inevitable pattern of our lives; house and tomb were tied to the mountain.

Mountains are everyone's home, every-

one's last resting place. The idea of returning to the mountains was deeply rooted in the minds of our ancestors.

Roads to the City and Mountains During the Choson Dynasty, dominated by Confucian thought, literati had to choose one of two roads: the road to officialdom or the road back to a simpler life in the mountains. The road to officialdom meant going to Seoul, preferment, success, and the glitter of the capital It also meant having to endure the noise and dust of the mundane world.

The road to the mountains, on the other hand, meant the road home, buried among sleepy wooded valleys, where one might pursue a leisurely life of academic interests, cultivating clear thought and transparent wisdom.

Fame and honor accompanied the road to officialdom: a man could unburden his heart and he might even be given a chance to save the world. Every man embarking on an official career meditated on the writings of the great Chinese statesman Chu-ko Liang (181-234): his reflections on war over-

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flowed with the spirit of loyalty and legitimate aspiration. But the road to officialdom was beset by the twin snares of dishonor and intrigue. A man sometimes lost his heart; sometimes he lost his life.

In contrast, the road to the mountains, while not very exciting, provided peaceful ease and a sense of well-being. One discovered there a time admirably suited to fattening body and heart and cultivating deep clear thought. Those who returned to the mountains invariably sang T'ao Yuan-ming's "Returning to My Mountain Home;' in which he recounts the joys of life in the mountains after retiring from his post as magistrate of P'eng-tse. Academic pursuits in the mountains in youth, an official career in middle age, and finally returning to mountains in old age-this was the pattern of life for the literati In "Returning to My Mountain Home" T'ao characterizes his official career as "heart becoming the slave of the body." Presumably returning to the mountains means "body becoming the slave of the heart." The heart should be master; it is wrong for the heart to be the slave of the body.

Yi Hwang (T'oegye) was fifty before he finally built the study of his dreams, Hansoam. The day he moved there he wrote a poem rhyming with T'ao Yuan-ming's "Moving House" from which the following comes:

This is a remote place: visitors seldom come.

The mountains are deep, the sun sets easily.

Life here I know is poor, but it's better than having body rule heart.

Among the Chason literati there were some who worked hard to get in office, and some who worked hard to get out of office. In the sixteenth century, Cho Kwang-jo and Yi I (Yulgok) are examples of the former, while T'oegye and Cho Shik (Nammyong) are examples of the latter. It is difficult to say one side or the other is right: there are pros and cons on both sides.

T'oegye was likened to a mountain bird because he always wanted to lay down 12

office and return to his mountain home, whereas Nammyong is an example of the lofty-minded hermit who from the outset turned his back on public office and buried himself in the remote countryside.

The trend among literati to retire from public office seems to have been very highly evaluated. Retiring to the country meant laying aside ambition, something thought to be difficult for ordinary mortals. A more important reason for the high evaluation of returning to the mountains is that it meant an opportunity to cultivate learning.

heaven and earth virtuous, in this way giving personal cultivation the greater priority. Thus it is regarded as more important to retreat into the remote countryside and cultivate the inner man through learning than to rush after preferment in the bureaucracy.

Life with city people is seen to lead to inner confusion, making progress in learning difficult. Living in the quiet of a gentle mountain valley, reading and thinking, facilitates the pursuit of pure learning. In fact, the fostering of learning that occurred in these country retreats during the Chason Dynasty helped to give real body to the thought

Mencius says: "If a man does not gain preferment, he should make himself virtuous; if he achieves distinction, he should make heaven and earth virtuous." Thus Mencius points the way both for those who attain high office and for those who live in poverty in the countryside. Obviously making oneself virtuous is somewhat easier than making all heaven and earth virtuous. At the same time, the point is being made that the cultivation process involved in making oneself virtuous is the root of an attitude toward government administration calculated to make

of the period.

Studying personal cultivation in the mountains, and studying in city streets are different in kind. In the city, the tendency is to pursue practical skills and to develop knowledge of practical problems, while in the mountain valleys interest centers on personal cultivation, ranging from philosophical considerations of the origin of the universe to ethical considerations of human conduct. It follows that in traditional society mountains were not only the places where we lived but also the delivery room of learning and the home of our thought.

Harmony of Mountains and Water When it comes to personal cultivation, the kind of mountain deemed suitable for the various exercises varies according to the objective and the methodology of the cultivation being contemplated. Confucian literati preferred mountains that had soft, easy slopes, watered by quiet streams flowing along gentle valleys. They avoided mountains that were too high and too rough. They also avoided waters that were too deep and too violent. They liked the middle ground, something in between flat plain and towering mountain. This was the kind of temperate

place but seek out spots of exceptional natural beauty, wandering through mountains and the countryside like "clouds and water."

Mountain terrain is so popular with monks engaged in ascetic practices because it is singularly suited to attaining their objective. Buddhist and Taoist monks cut their ties with the world of men and retire deep into the mountains where they seek the truth that transcends life and death. The literati, in contrast, while cultivating the heart leisurely in the mountains, at the same time looked outward as they searched for a truth that would be serviceable in

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terrain that in Confucian culture served as the incubator of our thought.

In contrast, Buddhist monks and Taoists sought rugged mountain terrain with deep pools as the site of their ascetic practices. High, rough, remote mountain areas are ideal if one's ascetic objective is, by transcending the world, chewing pine leaves and practicing personal cultivation, to become the Buddha or an Immortal and to fly off into the sky. They are best for practicing the truth of the void and the ideal of eternal youth. Some monks devoted to ascetic practices do not stay in one

the world of men. Thus while the literati on their mountain slopes lived apart from the world, in another sense they remained a part of the world, distinct but not divided, just like the i-ki (lichi) concept in Neo-Confucianism.

Why are the mountains so suitable for ascetic practices? Above all they are quiet places, removed from the complexity of the world, places where one can concentrate, where one can spread the wings of the spirit in the wind and in the green. In fact, young Choson Dynasty literati intent on study often left their homes on the lower mountain

slopes in search of the quieter atmosphere of a hermitage higher up the mountain more conducive to study.

And various religious groups and followers of folk religions use the mountains for prayer and devotional exercises. In the mountains, faith deepens and learning becomes more refined.

Mountains and water are like yin and yang: each harmonizes with the other so that the whole may retain its balance. Mountains and water are not in conflict. Their relationship is one of mutual support: One serves the interests of the other. The contrast between the loftiness of the mountains and the depth of water highlights the height of the mountains; the quiet immobility of the mountains contrasts with the unceasing movement of water. Human life, art, learning and religion have always thrived where mountains and waters meet in harmony. ¡ Confucius says: "The wise man delights in water, the good man delights in mountains. The wise man is active; the good man stays still." Using mountains and water as images . of wisdom and goodness, Confucius contrasts the two basic divisions of human virtue, intellectual wisdom and moral character.

Knowledge is like water in that it implies an unbroken flow of reasoning ability.

Goodness is like the mountains in that it is fixed and unchanging in its devotion to justice. Mountains and water provide a noteworthy environment for cultivating wisdom and goodness: while enjoying the mountains a man can increase his goodness, while enjoying water he can increase his wisdom. The combination of wisdom and goodness is the ideal Here is an old hanshi (a poem in Chinese characters by a Korean poet) that figuratively links mountains and water with classical literature and classical music.

Blue mountains are wordless but they are a book for all ages; Flowing waters are stringless but they are the k6mungo of a thousand years.

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Blue mountains of old are as eternally unchanging as the truths contained in the classics. In contrast, the sound of flowing water shows as much variety as the melody of the komungo over a thousand years. Indeed when the literati left government service and returned to their homes in the mountains, the classics and the komungo were the most prized possessions they took with them.

Once after summer rain had cleared, T'oegye climbed Chaha Peak and sang of the fresh, tingling pleasure he experienced there:

The fields are broad, the skies are high, the summer rain has cleared.

Blue mountains surround me; I hear the tinkle of jade waters.

Now I know the boundless excitement of mountains and waters; I don't wish for embroilment in the hollow sins of the world.

When the literatus retires from the complexity of the world, mountains and water become for him a space within which he can give himself to the pleasures of learning and personal cultivation. Mountains and water are not desolate, dreary places. They are places overflowing with the excitement of nature and the joy of truth garnered deep in the heart.

In Confucian society, a self-sufficient life among mountains and water represented "home" or the "ideal" life for retired scholars and officials. Some of the characteristics of this ideal life can be found in shijo.

Firstly, mountains and water are a place where man and nature find harmony. A shijo written by T'oegye's friend, the scholar Kim In-hu, is very close to our hearts: it deals with the greening of human life amidst mountains and water.

Blue mountains go their way; green waters go their way.

Mountains their way, waters their way, and me my way among them.

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I've grown my way among them; among them my way !11 grow old.

Secondly, mountains and water represent a transcendent world. Yi Yu who lived in the reign of Sukjong during the Choson Dynasty, followed T'oegye's example and wrote of the joy of a life in union with nature in Tosan Valley: I build a three-room hut

on the banks of the blue stream in Tosan Valley.

Fish jump up on the bank of the stream, white gulls alight in the field in front of my house.

I fear the world may discover these two pleasures.

The heart so thrilled by life in communion with nature that it fears its pleasures may be discovered by the world at large shows a sense of self-sufficiency associated with the Peach Blossom Paradise and the World of the Immortals. This is a testament to the grace of the lives lived by these literati in retirement.

Thirdly, mountains and water are a place of learning and personal cultivation. The life of the literatus among mountains and water was not just a question of whiling away pleasant hours in the midst of transcendent nature. It meant a life that reflected the acquisition and practice of Confucian moral standards. Yi Yu wrote the following shijo:

I close my mountain door and sit at leisure.

I live with ten thousand books, my joy endless.

Should my Jove come to see me, tell her I'm not here.

Yi Yu emphasizes reading and the cultivation of learning as the supreme joys of a literatus buried in nature and he shows a determination to cut off all temptation from the outside world.

Kim Su-jang, a minor official in the mili-

tary mm1stry during the reign of Sukjong, wrote a shijo in which he takes objects commonly found in the country and uses them to compare the order of nature with the order of man:

I cut a tree on Great Learning Hill and make a Bright Virtue Boat.

I row across Citizen's River and tie up at Supreme Goodness Point.

Ah! I11 fish for the Three Principles and Eight Articles.

The literati who took to mountains and water spent much time and took great care in choosing the place where they intended to pursue learning and cultivate moral character. They often constructed lovely little gardens for themselves and regularly strolled, appreciating places of exceptional natural beauty, giving names to mountains, rocks and turns in the rivers, and creating in the process a living environment of added meaning related to their inner thought. The "eight scenes" and "nine songs (bends)" motif, so common in Korean poetry, is the most obvious example of this practice.

The nine songs (bends) (the Chinese kok character translates both as song and as bend) theme is particularly noteworthy. The nine songs are nine beauty spots in the local area about which poems were often composed. The original is Chu Hsi's "Nine Songs of Wuishan" (in Korean, Mui Mountain). Chu Hsi also wrote a ten-poem Wuishan boat song series which Choson literati subsequently used as a model when writing their own nine-poem series. The nine songs of Wuyishan are described from one through nine, and correspond to the progress of learning from the lower to the higher levels, or to stages of the Way represented by the exquisite natural beauty of each valley, or simply in terms of the natural beauty of each valley.

Choson literati composed poems in response to Chu Hsi's boat song, or discussed the character of the nine-poem boat series. Sometimes, too, they desig-

nated nine bends or beauty spots in a mountain, opening the heart and their own areas and composed a nine- shouting with all one's might brings a poem series celebrating such beauty. feeling of refreshing release to the After reading a book by Liu Kui re- crumpled inner man. According to our counting anecdotes associated with traditional beliefs, the mountain has a Wuishan, T'oegye wrote a nine-poem spirit, and those who live beneath or series rhyming with Chu Hsi's boat climb the mountain receive the spirit of song, which he discussed with literary the mountain and experience a deepenacquaintances. When Yulgok was ing of their humanity. studying in Haeju, he designated nine Choson literati left many accounts of local beauty spots and wrote his "Nine "leisurely days in the mountains." The Songs of Kosan." Kim Su-jang devel- scholar-official ChOng Ku (1543-1620) oped the area around Hwaumdong, on stresses while climbing Kayasan, "washthe northern slopes of Hwaaksan in ing the eyes and opening the heart on Hwach'on, into a scenic area featuring the mountain top." Looking out on a nine beauty spots (literally Valleys-Clouds-NineSongs) which he had the artist Cho Sae-gol paint.

"We view towering During the reign of Ch'oljong, Yi Won-jo built mountains and a pavilion for his retirement on Kayasan, set up listen to tinkling his own P'och'on-NineSongs (Bends) area and waters not just to celebrated the occasion with a nine-poem series, gladden the heart, rhyming with Chu Hsi's Wuishan boat song series. but to enable us to Yi is recognized for collecting and editing materifollow the way by als related to Wuishan from China and Korea. reviving the inner man. " Choson literati were accustomed to going up along the nine bends until they reached the water's source, and enjoying a life in nature de- landscape of clear blue waters as they voted to the cultivation of mind and flow down a mountain valley, he expresses the feeling of having his "heart body. cleansed." Washing the eyes and cleansing the heart are, of course, references Mountaintop Vistas The literati did not merely build to inner purification. It is important for houses on mountain slopes and river one's study purposes to cool the fires of banks. They went deeper and climbed desire that burn in the heart as a result higher to devote themselves to learn- of fixed interests and temptation, and to ing and personal cultivation, freeing the free oneself from thoughts and feelings inner spirit. What Mencius refers to as in daily life that are weighed down by "reviving one's spirit" is easier to mere convention. Thus climbing the achieve on the ridge of a mountain mountain does not merely involve when the vista of a broader world broadening one's vision; it also involves spreads before one's eyes. At the top of striving to broaden one's heart.

Those pursuing classical learning are encouraged when reading to take frequent walks in the yard in order to free the spirit; to close the book and take time to reflect, so that learning and thought may be in parallel; to engage by day in exercise that consumes energy and to nurture at night the ki or energy that fosters life. Both static and dynamic elements, yin and yang, are essential for personal cultivation and the acquisition of learning. A reading session is seen as static and crimped, and climbing up the mountain afterwards is seen as opening the mind and the heart.

Chong Ku realizes that "the good man reflects on himself when he sees the mountain." The dictum "Approach good as if it means climbing up, approach evil as if it means falling down" assumes that good is perfected in the effort to go up, while evil is realized in the luxury of going down. The refreshing vista that opens in front of your eyes on the mountaintop is a symbol of the blinding moment of truth one will inevitably experience if one continues to strive for a perfect knowledge of natural law as envisioned by Chu Hsi. The refreshing 15

vista from the mountaintop expresses (1737-1805) crossed Mach'on Pass on his Righteousness Perfected in Mountains The Sallim Faction, which had been that ultimate state of transcendence way to China and saw the vast sweep of which follows learning accumulated Liaotung Plain, he sighed: "It is a fine founded in the spirit of ChOng Mongover a long time. place to cry. I think I'll give it a try." As ju and Kil Chae, scholars from the last T'oegye tells us in an account of the baby cries when it leaves the narrow period of the Koryo Dynasty came inleisurely days on Sobaeksan: "What at dark womb and goes into the world, so to conflict with the Hun-gu Faction first was blocked, now is free," confirm- he wanted to cry upon seeing the broad which was all powerful in the court of ing in the course of mountain climbing expanse of China after living in the King Sejo. At the heart of the Sallim the process by which learning is ac- choking confinement of the Korean Faction's ideology was a reverence for quired and enlightenment is attained. Peninsula. He proclaimed that he also loyalty: ChOng Mong-ju died because his philosophy of loyalty The Buddhist master ' prevented him from Ch'on-in (1205-1248) unserving two dynasties; derstands leisurely days Kil Chae refused an offiin the mountains in terms cial post in the new dyof improving one's pernasty and buried himself sonal cultivation: "We in mountains and forests. view towering mountains and listen to tinkling When Sejo usurped the waters not just to gladden throne in 1455, powerful the heart, but to enable Hun-gu Faction officials us to follow the way by like ChOng In-ji and Shin reviving the inner man Suk-ju made sure t~a the Sallim Faction remained through the pursuit of the goodness and wisburied as before in the dom that comes from a country. Although a new union with nature." generation of promiClimbing mountains nent young bureaucrats brings a wider world into emerged. in the wake of view; one experiences a Cho Kwang-jo, repeated broadening of one's vipurges forced this new sion. Confucius said that generation to retire deepwhen he climbed Tunger and deeper into the shan (East Mountain), he countryside. considered the kingdom Throughout the periof Lu small, but when he od, the Sallim Faction's climbed T'aishan (Great sphere of operations was Mountain), he considered "' confined to mountains all heaven and earth ~ and forests, while the small. When we accom~ Hun-gu Faction firmly espany Confucius to the lf tablished itself in Seoul.

HwaiJmsa T;unple nesded in the skirts of Chirisan Mountain top of the mountain, we The Sallim Faction contintake in the world at a ued to cultivate learning glance and become awakened to the felt as if crying like a newborn baby and to revere loyalty, thus arming Way. Kim Chong-jik, a fifteenth centu- when he stood on top of Piro Peak in themselves with a critical sense of jusry Confucianist, says the reason he ad- the Diamond Mountains and looked tice in the face of the greed and corrupmired Confucius for climbing T'aishan down on the East Sea and when he saw tion of officialdom, a sense of justice and seeing heaven and earth and the the hazy skyline as he walked the gold- which became the literati mind-set of reason he admired the T'ang poet and en sands of the Changyon beach. We Choson. Literati who believed in righessayist Han Yu (768-824) for climbing see Pak Chi-won's superior consciousness teousness were always prepared to Hengshan was not because he wanted in the cry of rebirth and release from leave their official posts without regret to climb himself but because he wanted pain he emits upon viewing the new and return to the countryside, or they world after agonizing in the dark, chok- were prepared to devote themselves to experience their breadth of vision.

When Shirhak scholar Pak Chi-won ing, contradictory confines of his world. from the outset to learning in the beau16

ty of the countryside, and not assume a of leaders who were pivotal in spread- and others retreated deeper into the post at all. ing the "expel evil, protect justice" ide- mountains. Most representative scholKim Sang-han (1570-1652) and Song ology. They rejected totally the reform ars chose the road of retreat into the Shi-yol (1607-1689) were representative program being pushed by the Western mountains. leaders of the anti-Ching ideology that powers and devoted themselves to a The life of the literatus who retired emerged during the Manchu Invasion. radical expurgation of Western and into the mountains and gave himself to Kim Sang-han set himself up in a stone Japanese influence. study and the appreciation of wind and cave on the banks of the Han-gang, and When Queen Min was murdered by moon in a lovely, harmonious, natural many of his followers went deeper in- the Japanese in 1895 and Japanese influ- setting of mountains and waters reflectto the mountains along the upper ence became dominant, Yu In-sok or- ed the spirit of resistance: the ties of reaches of the Northern worldly temptation had Han. They lived in seclualready been cut and the sion in the harmony of ties of worldly desire had mountains and waters, been bridled. By retreatand their strong, incisive ing deeper into the opinions acted as an immountains, sticking resoportant vehicle in translutely to Confucian prinmitting the value judgciples, rejecting Japanese ments of the age. These aggression, and refusing were the Sallim scholars all contact and comproof the later Choson Dymise with Japanese innasty, men armed with a vaders, the scholars at the strong sense of justice. end of the nineteenth When Song Shi-yol century preserved this was pursuing study in his solid spirit of resistance in the face of aggression. old age in Hwayangdong In this historical reality, near Ch'ongju, he carved in large letters on the face mountains were a cozy of a cliff the "Nine Songs nursery, nurturing and of Hwayang" and some protecting Korean thought writings by Kings Sungand the literati mind-set.

However, the spirit of rejong and Sonjo that expressed in condensed sistance that is expressed by retiring from the world form the spirit of righand keeping the forces of teousness. The Sungjong aggression at a distance is piece recommended that ::o not the kind of positive atone never violate eti~ titude that changes the quette, and the Sonjo piece proclaimed that the ~ world and doggedly reef sists the forces _of aggresYellow River always Tosan Confucian Acade1ny in the 1nountains ofAndong sion. It is a negative attiflows ,east, a symbol for the steadfast nature of tude in that it tends to loyalty. weaken of itself in the ganized a "righteous army" known as When Japanese encroachment on the Chech'on Volunteers. He proposed course of seeking an exclusionist stabiliKorea was in progress along with three possible courses of action for ty. Meanwhile, the learning cultivated mounting Western pressure to open literati to respond conscientiously to in the mountains had positive reform ports in the late nineteenth century, the national calamity: raise an army of aspects. Much of the Shirhak or Practischolars supporting the "expel evil, pro- volunteers and sweep out the enemy; cal Learning program that emerged in tect justice" ideology emerged all over leave for the mountains and follow the the seventeenth century was develthe country. Yi Hang-no (1792-1868) old ways; or demonstrate fidelity by oped in the mountains by men like Yu was a pioneer among them. He found- dying for the cause. Most chose the Hyong-won, who retired to Pyonsan, ed his own school in the mountains "leave and follow the old ways" dic- and ChOng Yag-yong who lived in exnear Pyokkye which nurtured a group tum. Some left the country as exiles, ile in Kangjin. + 17

Mountain Paintings has been praised as a pleasure of the Good and the wise. Now, sages follow the Tao through their spirits, and the virtuous comprehend this. Landscapes display the beauty of the Tao through their forms, and Good men delight in this. Are these not similar?

I

I

I

l

Thus, I live at leisure, regulating my vital breath, brandishing the wine-cup and sounding the lute. Unrolling paintings in solitude, I sit pondering the ends of the earth. Without resisting the multitude of natural promptings, alone, I respond to uninhabited wildernesses where grottoed peaks tower on high and cloudy forests fill the depths. The sages and virtuous men, who have shone forth through the ages, had myriad charms (of nature) fused into their spirits and thoughts. What then should I do? I rejoice in my spirit, and that is all. What could be placed above that which gives joy the spirit? (Early Chinese Texts on Painting, Susan Bush tr., pp. 36-38) In the first quotation, Tsung Ping ascribes moralistic attributes to mountains by evoking the previously quoted passage from the Analects, and by listing famous mountains where legendary and historic figures "roamed."

On the other hand, the conclusion of his essay alludes to Taoist elements such as "regulating vital breath" and responding to "uninhabited wildernesses."

Judging from the statements made in another of his well-known essays, "Illuminating the Buddha" (Ming-Fo Lun), Tsung Ping believed that only the Buddha could realize the Tao (Way) with his spirit. Similarly, the theories presented in the "Preface to Painting Landscape" are syntheses of Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist thought.

Chong SOn's Complete View of Diamond Mountain, 1734 19

Tsung Ping was also responsible for laying an ideological foundation upon which landscape painting could establish the moral means for "purifying one's mind and contemplating the Way," while dreaming of a mountainous journey. Tsung Ping's biography in the Sung-shu (Liu Sung Dynasty History compiled by Shen Ylieh in the early sixth century), contains the following remarks, which were attributed to Tsung.

When I can no longer roam the great mountains (because of my old age and illness), I will only be able to purify my mind and contemplate the Tao, while lying (on my bed looking at the landscape painting), and dream of roaming in the mountains.

Thus, the function of the landscape painting entitled A Dream journey (Wayu-do),is to let the viewer experience the sensations of actually roaming great mountains. The four-character phrase, ching hoe kuan do (purifying one's mind and contemplating the Way), is often written in extra large seal-script characters at the beginning of long landscape hand scrolls to prepare the viewer for proper appreciation of landscape paintings.

Not all landscape paintings, however, have profound religious or moralistic implications. Because of the philosophical and intellectual theories behind them, however, Chinese, Korean and Japanese landscape paintings are bound to be fundamentally different from their Western counterparts and for that reason, from the very earliest stage of artistic development, landscapes have been considered the most important theme for painters. With the exception of slight fluctuations in artistic trends, landscapes have been more highly favored than any other subject matter since the tenth century and continue to be today.

Korean Mountain Paintings Prior to True-view Landscape Painting As mentioned before, the develop20

The hunting scene on the ceiling of the Tokhiing-ri Tomb.

ment of Korean mountain painting is closely related to mountain painting in China. From a technical standpoint, the early stages of Chinese mountain painting were exemplified by simple linear depictions of mountain forms, both with and without colors, and gradually evolved into fantastic "blue-and-green" landscape paintings.

Sometime during the late Tang period, ink monochrome (literally, water and ink) paintings based on a radically different aesthetic principle emerged.

Korean landscape painting developed in a similar fashion , as can be seen in the tomb murals of the Three Kingdoms period (1st century B.C.-7th century A.D.). Because most of the tombs with murals are in North Korea, they can only be studied indirectly through archaeological reports and publications from North Korea and Japan. The writer, therefore, was often frustrated by the limitations of secondary source material while conducting an in-depth analysis of a Kogury6 tomb mural study (published in 1991 by the Academy of Korean Studies).

Only two of the some eighty Kogury6 tomb murals can be accurately dated: Tomb No.3 in An-ak (Hwanghae-do Province), dated A.D. 357, and the T6khUng-ri Tomb in Kangs6 District near P'y6ngyang, dated 408. The hunting scene on the ceiling of the

T6khUng-ri Tomb highlights a preliminary stage of Korean landscape painting. The disproportionately stylized and oversimplified nature of this work serves as a reminder that hunting, too, was also a mountainous activity.

Three of the burial chamber walls in Tomb No. 1, which is located in P'y6ngj6ng-ri Village, An-ak County, Hwanghae-do Province (excavated in 1989), are decorated with far more advanced landscapes than the one found in the T6khung-ri Tomb. According to the excavation report, on the eastern, northern and western walls of the chamber are ink mountain range drawings totally devoid of colored pigments.

Because part of the eleven-character inscription located on the western wall is illegible, it is impossible to date the painting on that basis. We can, however, confidently estimate that th.e tomb predates the fall of the Kogury6 Kingdom in 668. If it is ever proven that the P'y6ngj6ng-ri landscape is done only in ink, it will drastically alter the history of ink monochrome landscape painting in the Far East. It would also certainly be the earliest known Korean landscape painting, in the truest sense of the term.

The excavation report notes that Mt. W oramsan rises to the northeast of the tomb, and Mt. Kuwolsan is visible in the western distance, and suggests that the re alistic mountain landscapes found on the walls of this burial chamber are of these mountains. The following is an excerpt from this report: The mountains are outlined in thick ink lines and their rising and falling forms, as well as the slopes of the hills, are marked with distinct shading. Mt. Woramsan is lowlying and gentle, and the Mt. Kuwolsan on the western wall evokes a somber, mysterious feeling.

Whether the paintings are intended to be representations of nearby mountains or not, they are an interesting example of the other worldly "dream journey." Moreover, if they are truly

depictions of mountains surrounding the tomb, they are even more valuable in that they predate all other known true-view landscape paintings in Korea.

A relic that provides a glimpse of the landscape painting during the Paekche period (18 B.C~60 A.D.) is not a painting but a clay tile with a landscape design in low relief. This tile, which was discovered in Puyo, the last capital of the Paekche Kingdom, portrays mountains in a form not much different from the Chinese character shan, which refers to an image of three stylized peaks.

By overlapping such simple peaks, the craftsman who produced this particular piece successfully created an illusion of depth. The trees atop these peaks, although somewhat primitively done, evoke images of a wintry mountaintop at sunset. The craggy peaks in the foreground anticipate Chong Son's

Sansumun-jon, a Paekche clay tile depicting a quiet landscape.

Complete View of Diamond Mountain, with rocky peaks on the right, and soft earthen mounds on the left.

At the bottom of the tile is a horizontal rendering of what appears to be either stone slabs or stylized streams.

This is why the tile is called a san-

sum un-j6n, or a tile with a landscape design. Furthermore, since the design includes an old man who appears to be a monk roaming the mountainside, this "landscape tile" can be considered the earliest thematic example of man's romantic enjoyment of nature's landscape.

The examples mentioned above are considered to be the seminal beginnings of Korean landscape painting. If one is to judge from documented evidence, during the Koryo Dynasty (918~32) and the early part of the Chason Dynasty (1392~0) which followed, Korean landscape painting made considerable advances. Unfortunately, very few examples from those periods have survived.

An outstanding example of landscape painting from the early ~hosn period is Dream journey to the Peach BlossoiJl Spring (Mong'yu towon do), which was painted in 1447 by the

An Kyon's Drean1}ourney to the Peach Blossom Spring, 1447.

21

shrouded in dense mist. There is no road leading to it, an appropriate ploy suggesting that the only way to reach the place is to parachute in on a dream.

Emergence ofTrue-view landscape Painting in the late Ch080n Period

Chong SOn's Ten Thousand Waterfalls

foremost court painter, An Kyon. This masterpiece is said to have been commissioned by Prince Anp'yong (1418-1453), and is considered a representative sample of Korean landscape painting prior to the development of true-view landscape painting.

The Peach Blossom Spring was a much eulogized Shangri-la in Chinese literature, but An Kyon managed to make its fantastic utopian imagery even further removed from reality. Follow22

ing the Li-Kuo style of landscape painting which -emerged during the Five Dynasties and Northern Sung period, An Kyon's dramatic use of light highlighted the fact that the Peach Blossom Spring that he had to depict was the one seen in a dream, and thus conveying an atmosphere that is even more of a fantasy than in the original theme.

Except for a few pink blossoms, the Peach Blossom Spring itself is barely visible on the right side of the painting,

The term true-view landscape is used to denote paintings of landscape which exist in reality, as opposed to those of the imaginary scenery or those based on Chinese models. In this sense, it can also be called shilgyong sansu or real-view landscape painting, but the term chin-gyong sansu is the most widely used term in Korean art.

Strictly speaking, the origins of all landscape painting began in real scenery.

Korean landscape painting of the Koryo and early Choson periods, however, were heavily influenced by Chinese painting techniques and themes. The term chin-gyong, therefore, implies a distinct departure from a Chinese orientation.

The true-view Korean artistic tradition had begun earlier, but it was during the reigns of King Yongjo (17251776) and King ChOngjo (1776-1800) that interest in many aspects of Korean culture (i.e., history, literature, music, art) surged. Though the true-view landscape painting tradition declined somewhat during the late nineteenth century, it has continued to thrive to this day.

The Korean people's interest in geography, cartography and sightseeing expeditions is directly responsible for the development of the true-view landscape tradition, and subsequently has brought forth an outpouring of travel diaries, poems and paintings which record their life experiences. The most popular place to visit and write about was, by far, Mt. Ki:imgangsan (Diamond Mountain). More than sixty travelogues on the scenic locations of Mt. Ki:imgangsan were written between the late seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. It is, therefore, essential to compare Diamond Mountain paintings with written descriptions, in

order to fully understand how the people of that era perceived it.

Diamond Mountain was most realistically portrayed by Chong Son (1676-1759) in his two versions of The Complete View of Diamond Mountain.

One of these paintings is held ¡ by the Ho-Am Art Museum, and the other can be viewed at the Kansong Art Museum. These two paintings, together with his other well-known work, Clearing After Rain Over Mt. Inwangsan (Inwang Chesaek), represent eighteenth century true-view landscape painting tradition at its best. To present the entire Diamond Mountain range in a single painting, Chong Son adopted a unique bird's-eye view approach to fill the painting almost to the top. His exceptional ability to portray its various aspects is vividly expressed in the contrasting imagery of jagged peaks on the far side, and gentle undulating earthen mounds in the left foreground.

It is interesting to note ChOng Son's faithfulness to nature, after reading a

Kang Se-hwang's Entrance to Yongt'ongdong

travelogue description of the Diamond Mountains by one of his contemporaries Yi Man-bu (1664-1732). It is as if Yi was describing the mountain in Chong's painting instead of the mountain he actually saw.

Before me rises twelve thousand peaks forming a writhing range continuing into the distance. Looking at their jagged, craggy

froLD.

TraveJs to Songdo

peaks soaring high into the sky, I am seized with feelings of awe, wonder, love and exuberance that I felt as if I were thoroughly immersed in fresh water.

Ten Thousand Waterfalls (Manp'oktong), another true-view landscape painting of Diamond Mountain by Chong Son, now in the Seoul National

Kang Hiii-On's Mt. Inwangsan Viewed from Tohwadong in Late Spring 23

University Museum, captures a magnificent scene of mountain torrents rushing down from every direction to form a swirling pond. Yi Man-bu depicts Manp'oktong in his Collection of Writings on Diamond Mountain (Kumgangsan Ch'ongg1) as follows:

Manp'oktong ropes down from behind the P'yohunsa Temple to merge with water from Paekch'ondong and, skirting around Chang'ansa Temple, receives water from the south of T'aehobong Peak. It flows down to converge with the Mirukch'on and P'ungsokch'on streams, and upon reaching Such'un, convolutes with the swirling water of Ch'uamt'an to become the Soyanggang River that flows into the Han River and finally returns to the Western Sea. In another of his writings, Yi Manbu reiterates the traditional Far Eastern view of landscape mentioned earlier by claiming that he found in the grandiose and awe-inspiring characteristics of the Diamond Mountains, both the Confucian attributes of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and the virtues of literature.

Kang Se-hwang (1713-1791), a prolific literati-painter and a patron of gifted professional painters of the eighteenth century, also produced many true-view landscape paintings. The following is an inscription found on his painting Entrance to Y6ngt'ongdong ( Y6ngt'ongdong-gu), and on a leaf of an album, Travel to Songdo (Songdo kihaeng ch'6p).

The stones at the approach to Yongt'ongdong a're_as big as houses. They are even more surprising because they are covered with green moss. They say a dragon rose out of the pool here, but it is rather incredible.

Nonetheless, this is a rare sight to behold.

Characterized by a combination of light ink, and refreshing colors, this superb painting could easily be mistaken for a watercolor of the modern era. To highlight the enormity of the rocks, a scholar, probably the artist himself, is 24

depicted riding a donkey toward the narrow gorge followed by a servant.

In this painting, Kang Se-hwang on the one hand employed his own dynamic techniques, and on the other hand displayed his allegiance to the Southern School tradition of literati painting by employing the dotting method created by Mi Fu and his son Mi Yu-jen of Sung China. Kang puts forth his view of landscape painting in an inscription he wrote on Mt. Inwangsan Viewed from Tohwadong in Late Spring by Kang Hui-on (1710-

1764).

The constant worry of a painter of trueview landscapes is that his work might resemble a map. This painting, however, is thoroughly faithful to the actual scenery, without sacrificing various traditional rules of painting.

The gist of this statement is that the true-view landscape painting should be faithful to both the scenery depicted without descending to map-making, and to the traditionally orthodox guidelines for painting found in China.

Yi In-mun's (1745 - 1821) work entitled Diamond Mountain Viewed from Tanbally6ng stands out among the true-view landscape paintings of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Yi In-mun was a contemporary of Kim Hong-do, the foremost painter of this period, however, and for this reason his work was overshadowed by that of Kim. What makes Yi In-mun's painting so special is its unique composition. This uniqueness is easily explained, however, if one considers the artist's perspective as spelled out in the title "Viewed from Tanballyong." As before, Yi Manbu left an apt description of this part of Diamond Mountains.

After following the trail for 30 li, I reached the summit of a hill called Tanballyong, a peak of Mt. Ch'onmasan... Diamond Mountain rose to the east. Everywhere I looked, its peaks soared, looking like jewels, silver,

snowflakes and ice, stacked one atop another, until they reached heaven and there was no more sky to behold to the east or beyond... The priest Hyemil said, "People who come here to view Diamond Mountain regret the dense clouds that always o~scure the mountaintop, but today the sky is absolutely clear, allowing a clear view of the summit. How lucky you are to have such a rare opportunityf' The preceding examples of the trueview landscape paintings of the late Choson period and the contemporary literary descriptions of the Korean mountains clearly show the intertwined nature of the relationship between the visual arts and literature of the period. Thanks to these talented painters and writers, we have been able to appreciate the beauty of the mountains in an area not accessible to us today.

Mountains in 20th Century Painting . It is truly difficult to select one or two paintings of the twentieth century that are indisputably representative of the innumerable contemporary mountain paintings. It is an even more daunting task when one takes into account the vibrant art world's multitude of talented artists.

Nevertheless, the writer has attempted to use the same criteria previously put forth to choose two paintings that exemplify twentieth century Korean

Yi In-:mun's Dialnond

Mountain Viewed from Tanballyong (above left).

SOng Chae-hyu's The Mountain, 1976 (above right).

Song Su-na:m's Moon Bathed Hills, 1978 (right).

art. They may seem somewhat unfamiliar to those accustomed to the mountains and rivers paid homage to

by Yi Sang-born (1897 -1972) and Pyon Kwan-shik (1899-1976), but they are nevertheless refreshingly Korean.

Moon Bathed Hills, painted by Song Su-nam (b. 1938) in 1978, is an evocative rendering of moonlit hills with a thread-like stream depicted in a meticulously detailed style, reminiscent of the hyper-realism that was in fashion during the 1970s. In this painting, the artist attempted to harmonize the painting techniques of the East and West, and succeeded in creating an unforgettable image of a Korean mountain.

The Mountain, Song Chae-hyu's (b.

1915) 1976 work which is in the collec-

tion of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, is a simple color and ink rendering of a few mountain peaks and two masses of clouds. With a simple composition of repeated triangles, this dynamic painting of black outlines and almost monochromatic indigo patches, forcefully accentuates the mysterious nature of the mountain.

The dark brush strokes with an occasional flying white effect, exude an energy that brings to mind seal-script calligraphy.

The intrinsic mountain forms readily lend themselves to the artist's synthesis of various modes of representation. Abstract to the extreme, Song Chae-hyu created his mountains on this premise to arouse a powerful

awareness of these geographic eruptions. The backdrop of a sky similarly shaded in indigo hues, simultaneously provides a sense of expansiveness and unity to the entire work.

The artist's own words regarding what he considers a good painting illustrate this point succinctly: "magnificence free of arrogance; beauty and gentleness free of craftiness or frivolity." The phrase "free of frivolity" comes from the Chinese and Korean artistic tradition, which abhors vulgarity, and is thus a most appropriate way to describe Korean mountain paintings.

It reconfirms that the spiritual world embodied by the mountains is indeed the way to enlightenment. â&#x20AC;˘

25

orean life begins and ends in the mountains. The typical Korean is born in a bright, sunny house that faces a river, with a mountain as its backdrop, the ideal site for a home according to traditional geomantic beliefs.

And when life comes to a close, that same Korean is buried in a warm, dry spot in the mountains.

Korean life has always been closely liriked to the mountains. The Korean people's history, culture and spiritual consciousness are inextricably tied to the mountain ranges that crisscross the peninsula.

In this sense, traditional music in Korea has developed in close relationship with the rich emotional effect mountains have had on its people. Our ancestors felt their spirits soar each time they entered the mountains and they transformed this excitement into music and dance. It is in the mountains that they heard birds sing, saw butterflies flutter from flower to flower and enjoyed the beauty of wildflowers to create art, an inseparable part of Korean culture.

Mountains: The Origin of Sound ¡Indeed, the mountain was where "sound" began for Koreans. Early Koreans' first encounter with sound was probably the wind blowing through the mountains, or the vibrations of the earth's internal movements. They must have been amazed by the sounds and echoes sweeping through the hills and valleys.

Th<'; Chinese philosopher Chuang-tzu (365~290 B.C.) shared a similar idea of sound, or music, with the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras (c. 582~0 B.C.). He believed there were three types of sound: heavenly sound, human ~ound and earthly sound. Earthly sound referred to all the different sounds of the earth.

This concept of sound takes the form of an "earth symphony," similar to Pythagoras' concept of music as a delicate and grand "universal harmony."

28

Our ancestors felt their spirits soar each time they entered the mountains and they transformed this excitement into music and dance.

The Unsan Pyolshingut shmnan ritual (right) combines the sounds of the earth and the music of the spirit.

29

their knees and begged the old master to grant the king's wishes that Kwi-kum finally agreed to teach three of his treasured compositions to a pair of young, talented musicians named An-jang and Ch'6ng-jang.

This record not only shows the Shilla people's dedication to and pride in their music, but also the important role that mountains played in preserving and nurturing their musical tradition.

and "Chahadong" and "P'ungnipsong" of Kory6 all refer to mountains. But the most representative of all mountain songs is "Arirang," which has become a national song. In all variations of this famous tune the Arirang hills are a symbol of the Korean people's trials and tribulations. From this song alone, it is clear that mountains have always had a special meaning for the people of this country.

Aside from influencing music itself, mountains also provide an ideal stage for Korean music.

The age-old tradition of enjoying

Musical Themes Because Koreans are emotionally attached to mountains, it is obvious that mountains were and still are a popular and important subject in Korean music. Mountains often appear directly, either in the title or in the words of many Korean traditional music The construction of pieces.

P'os6kchong (right) From ancient times, reflects the ShiHa mountain names have people's love for been popular song titles. outdoor music and For example, the wellentertainment. known "S6n-unsan," "Mudungsan" and "Chiri-san" from Paekche (B.C. 18~ A.D. 660); "Ch'6ngsanpy6lgok," "Ch6ngsan" and "Ogwansan" from Kory6; and "Tangsan," "Ch'6ngsando" and "Paektusanshin-gok," modern compositions written in the traditional style. music, drink and company in the hills The most widely sung traditional and valleys is shared by China, Korea tunes today are folk songs, many of and Japan. The Chinese philosopher ~ 365) is prewhich also have mountain names in Wang Hsi-chih (A.D. 307 their titles. These include "Obongsan- sumed to have started the romantic ritt'ary6ng" and "Kumgangsant'ary6ng" ual of floating wine cups on streams and sharing drinks, songs and poetry from Ky6nggi-do, "Sany6mbul" from Hwanghae-do and "Shin-gosant'ary6ng" with his friends. This custom spread to from Hamgy6ng-do. Menarijo tunes, Shilla, as evidenced by the remains of mountain songs popular among rural P'os6kch6ng, the man-made, abalonepeople, have developed many distinct shaped stream for floating wine cups in Ky6ngju. regional variations.

This was the beginning of the musiSongs containing references to mountains are also numerous. The cal tradition of setting up a stage in well-known "Ch6ng-upsa" of Paekche mountains, where music, nature and

man could become one.

Many other music lovers kept up the tradition. Chos6n Prince Anpy6ng built a house in the hills near Seg6mj6ng to host friends who gathered to enjoy poetry, art and music. another famous Song Kan (1427~56), music-lover, often organized poetry gatherings in the hills around Seoul.

Pak Hyo-gwan and An Min-y6ng, two leading singers of Chos6n, built Udae (Pavilion of Friends) in the hills of Mt. Inwangsan and concentrated on performing for their fans.

Sandaenori, or musical performances

by itinerant troupes, were the formal theatrical style of performing music in the mountains. The word sandae, literally meaning "a stage in the mountains," referred to an elevated stage for various performing arts. The genre first began as a court music performance called narye in Kory6. In Chos6n, a special government office was set up to oversee sandaenori shows.

As court sandaenori slowly lost popularity, performers of different troupes formed separate itinerant troupes based in their hometowns. The only surviving form of sandaenori today is the 31

Songpa Sandae, together with Yangju pyolsandae which was revived by a new generation of troupers carrying on the sandae tradition. Yangju pyolsandae also carried on the tradition of performing in the mountains, mostly in the hills of Mt. Pulgoksan in Yangju.

Source of Inspiration The most prominent image of mountains in traditional Korean music is artistic pleasure and enjoyment.

As much as the mountain was an important subject in traditional music, it was also a source of inspiration that emphasized artistic appreciation in music. The mountains depicted as subjects of a musical tune often influenced the overall tone and aura of the piece itself, be it delicate, grand, beautiful or magnificent. Mountains indeed helped breathe life into the musical works.

Mountains have also been the site for holy rituals. Shamanistic and other religious rites, often performed in the mountains, have played a major role in the development of music, especially in ancient civilizations.

Various mountain rituals employing traditional music have existed in Korea.

A good example is the annual Mt. Songnisan rites at Popchusa Temple in Ch'ungch'ongbuk-do Province, which takes place in the tenth lunar month.

Traditional festivities mixing mountain rituals with music include the

Dnsan pyolshin-gut, the Tanoje Festival in Kangnung and the Hahoe Village Rites in Andong, which are still held today. These shamanistic rituals have been vital in the evolution of Korean music and are outstanding examples of the use of mountains as a holy place of worship and religious rites.

Today, shamanistic mountain rituals are still held, mostly in the mountainous areas along the eastern coast in Kangwon-do Province, from Samch'ok, Ulchin and W olsong to Yangyang and Kosong. According to a study conducted in the 1970s, over 100 villages in this area still carry on the pyolshin-gut tradition.

It is not difficult to see the influence that mountains has had on Korean music. As music is also a part of a nation's culture and way of life, Korean life is inseparable from mountains.

The evidence becomes even more clear in the Tan-gun myth. The mythical founder of Korea, Tan-gun came down to Mt. T'aebaeksan from the heavens, leading three powers into the human world. As this is the basic concept of the nation's foundation, it is no exaggeration to say the mountains have always been the home of the Korean mind and spirit. Moreover, as humans are constantly stimulated by their surroundings, mountains played a vital role in establishing an identity in Korean music and culture. â&#x20AC;˘

Many of Korea's festivals and rites, such as the Arirang Festival (above right) and the Yangju pyolshin-gut (right), are born ofLnountain m usical traditions.

32

33

The Mountain in Contemporary Fiction Yu]ong-ho Professor, English Literature Ewha Womans University

py61gok), to The Green Deer Anthology (Ch'6ngnokchip) by Cho Chi-hun,

verywhere you go in Korea you're sure to find mountains.

In fact, it is impossible to imagine life without them. Large and small, they are a fundamental element of the Korean conception of nature. Yi Chung-hwan (1690-1752), a Shirhak scholar and pioneer in the study of geography wrote: "Topographical conditions are the first priority in selecting a place to live, no matter where you go. Next come physical conditions, the character of one's neighbors, and finally, mountains and water.

If even one of these elements is missing, the site can hardly be called a good place to live." Clearly these four elements complement each other and cannot be considered separately.

We learn about the world in two ways-through formal education and experience-and mountains surely offer us the most direct of experiences.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Korean poetry.

Pak Mog-wol and Pak Tu-jin, mountains have been an emotional refuge, a spiritual home for the Korean people.

Modern fiction offers a much more diverse depiction of mountains, however. In both novels and short stories, they are more than just a lyrical image; they are a reflection of social realities.

In this article I would like to consider several examples of the mountain as portrayed in twentieth century fiction.

... I open the window And face the green mountain.

I never tire of the sound of water, Nor does my longing for.the mountain wane. ("Rain on the Plantain") Although one must be of a certain age to truly understand why Cho Chihun (1920-1968) longed so for the mountain he saw out his window every day, these words forcefully communicate one aspect of the Korean people's traditional understanding of mountains: From the Koryo song, "Ode to Green Mountain" (Ch'6ngsan 34

i ~

Life in the Mountains Pak Mog-wol's poem, "The Mountains Stand Around Me," offers a concise yet faithful representation of the simple farming people who scratch out a living deep in the mountains.

Though the poem shows all too clearly that mountain life offers no hope for wealth, status or glory, it also suggests that this lifestyle is rich for the dedicaself-sufficiency of the hardy tion a~d mountain people. A life surrounded by nature, removed from the corruption and depravity of urban society, is clearly healthy, and Pak's poem becomes the basis for the glorification of.. or an accommodation to rural life.

The realities of mountain life are easily abstracted and oversimplified.

Mountains are beautiful from a distance, and agrarian life in a mountain village can seem idyllic. In the eyes of an outsider who does not have to live there, mountain life is a marvelous thing.

"Mountain," a short story by Yi Hyosok (1907 -1942), typifies this phenomenon. Typical of Yi's work, "Mountain" is finely crafted and rich in

atmosphere. In it, the author is more interested in maintaining an essayist's tone than in developing the individual characters.

The story begins with Chung-shil's dismissal after 18 years as a farmhand on Old Kim's land. Falsely accused of attacking Old Kim's concubine, Chungshil is sent packing without a cent in back pay. He heads for the mountains, where, in the past, he had often gone to gather wood and nap. He sleeps in the forest and the next morning finds a beehive full of honey. It is autumn and there are many things to eat in the forest. Chung-shil works as a woodcutter, selling the firewood at the village market and buying potatoes, millet, salt and a pot with his proceeds. He builds a log cabin and is soon planning to raise chickens or hogs, and even hopes to marry a young neighbor girl.

The mountain life which Yi portrays is ideal. Everything is perfect. We all know mountain life is tenuous, though; one heavy rain and everything can fall apart, but Yi ignores this possibility, idealizing life in mountains and comparing it to the pollution of the village. One cannot help feeling that the author's portrayal of the characters' state of mind is less an articulation of reality than an expression of the author's fleeting and tentative understanding of mountain life. Yi's story better reflects an outsider's romantic longing than the mountain people's true mental state.

In his juxtaposition of mountains and the "village," Yi suggests the corruption, anarchy and injustice of urban life.

In this sense, "Mountain" exemplifies the pastoral literature which asserts the moral and environmental superiority of rural life within a dichotomous framework comparing and contrasting urban and rural society.

Mountain life is idealized in many works of contemporary Korean fiction, including, for example, "Echo," by 0 Y6ng-su (1914-1980). A relatively long short story, "Echo" depicts the lives of a couple who move to a small village on Chirisan Mountain after government

forces eliminate the "mountain people," as the communist guerrillas were called, after the Korean War. As in Yi Hyos6k's "Mountain," O's characters have been forced to a life in the mountains after losing their livelihood in the "village." The couple suffers innumerable hardships but finally manages to make a life for themselves. It is a life of stubborn poverty, completely dependent on the primitive natural economy, and yet they are happy, sharing their experiences with a shaggy dog and an old man who makes his living gathering medicinal herbs.

Here too the author has chosen to emphasize the positive aspects of mountain life, such as the joys of selfsufficiency, over the hardships of the "slash-and-burn" agriculture that this couple relied on for their livelihood.

Throughout the work, the reader senses the spiritual comfort of mountain life and the author's glorification of nature. Indeed, the characters suffer more from their feelings of displacement and loss after being forced from their home village than they do from the painful realities of life on Chirisan. O's "Echo" is another example of the idealization of mountain life through the eyes of a distant observer.

Of course, this is not true of all fictional accounts of the mountain lifestyle. We all know that the mountains are not always benevolent. They are home to ferocious tigers and poisonous snakes, precarious cliffs and surging rivers. "Forest Fire," a short story by Kim Tong-ni (b.1913 ), is a fine example of Korean fiction portraying the dangers of life in the mountains.

The stOry is set in a small village surrounded by mountains. The villagers rely on charcoal-burning for their livelihood and must eat pine needles to make it through the winter months.

The entire village is dependent on the good graces of Yun Sae-ry6ng, the richest man in the area, for their living.

When one of Yun's cows gets sick and dies, he and his farmhand decide to sell the tainted meat to the villagers.

However, a livestock official from the county seat orders them to bury the dead cow. After the official leaves the village, Yun and the farmhand unearth the rotting cow and sell the meat. The villagers fall ill with food poisoning, and a woman gives birth to a dead baby and dies. The people working in the charcoal caves in the surrounding mountains hear the ailing villagers' cries and rush down to help them. In the end, the fire from the charcoal caves spreads through the mountains, together with the cry, "Everyone is dying!"

This story portrays the frightening side of life in the mountains: the villagers' poverty and ignorance and nature's ruthlessness.

These, of course, are not the only depictions of mountains in Korean fiction.

There are many variants on these themes, many combinations of these models, but one thing is for certain: mountains were the most common, the most familiar landscape for Korean fiction during our many years of poverty.

Let us turn now to the transformation that the mountain theme has undergone in the course of more recent social changes.

Dissidents and Rebels Recluse scholars, who turn their backs on society and retreat to the mountains, are common in East Asian culture. But why do they go to the mountains? Because they loathe the world. They may claim that they are drawn by the mountains but that is no different than saying they d~spie secular life. ¡ Tales of dissident intellectuals fleeing society for the mountains are common in the modern novel. There are also many stories of resistance groups hiding in the mountains. These people have voluntarily dropped out of society or have been forced into exile. In a sense, they are fugitives from society.

Yi Mun-gu's Kim Shi-sup is a fine example of the dissident intellectual genre. Kim Shi-si:ip (1435-1493), a scholarly relative of Chason's King Tan35

jong, gave up his studies and dreams of becoming a government official for the life of a wandering monk after hearing Tanjong's power had been usurped by his uncle, later known as King Sejo. Yi Mun-gu depicts Kim's life from the age of fifty when he went to Soraksan Mountain. Kim may have lived in the mountains but his life was quite different from life portrayed in the pastoral novels mentioned above.

In the Confucian eyes of the patriotic Kim Shi-sup, the mountains were a symbol for his search for truth as they were for another notable Chason literati Yang Sa-on (157~84).

Just as all phenomena appear as a "forest of

symbols" to the Western symbolist, so too are all phenomena seen as a "forest of allegorical meanings" by the Confucian patriot. That is, both terrestrial and celestial objects stimulated the virtuous man to further develop his moral integrity.' When nature is portrayed as an allegorical forest, its fundamental beauty is hidden more often than it is expressed openly. Thus, in Kim Shi-sup, Yi Mun-gu moderates his descriptions of nature.

Mountains and mountain villages also appear as temporary "liberated zones," that is, base camps for dissident resistance forces. Perhaps most representative of this genre is Im Kkok-chOng by Hong Myong-hui (18~ 1968). Chival36

rous bandits, Hong's characters travel so much in their valiant battle against corrupt officials and injustice that the novel reads like Taedong Y ojido, a nineteenth century geography reference, or Yi Chung-hwan's T'aengniji from the eighteenth century. This clearly reflects a connection with the flood of Korean nationalism that began to rise in the 1920s.

Indeed, the popularity of the historical novel, which was just emerging at that time, was to a large extent a manifestation of this nationalist trend, which was also reflected in the new interest in historical works and travel accounts.

For the Korean people, so humiliated by colonial rule, this confirmation of their nation's independent history had healing effects. It soothed their injured pride and awoke in them some hope for independence.

On the other hand, it offered an outlet for the tension that had built up between the Korean people and the Japanese colonial authorities.

One could say that Im tJ Kkok-ch'ong shared 1f ~ with the travel accounts <( of the same period a nationalistic impulse dedicated to an understanding of and love for the Korean land.

Hwang Sok-yong's Chang Kil-san is another example of modern fiction portraying the mountain as a refuge for anti-establishment resistance groups.

This tale is similar to Im Kkok-chOng in that it depicts Chang Kil-san, a Robin Hood-like figure active in the late seventeenth century. Hwang's geographic rendering of Ch6llyong Pass in Chang Kil-san reminds us of Hong's Im Kkok-

chOng. Throughout history, mountains have been a sanctuary for runaway slaves, peddlers, men of humble birth and other anti-establishment groups because

they are isolated, removed from government authority and beyond the arm of the law. Thus the mountains represent more than a psychological rejection of the outside world; they are literally an escape from and rejection of the establishment.

It would hardly be an exaggeration to say the mountains portrayed in Yi T'ae's Southern Army, a best-seller in the late 1980s, are an extension of those described by Hong Myong-hui in Im Kkok-chOng. For fugitives from society and self-proclaimed rebels, ¡the mountains are a hideout, a base for operations. The mountain life described in Southern Army differs from that portrayed in historical novels, however.

The "mountain people" of historical novels, like Im Kkok-chong, may lead hard lives but the frontier is always open to them. They have an .escape route, or at least, that is the way it goes in the novels.

However, on Hoemunsan and Chirisan, the mountains described in Southern Army, there is no sanctuary.

The government forces hunting communist guerrillas are everywhere, and there is ultimately no escape from the long arm of the law. The mountains are not always friendly; they can be cold and threatening, a killing field. In its rejection of a romanticized depiction of mountain life, Southern Army represents a' dramatic literary departure and a biting criticism of the fallacies of earlier portrayals of "mountain people" in fiction.

Like the many historical novels, including Im Kkok-chOng and Chang Kilsan, _which portray the mountains as a hideout for anti-establishment groups, Yi Pyong-ju's Chirisan and Cho Jungrae's T'aebaeksanmaek depict mountains as a place of struggle and frustration. ¡The authors contrast nature's continuity with the fleeting transience of man. Indeed, it is hardly a coincidence that Koreans are buried in the mountains. The mountains are the home of the dead, a place of continuity and rebirth.

Modern Recreation While mountains can be a way of life, a livelihood, they can also be a place for recreation and pleasure-seeking. Hunting was originally a means of survival but it has long since become a recreational activity. In the pre-liberation period, both Yi T'ae-jun and Yi Hyo-sok wrote stories entitled "The Hunt." Yi T'ae-chun's version tells of a wild boar hunting trip; Yi Hyo-sok's story depicts some students' experience while deer hunting. Both stories reflect an important social change for the mountains are portrayed as a playground, not as a place where people must work to make a living. People had the time and means for recreational activities. In fact, recreational mountain climbing appeared in Yi Hyo-sok's short story, "Mountain Spirit," as early as 1939.

From the 1960s, recreational climbing and hiking were quite common, and mountains were no longer portrayed as the exclusive domain of impoverished farmers or resistance groups. They were now part of society, part of the status quo.

So ChOng-in's Azalea Festival considers social conditions and conventions through a tale of two young women and a middle-aged couple who meet while hiking on Chirisan. In this work, So uses his outstanding prose to create a gripping portrayal of hiking courses on Chirisan and elsewhere around the country.

However, the focus of Azalea Festival is on the conventions and language of our society as portrayed in the two pairs of central characters. So vividly juxtaposes the frivolity of the younger generation and the seeming vulgarity of the middle-aged, revealing how mountain climbing functions to relieve the stress of life in modern society. He uses detailed dialogue as a means of developing his characters, and in this dialogue he shows signs of profound introspection. Rich meaning is expressed in this scene at the azalea festival where the significance of the festival

So's observation about the temporal nature of individual experience and the repetitive nature of history has special meaning for us. The survival of the

to the mountains, of our meditation on the mountains themselves. In this sense, hiking in the mountains, that is embracing the mountains as a place for recreation and pleasure-seeking, means the mountains are a place for meditation and introspection. In the end, the mountains portrayed in fiction and poetry are one. The mountains portrayed in traditional poetry offer the reader an opportunity for contemplation and introspection. On one hand, the transformation of the mountain's function in modern fiction reflects social change, while on the other, it has served to conform to the mountains portrayed in poetry.

student movement is assured by this constant recharging, by this constant transfusion of new blood. Though the path may be strewn with personal setbacks, though moderation may be left by the wayside at times, the temporal nature of the student movement's constituency is what makes it permanent; that is what ultimately brings it the dignity of tradition. This concept of the repetition and continuity of history, expressed through the azaleas which bloom and die year after year, is linked to the East Asian understanding of human history through nature and the passing of the seasons.

Positive or negative, this philosophical tradition is born of our relationship

The¡ mountain has become a symbol for the environmental problems facing modern society today. Over the last generation we have managed to revive our forests and mountains, but at the cost of polluted water. We are now faced with the problem of protecting our mountains, our forest and land from acid rain and other harmful side effects of industrialization. Korean fiction has not yet dealt with this problem. We must recognize the link between the threat to the environment and our own survival.

Our mountains are awaiting the emergence of a writer with the imagination to respond to the environmental threat that is facing us all. â&#x20AC;˘

and the student activist movement overlap: "I hope that's the last one to die. Why does it keep happening over and over?"

"One bird dies and another dies the next time. Each dies just once. But, to us, watching from the outside, it seems like it's happening over and over again ... One's own death seems a unique event, but actually it happens over and over again, and it'll continue to happen in the future."

37

.The Stone · Horse Ear ·Mountain '

nyone who has grown up in a mountain village knows there are some memories you simply can't erase. I have lived in the city for decades, but I still remember the thrill I got snitching apples from the neighbor's orchard. I still remember the lazy days I spent playing in the river without a thought to schoolwork. I still remember the mouth-watering taste of sweet potatoes roasted over a charcoal brazier on a long winter night. Those memories are part of me now, and yet as a child, my mind was filled with curiosity about the outside world. My dreams lay at the end of the road that snaked past my village to wind through the mountains and disappear. My friends and I would chase the local bus as it made its daily trip across the fields, loaded down with passengers bound for market, and when it had rattled out of sight, we gazed in silence at its trail of red dust.

That childish curiosity about the outside world still exists in the mountain villages of Chin-an in Ch6llabuk-do Province, but you won't find any buses kicking up dust there now, for its roads have long since been paved, making way for the many visitors to Maisan, or Horse Ear Mountain.

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The approach to Horse Ear Mountain,

through the rolling hHl.s ofChollabuk-do Province, is dramatic,

the sight ofits HJany stone pagodas in a snow stor.tn n1ystical.

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41

Yi Kap-ryong was driven to Horse Ear Mountain by a divine calling to save the world.

Horse Ear Mountain is located about an hour's drive from Chonju, the provincial capital. It is obvious how it got its name: two enormous stone peaks shaped like horse ears pierce the sky above Maisan Provincial Park.

From a distance, you are curious; as you get closer, you're downright amazed. The approach to Horse Ear Mountain is especially breathtaking on a foggy morning when the peaks seem to bob on the clouds like a huge sailboat. In summer, the verdant pinnacles resemble a lazy dragon, and in autumn, they resemble soft brown horse ears.

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Stone Pagodas Horse Ear Mountain is home to a legion of mysterious stone pagodas. The trail up the ravine between the peaks twists through a forest of moss-covered stone spires, great and small, centered around a modest Buddhist temple called Kumdangsa. Some are little more than a stack of natural stones, others tower as high as 20 meters. Originally there were 108 pagodas, symbolizing the 108 agonies of humanity found in Buddhist thought. Today only eighty remain, but they rouse the curiosity of all who see them.

While the pagodas differ slightly, they can be divided into two broad categories: single pillars of small stones and imposing conical towers made of a large and small stones. The stones themselves are of all shapes and sizes.

Some could fit in the palm of your hand and others would take two people to carry. No mortar or dovetailing join the stones, nor have they been dressed to make them fit together.

These mysterious pagodas are made from the kind of rocks you would find along a riverbank or a roadside.

Perhaps most amazing is the fact that these pagodas have been standing for nearly a century. They line the slopes of the narrow ravine between the two horse ear-shaped peaks, where the winds are fierce, especially during the summer typhoon season. It is not uncommon for trees to be knocked down by a gust of wind, but the pagodas remain standing. You can shove the foundation of the tallest pagoda but it won't budge.

What's the secret to the pagodas' longevity?- How did they come to be built in that slippery ravine? It is hard to imagine anyone keeping their footing on those steep slopes, much less balancing stone upon stone to create a pagoda.

I've tried it with two or three stones but the more stones you get, the more difficult it is to balance. And what happens when the pagoda gets 10 or 15 meters high? You could build a wooden scaffold around the pagoda or make an

earthen foundation, but how are you supposed to keep your footing? The pagodas clearly transcend common sense and science as does their creator, the legendary Yi Kap-ryong.

A Hermit with Magical Powers Yi was born in Imshil, Chollabuk-do, in 1860. A student of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, Yi left his village at age twenty-five to lead the life of an ascetic at Horse Ear Mountain. He was driven there by a divine calling to save the world and spent his days praying and meditating. He ate only the

raw foods he could gather in the mountains, wore shoes carved from wood, and endured winter after winter in a single suit of thin cloth.

Yi began erecting the stone pagodas in 1884 and continued until 1914. He collected most of the stones within a 12 kilometer radius of the mountain, but some of the larger stones he collected during his travels around the country.

In Asia, one often hears tales of people with mysterious powers, tales of women who can tell the future, of men with the ability to transcend time and space, stories that defy the imagination.

Yi Kap-ryong was one of these people.

His relatives say he predicted the outbreak of the Korean War and the invention of television. He also predicted the development of disposable plates and cups and the terrible pollution caused by the increase in garbage. He even predicted the date of his own death. Of course, he must have had fantastic powers to build all those pagodas on such steep slopes.

Kumdangsa was built in 814 by a monk from China and restored several times over the centuries. The temple appears to have had few connections

with the pagodas or with Yi Kap-ryong, but it is now responsible for overseeing the pagodas.

It is only a 10-minute walk from the parking lot to the temple and the stone pagodas. Cars can make the trip from Ch6nju in ¡an hour. In Yi Kap-ryong's day it took an arduous trek through the mountains to get there, but now we can have lunch in Ch6nju and snack on chocolates as we gaze at the mysterious treasures of Horse Ear Mountain. That doesn't make them any less mysterious, though, for the magic of Yi Kap-ryong lives on in his curious pagodas. â&#x20AC;˘

43

¡

SEOUL 600

Kim Byung-mo Professor, Archaeology Hanyang University

Legacies

he Han-gang River flows west from Mt. T'aebaeksan in Kangwon-do Province, past Yoju to meet the Pukhan-gang, which flows southwest from Mt. Kumgangsan. From there, the Han continues westward, through the center of Seoul. It is then joined by the Imjin-gang and flows into the Yellow Sea. The Han winds across the Korean countryside for some 514 kilometers.

It's not long compared to the great rivers of the world, but its streams are abundant and clean and provide an ideal habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. Korea's major rice granaries lie along its banks, and ships used to sail about 330 kilometers up stream from the river's mouth.

From prehistoric times, human civi-

T

lizations have developed along large rivers. Wild animals gathered there for water, and people settled to live in pit dwellings and hunt for food. The Han is no exception.

In the Seoul area, many Neolithic pit dwelling sites have been found along the Han in the Amsa-dong and Misadong areas, suggesting that Neolithic people formed villages and lived as a community there. These early people must have made their living from fishing and gathering shellfish.

Farm tools unearthed in the Kimp'o and Yoju areas indicate rice growing technology reached the peninsula from Southeast Asia during the Bronze Age. Dolmens near Ch'unch'on, Kimp'o and Kanghwado Island suggest a new burial system was also introduced from Southeast Asia at this time.

The Han-gang River flows throughout Korean history. Yangsu-ri (above), at the fork of the river's northern., and southern tril}utaries, has been an important transportation hub for centuries. Paekche remains (right) indicate a flourishing culture along the river's banks.

46

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Neolithic ranains at the Amsa-dong site in Seoul (top), Paekche fortresses, Mongch'ont'osiJng (nJiddle) and P'ungnapt'osiJng (bottom). On the facing page, a view of the river's upper reaches in Kangwon-do Province.

48

<(

Han-gang in History The Han was referred to as taesu, or long stream of water, during the first and second centuries. Judging from the inscription on the tombstone of King Hot'aewang, it was called Arisu during the Koguryo Dynasty ( 37 B.C~AD 668). The History of the Three Kingdoms indicates the river was called Ukriha during Paekche (18 B.C~ A.D. 668). With the influence of Chinese culture in the late Paekche period, the name was changed to Hansu; that name evolved into Han-gang, the pressent name by which it has been known for over 1,000 years.

The river was under Paekche rule until 475 when the kingdom was attacked by Koguryo from the north.

Paekche subsequently moved its capital south to Kongju. Shilla (57 B.C~AD 935), a kingdom that grew intq a great power in the southeast part of the Korean Peninsula, took control of the river in the sixth century. The river gave Shilla access to the Yellow Sea. Trade with China caused a boom in Shilla's economy, giving it the means to unify the peninsula under its rule in 668.

Because the Han was dominated at different times by Koguryo, Paekche and Shilla, a wide range of remains from the three kingdoms are found along the river: Koguryo tombs in Ch'unch'on and Yoju; Paekche royal tombs in Seoul's Sokch'on-dong area; numerous fortresses including Ach'asansong, Mongch'ont'osong and P'ungnapt'osong in the Seoul area; and lsongsansong Fortress in Hanam City in Kyonggi-do Province. A large part of the P'ungnapt'osong fortress and the Paekche tombs in Sokch'on-dong were slated for demolition in the 1980s when the sites were included in the plans to build new roads in preparation for the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. Thanks to strenuous protests by archaeologists and historians, the road plans were changed and the historic remains preserved.

The Unified Shilla Kingdom (68~935) constructed many Buddhist

temples along the Han-gang and in the hills of Mt. Pukhansan. Mangwolsa and Sunggasa, which still exist, are famous Buddhist monasteries built during this time.

During the Kory6 period (918-1392), the estuary of the Han again played an important role in trade with neighboring countries. Koryo built Chondungsa Temple and Ch'amsongdan, an altar for worshiping the nation's founder Tangun, on Kanghwado Island, which served as the kingdom's temporary capital during the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century.

Choson (1392-1910),. the kingdom that replaced Koryo, made its capital in today's Seoul and called it Hanyang.

The Han-gang area thus resumed its role as the center of the nation and has continued to play this role for the last 600 years.

During the reign of the Choson Dynasty, which made Confucianism a way of life, five magnificent royal palaces were built in Seoul, and tombs for twenty-seven kings and their families were built within 40 kilometers of the capital.

Cultural Diversity . With Mt. Pukhansan to the north and the Han River to the south, Seoul is situated in the most ideal site for a national capital, according to traditional geomantic beliefs, which guided theselection of many ancient capitals of East Asian countries.

After Japan took over the Korean Peninsula at the turn of the nineteenth century and put an end to the 518-yearlong rule of the Choson Dynasty, the capital city was renamed Hansong and later Kyongsong. Upon liberation from

Kanghwado Island, at the nlighty river's mouth, bears witness to the long histozy ofhuman civilization in Korea: A prehistoric dobnen, Ch'am.sOngdan, and Chondiingsa Temple (counterclockwise from near right).

50

-¡

i

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Japanese colonial rule in 1945, the capital's name was changed to Seoul.

According to linguists, the name Seoul is rooted in the word sh6bul, "capital" in the Shilla language. With time, sh6bul came to be pronounced s6rab61 and then Seoul. Because it is a pure Korean word, Seoul is the only city in East Asia that cannot be written in Chinese characters.

In modern Korea, the Han divides the capital city into Old Seoul, the area north of the river, and New Seoul, the area south of the river which is now referred to as Kangnam, meaning "area south of the river."

Today, the river still provides most of the water for the paddies and other fields in the area and is used by the 11 million people of Seoul for drinking and other daily uses.

The Han witnessed Korea'~ glories and tragedies through so many centuries and is now flowing into the twenty-first century. It flowed while the powers of East and West were knocking on the Hermit Kingdom's door in the nineteenth century and flowed during the Korean War. It also witnessed the triumph of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

Now the banks of the Han have turned into an over-populated metropolis crowded with residential areas, commercial centers and factories.

It is" facing a new phase of development with the construction of the Yongjongdo International Airport near its estuary.

The remains along the river embody a wide range of cultural diversity and richness, from Buddhist to Confucian relics. Today's relics are mostly legacies of our modern industrial civilization.

Ironically, a large number of Christian churches are lining up along the river, evidence of the most recent religious legacy.

It makes one wonder what archaeologists centuries from now will make of the unusual mixture of remains left from Korea today. + 51

Future

the Han." From now on, Seoul should strive to become a creative, international city harmonizing its past with modernity.

To what image should Seoul aspire as it undergoes self-transformation?

What Seoul is may be important, but what Seoul should be is more critical.

Cities represent civilizations. A civilization without cities cannot exist. In turn, great civilizations have spawned great cities. Lewis Mumford, a noted sociologist, once wrote that a city is a reflection of its residents' spirit. The city influences the mentality of its residents. If this is true, then urban culture is a decisive factor in the form ation of civic spirit. A city that goes through endless transformation should be more than a part of the history of urban development; it must be a comprehensive aggregate of culture and civilization.

Three Images Defining Seoul's image or its unique identity is surely fundamental to its development as an international city, or a world center. Then, what images are most representative of Seoul?

There are three such images. The first is the image of Seoul as a city in harmony with nature. Paris has its Seine, and

54

Seoul has its Han. Its skylines unfold beautifully along the Han-gang River, and the riverbanks provide a place of recreation for citizens. The riverscape is one of the two axis of the scenic framework of Seoul. The other is the mountainscape comprising Pukhansan, Namsan and Kwanaksan. Together the two form a natural framework symbolizing the unchanging nature of the city. This natural framework is considered Seoul's most important attribute.

As mentioned earlier, this natural framework is the very reason the Chos6n Dynasty chose the site to establish its capital.

The second image is Seoul as a historic city. Despite the vicissitudes of its long history, Seoul has kept intact many of its ancient cultural heritage since its establishment as the nation's capital six centuries ago. The old city wall gates and royal palaces, now located at the heart of the city, eloquently testify to Seoul's historicity, and serve as places for relaxation as well as retrospection. These and other historic monuments are a part of daily life in Seoul.

The Insa-dong Street lined with antique shops and the Kahoe-dong area where traditional Korean houses are preserved are among the most

renowned places in Seoul for showcasing the essence of our cultural heritage.

Preservation and creation are the most basic propositions in city planning. History lives and breathes through every facet of Seoul, coexisting with modern civilization. In short, the preparations for the coming century must involve efforts to both preserve the past and create things new so that both can coexist in harmony.

The third is Seoul as an international city of culture. Seoul has already hosted the 1988 Seoul Olympics and numerous other international events.

Through such events, the information, culture and knowledge of every nation came together in Seoul for lively exchanges. At the same time, Korea has had opportunities to introduce its culture to the world. This year, "Visit Korea Year 1994" programs are be~ng continuously held to further introduce our traditional music, food and customs. In addition, city planners are developing target landscapes such as history parks.

Yet, more concerted and sophisticated efforts are needed tQ enhance Seoul's image as a cultural city.

Hub of Northeast Asia The world is undergoing rapid

change. We are witnessing the surging trends of internationalization and globalization with the twenty-first century only several years away. While advanced nations, especially the United States and Japan, are trying to advance their economic interests under the name of free trade, the newly industrializing nations of Southeast Asia, including China with its abundant natural resources, are approaching Korea's level of development which had been strongly supported by a highly skilled labor force. As such, Korea has come under a double burden, resulting in the term, "the dilemma on the Han." Domestically, with the restoration of a civilian government in 1993 after three decades of military rule, democracy is being vigorously instituted across all sectors, including the function of local administrations. If full-fledged local autonomy is realized, the investment and development policies that have favored Seoul would be refocused on other regions. As a result, Seoul's pace of growth would slow down. In addition, there are increasing signs that territorial unification with North Korea may become a reality in the near future. The reunification of the Korean Peninsula, though a long-

~ ~

Seoul's architecture reflects the capital's past and future. Above, the Korea

standing national dream, would result in various problems including massive migration of North Koreans to the South, not to mention the hefty financial burden of unification, such as the cost of alleviating North Korea's economic troubles and reconstructing its outdated social infrastructure.

These domestic circumstances, together with external factors, suggest a precarious future for Seoul. Still, now is the time for Seoul to reaffirm its status as one of the largest cities in the world and enhance its cultural standing as a historic city. Seoul must make the most of this period to transcend the Cold War ideology and be reborn as the capital of a reunified country, which can promote harmony and prosperity for all Koreans. Seoul should also employ its geopolitical position to the fullest to become the "Hub of Northeast Asia," linking the ¡Pacific Ocean and the Asian continent.

World Trade Center.

Below fron1left: Na.nJdaen1un Gate, a renJinder of Seoul's royal

past; Seoul at night; the DU Building, synlhol of the city's LDarch into the future.

The Future of Seoul Seoul must undergo many changes in order to ride the tide of internationalization and globalization into the twenty-first century. In view of current trends toward internationalization, the future of Seoul can be surmised as

55

follows.

First, Seoul will become a hub for the Asia-Pacific region in the twentyfirst century. The Asia-Pacific region, home to 40 percent of the world's population and occupying 30 percent of the world's total land area, currently produces 60 percent of the world GNP. Furthermore, the region's importance in the world economy is ever increasing. As John Hay said, "The Mediterranean is the sea of the past; the Atlantic, the sea of the present; and the Pacific, the sea of the future ." The Asia-Pacific region will emerge as the main stage of world history in the coming century. Seen from this perspective, Seoul must perform not only the role of capital of a united Korean nation, but also a hub for this vibrant region.

Second, Seoul will become a link between Beijing and Tokyo at the center of Northeast Asia. The advent of the Asia-Pacific era will require close cooperation between the countries of the region. In Northeast Asia, which will undoubtedly emerge as the leader in the Asia-Pacific era, there is a great possibility for the creation of a structure for mutual cooperation in which Japan's technology and capital, South Korea's experience in development, and China and North Korea's natural resources and abundant labor force will come together. When economic cooperation between Korea, China and Japan becomes a reality, an axis linking the great cities of Northeast Asia, namely Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo, will come into being and Seoul will emerge as the center of BESETO (an acronym made up of the initial two letters of Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo).

Third, Seoul will become the pride of the Korean people. We Koreans perceive Seoul as our most representative city. Seoul has always held a special place in our hearts during both good and bad times. The demise of ideological confrontation and the thawing of international relations are now providing us with the possibility of re56

unification. Since Seoul has always been an integral part of the lives of all Koreans, our love for Seoul will endure as the source of an even greater pride after unification. Seoul's role as the center of both administrative and economic activities will continue to increase, and serve as the engine for Korea's continued growth. When the rapid population increase declines or stops so that the city can become a more pleasant place to live, Seoul will become a symbol of pride for future generations to come.

Strategic Projects For Seoul to grow into a great international city, extensive urban infrastructures are needed to effectively link airports, harbors and teleports. In addition, in order to become a transferer of information, technology and culture instead of a simple receiver, Seoul must bolster its international business functions and construct ultramodern industrial bases. Furthermore, we must establish highly advanced information processing centers around the country to undertake municipal information services in areas such as interregional energy, environment, transportation and the software to support municipal management. Some of the " mega-pro~ ects" Seoul is undertaking to that end are outlined below.

The Y6ngjongdo International Airport, now being constructed off Inch'6n near the existing Kimp'o Inter-

national Airport, will function as the gateway to Seoul. As one of Seoul's strategies to pursue internationalization, the airport will be made into an airport hub with a capacity to satisfy the everincreasing demands of international travelers and cargo. It will have more than 3 runways available 24 hours a day, and "teleport/international business functions" will be concentrated in

the area.

The importance of information and its access in today's business management cannot be overemphasized. A new earth station is due to be built at a location free from transmission interferences to facilitate satellite communications and establish an effective international information exchange system.

There are plans to build a "teleport" at

the new Yongjongdo International Airport, Nanjido or Yongsan as an integral part of a comprehensive city plan to provide a solution for the dense concentration of business functions in the center of Seoul.

Additional convention centers will be constructed at geographically advantageous locations such as Nanjido or Yongsan. They will have ultramod-

Municipal Management The creation of strategic facilities for Seoul's internationalization will drastically transform its existing metropolitan space structure, and accordingly bring changes to the basic framework of the municipal management system as well.

Reforming the metropolitan area 's space structure presupposes the creation of a wide-ranging "infrastructure"

ern structures which can house not only large-scale meeting places, but also supplementary facilities such as exhibition areas, office spaces, performance stages, communication systems, and accommodations. The creation of such facilities will further accelerate the pace of Seoul's internationalization, and contribute to its becoming an open and global city.

which will link the capital with the country's South and East regions, West Coast, and what is North Korea today.

The reform is based on a long-term vision of Seoul as the capital of a unified Korea as well as a hub for Northeast Asia in the twenty-first century.

The construction of a new international airport, teleports, convention centers, and high-speed railway will give a

multilateral aspect to the current municipal structure. This, in turn, will result in the creation of new highly-developed business zones such as an international financial center around the new international airport, teleports and convention centers. In addition, ISDN (integrated service digital network) information networks such as RAN (regional area network) centered around teleports will help move office buildings and industrial complexes presently concentrated in the city's center to the suburbs.

Seoul's satellite cities accommodating such office buildings and industrial complexes will expand with the urbanization process of the surrounding areas, and will assume various roles according to their size and location, contributing to the growth of regionalism.

The satellite cities will also be connected to other cities by a circular highway network to form a wide-ranging metropolitan region.

Seoul will be recreated as a city with the resources to provide everyone with various services. In the twenty-first century Seoul will have a more efficient municipal system and its residents will enjoy a better quality of home and office life, as well as a greater access to educ ation, entertainment and cultural activities.

In the future Seoul must become an international city boast~ ing various ultramodern facili~ ties. It must be an international ~ city of culture in which traditional and foreign cultures intermingle, an international city of information equipped with teleports and intelligent buildings necessary for the coming information society, a model capital in which various exhibitions and cultural events are held throughout the year, an international tourist center where people and nature coexist in harmony, and an international city of warm, genuine feelings. â&#x20AC;˘ 57

The Artistic World of

LEEUFAN ee Ufan (Yi U-hwan), a Korean artist residing in Japan, has contributed greatly to the modern art movement, both as an artist and as an art critic. Lee's art ranges from oil paintings and woodblock prints to assemblages and cubic sculptures. His works belong to the socalled mono school of which he is a forerunner.

Lee made his debut in the Japanese art world as an art critic. His first break came in 1969 when he won an award for art criticism in a contest sponsored

L

by Art Pocketbook, a monthly published in Tokyo. He had moved to Japan after studying art at Seoul National University during the late 1950s, and obtained a degree in philosophy from Nihon University in Tokyo. Lee's artistic career took off in earnest in the 1970s when he began to actively participate in the Japanese art world and in art events held in Europe and the United States. His sphere of activities later expanded to Korea, making an irrefutable impact on the development of Korea's modern art. He attracted 58

Kimln-hwan Professor/Art Critic Chosun University

many followers after a collection of his critical essays embodying his early art philosophy, In Search of an Encounter, published in 1971, was translated and introduced to Korea. At that time, Korean modern art was dominated by a minimalist movement-a lingering effect of the strongly influential "informel'' painting school which emerged during the late 1950s.

The influence Lee and his art had on Korean art was so strong that it came to be called "Yi U-hwanism."

Lee created an entirely new concept of art based on his view of modern civilization and his vast knowledge of art theory. Kwak In-shik, another Japanese-based Korean artist, was also influential in the mono school which began to take shape in the late 1960s and is sometimes called its founder. Kwak is older than Lee, so we can surmise that his art must have had some effect on Lee. In fact, Lee does not deny being influenced by Kwak. It was not easy for Lee to establish the mono school, however. He once wrote, "There is not a single critic who supports the mono school."

Can the mono school be considered an art movement? Lee once confessed that there were no specific movements

in the mono school nor had anyone actively advocated it. He only acknowledged that a phenomenon called the mono school came into being-a phenomenon which derived from the unique circumstances of Japanese society at the time. The mono school was part of a greater phenomenon that had appeared not only in art, but also in literature, music and drama, ¡a phenomenon that provides a clue to the strong self-awareness and skepticism of "self-confirmation." In short, the mono school was only one aspect of a great phenomenon that originated from a new self-awakening. ¡ Undoubtedly, Lee is a central figure in the mono school. He introduced the school not only through his painting, but also through his perceptive criticism. He occupies a prominent place in the art world as an artist whose creative works combine both art and philosophy. The following is an excerpt from one of his essays that provides insight into his art.

I was painting when the phone rang. I could not take my hands off the work I was doing so I began to wield my brush more furiously than ever. The phone did not stop ringing, however, and at one point, the sound began to seep into the canvas. I was in a hurry to finish so I could answer the phone, but in spite of myself, I began to paint in rhythm to the sound of the ringing.

When the phone finally stopped ringing, I put my brush down. Even now, whenever I look at that painting, I hear that ringing.

Who could it have been? What did they

want to say? I wander in and out of that painting, which somehow transformed into the phone, in an endless search for the identity of the caller.

Characteristics of Mono School Art Lee's artistic world, or his mono school art, is related to minimalism. His intent to maximize effects through the minimization of extreme self-restraint and self-expression, in other words, to leave things as they are, can be called minimalism in itself. Impermanence is characteristic of mono school art. A mono school piece exists in space only for a brief period. Lasting for a fleeting moment, it is disassembled and disintegrated, the object and space having interacted and responded closely in one place, but only for a n instant.

Anonymity and impermanence are tenets of the mono school, which is why there are so few mono school art works extant today.

"Art of the mono school does not rely on coincidence or whimsy for expression," Lee says, explaining that he formulates plans for an art piece, and repeatedly works on the preliminary sketch, while intensifying his contemplation of the artistic work at hand.

Mono school art requires patient waiting for the right inspiration. For the mono school, planning is the starting point and the motive. This does not imply that the plan is faithfully followed or acts are completed according to plan. Lee says that the emphasis is "not on the follow -through, but on forming a relationship with various elements:', Such a relationship should be formed not through realization, but through "the interacting of several conditions" - an absolute necessity in the creative process. Lee uses natural materials such as stones, trees and earth, and industrial materials such as steel, glass, cement and bricks. At times, parks and exhibition areas are also an integral part of his works. Each of the various elements penetrate and repulse each other to become an image through this unexpected encounter. The materials used

that "by leaving things as they are, the objects and the location do not become artificial:' To understand Lee's artistic world, one must have a high level of intellect and theoretical knowledge as well as a new way of thinking-the inevitable result of the diversifying trend of pluralism in modern art. Mono school artists, including Lee, have actively sought to further develop their "open world." Lee writes:

LeeUfan

in his works, however, are not employed to recreate images nor are they the main elements of artistic expression.

Each material is left in its natural state to come to life on its own. Lee says

Mono school artists went from creating art works of objects to creating art works in which space, condition, relationship, circumstance and time converge and are revealed through a counterposing of actions and objects. In order to bring about an expression of completion, the artist must forget himself and the object. Also, in order to create an art work that is oriented toward a more open world, the artist should not rely on the production process but should form a relation with the time or place and then forget himself again. Under such circumstances, the concepts of place, relationship, state, interaction and penetration become more than the clues to a production. Instead they become the attitude toward and the method of creating art The use of such a unique pattern determines the characteristics of the works of the mono school.

In one of his works, an installation, natural stones are placed through thick plates of steel that are split as if torn apart to, in the words of Lee, "create a place of mutual penetration of the artist's will and nature." He also dropped a piece of stone on a sheet of glass placed on plates of steel, causing gravity to naturally induce an appearance of cracking to, in his own words, "bring about a scene of nature and objects directly having an encounter with each other." Such works are a one-time inspiration that are impermanent and momentarily defer the act of producing. At the edges of his speculative and slightly artificial acts is the implicit selfrestraint purported by the mono school.

Lee cautiously draws the mono 59

school into the realm of the minimal art structure "by expressing minimalism in specific locations." The mono school also influenced the minimalist movement by demonstrating more expanded concepts. The mono school does not consume time to recreate images. It also deems unnecessary the experience or techniques of destroying objects.

The mono school insists that every element is needed to "bring life to the space, not to the objects." Lee says, "I think the act of trying to deal with works that transcend logic by reinterpreting the relationship between man and the world as being a place was an epoch-making event in the history of modern art."

Creation Through Negation The creative basis for Lee's works of the mono school can be said to be the "logic of negation and creation." He realized that the creation of a new structure lies in the negation of the existing structures. This knowledge was gained by studying the circumstantial development of Western modern art. How could a mentality of negation be effective in Oriental art? An artist, according to Lee, is "a person who tries to discover the language of the world, and who continuously tries to learn the world of a more profound and direct encounter."

Lee says that the act of man and the world becoming one as they transcend the relationship of the principal and the auxiliary, is in fact the moment of "encounter."

An open world is a natural world, or a plac~ that shows entities, or aspects of them, as they are in reality. Lee recognizes the importance of particular traits of the times reflected in the structure which brings about such an awareness for that open world. A structure accompanied by an encounter is, in fact, the secret to an artistic work. And the artist who helps engender a new concept of the world or values is a conduit who makes the encounter possible.

The characteristics of Lee's paintings also lie in their "transience" and "rela60

Lee's works are encounters between nature and objects: above, Relatum, 1979-1993; at right, Relatum, 1989.

tionship ." Of these two elements which form the basis of a painting, transience can refer to the single stroke of a painting brush. This signifies an instantaneous state of mental concentration which disallows any repetition (of strokes). This is tantamount to the training and mentality found in Oriental ink painting. "Relationship," as expressed in his Relatum series can be called the mutual correspondence between objects. Here, the painter views all materials used in painting, even the strokes of his brush, as sharing a relationship on an equal footing; this is the nucleus of artistic production. In this aspect, the canvas is not a vessel but an integral part of the painting.

Lee's artistic world, which began to show its particular traits in the late 1960s, became more lucid after his From Point and From Lines ~eris of the 1970s as a result of a long and searing search. Lee says: We say all things in the universe start from a dot and return to a dot. A dot initiates a new dot and extends into a line. Everything is a scene of the congregation and dispersion of dots and lines. Since every existing thing is a dot, and living means being a line, I too am a dot and a line. Just as all the creatures of the universe are not the reproductions of my making, the dots I express will ever turn into a new entity.

.

Lee's paintings reveal his artistic development over tbne: top, From Point,

1973; above, From lines, 1977; opposite top, From Winds, 1983; opposite below, Correspondence, 1993.

62

The series From Point and From Line spawned his From Pain~ From Painting It On and From Engraving series. He has created works in succession which scrutinize the material qualities of the oil paint squeezed directly from the paint tubes onto the canvas, or which examine the existence of the material-the oil paints that have been pasted on the other side of the canvas-or which look into the association between the material carved into the surface of a rectangular block and the act of carving. They are invariably works of one-time duration, produced through a repetition of the dots or lines drawn on the canvas, each sharing a relation-

ship. These works seem to provide a glimpse into the biological process of our birth, the transforming universe and the process of its destruction. It is as if they are hinting at the rules of life which goes from existence to nothingness. By the late 1980s, he moved on to a new series, From Winds.

A canvas opens and closes through the tension of the terse relationship between production and destruction. Everything can be determined through a one-time relationship, but recently his works have become much more flexible and translucent. During the late 1970s when Lee concentrated on sculptures, he mostly used natural stones and plates of steel, thoroughly and elaborately tuning their inherent qualities aimed at the gravity and tension of objects. As such, he accommodates the innate qualities of objects and the variance of their corresponding relationship into his works. •

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63

FLOWER OF AVANT-GARDE DANCE

Sin Cha Hong Kim Kyoung-ae Dance Critic Editor of Monthly Dance

in Cha Hong was born in Ch'ungch'ongnam-do Province, one of the most conservative regions in Korea, to a family she describes as having "distinctively traditional roots." She graduated from Sookmyung Women's University with a degree in English literature and went to the United States in 1966, where she studied dance and made a career of dancing. In 1973, she returned home to give a shocking dance performance, and then went to India. After 3 years there, she went back to the United States, received a Ph.D in philosophy, married Yi Sang-nam, an abstract painter, and gave birth to a daughter, now 14 years old.

Such was her life before it took an entirely different turn.

After earning a Ph.D, Hong realized what she really wanted out of life was to return to nature. This urge led her to become an avant-garde dancer, living in New York's Harlem, and in Hawaii.

Hong has consistently rejected the mundane and pursued a life of transcendence. But ironically, she has gained great popularity as a dancer, and collections of her autobiographical essays have not only become best-sellers; they've caused a considerable stir in the literary community. Last year, Hong let it be known she was winding up her long sojourn overseas and would settle in Korea. Her subsequent return to Seoul was big news because many of her previous actions exceeded the expectations of ordinary people.

The place she chose as her new home is Chuksan Village in Ansong-

gun County, Kyonggi-do Province, a traditional rural village. Her studio, made of tents, lies on a mountain slope, overlooking a lake. Her house is an earthen hut and a tent resembling the ones American Indians used to live in.

Whether an ardent fan or not, no one could resist the exotic charm of her home. But then she had no choice but to live in such a house for she hasn't the means to build a proper home. As is typical of her, she showed unusual talent in overcoming harsh conditions.

But then, she is versed in the art of sublimation.

S

64

i ~

"I dance when I experience something beyond human understanding.

That is how I communicate with other people and with gods. How else can I express all the wonders of nature?"

Return to Nature "I dance when I experience something beyond human understanding.

That is how I communicate with other people and with gods. How else can I express all the wonders of nature? The stars, flowers, clouds, trees, wind, seas, rocks, forests, the sun, the moon! Dance is the only answer I have for such marvelous things," she says when asked her reasons for dancing. "The feelings I've experienced have all become subjects for my dancing. I based everything on inspiration, and my imagination became the subject. This imagination has never been confined to the boundaries of life. Sometimes, even the primordial, the time before human existence, becomes the stage for my imagination."

Her dance piece Island, performed at the Sejong Cultural Center in October 1989 by her Laughing Stones Dance Troupe, or Unnundol as it is called in Korean, won critical acclaim and was a

commercial success, belying the commonly held notion that Sin Cha Hong dances with complete disregard for the audience. Performed on a grand scale, Island embodies the common message of her work and her outstanding choreographic skills.

Her dance provides answers to the question of why modern people, living in comfort and ease, should visit performing art theaters; that is, appreciate art. Hong's dance performances evoke philosophical questions as to what it means to be human, why we live and die, and how we should face death.

Her performances also force us to examine the freedom the choreographer gained through penance, and the strength that allows her to stand proudly independent while resisting social pressures. Her dance pieces are not didactic. They allow the viewer to intuitively sympathize with the sentiments expressed in them.

"I've come to realize that I need to find nature and tranquility. Now, I live for the moment, dancing and singing. I can't imagine my life without dance.

The creative act is the power that gives birth to life." It is this view of dance that led her back to nature.

Her search for nature may be physiological. Nowadays, she gets up at six in the morning and takes a walk along the lakeside. She does some light exercise before breakfast, then spends the morning rehearsing dance movements and the afternoon tilling and working the fields with members of her dance troupe. Hong calls this exercise "meditation. through labor." Labor is sacred and functions to cure the mind, she explains, and labor performed in the midst of nature is one of life's few sacred things.

Hong's concept of nature is unique for it encompasses God. It is a comprehensive concept of human life that focuses on the spiritual world.

"For me, nature is a teacher. I originally had two great mentors: the famed Rajneesh and Nisargadatta Maharaj. Rajneesh beckoned me to India, and Ma66

haraj, who lived in an attic in the middle of a marketplace right beside a brothel, made me leave. Maharaj taught me that there really isn't much difference between a person meditating and waiting for death beside the Ganges River and a person trying to become a popular performer. It was his belief that doing what one wants to do is, in fact, enlightenment. When one recognizes that the time has come to leave religion and mentors behind, and does indeed leave them both, only nature-the real home for humankindremains," she recollects.

Through her choreography, Hong

emphasizes that humans are the embodiment of animals and nature. The name of her dance troupe, Laughing Stones, clearly reveals this belief. A cold stone, which couldn't be further removed ' from human life, yet laughs.

In a sense, this is Hong's religion. Her dance, however, is not confined to religion.

Her works frequently criticize civilization. For example, one dance includes a military parade of blindfolded soldiers-an expression of unseeing participation in reality. Another depicts dancers shaking hands-bringing to mind politicians-while going through

Hong is the only Korean dancer who does not actively interact with the local dance community.

She chooses to stand alone.

67

violent fighting motions, hinting at the absurdity of politics.

Hong gained prominence through Island in which she displays her outstanding talent, voice. In this piece, she stands under a spotlight on the right side of the stage, holding a sickle and looking like a typical Korean farmer with white pants rolled up to her knees. She slowly cuts off her own hair with the sickle, the very instrument that sustains the life of Korean farmers. She represents the ultimate Korean, and the act of cutting off her hair is a symbolic act in which only Koreans can sympathize. Then, she wails in a voice that shakes one's very soul, holding the audience spellbound.

Hong, the vocalist, has released an album called Maze with the kayagum maestro, Hwang Byung-ki (Hwang Pyong-ki). She commands three octaves of high notes, and three octaves of low notes. Her voice, however, cannot be measured by simple numbers.

She shakes her listeners to the depths of their being with seemingly endless laughter that sometimes sounds like a devil and sometimes like an angel. She learned to create these sounds at the Ganges River where people cook and eat amid the smoke of burning corpses.

Her dance and voice can be interpreted in many ways according to the viewer's intelligence and experience. When asked what she feels when at the culmination of her dance; she answers, "Simply stated, a desire to wail."

Standing Alone Hong is the only Korean dancer who does not actively interact with the local dance community. She chooses to stand alone. Her performances are almost always a sellout and her audiences are not comprised of the usual dance viewers, but ordinary people.

She is clearly not swayed by local trends, and that may be why she is called the "pride" of the Korean dance community.

After settling in Korea, Hong founded a dance company, also called 68

Unnundol, or Laughing Stones,. The group gave its first performance last May with a work entitled Pluto (Myong-wangsong).

She has indirectly contributed to the development of Korean dance by attracting intellectuals and normally nonviewers of dance performances. That is not to say that everything went smoothly for her before her return to Korea. As is always the case with avant-garde art, it took a long time for Hong to gain the public's understanding, and she had the painful experience of having her performance in the 1988 Seoul Olympics Cultural Events canceled. For the last 20 years, she has given annual performances in New York, which are invariably covered in the New York Times. However, she has never received a grant from the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation or any other organization in her homeland.

Hong performed Mouth to Tail at the Lamama Theater in New York when she was 8 months pregnant with her daughter Hee, who is now the most precious thing in the world to her.

Perhaps I shouldn't use that expression, though, for a stone in the road may turn out to be more precious than anything else in the world to her. In any case, her precious daughter lives with her grandmother. "My daughter is aware of my love for her. She is also realistic and wise. Even though I don't have a high regard for formal schooling, she studies diligently. She believes her life could end up in shambles if she trusts her mother, who says it's all right to drop out of elementary school if she wants," says Hong, describing her relationship with her daughter.

Hong never once gave up dancing during her harsh life in the New York slums. "I've no regrets," she explains.

"The past cannot be revoked. I rejoice and grieve, laugh and cry without reservation. It is the way to be free from grief and joy as well." This is the philosophy that helped her endure those hard times. In her recent best-selling book, Excuse for Freedom, one chapter

is incongruously titled "Enlightenment Through Laughter and Tears." Her concept of laughter and tears is not what is ordinarily associated with these concepts. "In India, I experienced enlightenment through hours of laughing, hanging onto my aching stomach, or crying. I meditated, sometimes after sleeping several days straight, walking barefoot among corpses, or going through painful abstinence from food, all the while crying and laughing."

Who could completely understand such a philosophy? Frankly, it can only be perceived as quaint eccentricity.

As mentioned previously, Sin Cha Hong was a disciple of Rajneesh, who was a subject of much negative news coverage during his later years. He reportedly owned one hundred RollsRoyces that cost over 1.5 million dollars and several airplanes. One can~ot help asking how she could have become his disciple. "I knew him when he was humble, living in Poona, India. At the time, he did not have such a huge organization under his command. He was essentially a saint. Pe.ople ask, 'What is his essence?' as if the answer is as simple as drinking a cup of coffee. I don't have an answer, though. He was a great man, and to understand his teachings, one has to be willing to go through a great deal of pain and meditation. He came to be viewed negatively in the United States when his vast organization rubbed American society the wrong way." Hong neither defends nor criticizes him. She simply suggests one read the several hundred volumes of books already published on him to learn more about the person called Ra~ neesh.

Hong has an unusual philosophy about her body. She says she feels the presence of God within her when she dances. The god she refers to is not the sacred being we usually imagine but a state of self transformation, a state of great ecstasy, of immense freedom .

Ironically, she takes little interest in nourishing her body. When alone, she generally consumes one bowl of

Hong's hon1e in Chuksan Village reflects her conunitnJ.ent to the art of sublbnation.

brown rice, usually with only a bit of soy sauce or salted, ground sesame, and almost no side dishes.

She plans to build a meditation center and a theater in Chuksan Village.

Her dream is to create a structure solely of earth without using modern techniques and cement, and turn it into a celebrated art center, much like Jacob's Pillow, a theater in the United States renowned for its summer performing arts festivals. She doesn't have the means to achieve her goal yet, but then she is always an optimist. Striving for ecstasy amidst pain could be called her religion. It is her custom to move to a less comfortable place once the place she is staying becomes warm and comfortable. That is why one can never predict what the future will hold for her.

An encore performance of Pluto was held at the T'ow61 Theater in the Seoul Art Center in October. A portion of the same piece was also performed

in China during the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing. Her performance inspired Chinese dance critic, 0 Jang Ping, to devote a chapter to her in his book Creators of Dance History, in which he featured eighteen dancers including Isadora Duncan, for he believes Sin Cha Hong represents Asian nations and has made an unprecedented impression on the Chinese dance community during the last several years.

In much the same way, Hong sent shock waves through the slumbering Korean dance community d':Jring the 1970s. Veteran dance critic Pak Yong-gu once said: "In this Hermit Kingdom, which has a history of being constantly overpowered by foreign invasions, creative dance began with self-awareness.

We can all remember Ch'oe Sung-hui and other creative dance pioneers who helped pave the way by incorporating self-awareness in their interpretations of traditional dance. Regrettably, later generations of dancers have concentrated

more on the entertaining aspects of dance than the creative spirit that goes into the creation of a dance. This is a trap neophytes easily fall into. Ritual, which Hong first performed in 1973, was a whirlwind which swept degenerating aspects from the creative spirit.

Her solo dance performance, Diagonal Line of a Spiral Form, depicting han, the unrequited grief of Korean women, was a whirlwind that sublimated life into a game, a whirlwind offering the chance to practice death. The last decade of the twentieth century, however, is clearly not the season for whirlwinds. We are waiting for a cultural explosion, concentrating all our energy on the coming century. Sin Cha Hong's Laughing Stones and that energy must come together."

At the moment, expectations are great that Hong will gain commercial success and contribute to the popularization of dance and the education of dancers of younger generations. â&#x20AC;˘ 69

DISCOVERING KOREA

~IH

E RED PINE Yim Kyong-bin Consultant National Commission for Cultural Properties

f all the tree varieties that grow in Korea, the pine or more specifically red pine is the most common. Furthermore, the Korean people have an especially strong spiritual and material relationship with the red pine. Indeed, one could say the Korean culture has been shaped by the pine tree.

Several years ago, the Forestry Administration conducted a survey of the Korean people's tree preferences and found that the red pine was favored over the zelkova tree and the maidenhair (ginkgo) tree by an overwhelming margin.

Classification of Pine The red pine and its cousin, the sea pine, are two-needled species that belong to the dipeoxylon hard pine subgenus, quite distinct from those belonging to the haploxylon soft pine genus.

The two differ in that the resin ducts of the red pine needle are positioned externally on the upper part of the leaf cluster, whereas those of the sea pine are in the middle. However, they are related closely enough to cross-breed and produce hybrids.

The red pine is so named because of red protuberances on its bark and at the ends of its branches. The buds of the sea pine are black, hence its nickname, the "black pine." The red pine is also known as "feminine pine" because of its soft, flexible needles, whereas the sea pine is called "masculine" because of its hard, firm needles. The red pine, which grows in inland areas, is a terrestrial pine, whereas the sea pine, which grows in coastal areas, is a maritime 70

pine. The sea pine's early growth is faster than that of the red pine, but in later years its growth rate slows.

Form and Ecology Most red pines in Korea have crooked trunks. For this reason, many Koreans mistakenly believe pine trees naturally have crooked trunks. However, the crooked trunk phenomenon is the result of selective cutting. After hundreds of years of harvesting pines with straight trunks, the gene pool for tall, upright trunks began to recede, and genes for crooked trunks appeared with greater frequency. This trend coincided with the depletion of forests.

However, pines with straight trunks still thrive in remote regions and protected zones.

Ecologically, the red pine can endure in dry soil conditions, but it thrives in fertile soil. In fertile land, however, it must compete with other trees, such as oaks, beeches, maples, elms and other broad-leaved trees. At first, the trees coexist but in time the red pine loses out to the broad-leaved varieties.

The red pine is a shade-intolerant tree requiring much sunlight in its early stages of growth. If its seeds fall in a densely p,opulated area, it cannot grow for lack of sufficient sunlight. Even if the seeds should take root, the young seedlings will eventually die because they are too weak to compete with other tree varieties. Ironically, the red pine thrives in competition under inhospitable conditions, such as in the drier soil of mountain ridges or in areas of intensive human activity, as evidenced by the many red pine forests which

flourish near densely populated residential areas.

There is another, rather anecdotal, reason red pine forests flourish around human residential areas. In the past, before fossil fuels were readily available, Koreans would gather pine twigs for kindling but stopped short of chopping the whole tree down because of their deeply-ingrained belief in the tree's integrity. Instead, they freely harvest broad-leaved tree varieties. As ¡a result, red pine forests have thrived.

Tree varieties that overcome competition from other varieties are known as climax species. Although the red pine is hardly a superlativ:e variety, in a topography where the soil is dry and thin, the red pine does indeed exhibit the traits of a superior species. As such, it is considered a geographical climax species. In Korea, the red pine is prized precisely because there is so much unarable land.

'Ecological Race' Because the red pine's growth is so widespread, and because within the range of distribution there are many variables in temperature, soil moisture content, and soil quality, all of which act as selection pressures, the gene frequency of the red pine population ultimately exhibits great disparities which in turn lead to genetic differentiation.

This is referred to as "ecological race" or "geographical race."

Because Korean red pines favor warmer temperatures, they are rarely found on mountaintops. According to research on the geographical race of red pines, the species prevalent in the

region near the T'aebaeksanmaek mountain range, which stretches from Kangwon-do Province to the northern Ky6ngsangbuk-do Province, is known as Kumgang pine (pinus densiflora firma erecta) and is a product of its environment.

The Kumgang pines are noted for their straight trunks and slender yet short lateral branches. Their lengthy trunks extending from the lowest branches are exceptionally beautiful.

This elegant look is attributed to the region's heavy snowfall. Were the trunks crooked and the branches thick and long, the pines would collapse under the weight of snow and the tree would die. For tens of centuries, trees with crooked trunks died out while those with straight, upright trunks survived and proliferated. Moreover, in areas of heavy snow, human interference in genetic selection is less likely.

On the other hand, over a thousand years ago in Ky6ngju, the capital of the Shilla Kingdom whose estimated population reached one million, citizens used charcoal rather than wood as fuel.

To meet the vast demand for charcoal, red pine was harvested extensively from nearby mountains and fields. Not only were forests depleted, but much of Ky6ngju's mountainous land was rendered barren and only low quality red pine survived.

This inferior pine, known as Anganghy6ng pine, is considered the worst geographical race. Apart from the Ky6ngju example, there are other geographical races peculiar to different regions and conditions.

Versatility The red pine is highly versatile. Long ago, Korean houses were made of pine and earth. Pillars, rafters, crossbeams, door frames, hall floors and more were constructed from pine wood. Not only was pine wood readily accessible, it was unsurpassed as a building material because of its strength, fine grain, and workability.

Several years ago, during the refurbishing of Seoul's South Gate (Namdaemun), workmen discovered the crossbeams were made of pine. Namdaemun, first constructed in 1398, remains intact to this day because of the pine's durability. Had another kind of wood been used in its construction, the gate may not have survived in its original form. When a royal palace needed re-

pairs, the crossbeams were said to be made exclusively from pine transported with great difficulty from the Mukhy6n region of Mt. Paektusan. The main sanctuary of Songgwangsa Temple also features pine crossbeams.

When someone dies, the wood of choice for the coffin is the heartwood of pine. This heartwood, also known as h wangsang, commands a premium price.

In earlier times, the red pine fulfilled virtually all household needs, from cooking to heating. Even charcoal was made from pine. Indeed, this dependence on pine inspired a riddle: "What eats up this mountain and that?" The answer, of course, is the fireplace. Since the average fireplace was t1sed for both cooking and heating, it consumed enormous quantities of wood.

Desks, clothes chests, dining ~abies and other pieces of furniture, farm implements, and personal accessories were for the most part made of pine.

Pine pollen was often eaten, and the inner bark of pine was a staple food in famine years. Ancient records indicate that the king gave his subjects permission to gather the inner bark of pine in the year of a bad harvest. (In those days, trees growing in the wild were considered royal property). High-quality India ink, indispensable for documents and paintings, was made from the soot of pine. The ink, or song-in m uk, was even exported to China.

Pine trees were also planted around grave sites. People believed that the spirits of the dead were afraid of venturing from the tomb, and planted red pine to soothe them. These trees are 71

ceived a memorial from a government official which stressed that "warships are of the utmost importance to the nation, and only pine can be used in their construction," stressing the need for laws protecting the red pine and governing the administration of warships.

Nevertheless, illegal harvesting by commoners prevailed. Because no national policy could effectively cope with this problem, deforestation continued unabated until 1788, when King Chongjo issued an edict that banned the harvesting of pine.

Also, it was realized that for Seoul to maintain its vitality as the capital city, it would have to encourage the growth of thick pine forests in its vicinity. This faith in Seoul's future encouraged the implementation of protection measures for the red pine. In 1411, 3,000 young men were conscripted from Kyonggido Province for 20 days to plant red pine seedlings on Mt. Namsan in Seoul.

Through the Choson period (1392 ~ 1910), red pine forests in superior condition were specially chosen and placed under gover~mnt protection programs named either pongsan or kumsan. Each forest was designated for a particular use; for example, wood for coffins, for shipbuilding or for charcoal. The pongsan forests along the sea were especially prized. However, not even the pongsan forest reserves could escape' occasional incursions and poaching by commoners.

called hwansong, and this practice survives to this day.

Symbolism The needles of the red pine grow in pairs and are bundled together at the bottom in a needle sheath. Where they are joined is a young inner bud. As the needles mature, they eventually fall off with the sheath, still joined together.

Koreans traditionally saw the sheath as a house and the young inner bud as a baby to be born, symbols of the devotion between husband and wife. The act of growing old and falling off together was their ideal, a lifetime together. Pine needles on the ceremonial table were a wedding tradition.

No wonder people always say that the Korean people are born in pine, live with pine, die in pine, and are reincarnated as pine.

Words can hardly describe how much the red pine has contributed to the development of the Korean people's moral character, although the pine has been the subject of countless poems, songs and paintings. In the Korean national anthem, the red pine stands as a strong, majestic symbol.

The red pine is one of the ten symbols for longevity. Since longevity is the elusive goal of all humans, the red pine is an object of envy because it symbolizes this idea.

In the days when taxes were paid in kind, tax grain had to be shipped to areas of mass consumption such as Seoul.

Ships were thus crucial to the day-today functioning of the nation. As pine was used to build cargo vessels, not to mention warships, the demand for pine was always high. The astronomical demand for red pine meant the nation began to place a higher value on it, and established policies for its protection. Other tree varieties were devalued, which only buttressed the belief that the red pine was indeed the "king of trees."

In 1031, King Hyonjong of Kory6 declared: "Pine is the king of trees. The harvesting of pine is forbidden henceforth." In 1418, Choson King Sejong re72

The weeping red pine of Ch'ongdo;

golden pines in Srunch'ok; and a forest of superior pine near Pophiingsa Temple (froLD top).

Famous Pine Trees In Korea, each area has its famous "ancient and great" pine trees. These trees are believed to be the abode of spirits which answer people's prayers.

What's more, the belief that accidents will befall those who do not worship a great tree is firmly entrenched in folk tradition and affords protection for trees. Such beliefs are at odds with the Western concept that humans control nature. The respect Koreans have traditionally held for nature's providence is reflected in their customs and beliefs.

In Yech'on, Kyongsangbuk-do, there is a red pine called Soksongnyong. This ancient tree legally owns property and an endowment, vested to it by the local populace and authorities from old times. Every year, it collects rent from tenants and pays property and defense taxes. Like any other civic-minded citizen, it dutifully meets its social obligations. The tree also provides financial aid to underprivileged students with the interest accrued from its bank savings. Nowhere else in the world can one find a tree that is regarded as human. This tree represents the great reverence Koreans hold for large, ancient trees.

At the entrance of Popchusa Temple on Mt. Songnisan is a 600-year-old tree whose crown fans out gracefully like a parasol. According to legend, the tree once lifted its branches to let King Sejo and his entourage pass. Sejo subsequently awarded it an official rank and title, ch6ng-ip'um, the third highest rank bestowed on government officials.

Even today the tree is called the ChOngip'um pine, and is one of the representative pine trees of Korea.

In Ch'ongdo, Kyongsangbuk-do, is a pine tree, presumed to be 200 years old, with branches that droop like those of a weeping willow. Because of its gorgeous shape, the weeping pine tree is considered a model variety among all red pine species.

In Samch'ok, Kangwon-do, grows an extremely rare variety of pine that has golden yellow needles. The villagers regard the tree as a tutelary deity to whom they appeal for happiness and prosperity in annual rites.

Currently, seventeen pine trees are officially designated natural monuments, but there are also many other famous red pines. One is in Ich'on, Kyonggi-do. Known as Pallyongsong, its branches and trunk are so hopelessly tangled it appears deformed, but the tree inspires reverence.

Records show that about a hundred years ago, a Buddhist monk lived for 19 years on a diet of only pine needles.

The Chong-ip'wn pine at the entrance to Popchusa Ten1ple (top) was awarded official rank by Choson King Sejo. The red pine in Yech'on, Kyongsangbuk-do (above), owns property and even collects rent.

Subscribing to a regimen that shunned grains and cereals, he remained remarkably healthy. Nowadays there are certain groups who take powdered forms of pine needles as a health tonic.

Indeed the red pine has had and will continue to have a distinctive relationship with the Korean people, contributing significantly to their daily lives and consciousness. â&#x20AC;˘ 73

BUILDING A BRIDGE OF UNDERSTANDING

LATIN AMERICAN MUSEUM Song Eui-dal Staff Reporter, Weekly Chosun

ools from the ancient Mayan civilization, late 15th century Dominican ceramics, masks of native Latin Americans-The glories of the Aztec, Incan and Mayan civilil.ations can be viewed under one roof at the new Latin American Cultural Center which opened its doors to the public this past October. The center, located in Koyang City, a 30-minute drive north of SeouL was set up by Lee Bok-hyoung, a 62-year-old career diplomat who spent 26 of his 32 years in foreign service in Latin American countries.

The first Korean museum devoted to things Latin American, the center's museum houses a 1,500 piece collection, which Ambassador Lee collected from 1968, when he was posted as a first secretary to the Korean embassy in Mexico, through last year when he ended his career as ambassador at the same embassy.

With a floor space of 2,300 square meters, the rust-colored brick building has a Spanish touch. On the first floor are four exhibition halls displaying tools, earthenware, masks and handicrafts, and in the basement is an 80-seat seminar room where various cultural events will be held. "Not counting Cuba, the 33 Latin American nations account for 15 percent of the world's population," explains Lee. "They are rich in natural resources such as oil, silver, iron ore and coffee. Brazil, Mexico and Argentina have been actively pushing for economic development.

With the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), now more than ever, we must forge friendly relations and exchange with these countries."

In Korea, Lee is a rare specialist in Latin 74

American affairs. Aside from the years between 1983 and 1985 when he served as director general for European affairs at the Foreign Ministry, Lee spent his whole career in Spanish-speaking countries, most recently as ambassador to Dominica, Costa Rica, Argentina and Mexico. He speaks Spanish fluently and has an unmatched knowledge of the region based

on firsthand experience.

"I happened to spend most of my diplomatic career in the Latin American region, and during that time I came to realize that -Korea's level of understanding or interest in this part of the world is very low. This was my major incentive for founding the Latin American Cultural Center;' Lee explains.

The appeal of the museum is that it covers a wide range of nations and relics and art from ancient to modern times, from the tools of tenth century Collima to the works of the living artist Gutieres.

Most of the pieces were collected by Lee and his wife, Hong Kap-pyo, as they made the rounds of flea markets in their spare time.

"We avoided antique stores because not only are they expensive, they can't always be trusted," Lee says. "Ninety-nine percent of our collection comes from our own discoveries or meetings with living artists. Some of the pieces are rare, valuable works we received as farewell gifts."

Of all the pieces in his collection, Lee treasures the 300-plus Indio masks most Made of a variety of materials including wood, leather, cloth, metal and stone, the masks take the form of spirits, demons, animals, mermaids, royalty, angels and butterflies.

The collection includes 100 relics such as irons, sewing machines, horse trappings and sundry trinkets and many paintings by Latin American artists such as Bellaques and Maria Gaio. The museum also has a library with 100 videos and CDs as well as over 200 books.

Lee ~ evals that official exchange and cooperation agreements have already been concluded with cultural organizations overseas, including the America Society, the Japan-Latin America Association, and the local Korea-Latin America Institute.

"Our doors are always open to diplomats and businessmen heading for overseas posts, as well as the general public, for instruction in Spanish language and Spanish cooking, for example," says Lee. "I wish to see the center become the cultural hub of the Latin American community in Korea and thus serve as a bridge of friendship and understanding between Korea and Latin America." â&#x20AC;˘

JOURNEYS IN KOREAN LITERATURE

KIM TONG-NI

Born to a respected -but poor Ky6ngju family in 1913, Kim Tong-ni grew up to become one of Korea's most admired novelists. His short stories have long served as models for younger writers.

In this issue KOREANA introduces two of his shorter works, "Loess Valley" and "The Road fron1 the Village."

75

Kim Tong-ni Master of t e Short Story YuJong-ho Professor, English Literature Ewha Womans University

he novel and the short story are viewed differently in Korea and the West. Along with Japan, Korea is one of the few countries where daily newspapers carry serialized novels every day.

Serialized novels carry the burden of having to maintain the readers' attention day after day, and therefore must give in to popular tastes from time to time.

From 1910 to the mid-1960s, almost all novels published in Korea were first serialized in newspapers. It was only in the late 1960s that publishing houses began to publish Western-style full-length novels to meet the growing public demand for serious literature. But even today, more than half of all Korean novels were first published in serialized form.

This is not to say all serialized novels are sleazy popular fiction. Some of Korea's best novels of the twentieth century, including Yom Sang-sop's Three Generations (Samdae) and Pak Taewon's View from the River (Ch'6nby6np'unggy6ng), were first printed as serialized novels. Yom and Pak are good ¡ examples of writers from the teens to the 1960s who took advantage of the serialized novel form to produce interesting works of importance.

The prominence of popular serialized novels placed short stories in a prestigious position in Korean literature.

Because of the publishing market's preference for serialized novels, most young writers aspiring to a career as a literary artist had to turn to short stories. In Korea's literary circles, short sto76

ries gradually came to be acknow ledged as serious works of art written for the minority of readers looking for high-quality works. Literary magazines and other quality magazines took pride in discovering talented young writers and introducing their short stories, So it is no exaggeration to say that short story writers helped maintain the integrity of Korean literature from the 1920s to 1960s. A number of serious short story writers turned to serialized novels but usually for financial reasons.

It might sound strange to readers used to Western literature, which considers the short story a minor genre, but most of the highly acclaimed Korean writers during the Japanese colonial peTong-in, Hyon riod (190~45)-Kim Chin-gon, Yi T'ae-jun, Yi Hyo-sok, Kim Yu-jong-made their literary debuts with short stories and went on to leave behind some of the best short stories in the history of Korean literature. On the other hand, well-known novelists of the period, Yi Kwang-su, for example, while active as leading writers, were more like celebrities than literary artists and were thus labeled "popular writers."

Distinctive Korean Aura Kim Tong-ni started publishing short stories in the 1930s and was soon recognized as a serious and talented writer.

He is still recognized as a leading Korean writer today.

Kim was born in 1913 in Kyongju, the capital of the ancient Shilla Kingdom. His family had been an influential sadaebu, or aristocratic family dur-

ing the Choson Kingdom, but lost its honor and riches under Japanese colonial rule. As a result, young Kim could not enjoy the privileges of some his contemporaries, such as studying abroad. He was, however, influenced by his elder brother, a leading scholar of Chinese classics. After dropping out of middle school, Kim suffered from consumption and spent some time recuperating at a mountain temple. It was there that he started writing. "Portrait of a Shaman" (Munyodo, 1936), "Loess Village" (Hwangt'ogi, 1939), "Mountain Fire" (Sanhwa), "The Road from the Village" (Tonggu-apkil), and "Rock" (Pawi) were. all written during this period.

After Korea's liberation from Japan the Korean literary community was caught up in extreme conflicts between leftists and rightists. Kim Tong-ni was one of the most outspoken writers of the right-wing who stressed the freedom of literature from politics and criticized the ideology-oriented writings of the Ieftists.

After the Korean War, Kim published a series of full-length novels, including The Cross of Saban (Sabani1ishipchaga) and The History of Freedom (Chayui1i-yoksa), but his reputation as a writer was still based on his shorter works. Short stories written during this period include "Wanderlust" (Y okma) and "Sound of the Magpies" (Kkach'isori).

The world depicted in Kim Tong-ni's works is not the modern industrial society of today, but the world of traditional Korean society. The setting is usually

a rural farming village where people live by traditional customs and old beliefs. The people suffer from poverty and th ~ social pressures of old traditions.

Because of his obsession with traditional rural life in Korea, Kim has been labeled the most "distinctively Korean" writer of his time. This title is borne out by such works as "Portrait of a Shaman," which depicts conflicts between shamanism and religions from the West, and "Wanderlust," a story of karma among people at the marketplace.

At best, Kim Tong-ni's writing style is

delicate and precise. Because of his skillful structuring, believable characters and concise dialogue, his works were once considered the model of the short story form and were included in Korean literature textbooks for high school and college students.

Many of Kim's contemporaries have dealt with industrialized urban life in their works. These writers are usually referred to as "modernists." By contrast, Kim could be called an "anti-modernist."

He has, however, written about contemporary life in some of his works, including "The Dance of Existence" ( Chonjaemu ), a story about urban

dwellers suffering from the destructive memories of war. These works are not among his best, though. Kim:s writing style and character building techniques truly shine when he is dealing with traditional Korean life.

It is for this reason that foreign readers may have trouble appreciating his works. Robert Frost once said, "Poetry disappears with translation." This could be said of Kim Tong-ni's writing as well, because there is so much that could be lost in translation. Indeed, his works capture a distinctively Korean aura with a distinctively Korean writing style.

77

A Doomed Superhero The two works to be discussed here, "Loess Village" and "The Road from the Village," could also present obstacles for foreign readers. The titles alone suggest that much is lost in the English versions of the two works.

"Loess Village," written in 1939, was a milestone in Kim Tong-ni's writing career. It deals with the traditional belief of geomancy as depicted through a man trapped by his fate and his hometown.

Geomantic beliefs played an influential role in predicting the fate of people and places. In order to avoid misfortunes and misery, it was important to choose auspicious sites for homes and graves. In old Korean society, it was difficult to ignore geomancy as mere superstition.

The villagers of Loess Village are haunted by an old legend about two stranded dragons. It is a legacy of despair. The story borrows the "changsu motif" from Korean folk tales. In the world of Korean folk tales, great heroes with great power and courage are called changsu. These heroes are usually distinguished at birth by an unusual phenomenon, such as having wings or being born with open eyes.

(A similar character is featured in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred

Years of Solitude.)

6k-soe, the protagonist in "Loess Village," is a changsu with incredible power. The villagers, believing the old folk tale that a changsu born in Loess Village would become a rebel and bring misfortune to the village, make plans to mutila'te 6k-soe. His uncle is in on the scheme, for traditional laws were very strict in making sure that the whole family, even the relatives, of such a person were severely punished.

Ok-soe's life is saved with the help of his father, but as he grows older his power becomes unbearable. When night falls, he climbs the mountains carrying a big rock to use up his strength and energy. His uncle, afraid that 6ksoe's fate cannot be changed, leaves the 78

village.

On his deathbed, 6k-soe's father tells him: "When you were a child I asked someone your fortune. He said your life would be a stormy one, and that you'd be asking for trouble if you didn't harness that power of yours. But to a man, strength is a real treasure, and if you realize that and handle it that way, there'll be a day when you can use it in a big way. So wait, quietly, for that time."

The father's last words are the focal point of the story. 6k-soe cherishes them like an oracle and waits for the day to come, obeying his father's instructions and never revealing his strength in front of others. Caught between reality and ideals, 6k-soe spends his days drinking at the village pub.

Then the story takes a leap in time.

6k-soe has grown old waiting for the day to come. Time has been cruel to him. His wife has died and he is left all alone. Now, the only person keeping him company is Sol-hi:ii, a kind, pretty widow.

Their relationship is plunged into conflict when they get involved with Tuk-po and Pun-i, newcomers to the village. 6k-soe and Ti:ik-po, a changsu himself, fight over Sol-hi:ii. It is a rivals' dual, another familiar motif from ancient myths, but also can be seen as a process of self-discovery for Ok-soe.

Ti:ik-po is his alter ego, with similar strength and fate.

6k-soe is depicted as a doomed superhero, an old and mutilated giant tired of waiting all alone for his time to come. The same can be said of Tuk-po.

The two men's lives reflect the legend of the two dragons, discouraged from reaching the heavens. They are the dragons of Loess Village, squandering their powers. But they will not be the only doomed changsus of the village. All the strong, powerful men to come along in the village are fated to live a life of despair and uselessness.

The ill-fated life of 6k-soe can be

seen in relation to the social immobility of old Korean society. The social pressures from which 6k-soe suffers derive from the strict aristocratic society and discrimination among social classes.

Though the plot does not take a dramatic turn, it managed to move Korean readers who, living in despair under colonial rule, may have identified with 6k-soe.

According to some literary critics, stories tend to move and shock readers more effectively when they borrow motifs from myths and legends. Perhaps that is why "Loess Village" has always been popular among young Korean readers. But it is also interesting to note that the response from foreign readers has been less than enthusiastic.

Woman's Life of Endurance "The Road from the Village:' is also set in a poor rural village untouched by industrialization and modernization.

An understanding of the old ways of life is essential for reading between the lines of this story. In Korea's traditionally patriarchal society, sons were favored over daughters and it was an unforgivable sin if a woman did not bear a son. When a wife failed to produce a son, it was common for the family to bring in a second wife. There was even a custom called ssibaji, or surrogate_ mother, whereby the family made a contract with a young woman to live in the house until she gave birth to a son. This was a form of slave trade, for the woman was paid for her body. When a son was born, the ssibaji was sent away. She could never let her son know she was his mother and the son was never to be told about his birth mother.

Sun-nyo, the main character in "The Road from the Village," is a young woman who was sold to an old man named Yang to bear him a son. Her family was given some land in return for her services.

Sun-nyo was sweet-talked into the arrangement by matchmakers, but the only benefit she received is warm

meals served three times a day. Her only happiness is an annual visit home on her mother's birthday.

She has given birth to three sons.

The first two have already been taken away by Yang's wife, and the third one is soon to be taken. Sun-ny6 begs Yang to let her raise the third son herself, but he is reluctant.

Longing to see her two sons, Sunny6 bribes the maid to bring them to see her for an afternoon. When Yang's wife learns of the boys' visit, she beats Sun-ny6 severely, and Sun-ny6 is forcibly separated from her third baby as well. The story ends with Sun-ny6 setting out on another trip back home, wearing white rubber shoes and carrying a rooster, a birthday gift for her mother.

Kim Tong-ni does not add any needless details or digressions to this story.

His techniques of putting all the necessary touches and doing away with all unnecessary details is again prevalent in this work. The depiction of Sun-ny6 and the violent, cold-hearted wife is also kept to a minimum, though they appear real. Owing to these factors, the work has been a model for the short story genre.

The climax of the story is the brutal beating of Sun-ny6 by Yang's wife, demonstrating a violence reminiscent of primitive instincts. Fights between the first and second wives is a staple in Korean literature and can only be understood with a knowledge of traditional Korean beliefs and lifestyles.

Sun-ny6's only escape from her poor and depressing life was to accept Yang's offer. The ending of the story may not be so tragic or desperate, but what will become of her when Yang dies and his wife takes over the household? Her sons will never find out who their real mother is. The future holds nothing but instability, perhaps even death, for Sun-ny6. This is the story of a "woman's life" in old Korea.

From a feminist point of view, Sunny6 is a helpless victim of patriarchal society. Her family is her only source

of affection, but they exploit her pitilessly. Sun-ny6 is not aware of this, however. She feels she is merely serving her family, even though she is sacrificing herself. Of course, Kim Tong-ni's view is far from that of a feminist. He steps back and maintains an objective view. Perhaps this is why the story still moves contemporary readers.

Kim Tong-ni was an outspoken critic of leftist writers and literature dealing with politics. And he was also a target of criticism from leftist writers for being an unrealistic writer seeing shelter is mysticism and escapism. Perhaps he was.

Ironically, however, Kim's early short

historical and social research. Literary works take on new meaning now that Korea has experienced industrialization and people are ready to look back at the past more objectively.

The writings of authors belonging to the "culture of poverty" movement in the 1930s and 1940s are not palatable to today's readers because the writers were so absorbed in their political goals they failed to grasp the literary truth. It is noteworthy that the writers who overcame their contemporaries' harsh criticism for being escapists and held to their literary beliefs have left contemporary readers many convincing works. The most important factor in literature is

stories, including "Mountain Fire," "Loess Village," "Rock" and "The Road from the Village" are serious observations of traditional Korean life. What is important is not a writer's ideological beliefs but his literary achievements.

There were few Korean writers during the 1930s and 1940s dedicated to the preservation and study of Korea's linguistic heritage. Kim Tong-ni was one of those few writers, and he made a huge contribution to the development of the Korean language with his short stories.

It is not always appropriate to approach literature as a mirror on society, but outstanding classic ':'/Orks often provide important background materials for

writing style. That is what distinguishes literary works from mere writing.

"Loess Village" and "The Road from the Village" depict the past. Things have changed since then, and will change even more in the future. Oksoe of "Loess Village" would probably lead an active and successful life in today's world, but somewhere deep in our minds, his despair still haunts us today. Though her appearance may have changed, Sun-ny6 of "The Road from the Village" is still with us, forced into self-sacrifice and endurance. I believe that Kim Tong-ni's short stories will live on to help us remember these problems and remind us that some things have not changed. â&#x20AC;˘ 79

NEWS FROM THE KOREA FOUNDATION

Support for Korean Studies Programs Abroad The Korea Foundation offers financial assistance to universities, research institutes and libraries abroad in their efforts to promote the study and understanding of subjects related to Korea. Projects submitted for consideration must be in the fields of humanities, social sciences or arts and within the categories listed below: 1) Establishment and expansion of Korea-related courses and faculty _ ....._ 2) Fellowships for graduate students or research grants for faculty 3) Library acquisition and cataloging Applications must be submitted to The Korea Foundation by M~y . 31. The results of the final selection will be announced by October 15 of the same year.

For application forms, program guidelines or further information, please write to:

International Cooperation Department I The Koreo Foundation C PO. Box 2147 Seoul. Ko rea

lei, 82-2-753-3464.

Fax, 82-2-757-2047.2049

KOREA FOCUS A BIMON711LY ON CURRENTKOREAN AFFAIRS

In addition to KOREANA, The Korea Foundation publishes KOREA FOCUS as part of its effort to inform the world community about Korea and to enhance international understanding in this era of globalization. We believe KOREA FOCUS will serve as an important and timely reference for the world community KOREA FOCUS offers a comprehensive view of contemporary Korea in a wide-ranging selection of informative articles on Korean current affairs. -In this bimonthly, you will find timely reports on Korea's politics, economy, social environment and culture, opinions on world affairs, and a chronolqzy of recent events in Korea.

Published in English and Japanese, ¡==- li its articles come from leading publica¡:..-=-. tions in Korea, including major daily 1 newspapers, newsmagazines and academic journals.

------

The Korea Foundation Fellowship Programs FEllOWSHIP FOR KOREAN mJDIES

Applicants should complete two copies of The Korea Foundation Fellowship for Korean Studies application form and submit their academic research proposals to The Korea Foundation by May 31 The results of the final selection will be announced by August 15 of the same year.

FEllOWSHIP FOR KOREAN LANGUAGE TRAINJNG

The Korea Foundation offers grants for Korean language training to graduate students, scholars and other qualified professionals overseas who wish to learn the Korean language at a Korean university language institute for a period of six to twelve months.

Each successful applicant will be assigned to a Korean language course at one of three major Korean universities, and will be provided with tuition and a monthly allowance during the grant period Applicants should complete and submit two copies of The Korea Foundation Fellowship for Korean Language Training application form to The Korea Foundation by May .31 The results of the final selection will be announced by August 15 of the same year.

For application forms, program guidelines or further information, please write to:

International Cooperation Department ][ The Korea Foundation CPO. Box 2147 Seoul. Ko rea

lei. 82-2-753-6465 Fo x. 82-2-757-2047.20 49

TECHNOLOGY THAT WORKS FOR LIFE

t1'J:i¥JII}I$t Through commitment, innovation and an emphasis on total quality, Samsung has become one of the world's fastest growing technology resources.

Samsung is not only on the forefront of electronics , but has received world· wide recognition for advances in engineering as well.

Below are just a few examples of how Samsung quality and technology are working for everyone.

For more, write C.P.O. Box 15"80, Seoul, Korea Phone (02) 724-0177 Fax (02) 724·0198

ELECTRONICS

199-gram cellular phone High-definition TV 64M DRAM semiconductors Notebook PC Home service robot

ENGINEERING

Offshore oil and gas platform Aerospace Dozers, excavators and loaders Chemicals Double-hull oil tankers

© 1994 The Samsung Group

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HAVE THE TEC::HN=L=GY T= MAKE.

Feel the new touches

of

A spectacu l ar bus i ness resort that crowns the c it y.

Grand Hyatt Seoul.

A majestic amb i ence shaped by oak and stone.

Panoram i c v i ews that uplift your senses.

D i scerning serv i ce that everyone looks up to .

Feel the Hyatt Touch.

GRAND

H ~ .Y - A - T ~ T s

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