창조적 일탈의 상상 - 19세기 초 이규경의 하늘과 땅에 대한 사유

Abstract

This paper shows interesting cosmological thoughts on heaven and earth discussed in Oju-yeonmun-jangjeon-san-go by Korean scholar, Yi Kyu-gyeong(1788-1856), in the early nineteenth century. Astronomical and geographical knowledge written in Oju¬yeonmun-jangjeon-san-go were fragments of old and new ones which came from different origins and filiation, so could not be constructed systematized and synthesized eventually. So, I selected three interesting topics (cosmographical map with nine layered heaven and nine layered earth, Earths rotational theory, theory of multi-cosmos), and traced Yi Kyu-gyeongs ideas concretely. Western astrogeographical knowledge and Chinese classical cosmological ideas were played in such imaginative episodes constructed by Yi Kyu-gyeong. Creative cosmological ideas suggested by Yis senior Neo-Confucian scholars of eighteenth century Korea joined those episodes as major actors. Yi seemed to play serious episodes in a Confucian plot of Zhuxi(朱熹) and Shaoyong(邵雍) cosmology, besides he suggested deviational imaginative allegories competing with Taoist hermit. Rich fragmented knowledge from different origins of cosmology, which could not be systematized, or even resisted against integration, had been played in interesting allegorical episodes on heaven and earth constructed by Yi Kyu-gyeong. I want to call Yis cosmological thoughts creative and deviational imagination confined by Yijing (易經)-based scholarship and Sino-centrism.