유만주(兪晩柱)의 전겸익(錢謙益) 수용 : 조선후기 지식인이 명청 교체기 문학을 읽는다는 것

Abstract

전겸익(錢謙益, 1582-1664)은 중국 문학사에서 명말청초(明末淸初) 문단의 영수로 평가받는 유력한 문인이다. 중국과 같은 문자를 사용한 역사가 길었던 조선의 지식인들에게 전겸익은 대가급의 주요 문인으로서 알아야 할 필요가 있는 인물이었고, 이런 사정은 전겸익의 말년에 해당하는 17세기 중후반 이래 <열조시집>(列朝詩集)을 비롯한 전겸익의 저술이 조선에서 활발히 유통되었던 상황에 반영되어 있다. 한편 전겸익의 생애는 명나라가 멸망하고 이민족 왕조인 청나라가 세워지는 중국 근세의 격변기와 맞물려 있는데, 이때는 조선으로서도 막대한 위기의 상황으로, 명나라가 멸망한 것에는 미치지 못하지만 청나라의 침략에 따른 물질적이고도 정신적인 손상을 경험한 시기였다.

Manju兪晩柱, when he was 23 years old, had read through most of writings of Qian Qianyi錢謙益 in a mere two months. He held Qian' s works in esteem and sympathized with him. But since Qian' s name was branded with infamy for his disloyalty to the Ming dynasty and his works were censored by the Qing court, Joseon朝鮮 intellectuals generally despised him for his equivocal behavior and double identity. And Qian's some disparaging remarks about Cllinese writing style of Joseon in "An afterword to Huánghuájí跋皇華集 caused some kind of nationalism and public indignation among Joseon intellectuals. So Qian's works had been understudied and misinterpreted in Joseon Instead of being obsessed with some unfriendly comment of a foreign writer, Yu Manju focused on Qian's voluminous work itself and explored the complexities of life and mind of him. As a result, he could understand accumtely Qian, the eminent writer of the Ming-Qing明淸 dynastic transition, reputing him as both a literary critic and historiographer. Yu's way of capacitive reading Qian as a foreign writer of modern times is still valid and meaningful.