從朱熹「淫詩說」看朝鮮李瀷的「讀詩正法」

According to the Confucian theoretician Zhu Xi's 朱熹 view in Shi ji zhuan 詩集傳, a number of poems in Wei feng 衛風 and Zeng feng 鄭風 were regarded as poems of depravity 淫詩which were disloyal to rituals. Despite the fact that we would refer these to love poems, in the manner of his reading, poetry should serve as a moral standard for self reflection. In Li Yi 's 李瀷 interpretation, Zhu Xi's expression of poems of depravity had been given to an entirely new meaning, even though the influence of Zhu Xi's Neo Confucian philosophy spread widely in the minds of Korean scholars after Gao Li's 高麗period.

Actually, the different interpretations between Zhu Xi and Li Yi was over the questions of the nature and reading method of Shi jing 詩經, instead of the dispute of poems of depravity. Li believed that Shi jing should be played more important role to deal with the political affairs rather than relocating moral responsibility, in which the characters must be substituted from lovers to politicians by using metaphor. Hence, the essential purport of poems of depravity were re interpreted to two aspects in his Shi jing ji shu 詩經疾書 : 1) encourage the emperor to seek honest and famous minister; 2) both ritual and punishment are important measures to rule a country.

The following discussion emphasizes the reasons why Zhu Xi and Li Yi had such a difference in understanding the poems of depravity. It is concluded that Li's use of proper method for reading Shi jing in order to entrust his political point of view to Korean emperor in the late 17 century.