In Joseon, classical scholars not only studied Ginsujak(緊酬酌)
related to Wuigijihak(爲己之學), but also enjoyed Hansujak(閒酬酌)
such as poetry and prose, art, hobbies, and traveling in daily life.
Focusing on Hansujak, this study addressed the methods of taste
for the arts and the creation of cultural spaces among classical
scholars during Joseon in a concentrated manner. It mainly
discussed how classical scholars enjoyed their tastes for the arts
in daily life rather than ideological and philosophical thinking based
on logic in today's terms.
Tastes for the arts originated in ancient Gukjungdaehoi(國中大
會), which evolved into classical scholars' tastes for the arts based
on Neo-Confucianism in Joseon through Shilla and Goryeo.
Classical scholars especially understood the meaning of true life
in its relation to nature. Their method of taste for the arts was to
share the experience of enjoying rather than enjoying in solitude.
The world of taste for the arts enjoyed in solitude does not mean
isolation into oneself, though. The classical scholars of Joseon thus
set a direction of enjoying a taste for the arts completely both in
"solitude" and "together."
The creation of cultural spaces by classical scholars can be
interpreted through dots and lines. Cultural spaces around dots were expressed in intensive interest in certain objects and
extended to eight- or ten-gyeong Jipgyeong poems or stone
carving culture. Cultural spaces around lines developed along the
mountain streams, and one of their representative examples was
Gugok culture. There were Joseon style-based transformations
different from the WuyiGugok(<武夷九曲>) of Zhu Xi(朱熹) such as
nine goks in downstream, simultaneous setting of nine goks in two
mountain streams, and reduction of nine goks to seven.
Furthermore, there were complex spaces where dots and lines
coexisted in the same domain.