1924년 지리산 천왕봉 각석의 조성과 시대 인식

초록

This study examines a 392-character rock inscription carved in 1924 on a steep cliff near the summit of Cheonwangbong Peak in Jirisan. It aims to clarify the circumstances surrounding its creation, analyze its content, and identify the historical consciousness of the Confucian literati of the Gangwoo region reflected therein. The inscription was composed by Gojuk Muk Hui(孤竹 墨熙) and calligraphed by Kwon Ryun(權倫). After outlining the rise and fall of successive Chinese dynasties, it distinguishes Huaxia(華夏) from the barbarians(夷狄), and the Kingly Way(王道) from the Way of the Hegemon(覇道), while expressing a desire to restore a civilizational order founded on the principle of Grand Unity(大一統) articulated in the Spring and Autumn Annals(春秋). This study first demonstrates that Jirisan had retained its status as the Southern Sacred Mountain(南嶽), one of the nation’s most revered mountains, since the Three Kingdoms period, and that Nammyŏng Cho Sik(南冥 曺植) and his disciples regarded it as a space for the pursuit of the Way and moral self-reflection. In particular, during Korea’s transition to modernity, the literati of the Gangwoo region understood the name and imposing presence of Cheonwangbong—literally, “Peak of the Heavenly King”—as a symbol of the sovereign and the state and, by extension, of a legitimate civilizational order. This historically and regionally grounded perception of the mountain helps explain why Muk Hui and his companions selected Cheonwangbong from among numerous possible locations for the inscription. An examination of sources such as the 『Cheongha Ilgam(淸河日鑑)』 and the 『Myeongwonjeongsa Hyangsarok(明源精舍享祀錄)』 further reveals that Muk Hui maintained close associations with Kwon Byeongguk( 權秉局), Kwon Ryun, and other Confucian scholars. Together, they performed commemorative rites for the Ming emperors Shenzong(神 宗) and Yizong(毅宗) at Myeongwonjeongsa in Jirisan and affirmed the Great Righteousness of the Spring and Autumn Annals(春秋大義). As an extension of these scholarly associations and ritual activities, the Cheonwangbong inscription was an attempt to inscribe upon the natural landscape the moral orthodoxy that they believed themselves obligated to preserve. In doing so, they interpreted Japanese colonial rule through the Confucian discourses of righteousness and civilization. Nevertheless, it would be difficult to expand the meaning of this inscription to regard it as evidence of an organized independence movement or direct anti-Japanese resistance. Among the diverse ways in which Confucian intellectuals responded to colonial rule, the Cheonwangbong inscription may instead be understood as a practical and symbolic act through which the Gangwoo Confucian literati employed familiar Confucian rituals and the symbolic significance of Jirisan to express their civilizational identity, indignation at contemporary realities, and hope for the restoration of a legitimate order. It therefore constitutes a distinctive source of cultural-historical significance, illuminating both the responses of Gangwoo literati to the realities of the modern transitional and colonial periods and the characteristics of the regional culture formed around Jirisan.

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