본고는 18~9세기에 활동한 成海應(1760~1839)의 ‘열녀전’ 입전의식과 그 형상의 특징을 규명하고자 하였다. 성해응은 박학한 학문성향을 지닌 학자이자 문인으로, 다양한 인간군상에 많은 관심과 애정을 가지고 이를 저술에 응축시킨 바 있다. 그 중에서도 ‘義理’를 지향한 하층부의 인물들을 대거 주목하였는데, ‘열’을 성취한 인물을 입전한 것도 이러한 인식의 연장선이다. 성해응은 적극적이면서도 주체적으로 열을 실천한 여성을 특기하였다. 그 중에서도 특히 서민여성이나 노비 등 사회적으로 소외된 인물들이 성취한 열과 절에 가치를 부여하고 고평하였다. 이들은 ‘열’을 통해 인간으로서의 떳떳한 삶을 살고자 한 것이다. 그런 점에서 ‘열’은 이들이 인간다운 삶을 살기 위해 하나의 수단으로 차용한 것이지, 결코 유교 이념으로서의 ‘열’을 위해 목숨을 바친 것은 아닌 셈이다. 때문에 한평생 모진 고난과 역경을 이겨내면서도 당당하게 자신의 삶을 개척할 수 있었던 것이다. 또 하나 성해응은 學士大夫나 법도있는 가문 출신의 상층부보다 하층의 열녀에게, 그리고 남성보다 여성의 도덕적 우월성을 높게 평가하였음을 확인할 수 있다. 이것은 다른 사대부들이 열녀전을 입전하면서 사대부보다 낫다고 평가하면서도 실은 이면에 사대부의 우월성을 이미 전제하고 있는 것과는 분명 달라 보인다. 성해응 열녀전이 보여주는 중요한 특성이라고 평가할 만하다.

This paper is intended for making it clear the perception of chaste women and its figuration of Sung Hae-eung active in eighteenth to nineteenth century. Sung Hae-eung, erudite scholar and man of letters, had great interests on and affections for many people, and projected them in his works. Especially he took notice on lower class people who had oriented for righteousness. Such perception of him drove his hands to write biographies of women achieving chastity. Sung Hae-eung was emphasizing the woman fulfilling her chastity with positivity and independence. His high estimation and evaluation were laid on the chastity and fidelity of the ordinary and the slave women. They desired to live a righteous lives in the pursuit of executing chastity. As for them, executing chastity was a kind of means to be human beings, not simply sacrificing their lives for confucian ideology at all. Owing to the consciousness they could overcome their hard lives and adversities and walk their ways on firm foot and develop new lives. Moreover I would like to make it sure that Sung Hae-eung estimated the moralities of chaste women of lower class higher than those of ones of upper class or of famous families. This is totally different from biographies of other scholar-literati in which the writers recorded that chaste women was better than scholar-literati but actually, in other side, they had already premised on the superiority of scholar-literati viz their own class. This point is the very place that the characteristic of biographies of Sung Hae-eung was displayed.

This paper is intended for making it clear the perception of chaste women and its figuration of Sung Hae-eung active in eighteenth to nineteenth century. Sung Hae-eung, erudite scholar and man of letters, had great interests on and affections for many people, and projected them in his works. Especially he took notice on lower class people who had oriented for righteousness. Such perception of him drove his hands to write biographies of women achieving chastity. Sung Hae-eung was emphasizing the woman fulfilling her chastity with positivity and independence. His high estimation and evaluation were laid on the chastity and fidelity of the ordinary and the slave women. They desired to live a righteous lives in the pursuit of executing chastity. As for them, executing chastity was a kind of means to be human beings, not simply sacrificing their lives for confucian ideology at all. Owing to the consciousness they could overcome their hard lives and adversities and walk their ways on firm foot and develop new lives. Moreover I would like to make it sure that Sung Hae-eung estimated the moralities of chaste women of lower class higher than those of ones of upper class or of famous families. This is totally different from biographies of other scholar-literati in which the writers recorded that chaste women was better than scholar-literati but actually, in other side, they had already premised on the superiority of scholar-literati viz their own class. This point is the very place that the characteristic of biographies of Sung Hae-eung was displayed.

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chaste women, positivity, independence, human beings, the ordinary, slave, lower class, hard lives and adversities, developing new lives