<삼생록>은 적강형 소설로 세 차례의 인간계 체험이 주된 내용으로 이루어져 있다. 그 중에서도 두 번째 인간계 체험에 해당하는 ‘남녀교환 환생’은 작품의 창작 동인을 밝히기 위해서 필히 분석되어야 할 대목이다. 작품에서 남녀 주인공들은 애정의 욕망을 긍정하고 세 차례의 윤회를 통해 그들의 욕망을 남김없이 실현하는 것으로 드러난다. 그런데 이들의 욕망 실현에는 천상계의 개입이 반복되어 나타난다. 천상계가 윤회의 구성을 통해서 자신들이 욕망하고 꿈꾸는 이상적 애정관계를 암시하는 것이다. 주인공들이 재현하는 남녀의 애정관계는 기실 천상계의 욕망을 대변하는 것이라 할 수 있다. 천상계의 욕망은 ‘남녀교환 환생’ 서사에서부터 구체화되기 시작한다. 무엇보다 남녀의 성별 교환은 일상의 세계에서는 일어날 수 없는 일을 설정한 것이므로 다양한 해석의 가능성을 제공한다. 세계의 기존 질서에 대한 비판적 기능을 하기도 하고, 타자의 역할 체험을 통해서 인간관계의 회복을 도모하기도 한다. 최종적으로는 천상계의 여성들이 욕망하는 ‘이상적인 애정관계’를 재현해냄으로써, <삼생록>이 지향하는 조화롭고 바람직한 이상적 삶을 그려낸다고 파악된다. 이것은 <삼생록>이 창작되었을 18, 19세기의 유흥적인 삶의 양상과도 연관하여 이해할 수 있는 대목이다.

The main issue weaving the epic in the Korean novel “Samsaengrok” is the “love between man and woman” while the basic frame of story is about the life reborn three times. As suggested in the title “Samsaeng(three life)”, the heroes and heroins experienced the joys and sorrows in the human life by three transmigrations of souls. In particular, the cause of transmigration in this story is the love. the experience of man and woman in the terrestrial world has been deployed around the “love between man and woman” and the process to acquire love. Furthermore, what is the most interesting is the part that the genders of hero and heroine were changed when they were reborn and they experienced the life of different gender. The hero and the heroine are expelled from the terrestrial world three times with the reason that they had the extremely human desire. We can't dismiss the fact that most people driving out them to the terrestrial world were included in the celestial world and all of them were women. In particular, in the second part “Jeokgang(a god is reborn as a human being)”, the insistence of women in the celestial world showed the great power by the instruction “change the man into woman and vice versa.” Considering that the change of gender between man and woman in the process of transmigration is not the frequently used background, it is highly possible that there may be another meaning behind the voice of woman who actually gave an order. In that aspect, this study classified two points of view in the story into the celestial world and the terrestrial world as considering the motif “love between man and woman” as the cause of “three lives” in Samsaengrok. And it is concluded that the change of view describing the love in each life and the strategic intention of the story ultimately aimed to describe the ideal life of human beings based on the relationship between male and female that the women dreamed of or the desirable relationship between male and female at the time when the story was created. In particular, this ideal relationship between male and female is characterized by being constructed only by the woman's view. In conclusion, it was confirmed that the ultimate life of human beings that Samsaengrok, the Korean novel, tried to describe, in other words, the ideal world became realized only by the ideal union of male and female as explained above.

The main issue weaving the epic in the Korean novel “Samsaengrok” is the “love between man and woman” while the basic frame of story is about the life reborn three times. As suggested in the title “Samsaeng(three life)”, the heroes and heroins experienced the joys and sorrows in the human life by three transmigrations of souls. In particular, the cause of transmigration in this story is the love. the experience of man and woman in the terrestrial world has been deployed around the “love between man and woman” and the process to acquire love. Furthermore, what is the most interesting is the part that the genders of hero and heroine were changed when they were reborn and they experienced the life of different gender. The hero and the heroine are expelled from the terrestrial world three times with the reason that they had the extremely human desire. We can't dismiss the fact that most people driving out them to the terrestrial world were included in the celestial world and all of them were women. In particular, in the second part “Jeokgang(a god is reborn as a human being)”, the insistence of women in the celestial world showed the great power by the instruction “change the man into woman and vice versa.” Considering that the change of gender between man and woman in the process of transmigration is not the frequently used background, it is highly possible that there may be another meaning behind the voice of woman who actually gave an order. In that aspect, this study classified two points of view in the story into the celestial world and the terrestrial world as considering the motif “love between man and woman” as the cause of “three lives” in Samsaengrok. And it is concluded that the change of view describing the love in each life and the strategic intention of the story ultimately aimed to describe the ideal life of human beings based on the relationship between male and female that the women dreamed of or the desirable relationship between male and female at the time when the story was created. In particular, this ideal relationship between male and female is characterized by being constructed only by the woman's view. In conclusion, it was confirmed that the ultimate life of human beings that Samsaengrok, the Korean novel, tried to describe, in other words, the ideal world became realized only by the ideal union of male and female as explained above.

transmigrations of souls, terrestrial world, celestial world, Jeokgang, ideal relationship, ideal world.