본고의 연구 대상은 <주생전>의 주요 인물 중 하나인 배도이다. 기존 연구에서는 배도의 실체를 상당 부분 오해하고, 신분 회복 의지만을 과대하게 평가하였다. 본고에서는 이와 같은 문제를 극복하기 위해 배도의 현실과 욕망, 배도의 죽음을 둘러싼 문제들을 본격적으로 분석하였다. 그 결과는 다음과 같다. 배도는 주생을 처음 만날 때부터 기녀였으며, 현재 은퇴할 때가 다가오는 20대 중후반의 기녀이다. 배도는 물질적․육체적․감정적인 결핍을 가지고 있는데, 주생을 육체적․감정적 결핍을 해소해 줄 수 있는 상대로 보고 정착할 배우자로 선택하였다. 배도의 신분 회복 발언은 주생에게 사랑의 맹세를 받아내기 위한 전략일 뿐이며, 배도나 주생 모두 주생의 출세 가능성을 진지하게 생각하지 않는다. 배도는 주생과 자신을 대등한 상대로 파악했기 때문에 당당한 태도로 독점적인 애정을 요구하고, 주생과 자신의 부부관계를 침해하려는 시도에 대해 강하게 반발한다. 이러한 배도가 태도를 바꿔 임종 직전에 선화와의 혼인을 허락하는 관대함을 보이는 것은, 첫째, 배도의 죽음이 주생의 변심과 무관하고, 둘째, 주생과 선화의 결연이 현실적으로 불가능하며, 셋째, 주생과 화해하기 위해서이다. 결국 주생도 배도의 화해를 받아들여 배도를 기리는 아름다운 제문을 창작한다. 이 제문의 내용은 사실이 아니지만 배도와 주생이 믿기로 동의한 심리적 현실이다. 배도의 인물 형상은 봉건적 윤리 이념으로부터 자유롭다. 이러한 인물이 긍정적으로 형상화되는 것은 드문 예로, 중국을 배경으로 한 16세기 말의 애정전기소설이기에 가능한 설정이다.

This paper examines Baedo, one of the main characters in Jusaeng-Jun. It attempts to solve problems left by existing studies which have misunderstood the true nature of Baedo by overrating her will to recover social status. Baedo had been a kisaeng(妓生) when she first met Jusaeng. Now in her mid or late twenties, she is about to retire. She has financial, physical, and emotional lacks and chooses Jusaeng as a spouse who might help her to cope with physical and emotional lacks. She displays her will to recover social status only as a strategy to talk Jusaeng to courtship while neither of them believes in the possibility to rise to a higher standing. Thinking of herself as an equal partner for Jusaeng, Baedo fairly demands he should love her alone and strongly resists any attempts to disturb her monogamous relationship with him. Baedo's generous consent for Jusaeng to marry Sunhwa shows that 1) she does not die of disappointed love; 2) she knows that Jusaeng's relationship with Sunhwa is actually impossible; 3) she wants to reconcile herself with Jusaeng. In the end Jusaeng accepts her offer and creates a beautiful eulogy. This eulogy is not true, but secures significance in that it is the truth Baedo and Jusaeng have agreed to believe. The characterization of Baedo is free from feudalistic moral ideas. It was a rare example of positive representation of this kind of character, which became possible for a sixteenth-century romance in China.

This paper examines Baedo, one of the main characters in Jusaeng-Jun. It attempts to solve problems left by existing studies which have misunderstood the true nature of Baedo by overrating her will to recover social status. Baedo had been a kisaeng(妓生) when she first met Jusaeng. Now in her mid or late twenties, she is about to retire. She has financial, physical, and emotional lacks and chooses Jusaeng as a spouse who might help her to cope with physical and emotional lacks. She displays her will to recover social status only as a strategy to talk Jusaeng to courtship while neither of them believes in the possibility to rise to a higher standing. Thinking of herself as an equal partner for Jusaeng, Baedo fairly demands he should love her alone and strongly resists any attempts to disturb her monogamous relationship with him. Baedo's generous consent for Jusaeng to marry Sunhwa shows that 1) she does not die of disappointed love; 2) she knows that Jusaeng's relationship with Sunhwa is actually impossible; 3) she wants to reconcile herself with Jusaeng. In the end Jusaeng accepts her offer and creates a beautiful eulogy. This eulogy is not true, but secures significance in that it is the truth Baedo and Jusaeng have agreed to believe. The characterization of Baedo is free from feudalistic moral ideas. It was a rare example of positive representation of this kind of character, which became possible for a sixteenth-century romance in China.

Jusaeng-Jun, Baedo, kisaeng(妓生), will to recover social status, pursuit for exclusive love