본 논의는 ‘산수유기(山水遊記)’의 작가들이 산수(山水)를 어떠한 공간으로 이해했고, 그 곳에서 어떠한 즐거움을 얻었는가에 집중된다. ‘산수유기’는 작가가 산수를 찾아가 노닐면서 직접 보고 들은 것을 글로 쓰고, 산수가 계절에 따라 바뀌는 모습을 그려낸 작품이다. 여기서 산수는 현실의 삶에서 발생하는 마음과 몸의 갈등과 모순에서 벗어나 그것의 균형과 조화를 찾을 수 있는 공간이다. 그리하여 사람에 따라서 이러한 ‘산수’는 ‘현실의 고통을 해소하는 공간’, ‘자신들을 반성하고 풍속을 살펴서 가르치는 공간’, ‘삶의 방식을 제시하는 구도(求道)의 장소 내지 도체(道體)의 공간’, ‘유흥(遊興)과 풍류(風流)의 공간’, ‘역사와 문화를 전달하는 공간’ 등으로 이해된다. 이러한 산수는 공통적으로 사람들의 삶을 투영하고 마음과 몸을 즐겁고 자유롭게 노닐게 하는 놀이 공간의 의미를 벗어나지 않는다. ‘산수유기’에 나타나는 산수는 현실의 삶에서 잠시 벗어나 마음과 몸을 편하게 쉬게 하는 공간이자 우리의 삶을 되돌아보고 자세하게 살펴보는 공간이다. 이런 공간에서 ‘산수유기’의 작가들은 ‘산수’에서 노닐면서 깊은 생각에 잠겨 세상의 근심과 걱정을 잊기도 했으며, 산수의 아름다운 모습에 자신의 감정을 옮겨 놓기도 했으며, 산수에 있는 사물 하나하나에서 인간의 질서나 자연의 이치를 이끌어 내기도 했다. 여기에 ‘산수유기’가 지향하는 놀이의 즐거움이 있다. 즉 그것은 ‘바깥과 끊어진 공간’에서 나타나는 마음과 몸의 표면적이고 감각적인 ‘즐거움’이 아니라 ‘바깥과 확 뚫린 공간’에서 나타나는 마음과 몸의 정화에 따른 내면의 ‘즐거움’이다. 따라서 모순과 소외 현상이 점점 깊어지고 있는 지금의 세상에서 우리들이 ‘산수에서 노닐면서 자신들의 삶을 진실 되고 솔직하게 이야기하고 있는 산수유기의 작가들의 산수 자연을 바라보는 태도’를 살펴보는 것은 매우 뜻 깊은 일이 아닐 수 없다.

This paper focuses on what kind of space the authors of Nature-writing understood and what kind of pleasures they received at those places. Nature-writing is a work its author wrote on what he saw and heard directly at a place he found while wandering through nature. Here nature is free of the complications and contradictions of mind and body that arise out of the realities of life, and is a space where their harmony and balance can be found. According to the person, this nature is understood as "a place that dissolves the tribulations of the realities of life," "a place that teaches from the observation of customs and manners and from self-reflection and self-examination," "a space for writing a letter of moral improvement for a friend and a place for searching for the truth which shows the Way of life," "a space of worldly pleasures and refinement," and "a space to convey culture and history," etc. Of course, nature reflects the communal life of people and the pleasures of the body and mind and does not contradict the meaning of a playful space that is made by wandering freely. The nature that appears in nature-writing is the space that this man sees and returns to our life, a space for resting the body and mind comfortably, temporarily freed of the realities of life. In this space the authors of nature-writing forgot the troubles and worries of the world while they were wandering in nature, submerged in deep thought, and pouring their feelings into the beautiful forms of nature, drawing out and taking the principles of nature and order of man from thing after thing in nature. Here nature-writing has the pleasure of an excursion in mind. That is to say, rather than the sensuous and superficial pleasure of a body and mind appearing in boundless space outdoors, it is the pleasure of the internal world that accompanies the purification of body and mind appearing in the outdoors and in a suddenly opened space. Accordingly, as we are wandering in nature in the world of the present in which the present state of contradiction and estrangement is deepening, the life of the self becomes real and the observing of the attitude that looks at "the nature" of the author of nature-writing, which speaks forthrightly, can be called a deeply meaningful thing.

This paper focuses on what kind of space the authors of Nature-writing understood and what kind of pleasures they received at those places. Nature-writing is a work its author wrote on what he saw and heard directly at a place he found while wandering through nature. Here nature is free of the complications and contradictions of mind and body that arise out of the realities of life, and is a space where their harmony and balance can be found. According to the person, this nature is understood as "a place that dissolves the tribulations of the realities of life," "a place that teaches from the observation of customs and manners and from self-reflection and self-examination," "a space for writing a letter of moral improvement for a friend and a place for searching for the truth which shows the Way of life," "a space of worldly pleasures and refinement," and "a space to convey culture and history," etc. Of course, nature reflects the communal life of people and the pleasures of the body and mind and does not contradict the meaning of a playful space that is made by wandering freely. The nature that appears in nature-writing is the space that this man sees and returns to our life, a space for resting the body and mind comfortably, temporarily freed of the realities of life. In this space the authors of nature-writing forgot the troubles and worries of the world while they were wandering in nature, submerged in deep thought, and pouring their feelings into the beautiful forms of nature, drawing out and taking the principles of nature and order of man from thing after thing in nature. Here nature-writing has the pleasure of an excursion in mind. That is to say, rather than the sensuous and superficial pleasure of a body and mind appearing in boundless space outdoors, it is the pleasure of the internal world that accompanies the purification of body and mind appearing in the outdoors and in a suddenly opened space. Accordingly, as we are wandering in nature in the world of the present in which the present state of contradiction and estrangement is deepening, the life of the self becomes real and the observing of the attitude that looks at "the nature" of the author of nature-writing, which speaks forthrightly, can be called a deeply meaningful thing.

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Nature-writing, mind and body, space, the realities of life, harmony and balance, pleasures and refinement, moral improvement, internal world, culture and history