팍스 몽골리카 하 가정(稼亭) 이곡(李穀)의 이중적 정체성 —‘고려인-세계인’ 사이를 방황한 경계인—

Abstract

This paper intends to examine the dual identity of Yi Gok (1258-1351). Specifically, the purpose of this study is to understand his unique spiritual journey of the dual identity wandering between Korean and cosmopolitan under Pax Mongolica(1271-1388). The family of Yi Gok was from low-ranking clerk (戶長) of Hansan province. He passed the bureaucrat examination in 1320. But, he failed to get a government office, because his family was low-ranking. In order to overcome the social discrimination, he took the bureaucrat examination of Mogol Empire in 1333 and passed it with excellent grade. He was appointed as an official of the Mongol Empire’s central government. Until he returned to Korea permanently in 1348, he continued his official life between the Mongol Empire and Koryŏ dynasty for 15 years. He believed in the openness and universalism of the Mongol Empire. And as a statesman, he dreamed of the ideal to make peace in the Mongol Empire. On the other hand, he did not give up his national identity as a people of Koryŏ dynasty. Sometimes, he criticized the personnel policy of the Koryŏ government. At the same time, he pointed out the injustice of Koryŏ women hostage by the Mongol Empire. Yi Gok was not appointed as high-ranking office under the Mongol Empire and remained as a stranger. Unsuccessful in realizing his political ideal, he returned to Korea permanently in 1348. Yi Gok referred to himself as 'a person who wanders far away(遠遊子)' or 'a person of East, West, South and North(東西南北人)'. The two pillars of his life were his Korean mother and the Mongolian emperor. Yi Gok always missed his mother while he stayed in Beijing(大都), the capital of Yuan dynasty, to pursue his political ideals. He was a new Korean and a cosmopolitan created by the the Mongol Empire’s cosmopolitanism. His failure was the limit of the Mongol Empire’s tolerance and the apparent boundary of the globalization that Koryŏ dynasty experienced