Discarding the Brush: Kang Sehwang and a Sociocultural History of the Chŏlp’il Practice in Eighteenth-Century Chosŏn

Abstract

Literally meaning “discarding the brush,” chŏlp’il refers to a painter’s sudden withdrawal from artistic activities. In the field of Korean art history, chŏlp’il has long been treated as a secondary topic of inquiry, occupying merely the margins of scholarly discourse. Eighteenth-century Chosŏn, however, witnessed a remarkable increase in the frequency of occasions that the scholar-painter “discarded the brush.” That suggests the decision of chŏlp’il was neither a personal choice nor an accidental event, but a reflection of certain sociocultural norms and values. This article discusses the historical significance of this “chŏlp’il” as a social practice through the case of Kang Sehwang. He was one of the most celebrated scholar-painters of eighteenth-century Chosŏn. Yet, the question of why he halted his painterly practice for two decades has not been adequately addressed. This article investigates the abrupt pause in Kang’s artistic career in light of Chosŏn’s social system and cultural norms through a reconstruction of the entire trajectory of his chŏlp’il and its comparison with instances of other scholar-painters of the late Chosŏn period. It was the Confucian conception of class ethics that propelled the scholar-painter to eschew artistic creation. The late Joseon Confucian teachings disparaged painting as a ch’ŏn’gi, or a “trade of the lower class,” and propagated the perception that involvement in painterly practice would bring disgrace on the literati. For scholar-painters, chŏlp’il was a last resort for honoring their families and preserving their elite identities in a society that deprecated the painterly exercise. Kang’s chŏlp’il attests that Chosŏn’s scholar-painters strove for artistic excellence while still being part of their social circle who were obliged by the eighteenth-century Confucian norms. Chŏlp’il was their strategy to maintain their dual identities as a Confucian scholar and a painter.