Study on Chojeong Park Jega’s View of Painting to Empty Mind and Cultivate Nature

Abstract

Park Jega was a scholar and thinker active in the late 18th century of the Joseon Dynasty. Although he never presented a precise painting theory, he said that he has been a painting enthusiast since childhood and continued to enjoy painting even after he grew up. Thus, in this paper, I analyzed his view of the painting by investigating his preface, postscript, and inscribed poem of painting. I briefly summarized Park Jega's view of painting to empty the mind and cultivate nature as follows. First, I analyzed the aspect that he emphasized the form of spirit as an image beyond the image from the stance of focusing on the rhythm of spirit. As a result, Park Jega actively affirmed the value of calligraphy and painting by applying the theory that the boundary of poetry is mutually compatible with that of painting to the creation of calligraphy and painting. He embodied the natural painting will that exudes the spiritual taste of literati painting. Also, he realized the world of describing the thinking while faithfully possessing the formative beauty of resembling the form. Thus, he was faithful to the rhythm of spirit that expresses the image beyond the image. Second, I examined the fact that he created the vitality of the natural taste of nature in terms of the natural spirit. As a result, the emptiness to empty the mind is a premise that can achieve aesthetic communion with external objects and was also related to Park Jega’s open thinking. Since people already have preconceived notions, they should empty their minds before painting. Park Jega called that prejudice Gakmak(角膜). He said people must first remove the Gakmak that blocks them from recognizing beauty as beauty. In short, Park Jega insisted on discarding stereotypes and closely observing objects because people can create a good painting only in an unintentional state to obtain the form of the spirit. We cannot fully comprehend Park Jega's view of painting through the above discussion. It is necessary to have a broad understanding of his worldview and an integrated discussion of his poetry, calligraphy, and painting to understand his view of painting more in-depth.