동아시아 범죄소설의 사회사 - 명청시기 公案小說과 조선후기 訟事小說의 비교를 중심으로 - (A social history of crime fiction of East Asia : from a perspective of a comparative study of Ming-Qing gong'an fiction and late Chosŏn court case fiction)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 명청사학회
· 수록지 정보 : 명청사연구 / 46호 / 139 ~ 169페이지
· 저자명 : 박소현

초록

It seems simply unnoticed that the genre of crime fiction enjoyed a wide readership in East Asia long before Western detective fiction gained a sweeping popularity in the nineteenth-century commercial book market. As far as the genre of crime fiction of premodern East Asia is concerned, most widely circulated was Chinese gong'an 公案 fiction, which was produced in commercial printing form during the late Ming period, and afterwards transmitted to Korea and Japan. It seems remarkable that Chinese gong'an fiction was introduced to European audiences as “Chinese detective fiction” by European sinologists in the late nineteenth century. Yet, as a matter of fact, it was nothing but a mediocre popular fiction whose unchanging narrative patterns had been repeatedly reproduced for centuries. Hence, one of the most common attempts in the study of gong'an fiction is to compare it with Western detective fiction or to examine it within the methodological framework of Western narrative theories. This kind of approach, however, tended to neglect the fact that gong'an fiction was developed as part of legal culture under the precondition of its inseparable link with contemporary legal culture, which consequently led to the misconception of gong'an fiction.
This article suggests that we should reread gong'an fiction in the very sociocultural context in which the text was produced and consumed. From this point of view, crime fiction may be read as a critical source of Chinese legal history or history of Chinese legal culture, which reveals the hidden truth - for instance, the gap between official representation and actual practice in Chinese law, as contended by Philip C. C. Huang - that the legal code or official legal literature simply ignored. In this respect, a comparative study of Chinese gong'an fiction and late Chosŏn court case (songsa 訟事) fiction might contribute itself to constructing a comparative history of East Asian legal culture as well. In particular, this kind of popular texts may represent the people's point of view of legal rules and their “legal consciousness,” which was completely expunged in official legal literature. This approach will provide a rare opportunity to examine what similarities and differences were made between Ming-Qing legal culture and the Chosŏn counterpart, and furthermore whether or not “arbitrary rule by law” prevailed in premodern East Asian society.

영어초록

It seems simply unnoticed that the genre of crime fiction enjoyed a wide readership in East Asia long before Western detective fiction gained a sweeping popularity in the nineteenth-century commercial book market. As far as the genre of crime fiction of premodern East Asia is concerned, most widely circulated was Chinese gong'an 公案 fiction, which was produced in commercial printing form during the late Ming period, and afterwards transmitted to Korea and Japan. It seems remarkable that Chinese gong'an fiction was introduced to European audiences as “Chinese detective fiction” by European sinologists in the late nineteenth century. Yet, as a matter of fact, it was nothing but a mediocre popular fiction whose unchanging narrative patterns had been repeatedly reproduced for centuries. Hence, one of the most common attempts in the study of gong'an fiction is to compare it with Western detective fiction or to examine it within the methodological framework of Western narrative theories. This kind of approach, however, tended to neglect the fact that gong'an fiction was developed as part of legal culture under the precondition of its inseparable link with contemporary legal culture, which consequently led to the misconception of gong'an fiction.
This article suggests that we should reread gong'an fiction in the very sociocultural context in which the text was produced and consumed. From this point of view, crime fiction may be read as a critical source of Chinese legal history or history of Chinese legal culture, which reveals the hidden truth - for instance, the gap between official representation and actual practice in Chinese law, as contended by Philip C. C. Huang - that the legal code or official legal literature simply ignored. In this respect, a comparative study of Chinese gong'an fiction and late Chosŏn court case (songsa 訟事) fiction might contribute itself to constructing a comparative history of East Asian legal culture as well. In particular, this kind of popular texts may represent the people's point of view of legal rules and their “legal consciousness,” which was completely expunged in official legal literature. This approach will provide a rare opportunity to examine what similarities and differences were made between Ming-Qing legal culture and the Chosŏn counterpart, and furthermore whether or not “arbitrary rule by law” prevailed in premodern East Asian society.

참고자료

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