뉴스레터

It was 928 years ago to the day. Su Dongpo [蘇東坡], a famous scholar of the Southern Song [南宋] period, enjoyed food and drinks with a friend under Chibi [Red Cliffs] where Cao Cao and Sun Quan had once fought a fierce battle. Su Dongpo drank, and I so did I, but that was where our similarity ended.
After a bout of drinking, I always suffer from a terrible hangover; I sometimes even pass out.
Su Dongpo, on the other hand, wrote a masterful verse about the experience under Chibi.

When I was in school, I always quoted a line from 'Chibifu' [Red Cliffs]. For me, it is the best line of verse there is.
I like 'Chibifu' not because I find my spiritual world reverberating in the master poet's words.
My fondness for the verse lies in a very simple line toward the end of the poem.
If we look at the world believing that everything changes, even heaven and earth are fleeting.
However, if we look at the world as unchanging, the world and even we ourselves are unending.
What more could we want? [蓋將自其變者而觀之, 則天地曾不能以一瞬, 自其不變者而觀之, 則物與我皆無盡也, 而又何羨乎] Isn't the line beautiful?

My nitpicking friend criticized it to no end, calling it extreme relativism that renders everything meaningless.
Be that as it may, I made it through my long and arduous time at school thanks to this line.
There was nothing pressing, so there was no need to hurry; all I had to do in our infinite universe was remain steadfast and go down my path.
The longer I took, I believed the world would grow in depth.
Thus, the line quelled the youthful impatience of Phaeton within me, keeping me at my studies until I was fully and completely ready.

Baekdusan and Changbaishan: Same but different

At the beginning of this summer, I visited Baekdusan. Rising like a tidal wave toward the end of a large expanse of a primeval forest, the mountain looked down in silence as it has been since time immemorial.
The clear water of Cheonji Lake sparkled. It gave me that indescribable feeling I used to get when I visited my grandmother's as a child.
It really was that exact feeling—warm and comforting.
I wanted to talk, be silly, and be babied.

There were many Chinese tourists at Baekdusan. From the cacophony of conversations going on around me, I could make out that they too were as awed by the mountain's grandeur and mystique.
I have traveled extensively throughout China, but never have I seen a mountain as majestic as Baekdusan.
I can completely understand why the Chinese designated Baekdusan as one of their top ten mountains [十大名山]. But to them, Baekdusan is but Changbaishan. To them, it is but the product of volcanic activities and an ancient mountain in the borderland that features in the founding legends of the Koreans and the Manchu.
That is, Baekdusan is the same mountain for both the Chinese and the Koreans, but the Baekdusan in the psyche of the Korean people is different from that of the Chinese.

Today, Koreans have to go to China in order to set foot on our spiritual home. But let us not despair. So long as we long for it and so long as the Korean people exist, Baekdusan will be the spiritual home of our children and grandchildren as it had been for our parents and grandparents.
There really is no reason to get impatient or angry. Why rush when the world and we ourselves are unending?