Epiphany of 'Songhakdo'

Last month, when I visited Seoul, I walked through Insadong and browsed the street. It hasn’t changed, though its side streets and shopping areas have grown, including what I’d call mini-malls and ubiquitous vendors. It made me feel good to be there and to see that Insadong continues to share the arts with all who visit it.

I was looking for some simple things to bring to my co-workers and found some pocket cases and bookmarks. I also found a beautiful image from Design Qaanche called "songhakdo." Do you know what it means?

I picked up the image because it was of cranes. I remember seeing a Korean film from the early part of this century that featured cranes as a symbol of longevity and strength, accompanied by music that once brought me to hidden tears on a Korean Air flight. This image has two cranes beneath a pine tree. They are in motion but also in harmony and depict a scene of serenity, balance and peace.

I was amazed to look on the back and find the following words: “Long life, love between husband and wife, and success in life, songhakdo.” The description went on to say that the image has both a blue crane and a black crane, and if they can live for one thousand and two thousand years, respectively, they will live forever. Cranes, it says, mate for life. True love is forever.

I was even more amazed to learn that these images represent the aspirations of the Confucian scholars of the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910) and their desire to rest in the permanence of lived knowledge, bringing to life its most complete success for the good of self and others. The pursuit of knowledge is a representation of love, and bringing knowledge to self-development and harmonious relationships is an analogue of the cranes’ conjugal love.

I must tell you that I had to go and sit down for a cup of tea in one of the many wonderful tea houses in Insadong after that. Why? Because the moment, that image, its explanation and my realization were a kind of epiphany. Really, I would say more a remembering or anamnesis. A kind of warmth passed through me and left me with a great sense of happiness. Yes, all of that on a simple fall afternoon in Insadong.

To dedicate oneself to the love of learning and to encouraging learning in others is a vocation. It usually is by no means the most dangerous of occupations, though it entails facing threats of various kinds. It is more highly valued in Korea and Asia than in other places, it seems, for the ways of the world affect and infect the pursuit of learning. But it is often a somewhat lonely path, since much of learning and motivating learning occurs without fanfare or even recognition if it is done correctly and purely.

Further, the pursuit of love, in particular marriage, is also a vocation. Marriage is not required in this life, and many consider it to be a trap, but when it works it is a blessing akin to very few, if any, on earth, and it produces life. Life begets life, else entropy rules the world.

I have these vocations, as I am sure do many others. If one is not a teacher or professor, one is still about the matters of learning through one’s work and life. There is something of the potential scholar in us all. If one eschews the vocation of marriage, itself capable of many forms, to have a love for others is possible and realized in many relationships of diverse kinds. We all should be lovers of one another in the things that matter most.

The image of the songhakdo in that print caused an epiphany for me — and it happened in Korea, just as so many good things have happened for me. In Korea, I learned that the syllables "song," "hak" and "do" stand for pine tree, crane and picture. This image arose in the Joseon era and often appeared in homes as a kind of blessing and statement of purpose, a symbol of family bonds. The pine tree represents lasting virtue, integrity and determination for purpose. The crane represents what is noble and partakes of immortality. There are versions of the songhakdo in Chinese and Japanese cultures as well. “Long life, ethical integrity and good fortune” are its touchstones.

Likewise, this image and its elements reflect the potential harmony of humans, nature, the universe, and society and their classic and great quadripartite relations as expressed in the work of Eric Voegelin, the German American political philosopher. Songhakdo expresses the potential of human beings as social creatures and as beings of love and learning.

I shall forever be grateful for that recent afternoon in Insadong and for the marvel of Korean culture and civilization, which preserves the image of songhakdo. It’s an image that, through living and lived imagination, can be for us all.

Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and academic services and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.