Cho Jihoon's Korean Aesthetics: the Concept 'Meot'

Cho Jihoon’s aesthetics is based on the Confusiand literati’s spirit, choesado, and on the Buddhist idea of non-duality. He presented the theory of meot, meaning taste originally, as a Korean-specific aesthetic category in his Study of Meot, where he synthesized the previously discussed theories of other scholars into 12 elements. Discussing the formal characteristics of works that have the aesthetic quality of meot, he took unrefined-ness as basic, and cited diversity, eurhythmy, and curvature as its subtriats. Discussing the compositional power or method of expression that provokes meot, he took hyper-standard as basic, and the subtriats include maturity, distortion, and playfulness. Futhermore, he discussed meot as an emotion or idea that Koreans live with, where the most basic one is otiosity (impracticality), and assimilation, moderation, and optimism are its subtriats. Finally, he identified meot as the ultimate aesthetic state with pungryu, a lifestyle in harmony with Nature, which is originated from the ancient Silla period.