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 “Welcome, this is the last lecture,” is how Shin Young Bok starts his book Dam-ron (2015). It has been only two months since Shin, a writer and professor at Sung Kong Hoe University (SKHU), died from cancer. Revered by many, he was often referred to as the “true mentor of the era” and as a great lecturer. Shin’s books have the power to inspire readers towards the real value of life. His last work, Dam-ron, a best-seller in the humanities field, explicates life lessons and human relationships along with his profound knowledge of the classics.

Just as its start indicates, Dam-ron is a transcript of lectures by Professor Shin. Unlike other professors, Shin does not lecture on specific majors—he lectures on life and humanity. These two subjects, rather abstract, are areas that many lecturers fail to speak concisely about. Many of them fill their talks with irrelevant anecdotes. However, as shown in Dam-ron, Shin delivers compact messages that differentiates him from others, with contents that outstretches from his personal experience to Eastern classics.

Shin calls his lectures “a travel from brain to heart to toe,” in which he believes as an idealistic way of study. By travelling from brain to heart, he means that after accepting knowledges from the past through studies, one should be able to truly understand them by heart. Studying does not end here, as there is one most important and hard part left: putting one’s knowledge into practice, from heart to toe.

Dam-ron is a book that substantially fulfills this value of Shin’s. Each of the lecture starts from some episodes in Eastern classics, moves onto his personal experiences as well as his way of explanation on the event, and ends with a morale that persuades the readers to act. It is of a style that can even positively affect readers who are unfamiliar with classics. The lectures cover a diverse spectrum of knowledge ranging from poetry to tolerance to nomadism. By the time a reader finishes the book, one would be full of passion and wisdom that would help one to direct themselves the right way of life.

Not only is the way Shin elucidates life lessons in classics uncommon, but the unique personal experiences that Shin got through makes Dam-ron even more distinctive. They stem from his life in prison, where he stayed for 20 years and 20 days due to his being misidentified as a spy. There, he met numerous people with different ill-fated life stories, which in accumulation gave him insights on life itself and human relationships. The life lessons he learned there are also developed in his previous works such as Contemplation From Prison (1990) and Together Forest (1998).

His main message that penetrates his books is the importance of living with others. Shin emphasizes that one cannot exist without others, and that the essence of society lies in solidarity. Thus, while the first section of the book is mainly concerned with the theories on human relationships that he accumulated during his life, with contexts borrowed from Eastern classics such as Maeng-ja and Non-eo, the second section is lighter. Relating to the calligraphy he produced, he tells stories and anecdotes on life lessons that people easily neglect. Although they start lightly, introducing one example of his calligraphy and illustrations, each expands into a truth that he wishes to communicate.

Although Shin passed away on January 15, his lectures, his life lessons, and his brightness will be remembered by many, as his books verify. Shin Young Bok was truly a person that suits the position “Mentor of the Era,” and a teacher for the whole generation. His thoughts affected so many people’s lives. This is why Dam-ron, his last transcript of lectures, bears much meaning. Just by reading it, a new sphere of insight will open up.

Book Information
Title: Dam-ron
Author: Shin Young Bok
Publisher: Dol Be-gae
Year Published: 2015