Letteratura coreana 1

Korean literature

Historical development

Korean literature could also be written in Chinese (before Hangul was invented). Orthography: Chinese (they used the sounds, not the actual letters), modified Chinese letters, Hangul.

• KoChosŏn (2333-194 BC)
• Wiman Chosŏn (194-108 BC)
• Puyo (?-346 AD)
• Pon Kaya (42-532 AD)
• Koguryo (37 BC – 668 AD)
• Paekche (18 BC – 660 AD)
• Silla (57 BC – 935 AD)
• Parhae
• Koryo (698-926 AD)
• Chosŏn (1392-1910 AD)

Samguk Sagi and Samguk Yusa

Samguk Sagi (삼국사기): Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms, 1146 by Kim Pusik, scientific way of writing.

Samguk Yusa (삼국유사): Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, 1285 by Iryŏn, tales and legends.

Both were written in the Koryo period. Probably the texts were modified during the course of time.

Foundation myths

Tangun

Legend has it that Hwan-ung, the son of Hwan-in (who was the God of All and the ruler of Heaven), yearned to live on Earth among the valleys and the mountains. His father sent him and 3,000 helpers to rule Earth, and he brought three heavenly seals – the symbols of the shaman-king’s authority and power – that might have been bells, a sword, and a mirror for providing humans with great happiness. Hwan-ung descended to Mount T'aebaeksan on the border between Manchuria and what is now North Korea. He named the place Shinshi, City of God. Along with his ministers of clouds, rain, and wind, he instituted laws and moral codes and taught the humans various arts, medicine, and agriculture.

A tiger and a bear living in a cave together prayed to become human. Upon hearing their prayers, Hwan-ung called them to him and gave them 20 cloves of garlic and a bunch of mugwort. He then ordered them to only eat this sacred food and remain out of the sunlight for 100 days. The tiger shortly gave up and left the cave. However, the bear remained true, and after 21 days was transformed into a woman. The bear-woman was very grateful and made offerings to Hwan-ung. However, lacking a companion, she soon became sad and prayed beneath a sandalwood tree to be blessed with a child. Hwan-ung, moved by her prayers, took her for his wife and soon she gave birth to a handsome son. They named him Tan-gun, meaning "Altar Prince" or sandalwood. Tangun developed into a wise and powerful leader and in 2333 BC moved to P'yongyang and established the Chosŏn ("Land of the Morning Calm") Kingdom. Finally, at the age of 1,908, he returned to T'aebaeksan where he became a mountain god.

Chumong (King Tongmyong)

Biographical patterns of heroes:

• Born from an egg, it was the source of life and the symbol of the sun (= royalty).
• Divine paternity (except T’arhae), they can become kings thanks to their divine blood.
• Handsome and strong

Kuji Ka (Song of Kuji)

O turtle, O turtle.龜何龜何 거북아거북아 Show your head!首其現也 머리를내어놓아라. If you do not,若不現也 만일내어놓지않으면 We’ll roast you and eat you.燔灼而喫也 구워먹으리라.

- Show your head = give the king to us, the head is the king.

- The purpose of the incantation was to pray for the descent of King Suro.

- Originally written in classic Chinese.

Kongmudoha-ka (Milord, don’t cross the river)

Milord, don’t cross the river,公無渡河. 임이여물을건너지마오. Milord after all crosses it.公竟渡河. 임은결국물을건너시네. He falls into the river and dies.墮河而死, 물에빠져죽었으니, What can I do for Milord當奈公何. 장차임을어이할꼬.

- A woman (probably the wife) saw a man walking into a river and wanted to stop him, but she couldn’t.

- Constant of Korean literature: accept the feeling of sorrow when something bad happens, like someone’s death.

- Originally written in classic Chinese.

- Blue = color of sorrow.

Hwangjo Ka (Song of Orioles)

Flutter, flutter, orioles,翩翩黃鳥 펄펄나는꾀꼬리는 Male and female, in pairs.雌雄相依 암수가정다운데 How lonely I am;念我之獨 외로운이내몸은 With whom shall I return?誰其與歸 뉘와함께돌아갈까?

- A king had two wives. One day they fought, and the stronger one discriminated against the other one, so the latter left. The king followed her, but he couldn’t get her back because she refused to return to him.

- Originally written in classic Chinese.

Poetry and its role in Korean literature

Poetry: folk art, they were performed in groups because they were linked to prayers and communal wishes (Kuji-ka). The others are about emotions and were written by individuals and are also considered literature.

Like Kuji-ka, poetry was a folk art that grew naturally from the life of the time and dealt mainly with communal wishes and prayers. However, Kongmudoha-ka and Hwangjo-ka move the reader because their central concerns are universal emotions sung in literature: sorrow over the death of a loved one and the pangs of love and loneliness from separation, respectively. These songs were composed and sung by an individual. These songs can be considered literature.

Social backgrounds

• Buddhism (Unified Silla)
• Confucianism (spread throughout the high classes during the Three Kingdoms Period)
• Daoism → Hwarang flowering knights = Silla’s elite corps of knights. Hwarang was the name of the leader, the group was called nangdo and there were different groups of hwarang. They were very important during the period of the unification of Silla.

Five commandments for laymen

• Loyalty to the king (Confucianism).
• Filial piety towards parents (Confucianism).
• Treat friends with sincerity (Confucianism).
• Never retreat from a battlefield (Buddhism).
• Be discriminated against the taking of life (Buddhism).

Korean Buddhism focused more on protecting the country than original Buddhism.

Maitreya Buddha = future Buddha. If you do good things in your life, you can go to the pure land. Maitreya, in Sanskrit, “The Benevolent One”; the name of the next Buddha, who now abides in Tusita heaven as a BODHISATTA, awaiting the proper time for him to take his final rebirth. Buddhists believed that their religion, like all conditioned things, was inevitably impermanent and would eventually vanish from the earth. According to one such calculation, the teachings of the current Buddha SAKYAMUNI would flourish for five hundred years after his death, after which would follow a one-thousand-year period of decline and a three-thousand-year period in which the dharma would be completely forgotten... He will do so only after the human lifespan has decreased to ten years and then increased to eighty thousand years. Initially, a minor figure in early Indian Buddhism, Maitreya evolved during the early centuries of the Common Era into one of the most popular figures in Buddhism across Asia in both the mainstream and Mahayana traditions.

Regarding the Buddhist literature, monks were very educated people because they usually translated from Sanskrit or Chinese.

Main representatives

• Goguryeo: Sosurim (372)
• Baekje: Chinryu (384)
• Silla: Nulji (5c), recognized in Beopheung (527)

Wonhyo (617-686)

Uisang (625-702)

Buddhism was introduced in the Goguryeo period, but one of the most important monks lived during the Silla period and was Wonhyo. He wanted to go to China (with Uisang) to learn more about Buddhism. One night, he was very thirsty and found water inside a recipient. In the morning he realized that he had drunk from a skull and was disgusted but realized the core of Buddhism: the substance never changes, it's the mind of people that changes.

Hyangga

• Songs in Silla period and beginning of Goryeo.
• 4-, 8- or 10-line songs.
• Popular songs that later developed into something more constructed and sophisticated (like the 10-line songs).
• Different authors (monks, Hwarangs, women, …).
• Different themes (praising, expel, political/religious songs, praying, …).

Are collected in the:

• Memorabilia of The Three Kingdoms: 14 hyangga (more general songs).
• Life of Great Master Kyunyo: Kyunyo wrote 11 hyangga (specific songs).

Probably there were thousands of hyangga, but we only have 25; the others were lost. A collection of hyangga, entitled Samdaemok (Collection of Three Periods), compiled in 888 by Monk Taegu and Prime Minister Wihong during the reign of Queen Chinsŏng (887–897), is now lost. Hyangga designates Korean songs, but it refers specifically to the twenty-five extant songs produced between the seventh and tenth centuries.

Orthographic system used in hyangga hyangch’al:

• Based on Chinese characters.
• Chinese graphs are used phonetically and semantically to represent the sounds of Old Korean.
• Every character represented either one sound or was used for its meaning.
• The creator is unknown.

Sodong yo (Song of Sodong)

c.600 Princess Sŏnhwa,善花公主主隱 선화공주님은 After a secret affair,他密只嫁良置古 남몰래사귀어두고 Steals away at night,薯童房乙 서동방을 With Sŏdong in her arm 夜矣夗[卯]乙抱遣去如 밤에몰래안고가다

- Author: King Mu of Paekche (Sodong)

- King Sodong and princess Sonhwa had an affair, the song became popular and the rumor of this affair spread among the people.

P’ungyo (Ode to Yangji, lit. “a popular song”)

c.635 We’ve come, have come, have 來如來如來如 오다오다오다 come, 來如哀反多羅 오다, 서럽더라 How sad, we have come! – 哀反多矣徒良 서럽다, 우리들이여 Sad are the living beings. 功德修叱如良來如 공덕닦으러오다 We have come to garner merit. (-Yang Chudong’s translation)

Honhwa ka (Dedication of the flower)

c.702-737 If you would let me leave 紫布岩乎邊希 붉은 바위 가에 The cattle tethered to the brown 執音乎手母牛放敎遣 잡고 있는 암소 놓게 하시고 rock, 吾肸不喩慚肸伊賜等 나를 아니 부끄러워하신다면 And feel no shame for me, 花肸折叱可獻乎理音如 꽃을 꺾어 받자오리다. I would pluck and dedicate the flowers! (-Yang Chudong’s translation)

- Author: an old herdsman

- There was a queen, Queen Suro (?) who was very beautiful. One day she went out with her friends and saw a beautiful flower on a cliff, but no one could get it because it was too dangerous. Then an old herdsman got the flower and dedicated it to her.

Turinnorae (Song of Tusita Heaven)

c.760 O flowers strewn today 今日此矣散花唱良 오늘 이에 산화 불러 With a song. Since you attend 巴寶白乎隱花良汝隱 뿌린 꽃이여 너는 My honest mind’s command, 直等隱心音矣命叱使以惡只 곧은 마음의 명 받아 You serve Maitreya! 彌勒座主陪立羅良 미륵좌주 뫼셔라. (-Yang Chudong’s translation)

- Author: Master Wolmyong (Buddhist monk)

- Tusita Heaven: heaven where Maitreya awaits, the pure land. Tusita Heaven, where the future Buddha Maitreya awaits the time for his coming to earth; the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods, which is presided over by Inda (Sanskrit: Indra; sometimes called Sakka [Sanskrit: Shakra], a deity who plays a significant mythological role); and the Heaven of the Four Guardian Kings, protective deities who are found in many Buddhist myths.

Mo Chukchirang ka (Ode to Knight Chukchi)

c. 692-702 All living beings sorrow and lament 간(지나간) 봄 그리매 Over the spring that is past;모든 것사 설어 시름하는데 Your face once fair and bright 아름다움 나타내신 Is about to wear deep furrows. 얼굴이 주름살을 지니려 하옵내다. I must glimpse you 눈돌이킬 사이에나마 Even for an awesome moment. 만나뵙도록 지으리이다 My fervent mind cannot rest at night 낭(郎)이여 그릴 마음의 녀올길이 In the mugwort-rank hollow. 다복쑥 우거진 마을에 잘 밤 있으니까? (-Yang Chudong’s translation)

- Author: T’ugo.

- Dedicate to a hwarang who died, Chukchi.

Wonga (Regret)

737 You said you would no more forget me 질 좋은 잣이 Than the densely green pine 가을에 말라 떨어지지 아니하매 Would wither in the fall. 너를 중히 여겨 가겠다 하신 것과는 달리 That familiar face is there still. 낯이 변해 버리신 겨울에여 The moon in the ancient lake 달이 그림자 내린 연못갓 Complains of the transient tide. 지나가는 물결에 대한 모래로다. I still glimpse your figure, 모습이야 바라보지만 But how I dislike this world. 세상 모든 것 여희여 버린 처지여

- Author: Sinch’ung

Ch’oyong ka (Song of Ch’oyong)

879 Having caroused far into the night 서울 밝은 달에 In the moonlit capital, 밤들이 노니다가 I returned home and in my bed, 들어와 잠자리를 보니 Behold, four legs. 가랑이가 넷이도다. Two were mine; 둘은 나의 것이었고 Whose are the other two? 둘은 누구의 것인가? Formerly two were mine; 본디 내 것이지마는 What shall be done now they are taken? 빼앗긴 것을 어찌하리오?

- Author: Ch’oyong

- He went home drunk and realized that there should be the two legs of his wife, but there were four legs. He expresses his sadness, instead of his anger.

- Other scholars said that the other two legs are the legs of a disease, they are the legs of a demon of a disease. Ch’oyong was a shaman and he expelled the demon.

- The theory is that Ch’oyong was not Korean, but came from India and came from the sea, because we have some masks that represent his face and he doesn’t look Korean. The masks of Ch’oyong are in the houses and work as amulets to keep demons and diseases away.

Che mangmae ka (Requiem for the Dead Sister)

c. 762-765 On the hard road of life and death 죽고 사는 길 That is near our land, 예 있으매 저히고 You went, afraid, 나는 간다 Without words. 말도못다 하고 가는가 We know not where we go, 어느 가을 이른 바람에 Leaves blown, scattered, 이에 저에 떨어질 잎다이 Though fallen from the same tree, 한가지에 나고 By the first winds of autumn. 가는 곳모르누나 6 Ah, I will polish the path 아으 미타찰(彌陀刹)에서 만날 Until I meet you in the Pure Land. 내 도닦아기다리리다.

- Author: Master Wolmyong (same of Turinnorae).

- It’s more emotional, because he misses his sister. He compares the parts of life to the season: she died during her fall middle age, not young but not old.

- Characteristic of 10-line songs: interjections (Ah). They highlight emotions and represent a change in the pitch and the tempo. They usually indicate the conclusion of the song.

- Usual division of 10-line songs: 4+4+2

Ch’an kip’arang ka (Ode to the knight Kip’a)

The moon that pushes her way 열어젖히니(구름을) Through the thickets of clouds, 나타난 달이 Is she not pursuing 흰 구름 따라 The white clouds? 떠가는 것 아니냐? Knight Kip’a once stood by the water, 새파란 냇가에 Reflecting his face in the Iro. 기파랑의 모습이 있구나. Henceforth I shall seek and gather 이로부터 냇가 조약돌에 Among pebbles the depth of his mind. 기파랑이 지니시던 마음의 끝을 따르련다. Knight, you are the towering pine 아아, 잣나무 가지 높아 That scorns frost, ignores snow. 서리를 모르실 화랑의 우두머리여. (- Yang Chudong’s translation)

- Author: Master Ch’ungdam.

- Dedicated to the hwarang Kip’a, who passed away.

- White clouds = pure mind, royalty. Pine tree = it never changes, it’s always green. It’s the symbol of someone who never changes his mind.

Anmin ka (Statemanship)

The king is father, And his ministers are loving mothers. His subjects are foolish children; They only receive what love brings. Schooled in saving the masses, The king feeds and guides them. Then no one will desert this land – This is the way to govern a country. Ah, peace and prosperity will prevail if each – King, minister, and subject – lives as he should.

- Author: Master Ch’ungdam.

- The king asked the author what a good mindset was to be a king, and this song is the answer → we need to do our best in our position.

Silla writing in classic Chinese

Systems and studies

• Kugyol: oral formulas, adding grammatical elements to the Chinese text to indicate the case relationship of nouns and verb endings.
• T’o: oral formula graphs, rearranging the Chinese sentence into Korean syntactic order.
• Idu: Sino graphs used for sound and sense to indicate Korean particles and verbal endings in order to decipher Chinese sentences. Mostly used in administrative papers and public documents.

Ch’oe ch’iwon studied in Tang China (passed the imperial examination = known among the Confucian literati).

On a Rainy Autumn Night

Few friends because he studied in China but was Korean and the lamp of his heart is in Silla, that’s why it flies far away. I only chant painfully in the 秋風惟苦吟 스산한 갈바람은 가슴 아픈 나의(추풍유고음) autumn wind, 世路少知吟 노래(세로소지음) For I have few friends in the 窓外三更雨 이 세상엔 내 마음 알아줄 이(창외삼경우) wide world. 燈前萬里心 없어라 At third watch, it rains outside.(등전만리심) By the lamp my heart flies 밤 깊은 창 밖엔 찬비만 주룩주룩 myriad miles away. 잠은 안오고, 마음은 멀고 먼고향으로

21/02/2020

Koryo period (918-1392)

Pyokrando: trading with China, Japan but mostly Arabia international port.

• Military regime (1170-1270)
• Mongol invasions (1231–1259): Koryo government lost its power and control on people.
• Koryo under Mongol rule (1270-1356)

Religion: Buddhism, but other religions were allowed as well (Confucianism, Daoism, …). Later, Chosŏn dynasty was stricter. Culture: Tripitaka Koreana (teaching against the Mongols), Koryo celadon (white and turquoise).

Sources of Koryo songs

• Koryo sa (History of Koryo)