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26-654: Medieval Korean poetry was influenced by Chinese culture. In 1190 Yi Kyu-bo passed a State Civil Examination that the Koryo dynasty modeled on the Confucian traditions of the Tang dynasty . He became the first privy counselor of the ruling Ch'oe family . Yi Kyu-bo fled to Kanghwa island during the Mongol invasions of Korea . As Korean peasants were left to the slaughter, Yi Kyu-bo composed poems describing their plight. Yi Kyu-bo

52-502: A century after the poet's death. Sijo , Korea's favorite poetic genre, is often traced to seonbi scholars of the 11th century, but its roots, too, are in those earlier forms. The earliest surviving poem of the sijo genre is from the 4th century. Its greatest flowering occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries under the Joseon dynasty . Hyangga poetry refers to vernacular Korean poetry which transcribed Korean sounds using Hanja (similar to

78-637: A form of essay . Common themes in gasa were nature, the virtues of gentlemen, or love between man and woman. The form first emerged during the Goryeo period, and was popular during the Joseon dynasty . They were commonly sung, and were popular among yangban women. Jeong Cheol , a poet of the 16th century, is regarded as having perfected the form, which consisted of parallel lines, each broken into two. There were attempts at introducing imagist and modern poetry methods particularly in translations of early American moderns such as Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot in

104-495: A fried; he fell down drunk every day. On the sleeping bench he stretched his body out; the breeze blew cool and refreshing. From the bright ancient world he came, a scholar noble and true. I think of the man when I read the poems; his integrity will be praised for a thousand years. Yi Kyu-bo's works were heavily influenced by Su Dongpo, considered the greatest poet of the Northern Song of whom he wrote: "Dongpo

130-518: Is a traditional Korean vernacular poetic form that emerged in the Koryǒ period, flourished during the Chosǒn dynasty, and is still written today. Common themes include, but are not limited to, the following: nature, nostalgia of the past, love interests, historical events, moral instruction. Most were written and enjoyed by the educated yangban class. However, there was an exception to this. Kisaengs were of

156-399: Is composed of 2 hemistichs and within each hemistich is a syntactic unit, which is why there are 2 syntactic units in each sijo line. This structure, however, may vary dependent on the type of sijo as well. For instance, narrative sijo ( sasol sijo ) is more prose-like, with the second line being long and completely expanded. Sijo with the 3-line format follows a common structure of having

182-571: Is contrasted with other forms such as the Chu -derived " cí " and the Han -era " fu ". This use is not common within Chinese literature, however, which instead classifies these poems into other categories such as classical Chinese poetry , Fields and Gardens poetry , and "curtailed" poetry . Gushi , which means "Ancient Poetry", may be used in either of two senses. It may be used broadly to refer to

208-504: The Classic , there are few formal constraints apart from line length (usually four characters and no more than seven) and rhyming every other line. Jintishi , which means "Modern Poetry", was actually composed from the 5th century onwards and is considered to have been fully developed by the early Tang dynasty. The works were principally written in five- and seven-character lines and involve constrained tone patterns , intended to balance

234-538: The Kingdom of Koguryo emphasized local Korean historical legends and cultural achievements. It is considered a nationalist rebuttal to Chinese-dominated historical traditions and Mongol political dominance. Korean poetry Korean poetry is poetry performed or written in the Korean language or by Korean people . Traditional Korean poetry is often sung in performance. Until the 20th century, much of Korean poetry

260-778: The character 詩 / 诗 , the Chinese word for all poetry generally and across all languages. In Western analysis of the styles of Chinese poetry , shi is also used as a term of art for a specific poetic tradition, modeled after the Old Chinese works collected in the Confucian Classic of Poetry . This anthology included both aristocratic poems (the " Hymns " and " Eulogies ") and more rustic works believed to have derived from Huaxia folk songs (the " Odes "). They are composed in ancient Chinese , mostly in four- character lines. In such analysis, " shi " poetry

286-477: The idu system, the hyangga style of transcription is called hyangch'al ) and is characteristic of the literature of Unified Silla . It is one of the first uniquely Korean forms of poetry. The Goryeo period Samguk Yusa contains 14 poems that have been preserved to the present day. These are thought to have been taken by Ilyon (compiler of Samguk Yusa ) from an anthology called the Samdaemok (삼대목/三代目) which

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312-567: The Goryeo songs were transmitted orally and many survived into the Joseon period, when some of them were written down using hangul . The poetic form of the Goryeo songs is known as byeolgok . There are two distinct forms: dallyeonche (단련체) and yeonjanche (연잔체). The former is a short form, whereas the latter is a more extended form. The Goryeo songs are characterized by their lack of clear form, and by their increased length. Most are direct in their nature, and cover aspects of common life. Sijo

338-663: The Yellow Bird (Hwangjoga, 황조가/黃鳥歌), written to lament the departure of his Chinese concubine Chihui . Some later Korean poetry followed the style of Tang lyric poetry such as the shi poetry form. Notable Korean poetry began to flourish during the Goryeo period (starting in 935). Collections were rarely printed. The earliest extant collection of poetry in Korean is "Songs of the Ten Vows Samantabhara" by Kyun Yeo (균여, 均如). This dates to 1075, just over

364-486: The ancient poetry of China, chiefly the mostly anonymous works collected in the Confucian Classic of Poetry , the separate tradition exemplified by Qu Yuan and Song Yu 's Songs of Chu , and the works collected by the Han " Music Bureau ". It may also be used strictly to refer to poems in the styles of the Confucian classic, regardless of their time of composition. Owing to the variety of pieces included in

390-446: The day coming to a close—the narrator hopes that it is eternally “today.” Some poems are more thought out and clever than others by having deeper meanings and symbolism with the use of Chinese characters. Gasa is a form of verse , although its content can include more than the expression of individual sentiment, such as moral admonitions. Gasa is a simple form of verse, with twinned feet of three or four syllables each. Some regard gasa

416-555: The early 20th century. In the early Republic period (starting in 1953 after the Korean War ), patriotic works were very successful. Lyrical poetry dominated from the 1970s onwards. Poetry is quite popular in 21st century Korea, both in terms of number of works published and lay writing. A corpus of modern Korean poetry is being compiled. The work provides linguistic information on 10,300 original Korean poems. Shi (poetry) Shi and shih are romanizations of

442-583: The first line introduce the situation and establishing the theme. Line 2 elaborates on and develops the information provided in the first line. The first half of the third and final line employs a “twist”: a surprise of meaning, sound, or other device as well as a conclusion or resolution. This is to act as a counter to the theme that was introduced. Example: 오늘이 오늘이소서 매일이 오늘이소서 저물지도 새지도 말으시고 새려면 늘 언제나 오늘이소서 Translation: May today be today, may every day be today May each day never end But if it does, may it dawn into today (By Flora Kim) The first line of

468-450: The lowest class, yet they could partake in creating and reciting sijo . Structurally, ' sijo' is widely known to have three lines averaging 14-16 syllables, for a total of 44-46: theme (3, 4,4,4); elaboration (3,4,4,4); counter-theme (3,5) and completion (4,3). However, only a small percentage of sijo actually follow this structure. Instead of syllabic count, it is more accurate to structure sijo with hemistichs or syntactic units. Each line

494-534: The most developed, structured into three sections with four, four, and two lines respectively. Many of the ten-line poems were written by Buddhist monks . The extent of the Shilla hwarang' s role in the development and flourishing of the hyangga genre is a subject of much scholarly interest. The Goryeo period was marked by a growing use of Hanja. Hyangga largely disappeared as a form of Korean literature, and "Goryeo songs" ( Goryeo gayo ) became more popular. Most of

520-399: The poem indicates the theme of “today.” The second line denotes the narrator's personal feelings towards the theme introduced in the first line. The desire is that “today” will neither end nor begin a new day. The third and final line begins with the twist of “새려면,” meaning “But, if it must end (setting of the sun on a day)”. This is followed by the rest of the third line being the resolution to

546-447: Was completed during the Shilla period, in 888 (according to Samguk Sagi ), but is no longer extant today. This lost anthology is thought to have contained approximately 1,000 hyangga. Eleven poems from the later Goryeo dynasty Gyunyeojeon (균여전/均如傳), characterized by the same style, have also been preserved. Hyangga are characterized by a number of formal rules. The poems may consist of four, eight or ten lines. The ten-line poems are

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572-623: Was one of the most important literary critics of his time, concerned with form theory ( yongsa ron ) and creative theory ( shunui ron ). His views diverged from those of Yi Illo, who rejected the notion of the importance of individual creativity in poetry. Although both held similar views, Yi Illo was more conservative and placed a greater emphasis on classical Chinese forms. value the use of an elegant or refined language. Modern Korean scholars have attributed Chinese influence in Yi Kyu-bo's writing to Bai Juyi , Tao Yuanming and Su Dongpo . Bai Juyi

598-570: Was one of the most influential Tang dynasty writers, even more influential than Li Bai and Du Fu . Although the Middle Tang era was four centuries before Yi Kyu-bo's time, imitation of Middle Tang literature continued to be commonplace in the Song dynasty . Koryo envoys had acquired copies of two of the four major encyclopedic works compiled during the reign of the Song emperor Taizong , one of which

624-523: Was the Wenyuan yinghua (Finest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature). This work had intended to teach Song era writers how to compose poetry ad other literary works. He wrote a poem about Tao Yuanming called Reading Tao Yuanming's Poems": Tao Yuanming freed himself from official business: he returned to the country, to wander among pine, bamboo and chrysanthemum. When he had no wine, he sought out

650-622: Was the greatest man of letters, towering over all others in modern times." Yi Kyu-bo wrote prose works in the kajon genre, "fictitious" biographies first popularized by Han Yu in the Tang dynasty. Along his works in this genre are the Tale of the Turtle in Clear Water and The Story of Mr. Yeast . The Lay of King Tongmyong may be Yi Kyu-bo's best known poem. The mythic tale of the founding of

676-664: Was written in Hanja . The performance of oral songs in the religious life of the ancient Korean people is vividly recorded in Chinese dynastic histories. At state assemblies the chief ritualist would tell the story of the divine origin of the founder, as evinced by foundation myths, and his extraordinary deeds in war and peace. Recited narrative was interspersed with primal songs that not only welcomed, entertained, and sent off gods and spirits. Thus orality and performance were significant features of vernacular poetry in ancient Korea. A famous surviving example dates to 17 BC, Yuri 's Song of

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