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In this paper, I review the literature on koryŏgayo(高麗歌謠) since 2000, summarize the problems highlighted in the literature, and provide suggestions for future research. The purpose of the study is three-fold: to discuss mutual consent in the lexical reinterpretation of koryŏgayo, directions for the historical approach, and the knowledge of koryŏgayo for the production of cultural content. First, there is a need to reaffirm the principles and ethics of koryŏgayo studies, which combine linguistics and literary research. It is necessary to check whether the reinterpretations of some words or difficult phrases have been suggested previously. When literary researchers claim a new reinterpretation of such words or phrases using the results of linguistic research, it is essential to identify the need and valid reason for rethinking. In particular, if the literary research is based on past linguistic interpretations that have been proven erroneous, the preceding linguistic theory should be questioned. However, if linguistic researchers use the ideas of other literary researchers as the complete framework for understanding the work of koryŏgayo, it is their ethical obligation to cite the previous literary studies as their source. The use of knowledge from adjoining disciplines requires a more cautious approach than in their own sphere. Second, there is a practical need for study groups to read and study together to facilitate historical research on koryŏgayo, despite the shortage of data on Koryŏ. This joint research is expected to simplify the description of the Koryŏsa music, which could be used to reveal the context related to the generation of koryŏgayo. Third, to provide useful knowledge for the production of cultural content using koryŏgayo, studies on the performance of koryŏ akjang(Koryŏ court music), separate from that of chosŏn akjang, should be increased. Considering that royal palaces and temples provide an interesting setting for cultural content, they should be examined using various approaches. In addition, to investigate the kind of atmosphere in which a series of love songs were performed as the main repertoires of court music in the presence of a king in the Buddhist country of Koryŏ, the aesthetic sympathy between the creator and the audiences should be analyzed. It is necessary to specify the references to koryŏgayo research to enable the production of cultural content.

The goal of this study is to cultivate the way to reasonably approach to the Korean poetic songs of the Goryeo Dynasty, focusing on two works, Gasiri and Ssangwhajeom 雙花店. We are likely to think that the text of Gasiri (Would you go back?) was made up with semantically incompatible elements. But I verified that the incompatibility resulted from misreading the words and that they and the chorus could be compatible in the text. In spite that we are able to find sufficient information to elucidate the specific context of Ssangwhajeom, we have not done so because of being seized by an unsubstantial assumption that most Korean songs of the Goryeo Dynasty were genetically folk songs. But I verified that it was made up by the courtiers who made contributions th the country in the period of King Chungryeol 忠烈王’s reign to become close to him but were being criticized by the noblemen of the time. Through making a application of the contextual study, I could cultivate a way of reasonable approach to the text and its specific context. I wish that the results of this study could be helpful to reflect our approaches to the Korean poetic songs of the Goryeo Dynasty, make up for the faults of our studies on them, and to investigate the artistic values of them.

The aim of this study is to investigate the way and intention of composition of Soakbu written by Ikjae Geupam, and the propriety of the meanings of Um(淫) and Ran(亂) referred to as the representative sentiment of the Goryeo songs(gayo). Soakbu in the late Goryeo period was written with Goryeoga andyo and folksongs and in the form of a quatrain with seven-word lines in the short Akbu. It is one part of the compositon of Dongkuksi written by poets who stayed long in Won dynasty. As the viewpoints of the pluralism that Haw(華) and Lee(夷) are not different were getting widespread in the late Goryeo, the intention that culture of Goryeo can be the center of the word led Soakbu to be created. Also, as Goryeo songs that are the themes of Soakbu were used Akjang in Joseon court, they were adapted or replaced by words of Hanja for the reason of Namnyeosangyeoljisa. Studies on the Goryeo songs have focused on the sentiment of ‘lewdness’ so far. However, this paper shows that Um(淫) and Ran(亂) were the musical terms indicating the opposite concept of the right music(Jungak) and referred to the speed and the high and low of the music.

This paper studies what kind of song Gasiri of Siyonghyanggakbo is. Though Gasiri is a song which is transmitted in music score, researches on it have been biased to the lyric rather than to the music. It is because the rhythmic interpretation of the music score has not been completed. This paper investigates what kind of the song Gasiri is and how the meaning of Gasiri lyric is expressed musically by interpreting the rhythm of the music score and studying the mode, musical structure, and melody of the song. Gasiri turns out to be a song of Gyounggi province fork song style, in which the meaning of lyric is expressed in a short and simple melody. Gasiri’s mode Pyoungjo, the rhythm interpreted as four ternary subdivided beats (12/8), and the melody and cadence follow the characteristics of Gyeonggi province fork song. Among the 6-measures melody, the second measure which goes one octave higher up to the highest tone and the fourth measure which goes down to two tones lower express the heart which resists and surrenders to the breakup. Also the ways the lyric’s stanza, phrase, and syllable become song’s verse, phrase, and measure are slightly different from general ways, through which the meaning of the short and simple lyric is more emphasized.

This study analyzed the meanings and the titles of <Sokak/俗樂> from the 『Goryeosa』 「Akji」, which concludes that <Sokak> were made to praise Goryeo kings and to honor their authority. The most important feature of <Sokak> is that 3/4 of them has region titles or regional backgrounds, including <Samguk Sokak(Sokak of the three kingdoms>. It is quite different from Joseon <Akjang/樂章>, which has no regional titles. <Samguk Sokak(Sokak of the three kingdoms)> consisted of 14 songs, of which regions were chosen for the view of Goryeo. 5 of Goryeo <Sokak> were related to the Capital city of Gaegyeong(開京), 4 of <Sokak> were related to the supplementary capital cities(Byeolgyeong/別京), such as Seogyeong(西京), Nangyeong(南京) and Jangdan(長湍). 2 of <Sokak> were related to the sacred places of Saseon(四仙, four immortals, the famous four Hwa’rangs in the Silla dynasty), whose successors had great roles in Palgwanhoe(八關會). The editers of 『Goryeosa』 didn’t delete or distort the songs for the Confucian ideological reason. However, they made the context of the <Sokak> incomprehensible and ambiguous by editing the meanings: such as by contraction, selective exaggeration, and ambiguous explanation. In some cases, they reduced the meaning of the songs by changing the titles. Ak/樂(royal music) was supposed to eulogize the present political power, so it had to be replaced by new one in the new dynasty. This was a universal aspect of the politics of royal music.

“Mungeon bonpuri(문전본풀이)”, a shaman song of Jeju island, is a myth about family and family members. It has been commonly accepted as a myth reflecting matriarchal family system in which the mother and her son play leading roles. In this article, the common view was examined by considering the narrative of “Mungeon bonpuri” and the cultural environment of Jeju. Contrary to the conventional belief that the “Mungeon bonpuri” is reflecting the family system centered on the mother and son, it is a myth based on the patriarchal family system of Jeju Island. In the “Mungeon bonpuri”, the position and roles of each family members are defined under the absolute authority of the father. ‘Noiljeodae’, defined as a wicked person obstructing the completion of the family, is the character made by the mythicalizing logic which internalizes and accepts external powerful existence. ‘Noiljeodae’ is a ‘necessary evil’ who bears the son of a family as a concubine and recyles the human wastes to useful things as the goddess of ‘tong-si’. “Mungeon bonpuri” is the myth for ‘mothers’ who can be the member of a social system only by relying on the Son of her husband’s. Being mother and living as the mother with the faith of son and family, was the existential strategy of women in patriarchal Jeju society.

This paper offers a literary analysis of Kim Jong-jik’s IICHUNROK(彛尊錄). IICHUNROK is a literary records of the life of his father Kim Suk-ja(金叔滋). It’s divided into five categories: Genealogy, annual report, the list of colleagues, speech and actions, and the way of religious ceremony. Kim Suk-ja has been a decisive influence on Kim Jong-jik's position as a teacher who emphasizes the practice and learning of SOHAK(小學). It can be confirmed through the structure and subject matter of this book. Although IICHUNROK has been regarded as a rationale for the author's biographical facts, but it contains Kim Jong-jik's literary intentions. Therefore, it is necessary to consider and analyze as a literary works with a single literary theme. A review of the background and composition of this book, Kim Jong-jik was trying to recover his father’s honor by organizing his father's academic, ethical and political achievements. In addition, he stated that he tried to secure the educational effect on readers by using the writing attitude and composition method of the book SOHAK. Subsequently, the subject matters of this work was classified according to the main subject of the book SOHAK- general introduction(總論), education(立敎), ethics(明倫) and deportment(敬身). In accordance with this grand scheme, the contents were classified and the important episodes were precisely interpreted. As a result of this analysis, it can be inferred that Kim Jong-jik presented IICHUNROK intention to make a new kind of SOHAK the addition of Chosun’s practice. In general introduction, Kim Jong-jik defines his father's life as a normative character that protects ethics and practicing the moral principle of filial piety and fraternity(孝弟). This is not limited to Kim Sook-ja's life, but also to Kim Jong-jik's lifelong claim that readers should practice moral principles and self-disciplines. In educational section, Kim Jong-jik introduced the method and training sequence of the neo-Confucianism suggested by his father. It also emphasizes the aspect of educators who have focused on cultivating local talents. The ethical section presents episodes related to rituals and marriages. Kim Sook-ja emphasized that the household of the gentry should practice the teachings of SOHAK and GARYE(家禮). Lastly, in deportment sections, Kim Jong-jik presented his father’s position as a true gentleman who keep his principles. IICHUNROK reflects various ways of Kim Jong-jik's literary patterning. Through this work, Kim Jong-jik organized his father's life and he was able to bring educational effect to readers. These methods of writing were handed down by later writers in various ways such as household history, family standard and lecture books. This is an example that reveals the practical and record characteristics of literature in early Chosun.

This paper examined Cho Woo-In's time in Maeho and his literary work: MaehoByeolgok(梅湖別曲). Maeho is the lake at Sangju-si(尙州市) in Gyeongsang- buk-do Province(慶尙北道). Cho Woo-In(曺友仁, 1561～1625) wrote MaehoByeolgok, the poetic speaker of which expresses his excitement and impressions for coming and living at Maeho. First, the time to start living at Maeho was examined. It was known that the time was 1623 CE, but it was inferred that he set up house there before 1616 and wrote MaehoByeolgok provisionally before 1620 from his other works and the materials for him. Second, it was analyzed that MaehoByeolgok's composition is well organized and its poetic sentiment unfolds in a natural way. The sentiment starts from the excitement and goes through the expectation, the self-examination, the rumination, and reaches to the promise. Lastly, examining his consciousness for being emotionally deprived and the depression in MaehoByeolgok, it was found that it had derived from the dissatisfaction for his official life, negatively thought for his family, etc. As a result, that means MaehoByeolgok was the work of making up mind for him, and he regarded the Gasa as the genre, which expressed the worries and self-examination for his life.

"A Small Record on Gudam" is Yi In-sang's record on Gudam, a picturesque place in Danyang. Yi sincerely loved Gudam and had dreamed to live a sequestered life in the area from early on. He eventually built a pavilion of his own there, which was named Dabaekun, and wrote the record. He loved Gudam in that he thought the place suited his aesthetic sense of balance and was adequately far from the secular world. Unlike typical nature travelogues, "A Small Record on Gudam" does not have a certain time-frame. This is because, for Yi, Gudam was not a place for just one time excursion but a place to experience repeatedly and continuously with deep affection. To effectively depict each part of the place, he divides this record into paragraphs like many landscape records in the 18th century. Still, he focuses on describing the overall balance and harmony of the place at the same time. In this writing, Yi recalls memories of historical figures and his own friends with regard to Gudam. Moreover, he eagerly looks forward to the future in the place, not only his private life but also his social responsibilities. It is a unique landscape record, because it goes beyond ordinary travelogues and mixes up all these memories and anticipation about Gudam, imbuing the place with special significance and revealing his own affection towards it. It may provide a new perspective to understand the genre of landscape record.

Yu Manju兪晩柱, a surplus intellectual of Joseon, read Yeokeoyuhae譯語類解and extracted to make a list “Sogeomyeongmulhae”俗語名物解 in the late 18th century. “Sogeo” means local language, ‘Korean’ in this case, and “myeongmulhae” means explanations of name of objects. Unlike Yeokeoyuhae, a Chinese vocabulary dictionary for middle layer Korean translators, the list is a lexicon of 392 names of things organizing Yu Manju’s everyday life. He changed the contents of the book like this: 󰊱grains, vegetables, trees, flowers, birds, four-footed animals, insects and bugs, aquatic animals, 󰊲jewelry, weaving, sewing, agriculture, living tools, harness and saddle, ship, vehicle, sericulture, 󰊳folk play, idiom. From this, we can find a viewpoint that divides material culture and intangible culture and a perspective that divides the material culture into natural product useful to humans and artificial tools for everyday life. Yeokeoyuhae is described in Chinese-Korean transliteration pairs system. Chinese headwords is transcribed in Chinese character and Korean meanings in Hangul. But Yu Manju used Hangul in a limited way to write Korean meaning. In his transcription system, he mainly depended on Chinese characters instead of Hangul. This transcription of borrowed characters was common to intellectuals who mainly use Chinese characters at the time. He transcribed only 63 descriptive Korean words in Hangul. These 63 words contain phonemes that were difficult to be written in Chinese. He confirmed that Korean and Chinese were different in the process of selecting phonemes that are difficult to be represented in Chinese. This was an opportunity for him to conduct an academic review of his native language in the future.