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Comparison of the existing research about Libai's wife and children with the investigation on the figures of Libai's Poetry

Suh, Yong-Jun 1

1경희대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Libai is one of most famous poets of Chinese ancient times. His reputation gives the incidents which are legendary to him, and judgement of his accurate features is not easy. He has the poem works over one thounsand number, but on the other hand, has very small amount of the historical records conveyed. About the Libai's family, specially about the wifes and the children, we cannot know almost. Because Libai did not talk a lot about his wife and children from his poem. Also in historical record, we cannot find many sources about his wife and children. So we currently must guess with only data of the small amount. But what we know from the small amout of historical data does not seem to respond with what we read from his poems. The biggest problem is who gave birth to Libai's child. Libai is told to have four wifes who ane named as Ms. Xu(許氏), Ms. Liu(劉氏), A lady from Lu(魯一婦人), Ms. Zong(宗氏). According to historical record, Ms. Xu had a daughter and a son and A lady from Lu had a son. But the contents of Libai's poems gives us the impression that he's likely having another daughter and son. As the name of Libai's children, there are some names conveyed. From the record we know the names, Mingyuenu(明月奴), Poli(頗黎), Tianran(天然). From his poems, there're Pingyang(平陽) and Boqin(伯禽). Recently many researchers regard Mingyuenu is Boqin and Poli is Tianran. First wife Ms. Xu gave birth to Pingyang and Boqin. Third wife a lady from Lu gave birth to Poli and he is Tianran. But such guess has a contradiction. The daughter and son who were bored by Ms. Xu are too old to become Pingyang and Boqin who come out from Libai's poem. Also there're two children whom Libai did not call the name of, we can not identy them easily. so from Libai's poems, we can not say the children of Ms. Xu are the same person of Pingyang and Boqin. His second or third wife appears to bear another daugther and son. There is no guarantee thant the external fact which is reflected to the poetic work agrees with the actual fact completely. But when we searches the historical truth, we should refer the poetic truth which is reflected to the poetic work. About historic figure Libai, we should and only can read Libai's poems. And if there's differences between the features of hitorical Libai and poet Libai which is reflected to Libai's poem, we should compare them to find the fact. These two Libai might be untrue and comparative result could not be the fact as well. So the literary work should be accepted only as the literary work. So finding Libai's wifes and chilren separates the origin of Libai's literature. but through this work, we can have the meaningful read of the Libai's poetry.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.