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The “Chang’an Image” in Korean-Chinese Poetry

  • The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China
  • Abbr : JSLCKC
  • 2013, (33), pp.409-434
  • DOI : 10.16874/jslckc.2013..33.017
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Study on Chinese Languge and Culture
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature
  • Published : October 31, 2013

刘志峰 1

1경희대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

As everyone knows, Chang’an(長安) was the capital of Chinese Tang Dynasty, and there was a big deal of the Tang Dynasty Poetry about this city. With the power of poetry concerning the city, Chang’an was not just a simple place, but also a place with an image in literary concept. Meanwhile, it was very common to have Chinese poetry about Chang’an appeared in Korea and Japan in ancient times. After survey though the Korean-Chinese poems of Unified Silla，Goryeo and Joseon，Based on researches, within the period when Silla, Goryeo and Joseon, the poems related to Chang’an reached 3,000. Even though the meaning of Chagn’an had been changed in different historical periods, the word “Chang’an” has become a symbol of East Asian civilization circle，which still arouses sympathy at present. Therefore, the author proposes the concept of “Chang’an image”, namely, in the East Asian civilization circle, form the source of Chang’an image——the capital of Han and Tang Dynasty, some other countries’ cities accepted and recreated a series of landscape, life style, customs and other literary images related. Finally, a broad sense Chang’an image has formed, among which contains a deep East Asian culture emotion. This article aims at figuring out the implication of Chang’an and Chang’an Image, according to the historical sequence to unify Silla, Goryeo and Joseon respectively. Actually in the period of Silla unification, poetry works of Chang’an were not that many, representative of which are “The poem to Yu-Shenwei Executive at Chang’an Hostel”(Choe-Jiwon 최치원), “Chang’an spring feeling”(Choe-Gwangoil 최광유), etc. In these works, “Chang’an” referred to the capital city of Tang Dynansty. Poets in this period rarely employed direct description, instead, they were mainly wrote poems replying other Tang Dynasty poets. The reason for the occurrence of this phenomenon are, on one hand, dissipation of a large amount of works, on the other hand, the social needs of poets in Tang Dynansty. In Goryeo period, the main poets of Chang’an poetry are Im-Chun(임춘), Li-Kyubo(이규보)，Li-Jehyeon(이제현), Li-Gog(이곡), Li-Saeg(이색), Kim-Guyong(김구용), all of who had never been to China except Li-Jehyeon, based on the investigation. As a result, mostly, Chang’an in their works was no longer the capital city of Tang Dynasty but Gaegyeong(개경), the capital of Goryeo. In author’s opinion, the main reason for this change lies in the cultural development of Goryeo and the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, in spite that Goryeo pledged loyalty to Jin Dynasty. However in the aspect of culture, Goryeo inherited what it had in North Song Dynansty, and strengthened their consciousness as the successor of Chinese culture, which was reflected in the creation of Chinese Poetry. A typical example would be the usage of Chang’an as the name of the capital city of Goryeo. In most of the Chinese poems in Joseon period, Chang’an referred to Hanyang, the capital of Joseon. In this period, the number of poetry works increased significantly, reaching the amount of more than 2,800. This may result from the plentiful documented materials during a long period of Joseon dynasty, as well as the highly praised Tang poetry in the same period. Almost all of the eminent writers, poets of Joseon had created Chang’an Poetry. Chinese poetry in Joseon period carried forward those in Goryeo period, in both quantity and quality. Generally, image in imagology have 3 characteristics, which are passiveness, stylization, and deviation. Specifically, the Chang’an image of Korean Chinese Poetry reflects 2 major characteristics, which are receptivity and deviation. By receptivity, it means that Chang’an image in Korean-Chinese poetry is the reception and recreation of that in Chinese poetry, but not dominated by the “self” culture. Instead, factors from outside environment, such as the Chang’an image and expression rule in Chinese Tang poetry, play a significant role in Korean-Chinese poetry. This is mainly reflected in the flexible usage of vocabulary and verse allusions of Tang poetry. The author have classified the Chang’an image of Korean-Chinese Poetry into 4 categories—that related to the Chang’an city, that related to the Chang’an landscape, that related to the Chang’an social class(aristocracy & swordsmen)，and that related to the Chang’an literary emotions. Deviation indicates the divergence from the real Chinese Chang’an. This divergence resulted from the misunderstanding brought by the reconstruction of Chang’an image in Korean-Chinese poetry, since they are not just reproduction, but also integrated with patterns and styles in Korean culture. Meanwhile, Chang’an image had been accepted as domestic by the Goryeo and Joseon poets, which means that the Chang’an image of Korean can reflect the image of Gaegyeong and Hanyang more exactly. Therefore, this “deviation” can also be regarded as the characteristic of Chang’an image in Korean-Chinese poetry, and this image is expressed in the depiction of various festivals, since customs and festivals are the reflection of lifestyle and way of thinking of a certain nationality. For instance, people exchange peach wood (to against evil) and dress children in five-color clothes in Spring Festival, stamp on the stone bridge in Hanyang city on Lantern Festival, swing on Cold Food Festival and Tano Festival, and admire lanterns on April eighth, etc.

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