This study aims to investigate the patterns of wall poems in Lee Gyu-bo's Chinese poems. He wrote Chinese poems on a wall in 23 topics and 27 pieces. The walls on which he wrote a poem can be divided into private houses, Yeokwons, the royal court, tem...
This study aims to investigate the patterns of wall poems in Lee Gyu-bo's Chinese poems. He wrote Chinese poems on a wall in 23 topics and 27 pieces. The walls on which he wrote a poem can be divided into private houses, Yeokwons, the royal court, temples, and others(official residences and Juchangs). The study examined the patterns of wall poems in three aspects including "motivation for poem writing," "utilization in various life aspects," and "expression of honest emotions." First, the examination of motivations for poem writing focused on rhyme-borrowing poems. Writing a poem on a wall is completed by endless people who pass by the space. Those who come by the place later become readers and have emotional communion, which motivates many people to write a poem by borrowing rhymes from a poem on a wall.
The study then examined wall poems utilized in various life aspects. Lee recorded his spontaneous excitement at a drinking party on walls in the form of a poem. In a process of wandering and travel fatigue, he used wall poems as a means of forgetting the difficulties of making an extensive tour and remembering his whereabouts of the day. The goal of his wall poems at the royal court was to let people know his circumstances.
Finally, the expression of one's honest emotions functioned as a self-description. Lee would display the direction of his future life with his poems via a wall when he failed to make it in the world despite his talent. At the royal court, he would clearly reveal his intention to resign to his colleagues, share his emotions with them, and solicit their understanding through his wall poems.