This study has its purpose in researching and comparing the Jue-ju poetry of poets Baek Gwang Hoon of the mid-Joseon dynasty and Lee Sang Eun of the late Tang era, and finding out the differences between the two poets and their Chinese poetry.
First...
This study has its purpose in researching and comparing the Jue-ju poetry of poets Baek Gwang Hoon of the mid-Joseon dynasty and Lee Sang Eun of the late Tang era, and finding out the differences between the two poets and their Chinese poetry.
First of all, this study examined the lives and creation backgrounds of Baek Gwang Hoon and Lee Sang Eun. The two poets didn’t get the opportunity on their difficult paths as government officials, and expressed their deep thoughts and meanings that they couldn’t fulfill and unfold through their work.
Next, this study took a look focused on the Jue-ju poetry of the Chinese poetry of Baek Gwang Hoon and Lee Sang Eun. A comparison analysis was conducted in three categories; the contents per type of Chinese poetry, figure of speech and technique, and style.
In the first part, the contents per type of Chinese poetry were divided into five types, Youngsa, Gyungmool, Youngmool, Gyoyu, and Eunil, and were analyzed in chapters and verses. Regarding Youngsa poetry, Baek Gwang Hoon usually used the leader of the dynasty for his poetry subjects, while Lee Sang Eun wrote about innocent and poor scholars or objects related to such scholars. Although the two wrote about different subjects, they both well express their concerns about the country by comparing their current era with past dynasties and satirizing leaders or events through citing quotes or events of the past. Baek Gwang Hoon’s Youngsa poems appear to have been influenced by Lee Sang Eun. As for Gyungmool poetry, both poets wrote poems by combining both ‘scenery’ and ‘affection’, where the atmosphere was created by ‘scenery’ to then describe one’s ‘affection’, but Baek Gwang Hoon portrayed the scenery using simple words, while Lee Sang Eun relatively using fancy words. In Youngmool poetry, both poets sang about objects to reflect their situations. Both of them was reminiscent of their lives and situations through Gyungmool poems, and wondered at life by comparing ideal and reality. When looking at Gyoyu poetry, Baek Gwang Hoon’s subjects were teachers, Buddhist monks, writers, companions, and courtesans, while Lee Sang Eun wrote about companions, taoists, writers, politicians, and courtesans. When comparing the Eunil poetry of the two poets, Baek Gwang Hoon’s poems of when he was living in the countryside sang about a harmony of abundant life and peaceful pleasures, while Lee Sang Eun who wrote about his true country life expressed an unstable inwardly heart through his Eunil poetry.
In the second part, the figure of speech and techniques of the two poets were divided into categories such as references of other past writings, metaphors, contrast, and symbols and compared their poems. Baek Gwang Hoon used past record of historical facts while Lee Sang Eun’s work showed records of historical facts as well as legends and myths. Both poets used references of other past writings to indirectly express their inwardly worlds. In the works of Baek Gwang Hoon only some of them used referencing techniques but used Lee Sang Eun’s difficult references to make the readers difficult to understand the meaning of the poems. When looking at the poems of both the poets overall, they both used timely and spatial contrasts. There are not much differences considering that they both created Chinese poetry using contrast. Baek Gwang Hoon and Lee Sang Eunused various symbols in each of their poems, such as the sun, moon, apricot blossoms, bamboo, and so on. There are some differences between their understandings of the symbols.
Finally, when comparing the two poets’ styles, Baek Gwang Hoon’s poems are of an old tale style which is plain while Lee Sang Eun’s poems contain a hazy style in his expressions. The two poets each have their own characteristics but there are similarities. Baek Gwang Hoon and Lee Sang Eun’s poems illustrates a picture in front of the readers’ eye. And they focus on handling their own meaning in their poems. This illustrative property is the commonness of the works of Baek Gwang Hoon and Lee Sang Eun.
When comparing the Chinese poetry of Baek Gwang Hoon and Lee Sang Eun, both show a late Tang style, but it can be said that Baek Gwang Hoon’s work was influenced by the work of Lee Sang Eun, however he does have his own styles. This study is hoped to be utilized in other researches on Baek Gwang Hoon and Lee Sang Eun.