Hyangga

Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Hyangga (Korean: ; Hanja: Template:Category handler) were poems written using Chinese characters in a system known as hyangchal during the Unified Silla and early Goryeo periods of Korean history. Only a few have survived: 14 in the Samguk yusa (late 6th to 9th centuries) and 11 by the monk Kyunyeo (10th century).Template:Sfn

Features

Written using Hanja in a system known as hyangchal the hyangga are believed to have been first written in the Goryeo period, as the style was already beginning to fade. A collection of hyangga known as the Samdaemok (; Template:Category handler) was compiled in the late 9th century by Wihong, the prime minister of Queen Jinseong of Silla, and the monk Taegu-Hwasang, but was since lost.Template:Sfn The surviving hyangga consist of 14 recorded in the Samguk Yusa and 11 in the Gyunyeojeon by Kyunyeo.Template:Sfn

The name hyangga is formed from the character for "back-country" or "rural village" (Template:Linktext) – which was often used by the Silla people to describe their nation, specifically to distinguish these distinctly Silla poems from "pure" Chinese literature – and the character for "song" (Template:Linktext). These poems are accordingly sometimes known as "Silla songs."

Eighteen of the 25 surviving hyangga reflect Buddhist themes.Template:Sfn Another dominant theme was death. Many of the poems are eulogies to monks, to warriors, and to family members — in one case, a sister. The Silla period, especially before unification in 668, was a time of warfare; the hyangga capture the sorrow of mourning for the dead while Buddhism provided answers about where the dead go and the afterlife.

Structure

The structure of hyangga is not completely understood. The onlyTemplate:Sfn contemporaneous reference is a comment by Hyŏngnyŏn Chŏng, the compiler of Gyunyeo's biography that "their poetry is written in Chinese in penta- and heptasyllabic lines, [while] our songs are written in the vernacular in three gu and six myeong".Template:Sfn What is meant by "three gu and six myeong" remains unresolved; Peter H. Lee interprets it as "three-line stanzas of six phrases each",Template:Sfn while Alexander Vovin translates it more literally as "three stanzas, six names".Template:Sfn

Since the work of linguist Shinpei Ogura in the 1920s,Template:Sfn surviving hyangga have traditionally been classified into one of three forms: a single-quatrain form used in folk songs; an intermediate two-quatrain form; and a ten-line form of two quatrains and a concluding couplet, the most fully developed form of hyangga.Template:Sfn This classification has been questioned in Korean scholarship since the 1980s,Template:Sfn and a new hypothesis, proposed by Kim Sung-kyu in 2016, suggests that there were really only two forms of hyangga: a single-quatrain form and a two-tercet form.Template:Sfn Kim interprets two consecutive lines of the ten-line form as one long line with a caesura, and the so-called "concluding" couplet of the ten-line hyangga to be a refrain for each of the stanzas, thus forming two tercets with shared final lines.Template:Sfn Kim further argues that apparently eight-line forms are the result of a line being lost during transmission.Template:Sfn

The two hypotheses are illustrated below with the ten-line work Jemangmaega, written for the funeral of the poet's sister.

Jemangmae-ga-10

	Ten-line reading	Translation
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)		The path of life and death Were [you] so afraid when it was here (4) That [you] went and could not say (3) Even the words, "I'm going"? (6) Like leaves that float and fall hither-thither (5) By unripe autumn's early winds, Stemming from one branch Knowing not where [we] go. (10) Ah, [you] will clear the road and wait (9) For me, to meet in the pure land.

Jemangmae-ga-6

	Six-line reading	Translation
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)		Were [you] so afraid when the path of life and death was here That [you] went and could not say even the words, "I'm going"? Ah, [you] will clear the road and wait for me, to meet in the pure land. Like leaves that float and fall hither-thither by unripe autumn's early winds, Stemming from one branch, knowing not where [we] go. Ah, [you] will clear the road and wait for me, to meet in the pure land.

Example

A typical hyangga is "The Ode for Life Eternal" (or, perhaps, "The Ode for Nirvana"), a song that calls upon the Moon to convey the supplicant's prayer to the Western paradise, the home of Amita (or Amitabha, the Buddha of the Western Pure Land Sukhavati). The poem's authorship is somewhat unclear; it was either written by a monk named Gwangdeok (Korean: ; Hanja: Template:Category handler) or, one source says, the monk's wife.

Idu	Middle Korean	Modern Korean	Translation
願往生歌	원와ᇰᄉᆡᇰ가	왕생을 기원하는 노래	Ode to Eternal Life (translation by Mark Peterson, 2006)
月下伊低赤	ᄃᆞᆯ하 이뎨	달이여 이제	Oh Moon!
西方念丁去賜里遣	셔바ᇰᄭᆞ자ᇰ 가샤리고	서방(西方) 넘어 가시려는고	As you go to the west this night,
無量壽佛前乃	무랴ᇰ슈불 젼에	무량수불전(無量壽佛前)에	I pray thee, go before the eternal Buddha,
惱叱古音多可支白遣賜立	닏곰다가 ᄉᆞᆲ고샤셔	일러서 사뢰옵소서	And tell him that there is one here
誓音深史隱尊衣希仰支	다딤 기프샨 존어ᄒᆡ 울워러	다짐 깊으신 아미타불을 우러러	Who adores Him of the deep oaths,
兩手集刀花乎白良	두 손 모도호ᄉᆞᆯᄫᅡ	두 손을 모두어	And chants daily with hands together, saying
願往生願往生	원와ᇰᄉᆡᇰ 원와ᇰᄉᆡᇰ	왕생(往生)을 원하며	Oh grant me eternal life,
慕人有如白遣賜立	그릴 사ᄅᆞᆷ 잇다 ᄉᆞᆲ고샤셔	그리워하는 사람 있다 사뢰소서	Oh grant me eternal life,
阿耶 此身遣也置古	아으 이 몸 기텨 두고	아아 이 몸을 남겨 놓고	But alas, can any of the 48 vows be kept
四十八大願成遣賜去	ᄉᆞ십팔대원 일고샬가	사십 팔 대원(大願) 이루실까	While still trapped in this mortal frame?

List

in the Samguk yusa

Title	English	Author	Date	GraphsTemplate:Sfn	LinesTemplate:Sfn	Location	Text
Template:Sfn	Song of a Comet	Master Yungcheon	c. 594	83	10	2:228	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Song of Seodong	King Mu of Baekje	c. 600	25	4	2:98	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Ode to Yangji	anonymous	c. 635	26	4	4:187–188	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Prayer to Amitāyus / Ode for Life Eternal	Gwangdeok or his wife	c. 661–681	77	10	5:220	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Ode to Knight Jukji	Deugo	c. 692–702	60	8	2:76–78	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Dedication of the Flower	an old herdsman	c. 702–737	34	4	2:79	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Regret	Sinchung	c. 737	56	8	5:232–233	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Ode to Knight Gipa	Master Chungdam	c. 742–765	71	10	2:80–81	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Song of Tuṣita Heaven	Master Weolmyeong	c. 760	37	4	5:222	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Requiem for the Dead Sister	Master Weolmyeong	c. 762–765	75	10	2:79–80	Template:Ws
Template:SfnTemplate:Efn	Hymn to the Thousand-Eyed Sound Observer	HuimyeongTemplate:Efn	c. 762–765	81	10	3:158–159	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Statesmanship	Master Chungdam	c. 765	98	10	2:79–80	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Meeting with Bandits	Master Yeonghae	c. 785–798	75	10	5:235	Template:Ws
Template:Sfn	Song of Cheoyong	Cheoyong	c. 879	61	8	2:88–89	Template:Ws

The 11 composed by Kyunyeo (923–973) are:Template:Sfnp

1. [Veneration of Buddhas] Template:Ws
2. [In Praise of Tathagata/Buddha] Template:Ws
3. [Abundant Offerings to Buddha] Template:Ws
4. [Repentance of Sins and Retribution] Template:Ws
5. [Rejoice in the Rewards of Virtue] Template:Ws
6. [The Revolving Wheel of Law] Template:Ws
7. [Entreaty to the Coming of Buddha] Template:Ws
8. [Faithful Observance of Buddha's Teachings] Template:Ws
9. [Constant Harmony with Other Beings] Template:Ws
10. [Salvation of All Living Beings] Template:Ws
11. [The Everlasting Conclusion] Template:Ws

See also

• Sijo
• Gasa (poetry)
• Korean literature

External links

• Hyangga — World History Encyclopedia
• In Korean language online encyclopedias:
  • Doosan Encyclopedia (Naver)
  • Korean language Britannica (Empas)
  • Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (Empas)
  • Pascal World Encyclopedia (Nate)