A/HI 271 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Jeong Seon, Song Dynasty, An Gyeon
Document Summary
Stemming from chinese verse around the 4th century bce, traditional korean poetry was performed in song. Korean poetry began to flourish in the koryo dynasty and continued to do so during the choson, under the confucian scholarship of the yangban class. There are four major poetic forms: hyangga (native songs) The most popular poetic form today is sijo (current melodies). Sijo is a form of three-line poetry that flourished with the rise of choson nationalism. Recited to music, the three lines have 14-16 syllables and are punctuated by a pause in the middle of each line. The simplicity and short, profound structure of sijo reflect the severity of confucian philosophy. A longer form of sijo, called narrative sijo, developed among the common people and dealt with more down to earth subject matter such as trade and corruption. Kasa (verse) are another form associated with the yangban class. Much longer than other poetic forms, they borrowed from chinese ci (lyric) poetry.
