The Influence of the Wen xuan on Sino-Korean Literature in Early Chosŏn

Abstract

The Wen xuan 文選 was an important anthology compiled in the mid-520s in Liang dynasty China. It was introduced to Korea during the Three Kingdom period and eventually became one of the most important literary texts in Korea. My dissertation examines the influence of the Wen xuan in Korea, concentrating on the early Chosŏn period (fifteenth to sixteenth centuries). The first chapter of my dissertation explores how the yangban class was reorganized in early Chosŏn and how this process was related to the popularity of the Wen xuan during that period. This chapter specifically investigates the division between the Hun’gu and Sarim scholars of the fifteenth to mid-sixteenth centuries by examining their respective political statuses. Chapters 2 and 3 discuss the context in which the Korean anthologies were compiled. I compare anthologies, such as the Tongmunsŏn, compiled by Hun’gu scholars, with the Tongmunsu and the Ch’ŏnggu p’unga created by Kim Chong-jik, a Sarim scholar. From this comparison, I show that the former has numerous similarities with the Wen xuan in terms of how it classifies and arranges genres. By comparing the prefaces to the anthologies and the compilers’ rationales for including specific works, Chapters 2 and 3 examine how these anthologies were affected by different literary schools and political factions. Chapter 4 describes the role played by the Wen xuan when Chosŏn kings periodically changed the format of the civil service examinations to satisfy the competing demands and opinions of intellectuals from various factions and regions. By analyzing the debates on the required changes to the civil service examination system, this chapter describes how Korean rulers sought to find a balance in the format of the civil service examination system that reflected the opinions of intellectuals of different factions. In Chapter 5, I explore the history of fu in Korea, because fu was enjoyed both by capital-area scholars and provincial scholars. I analyze the earliest extant fu work in its historical context. I also look at a significant grand epideictic fu, comparing its features of a grand epideictic fu with those of Chinese grand epideictic fu. Finally, I discuss the three “Kwanŏdae pu” written by Korean fu writers of late Koryŏ to early Chosŏn analyzing how their different views of literature influenced them in writing their fu works in different styles.