Earticle

Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn is one of the most important Confucian figures in early Korean history. After passing the civil service examination in Tang 唐 China in 874 and enjoying a successful career in Tang – gaining fame for his literary skills during the Huang Chao 黃巢 rebellion – he returned to Silla 新羅 in 885. Unable to make a mark in highly stratified Silla 新羅 society due to his birth status, he retired to the countryside and spent the remainder of his life with monks in such famous mountain complexes as Haein Monastery 海印寺. His regulated verse poems (hansi 漢詩) preserved in his Plowing a Cassia Garden with a Writing Brush (Kyewŏn p’ilgyŏng 桂苑筆耕), which contains his early writings in Tang and the oldest extant collected works by a Korean, and the Anthology of Refined Korean Literature (Tongmunsŏn 東文選, compiled in 1478), are among the oldest extant poems from the late Silla period. Ch’oe’s “four mountain stele inscriptions” (sasan pimun 四 山碑文) are key evidence of his positive evaluation of Buddhism, particularly the Sŏn 禪 Buddhist tradition. His poems on Buddhist monasteries and monks demonstrate personal ties to and a sympathetic attitude toward mainstream Sinitic Buddhism. These poems may best demonstrate the socio-religious predilections of an average to above-average scholar of the Tang Empire – not to mention the kingdom of Silla. His genre poetry on visiting monasteries not only shows a sensitivity to the poetic conventions of the time but also provides evidence of the broad influence of mainstream Sinitic Buddhism in his life, including the popular cult venerating Avalokiteśvara, increasingly in a demure female form, and the doctrines and lore of the Hwaŏm 華嚴 (Ch. Huayan) tradition.

By late Chosŏn times, the ideas of hell, punishment, and possible ways of salvation expressed in the Kṣitigarbha and the Ten Kings of Hell belief (chijang siwang sinang 地藏十王信仰) had not only deeply penetrated popular consciousness, but also gained so much popularity that they influenced other worldviews, including shamanism. Accordingly, Korean shamans started to adopt motifs derived from the belief into their mythology and ritual, something which is still visible today. The way Korean shamans adopted and applied motifs derived from the belief in Kṣitigarbha and the Ten Kings of Hell to death rituals like chinogi kut 진오기굿or ssikkim kut 씻김굿 varies from ritual to ritual but they serve as a medium that connects the present (isŭng 이승) and the otherworld (chŏsŭng 저승). Korean shamans use this medium, along with other symbols and deities such as Princess Pari, not only to explain and secure the ontological transformation of the deceased from worldly to otherworldly beings during the liminal process of the ritual, but also to meet the needs of their clients and make the ritual more persuasive. This amalgamation of Buddhist and shamanistic elements, a kind of bricolage, should be considered a creation of the specific mythical thought pattern of Korean shamans.

This study focuses on the cultural and social context of A Dream Journey to Peach Blossom Spring (Mongyu towŏn to 夢遊桃源圖) the only extant work by An Kyŏn 安堅, the best-known painter of early Chosŏn, to show the manner of its production and function. The painting was a pictorial addition to the sich’uk 詩軸, a mounted scroll of poems, created to praise Prince Anp’yŏng (安平大君) and interpret the significance of his dream in which he visited Peach Blossom Spring, a legendary place invented by the Chinese poet Tao Qian 陶潛. The prince presented a dream record, an accepted literary form at a time when there was a general belief in the prophetic meaning of dreams, and required twenty-one celebrated writers to compose eulogistic poems to accompany the painting, which served as a visual description of his dream. The poets wrote in such a way as to allow the viewer to repeatedly imagine the Peach Blossom Spring. As such, the painting functioned as visual inspiration for the twenty-one writers and became an ornament for their poems. By revealing the process of making the sich’uk and the effect of the dream record, this study re-evaluates the content, style, and composition of A Dream Journey to Peach Blossom Spring.

A significant number of South Korean television dramas from the late 2000s and early 2010s feature a creative youth gourmet who develops their taste (immat 입맛) for their self-development and for national honor. This article examines three such dramas—Coffee Prince (K’ŏp’i p'ŭrinsŭ il-ho chŏm 커피프린스 1호점, 2007), Bread, Love and Dreams (Cheppang wang Kim T’akku 제빵왕 김탁구, 2010), and Cinderella’s Sister (Sinderella ŏnni 신데렐라 언니, 2010). While by the mid-2010s reality and variety programs were more likely to feature young cooks and tastemakers than television dramas, youth on screen in the rapidly globalizing 2000s and early 2010s grappled with tensions between cosmopolitan and national consumption. The article further explores the dichotomy between rote learning and duty on the one hand, and creativity on the other, arguing that the focus on creativity connects to educational reforms and broader social policies of the time.