1) What is the hyangga?
It may fairly be said that the Sijo form constitutes Korean lyricism at its best. This is not just because it is our oldest unbroken tradition and because an abundance of poems have survived, but because it seems to provoke an immediate, strong response in the Korean spirit. It is truly the archetype of Korean literary lyricism. But this is not the only lyrical form in Korean literature. There is also the Yi dynasty Gasa and, when trace back into history, the Koryeo gayo and the hyangga. Not many examples of these latter two types have survived, but we know enough about them to identify their lyrical qualities with some confidence.
Hyangga were not just the prevailing song-form during the Silla Period but continued into the Koryeo Period as weii. We have, for example, the Koryeo gayo, Jeong-gwajeong which displays vestiges of hyangga influence in its construction and there is also evidence to the effect that King Ui Jong (1146-70) and his retainers composed hyangga-like songs. As far as extant hyangga are concerned, though, those that are dated to the Silla Period are regarded as being without peer, and when we speak of hyangga we speak of what was essentially Silla lyrical poetry.
However, the poetic form of the hyangga is anything but consistent, for within it are to be found various independent genres. There are secular as well as Buddhist songs and also songs of pure aesthetic effect. There are chorused folk-songs, individual compositions, traditional songs and others conjured up on the spur of the moment. Taken together, they suggest generic complexity and leave one disinclined to bundle them together into a single genre, for their common features do not extend much past the fact that they were all written during the same dynastic period and in the same kind of script, hyangchal. We need to approach each song individually and take it largely on its own merits. For our present purposes, however, we are not concerned with specialist matters and in order to evaluate their lyrical content we shall adopt the customary definition of hyangga as a single body of literature, written in hyangchal, mainly during the Silla Period.
2) Silla and Hyangga
Before we turn to the question of hyangga lyricism, we need to examine what the songs, as a whole, tell us about the people of Silla, especially in the light of the Samgukyusa, which paints a picture of a society in which poetic expression seems to have played a central role. Of course, by this we do not mean that poetry was written and appreciated by all people at all levels of society—such an ideal poetic society would be in itself a poetic fancy—but nevertheless the impression of a society strongly devoted to poetic endeavour lingers from the Samgukyusa.
Let us take a case in point. King Gyeong Deok of Silla ruled for twenty-four years (742-765) during which time, it is recorded, the mountain spirits of the Five Peaks and Three mountains would appear to him in the palace. On the third day of the third month in the twenty-fourth year of his reign Gyeong Deok ascended the tower of one of the palace gates and ordered his attendants to go and find a venerable priest. A well-dressed priest of dignified bearing was passing by the palace just then and so was brought before the king but he waved him away. Then a figure appeared in priestly attire carrying a cherrywood box in basket. The king summoned him and the box was found to contain tea-making implements. The king asked him who he was and where he had come from. The priest replied that his name was Chungdam and that he was returning from Samhwa Peak on Namsan (Mountain) where it was his practice to make tea and offer it before the Maitreya, on the Double-third and Double-ninth days. The king then asked Chungdam to make him a cup of this tea and he obliged, producing a cup of tea whose aroma was remarkably fragrant. The king then said to Chungdam that he had heard of a sanuiga of sublime sentiment that the lat-ter had composed in honour of Kiparang, the hwarang—had he heard correctly? Chungdam replied that he had.
3) The Transcendental Significance of the Tea Ceremony
The above story comes from the second chapter of the Samgukyusa. In essence, Chungdam with his unadorned robes and his box of tea implements was the antithesis of the monk that was first brought before the king. However, the eyes of Gyeong Deok, whose spiritual powers were such that he claimed the attendance of the mountain spirits, were not deceived and he saw in Chungdam a priest of high spiritual attainment, who was able to express this in the simple offering of a cup of tea. His spiritual qualities were reflected in the way he actually prepared it and thus its taste and aroma were exceptional.
4) Tea and Poetic Feeling
Chungdam’s character emerges quite distinctly in this story. He is a priest unconcerned with outward appearances, or with involved ritual but is solely preoccupied with the carrying out of a simple act of piety in offering tea before the Buddha. He is also the composer of a song that had gained wide renown for its sublime expression of sentiment, a deep song that also reflects his spiritual attainments. Recognition of these qualities underlies Gyeong Deok’s request and in the tea that Chungdam prepares for him is symbolized both Buddhist transcendence and poetic sensibility.
Turning to the reference to the Maitreya statue on Samhwa Peak, we should note another reference to it in the Samgukyusa, Chapter 3, the story of the priest Saengui. Saengui lived during the reign of Queen Seon Deok (632-647). Once in a dream he met a priest who led him to a place on Namsan where, he said, he was buried. The priest asked Saengui to dig him up and set him to rest atop Samhwa Peak. Saengui awoke, went to the place indicated in the dream, and unearthed a statue of the Maitreya which he then placed at the top of Samhwa Peak.
A strong link between this Maitreya statue and the Song of the Good Ruler which Gyeong Deok requested Chungdam to compose has been postulated in that the Maitreya was a focus for patriotic feeling in Silla. This being the case, Chungdam’s activities do not simply belong in the ethereal realms but are of simultaneous practical intent, a dualism reinforced, as were, by the contrast of his unprepossessing appearance and his high spritual attainments.
King Gyeong Deok’s ability to recognize this attainment may also be taken as a reflection of his own attainments as a virtuous ruler, for not only was he sensitive to the fatuity of empty ritual, and to the essential simplicity of sincere devotion but he also recognized his premonition for what it was and acted upon it.
5) Silla’s Poetic Qualities
The mysterious Maitreya figure atop Samhwa Peak — a focus for Silla Buddhist devotion, the fragrance of the tea, the transcendental symbolism and concern with ordinary statecraft — all are elements combined into a mystic whole in the person of Chungdam, inspiring the veneration of Gyeong Deok. To this, Chungdam responds by declining the honours proffered by the king.
In the Samgukyusa account, Chungdam remains somewhat reticent about his own poetic ability, and it is only when Gyeong Deok asks directly about his having composed the sanuiga about Kiparang that he responds. The implied moral here is that it is the poet rather than the poem that is important, and Gyeong Deok seems to accept this in asking that Chungdam compose another song on the theme of statecraft, yet another suggestion of the importance ascribed to poetic expression in Silla society.
a) Yeongjae and the Brigands:
In the poem Brigands in His Path (Ujeok-ga) Yeongjae was moved to create a hyangga to demonstrate his imperviousness to fear when he was confronted by a band of brigands on a mountain pass in the Jiri mountains. When he told them his name they recognized it as he was well-known for his prowess at singing. The brigands asked him to sing a song and he is recorded as having extemporized as follows:
“Since the day my mind ceased to be bound by this world
I have trod a long path on my way to hermitage.
Confronted now by your fearful band
Do think I will meekly turn away?
On through your forest of weapons I’ll pass
For today has dawned fair for me.”
And with only his virtue to guard him he passed
To enter a worthy hermitage.
The brigands were deeply moved by the song and offered him two rolls of silk. He refused them saying that material goods only led people to damnation and that he had no need of them as he was on his way to spend the rest of his life in the mountains. This revelation impressed them even more and they all laid down their swords and spears, shaved their heads, became his disciples and entered into the Jiri mountains with him. This is the story as related by the Samgukyusa factually, without embellishment, to exemplify the power of poetry, but that is not all because the story makes it clear that the conversion of the brigands was brought about by poetry, testimony to the power ascribed by Silla to poetry.
b) The literary spirit of Silla
To the people of Silla poetry could drive out sickness, banish an evil-omened comet and requite love. Poetry expressed such wonder, such power that it might affect hearer as deeply as composer. When we think of such manifestations we appreciate what a culture of fine poetry Silla enjoyed—such that it could even penetrate the outlaw’s heart. And this brings us to the quality of Silla culture.
The road back to early Korean culture leads straight to Silla—and it is a past that remains deep in the hearts of the present Korean generation. It is to us what Greek civilization was to Western Europe, and any enquiry into the forces that have shaped Korea’s destiny—the inquiry typified by the search of the modern poet So Chong-ju in his evocations of the spirit of Silla—lead back to this point. Yeongjae pacifying the brigands with a song is part of it, a well-known poet of it, as is Chungdam and his song Kiparang, the hwarang. Examples such as these tell us how widespread the appreciation of poetry was. Irrespective of rank, high or low, it is no exaggeration to say that poetry permeated Silla society—this is the whole tenor of the accounts in the Samgukyusa and it cannot be lightly gainsaid.
c) The Brigands who damanded poetry
We have it recorded that ordinary people in Silla found delight in poetry and that it had a folk character, but this does not mean that Silla poetry constituted “popular” poetry, for the term “popular poetry” has a certain commercial ring to it that differs from the pure, naive folk song form that arises from artistic impulse with no thought of profit. In popular poetry there is implied some distance between creator and audience whereas in folk forms there is none, for there the individual partakes of a mass artistic consciousness out of which the folk song is created. However, taking the evidence of widespread evidence of popular affection for poetry to mean that hyangga represented a form of popular poetry would be hasty. In any case, we need to distinguish between what such a term might imply in those days and what its general associations are today. The same applies to considerations of the Koryeo gayo—songs written during the Koryeo Period (918-1388) to which are ascribed the labels “popular” or “folk”.
Recognizing these limitations, however, we are nonetheless confronted with the evidence of the ubiquity of hyangga and must interpret it in the light of the fact that folk forms were part and parcel of hyangga — and that a commingling of popular and folk values underlies the manifestations of popular affection. These same reflections apply even more strongly in the case of the Koryeo gayo.
Thus, the popularity of the hyangga is bound up with its folk content, but that is not the end of it, because we also must recognize the fact of individual creation not found in folk music but which is characteristic of “popular” genres. The operation of these factors may be better understood by reference to the Yeongjae composition. Yeongjae fame had already reached the brigands and so they asked him for a song instead of effecting outright robbery.
d) Yeongjae’s Buddhist witness through poetry
The brigands’ request reveals them to be no ordinary brigands. Just as the designation “good” brigand has been made to apply to Robin Hood so we must designate them as “poetry-loving” brigands and they should be taken as being somehow representative of the level of literacy in Silla as a whole. Thus we are justified in calling Silla a nation of poetry.
Here we have a poet who readily responds to the brigands’ demands with a poem that mixes wit and Buddhist philosophy, and brigands who value its contents above human concerns. When a priest preaches the way of the Buddha it is called “witness” and here he does it through poetry — a kind of “poetical witness”.
The poet is also an alms-giver, proffering his compassion. He points out that material possessions are a hindrance, that there is no strength in weaponry and in so doing he brings them to Enlightenment. This is truly Silla in its encapsulation of Buddhism and Taoism, set forth in eternal brilliance. Poetry is mightier than weapons, and mightier than material possessions. In it is to be found the ‘no hindrance’ doctrine and concern for the salvation of mankind that we know as the humanity of the great Priest Wonhyo.
e) The Land of Poetry-Silla
The moon setting in the Western sky is a common enough sight, but in such a sight was to be focused the religious piety and poeticism of Gwang-deok, author of Seeking Eternal Life. It is a devotional song, combining elements of poetry, ordinary life, and Buddhist thought with the beautiful lyricism of Silla—land of poetry. The people of Silla regarded their land as the earthly abode of the Maitreya and in such a sense of sublimity is to be found the poetic inspiration that makes us call it the land of poetry. Whether it be Chungdam’s symbolic cup of tea with King Gyeong Deok or the story of Yeongjae converting the brigands, they and other stories reflect this spirit. Through the blending of poetry and faith and both of these with life from the king to the common crowd, the solace of poetry was carried within many hearts making a Silla that belonged to poetry.