Silla And The Tang Dynasty Zengshi Study

While Shilla made frequent interchange with Tang Dynasty,Chinese poems began to be composed by Shilla people in Shilla and,especially,in Jeungsi(贈詩)of Tang Dynasty.In the history of cultural interchange between Shilla and Tang,there were Chinese poems composed by two kings of the countries.King of Shilla composed《Taepeongsong(Peace Song)》and wrote it down on the silk cloth to sent to King Gojong of Tang Dynasty.Meanwhile,King Hyeonjong of Tang wrote a poem named《Sashillawang(given to King Shilla)》and sent it to King Geongdeok of Shilla.With this,we can see that the relationship between two countries was very intimate and that the Chinese poem were developed very much.Since the three kingdom age,the interchange with China was made through the tributes.But,in the process of such interchange,Shilla became more active in asking the political/social institutions and cultures that were necessary for the completion of ancient kingdom.This diplomatic effort was carried out by the sugwi(a kind of diplomat)of Shilla right before the unification of three kingdoms.After the unification,two countries severed the diplomatic relations for a while,but soon the relationship was recovered to complete the cultural,economic,and diplomatic interchange. The political and cultural interchange was led diversely and directly by the envoys,the students sent to Gukhak(國學)School of Tang,and many monks who went there to learn the Buddhism.Near the end of Shilla,both of Shilla and Tang became weak and, accordingly,the dispatch of official envoys decreased.Instead,it became very common that degraded noble men who were secluded from the royal succession because of political monopoly by Jingol(a royal class)and the Yugdupum(6 noble classes)people went to Tang as students and monks to learn the ideas of Confucian politics or to accept the innovative Seonjong (禪宗).Moreover,they studied the civilization/institutions of Tang and created many poems to found the basis of development for the Chinese Literature of Korea in a full scale.When considering the poems given by Tang people to Shilla ones,the statuses of receiving Shilla persons were literary men,monks,and envoys. So,we can see that literary men,monks,and envoys led the cultural interchange at that time. A poem that a Tang poet gave to Shilla students who passed the Bingongwa(an official exam)is filled with the sorrow of parting and the worry about the travel,as well as the praise on their literacy and the expectation on their activity after return to their home country.On the other hand,a poem given to Shilla students who failed in the exam is filled with the sympathy on their failed dream and the worry about the uncertain future,as well as the anxiety on the hard travel,which expresses the obsolete feelings.The Shilla monks usually belonged to Seonjong(禪宗)and had close relationship with Yugdupum literary men in their status and idea.Their activities in Tang was not restricted to the religion.They participated actively to the cultural interchange with Yugdupum literary men and Tang poets on the basis of excellent literary capacity.In case of envoys,number of their dispatch decreased a lot,but the envoys who were excellent in literature made an important role in exchanging the cultures of two countries since the three kingdom age. Especially,the shukwis dispatched from King Jindeok to King Geongdeok stayed in China for a long time and worked as a bridge for the interchange of politics,diplomacy and culture between two countries.Even though there were not many poems given to them in the latter days of Shilla,the literary interchange through the envoys were kept on.Total number of poems given by Shilla people to Tang ones is 86. When compared with 55 poems given by Tang people to Shilla ones,it is in the majority by 31.But,while 35 Chinese poets wrote poems to Shilla people,the authors of the poems were only 6 persons:Queen Jideok,Choi Chiwon,Park Inbeom,Choi Gwangyu,Choi Seungwu,and Kim Ipji.For the characteristics of donative poems,it is searched by dividing the poems given by Tang people to Shilla ones and those by Shilla ones to Tang ones.There are common elements in the poems by Tang persons. They are the awareness of physical distance and the cultural homogeneity. Meanwhile,the poems given by Shilla persons to Tang ones have characteristics of《Taepyeongsong(Peace Song)》style and Choi Chiwon's style,whose poems takes a major part of poems written by Shilla students to Tang.《Taepyeongsong》was a diplomatic poem with five letters of old form.It has a style of sublime antiquity and majesty.The donative poems of Choi Chiwon arranges the poetic words very well and uses many proper nouns,as well as the creative numbers and void words.Moreover, he uses the strict style of corresponding words,the duplicative letters,and wide documentation.Donative poems has a meaning on the history of Korean Chinese literature in that they made a great contribution to the development of Chinese poems in the latter age of Shilla and the early age of Goryeo and that they raise the level of Chinese literature of Shilla.They also influenced on the recognition of latter style of Tang poems.