D Dasan And Du Fu's Poetry Created A Comparative Study

Chong Ta-san was an outstanding Korean thinker of the Practical Learning School (silhak) and Realist poet during the time from the end of 18th to the beginning of 19th century. Inheriting the tradition of "putting what is learned into practice" of Yu Hyong-won and Seongho Yi Ik and borrowing the ideas of "using everything to secure a better livelihood for people" of the Northern Learning School and "seeking the truth from the facts" of the Textology School, Chong Ta-san was a representative thinker of the ideas of Practical Learning and developed an unique and profound Ta-san Practical Learning School. The subjects of Ta-san Practical Learning involved astronomy, geography, medicine, politics, literature and water conservancy, in which great achievements were made. Chong Ta-san was not only a thinker of Practical Learning but also a representative poet in the later period of Korea's Joseon Dynasty, paralleling with Pak Ji-won as the two peaks of Korean Practical Learning Literature. It was his unique literary talent that enabled the Ta-san Practical Learning to be widely disseminated. Besides his superb artistic expressiveness, more importantly, his profoundness of thinking ensured Ta-san's remarkable literary position in Korea's Joseon Dynasty. Ta-san's Practical learning made him sensitive of the social conflicts and corruptions. He showed a deep sense of social reform when criticizing social evils and exposing the suffering of the people.The chaos of the social system and the miserable living of peasants of the late Li Dynasty was reflected extensively and profoundly in the about 2000 Han poems of Ta-san'. It was unprecedented that he paid such an extensive and in-depth attention to the reality and criticizing the reality. His poetry, therefore, could be called Korea's "epic."Du Fu (712-770) was a great Realist poet in China's Tang Dynasty. He created a great number of ever-lasing poems whose influence went beyond time and space. Tasan was a renowned follower of Du Fu in Korea and he was crowned as "a regeneration of Du Fu". The same passionate patriotism and Confucian sentiment made him correspond to Du Fu in spirit. There were more than 50 pieces of Ta-san's poems using the rhyme sequences of Du Fa's. Given that both Du Fu and Ta-san had prominent achievements in poetic realm respectively and Ta-san's learning from Du Fu consciously, the comparative study on the poems of Ta-san and Du fu has high values in the comparative study of Chinese literature and Korean literature.There has been a lot of research on the content of Tasan's poems, while it is rare to dig out the artistic characteristics of Tasan's poetry. It is, therefore, very unbalanced between the research on the idea and art characteristics of Tasan's poetry. There are very few researches on Tasan's poetry and there are no monographs about the studies on Tasan's poetry in China so far. Moreover, papers on Tasan's poems are seldom found. Except the chapters in Korean literature history, only a few experts did a macro analysis on the Tasan's poetry in their papers. Thus the study results on Tasan's poetry from the prospective of comparative literature are rare both home and abroad. And there is a complete blank of any single book on comparative studies on Tasan and Du Fu's poetry.With a view to the above, the author adopts the methods of influence study and parallel study in comparative literature, the theories of poetry criticism of "getting as much background information about the poets as possible" and "by the meaning against the will" in China's classical literature and literary theories of Reception Aesthetics, theories of Influence and Communications. By the means above, regarding Du Fu as the "Other", the author studies systematically the literary concepts of Tasan and Du Fu and makes a comparison on the artistic achievements of their poems in content, styles, images and emotions etc while referring to their historical background of politics, culture and economy and their background of philosophy, Practical Learning and literature. This paper also explores Tasan's inheritance and transcendence over Du fu by using the method of comparative literature and digs out the deep reason for this inheritance and transcendence. The author also intends to look into the ideological features, literary and cultural values of Tasan's poetry, by taking Du Fu's poetry as a mirror.Except the preface, the paper consists of five chapters. In the preface, the author reviews the research that has been made by previous scholars, clarifies on the significance and values of this paper, summarizes the content of it and points out the innovation of the paper. Chapter 1, Chong Ta-san:A Great Scholar and Thinker of Practical Learning "in the End of the Flourishing Dynasty". This chapter introduces the historical and social background of Chong Ta-san's life, summarizes the ideas of Practical Learning of Tasan and the influence of Du Fu on Korean literary arena and also traces back Tasan's experience of learning from Du Fu. Chapter 2, A Comparison of Tasan and Du fu's Literary Concepts. This chapter discusses Tasan's and Du fu's literary concepts from three dimensions of literary criticism, poetry writing and aesthetic pursuit. Chapter 3, The Comparative study on the Content of Tasan and Du Fu's Poetry. This chapter makes a detailed analysis of the content of Chong Ta-san and Du Fu's poems. It is argued in this part that although Du Fu wrote about the calamitous consequences of wars on the nation and its people, he did not doubt about Feudalism itself because he went through An Shi Riot and he still believed in the king and his regime to restore a healthy society although the riot had undermined its vitality greatly. Du Fu's poetry described honestly the suffering of the people, and showed the poet's sympathy to them; however, Du Fu still encouraged people to share a bitter hatred of the enemy to fight against the riot. This showed his political idealism that "a wise emperor should be like the emperor of Yao and Shun to restore social orders". By contrast, as a thinker at the end of Korean Joseon dynasty, Tasan described the distress and misery of Korean people under a corrupted and ruthless political system. Because he was first a thinker who examined feudalism in depth, in his poems he was more concerned about the political corruptions and tragedies caused by them on the people. Chapter 4, The Comparative Study on the Artistic Features of Tasan's and Du Fu's Poetry. This chapter is based on the analysis of Chong Tasan and Du Fu's poems. In terms of the relation between the content and form, Du Fu argued that both of them were important, and it could even be said that "courtesy and character both full, then became gentleman" and pursuing both "poetry expressing ideals" and "astonishing remarks". While Tasan put content at the first place and he would rather give up the form to express his ideas; In terms of the creation and use of images, phoenix, horses and eagles are used by Du Fu to symbolize his virtues and lofty aspirations. However, Ta-san uses not only images of horses and eagles but also images of foxes and insects to express his idea that the content does not stand for his personality and ambition; as for the styles, Du Fu's is grave, reserved and forceful while the Tasan's is emphatic, straightforward and implicit; In narrative poems, the styles of the two poets are different, too. As the one who has experienced the event, Du Fu used omniscient point of view to narrate and he could take an active part in his poems and communicate with his characters in conversation and emotion. On the contrary, Chong Ta-san, like a sober and objective observer of the events, represented the miserable life of the people, and the corruption of the local officials. Chapter 5, The Status and Significance of Tasan's Poems in Korean Literature History. In this chapter, on one hand, the author clarifies on Tasan Chong Yak-yong's active learning from and selective inheritance of Chinese poetry; on the other hand, this chapter also examines how Tasan Chong Yak-yong consciously inherited and spread the Korean literary tradition and heritage. Moreover, it elaborates on his unique sharpness of rational criticism, the broad and deep ideas and superb artistic values that his poems possess and the irreplaceable role he plays in Korean literary history.