A Study On Nam Yiong-Jen's "Totem Poems"

As an important poet and literary figure in Chinese Korean minority literary circle, Nam Yiong-jen has made great contributions to the development of Korean minority literature in China. Since the beginning of the new century, there has been a fierce debate over the "totem poems" by Nam Yiong-jen between the Han people and Korean minority and no results were generated up to now. Only poems with "the totem of Korean nationality" as the subject can be regarded as "totem poem of Korean nationality". On the other hand, poems using other natural objects than "the totem of Korean nationality" as the topic cannot be included as "totem poem of Korean nationality". Therefore, it becomes a main issue to explore whether the natural objects appeared in the Nam's 42 totem poems are indeed "totems of Korean nationality" from a bibliographical and archeological perspective.Nam Yiongjen's works were primarily written in Chinese. So most of the reviews and comments on his works came from Han or other minority literary critics. Their lack of a comprehensive understanding of the original Korean culture made their appreciation of Nam's totem poems quite unilateral. There was no in-depth examination from bibliographical, archeological or folkloristic perspectives, leaving the study of the subjects used in the "totem poems of Korean nationality" almost blank.The present study is an interdisciplinary study of correlation between literature and religion. Starting from the primitive totem culture theory, theory and literature of Korean myths, legends, and folktales(Legends of the Three Kingdoms, History of the Three Kingdoms, History of Later Han Dynasty), archeological literature (history of ancient Korea, Silla, Koguryo and Paekche), and folkfore (North Korea, China and Japan), the study uses religion and the methodology of triple evidences to explore Nam's totem poems. While fully affirming Nam's boldness in his attempts of producing totem poems, the author pointed out the mistaken perceptions of Nam which triggered the problems in the totem selection of Korean nationality and the poetic portraits of totems.