You’ve probably heard of *Hyangga* (鄕歌) in middle/high school. It’s one of the ancient literary forms composed from Silla up to the early-to-mid Goryeo period, using a method called *Hyangchal* (鄕札) which borrowed Hanja (Chinese characters) to represent Korean grammar, mixing sound transcription (*umcha*—mostly grammatical morphemes) and meaning transcription (*hun-cha*—mostly lexical morphemes).
Two *Hyangga* appear in *Hwandangogi*. Let’s look at one. 精誠乙奴 天壇築爲古 三神主其 祝壽爲世 (Jeongseongeulno cheondanchugwiggo samsinjugi chugsuwise) 皇運乙 祝壽爲未於 萬萬歲魯多 (Hwanguneul chugsuwimieo manmanseuroda) 萬民乙 睹羅保美御 豊年乙 叱居越爲度多 (Manmineul dorabomieo pungnyeoneul jilgeowolwido-da) - From <Hwandangogi> Taebaekilsa. 爲 (Wi) is pronounced "ha wi," but if you read it as "ha," it goes like this: We dedicate our sincerity, build a heaven altar, and pray for the longevity of the Three Spirits. We pray for the longevity of the imperial fortune, may it last ten thousand, ten thousand years. May the multitude be looked upon, bringing abundant years.
Wow, how can a poem that supposedly dates back 3,000 years (so they claim....) be read so clearly? If you just read the sounds, this is barely even modern—it's straight-up contemporary literature. Frankly, it reads more smoothly than Hangeul novels from the late Joseon period. Isn't that amazing? A text that transcends three thousand years of history, reading with our modern rhythm!! Yeah, this is just middle-schoolers messing around with stuff like *Jokkajima* (足家之馬) level of writing. LOLOLOLOLOLOL.
Conversely, let’s look at a real *Hyangga*. 生死路隱 (Saengsaro eun) 此矣有阿米次層伊遣 (Cha eui yu a mi cha cheung yi gyeon) 吾隱去內如辭叱都 (O eun geo nae yeo sa chil do) 毛如云遣去內尼叱古 (Mo yeo un gyeon geo nae ni chil go) 於內秋察早隱風未 (E eo nae chu chal jo eun pung mi) 此矣彼矣浮良落尸葉如 (Cha eui pi eui bu ryang nak si yeop yeo) 一等隱枝良出古 (Il deung eun ji ryang chul go) 去奴隱處毛冬乎丁 (Geo no eun cheo mo dong ho jeong) 阿也 彌陀刹良逢乎吾 (A ya Mi ta chal ryang bong ho o) 道修良待是古如 (Do su ryang dae si go yeo) - <Jemangmae-ga (Song of the Deceased Sister)>
See, even after replacing the Hanja with Hangeul sounds, it's almost impossible to figure out the meaning and sentence structure. Naturally so, the sounds and meanings from over a thousand years ago couldn't possibly be the same as modern ones (though some people who wrote things like Hwandangogi didn't think of that). That's why there are fewer than 30 surviving *Hyangga*, and Korean linguists tirelessly analyze them, fight over different interpretations, and try to restore ancient Korean based on them. Meanwhile, no scholars study the *Hyangga* of *Hwandangogi*, the '20th Century Hyangga.' Why would they? What's the point of studying *Jokkajima* (足家之馬)?
"Scholars agree: Hwandangogi is the OG source of ancient Korean memes. What’s the point of researching a text that reads like 'Jokkajima' and features modern poems? Just the worst fanfiction."
#FunContinue Browsing
