Poetic Criticism in the Mid-Joseon Period: Focusing on Arguments about the Tang and Song Styles in the Early 17th Century

This paper focuses on mid-Joseon period poetry critics, including Heo Gyun (1569-1618), Yi Su-gwang (1563-1628) and Sin Heum (1566-1628), and their reflexive attitude, which was aimed at thoroughly reexamining the then-popular Tang style poems. These critics in the early seventeenth century were serious about not only criticizing poets and poems of the day but also finding an alternative, ideal style of poetry. Their criticism of the Late-Tang style (mandangpung) poems, which were characterized as weak in style, naturally led them to focus on the High-Tang style (seongdangpung) poems in their search. At the same time, they also tried to identify the positive elements in Song style poetry, including the Jiangxi and Sarim styles, which were nearly ruled out by poets in those days. The significance of those criticisms can be recognized in literary history on the grounds that the foundation of Tang-Song poetry arguments in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century had already been formed in the critical discussions of the early seventeenth century. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]