Hǒ Nansǒrhǒn and Her Hansi : a study of the life and the work of Hǒ Nansǒrhǒn, a poetess of the late sixteenth century, in Yi dynasty Korea

Abstract

The poetess, Ho Nansorhon, lived and wrote her poetry during the reign of King Sonja. This period of the Yi dynasty witnessed the Confucianization of society to its greatest degree, with the inflexibility of the system and its concomitant sanctions severely restricting the lives of Yi dynasty women, especially warren of the yangban class, to which Nansorhon belonged. Nansorhon was born into a celebrated family of high and distinguished lineage. As a girl she was reputedly vivacious, with an obvious talent for learning the Chinese classics. She was fortunate in having gifted brothers, who later were acclaimed as being amongst the foremost writers and poets of the period. The late sixteenth century was also the golden age of hansi, a time when disillusionment with Confusian literary values emerged and the ideals of the literati-officials came under scrutiny. From this discontent, the influence of the Sung poetic convention was replaced by the T'ang poetic traditions. A group called Sam-Tang siin fully exercised the new tradition, displacing the longstanding attitude that poetry should remain as the pastime of the cultured man. This group expounded that the study and writing of poetry should exist as a lifelong discipline of writers, for whom literature must be their main concern. Importantly, one of the group, Yi Tal, was the Ho family tutor and it was he and Nansorhon's brother, Ho Pong, who significantly influenced her literary activities. Show more