漢詩에 對應한 民族語詩의 韻律

Abstract

Classical Chinese poetry had a significant influence on the national language poetry of each nation in East Asia. The subject of this paper is an examination of how the meter of Chinese poetry influenced the formation of meter in national language poetry, and how national language poetry dealt with this influence. Chinese poetry went through three stages: it was at first song in The Book of Odes, it later became poetry with ancient-style poetry, and it finally perfected a set of rules fitted to poetry with the advent of Tang-era modern-style poetry. Throughout the history of change in the rules of versification of Chinese poetry, three rules of meter were considered important: the number of syllables per line, phonemic tone, and rhyme. Of these, the one that must be considered most important is the number of syllables per line. While rhyme and phonemic tone are supplementary rules of versification, the number of syllables per line is a basic rule of versification. The various peoples of East Asia all used Chinese characters with writing systems that expressed their own national languages and tried to achieve equal footing in poetry through the influence and stimulation of Chinese poetry. The similarities and differences between meter in Chinese poetry and these national language poetries was determined by linguistic characteristics and the direction taken by efforts to elevate the value of poetry as it differed from song. In cases where the common written language and the national language possessed similar linguistic characteristics, it was possible for common written language poetry and national language poetry to be equal in terms of both number of syllables per line and the amount of information contained in each line. This is the case for Báiláng poetry, Báiwén poetry, and Quốc âm (Chữ nôm) poetry. In these cases there were no real difficulties in recreating the meter of common written language poetry in national written language poetry, with a few alterations. The issue was how much this new form, created to elevate the value of poetry, differed from or resembled folk songs. Báiláng poetry, created by the Báiláng people, exhibited a form identical to that of Chinese poetry, so it is presumed that folk songs also exhibited an identical form. The Báiwén of the Báiwén people altered Chinese poetry by adopting the form of their own folk songs. In Vietnamese Chữ nôm poetry, the rules created in imitation of Chinese poetry collapsed due to the aggressive incursion of folk songs. If the linguistic characteristics of the common written language and the national language differed, it was impossible to accept and establish the meter of common written language poetry. This was the case in Japan and Korea. Because common written language poetry and national language poetry could not be equal in terms of both number of syllables per line and the amount of information contained in each line, one of these aspects had to be chosen at the expense of the other. Japan and Korea made different choices, with Japan choosing the number of syllables per line and Korea choosing the amount of information in each line. Japan recreated and adapted in written language poetry the number of syllables per line of common written language poetry, creating waka. In Korea, the national language poetry of hyangga was created with the amount of information in each line equivalent to that of common written language poetry. In Japan, the elaborate form, which differed from that of folk songs, was considered precious and strictly preserved. Hyangga merely refined folk songs to a small extent and lost its influence not too long after, while the new folk songs rose to the fore. The adoption and alteration of common written language poetry meter in national language poetry occurred in other civilization spheres as well; separate studies of various cases in the Sanskrit, Arabic, and Latin civilization spheres have been carried out, but as of yet no comprehensive studies has been attempted. In that regard, the methodology and content of this examination of East Asian cases is a good starting point for comparative study on a world-wide scale.