<春香傳> 生成과 傳承에 있어서 漢文本의 役割

Abstract

In Korean literature, the literature in the Korean language has close and significant relationships with Korea-Chinese literature. The Life of Choon Hyang is a weighty instance. Concerning The Life of Choon Hyang, with its Korean version. There exist ten Korea-Chinese versions which had played an important role in the process of its creation and transmission. These Korea-Chinese versions have rarely drawn much attention from the scholars of Korea-Chinese literature because of a fixed and false idea that The Life of Choon Hyang belongs to the literature in the Korean language and mass literature. The authors of ten Korea-Chinese versions are mostly known, and each version shows its author's personality. Since these Korea-Chinese versions seem to have exerted much influence on the creation and transmission of the Korean version, they should be examined for the appreciation of the Korean version and the creation and transmission of The Life of Choon Hyang. The Life of Choon Hyang is a work created on the basis of the fable of the origin written in the Korea-Chinese language. Accordingly, we can infer that yangban(the nobility) and the class of intellectuals who were able to understand the Korea-Chinese language must have actively participated in the process of the creation of The Life of Choon Hyang. They used their knowledge of the Korea-Chinese language in the creation of the work and made an attempt to improve its literary quality, elevating the work of mass culture to that of the intellectuals. The Korean version of The Life of Choon Hyang had interacted with the Korea-Chinese versions, building the history of the creation and transmission. Both versions greatly contributed to the establishment of The Life of Choon Hyang as a representative work of classical Korean and national literature.