CCS Seminars(Vol.32 No.2)

he Center for Chinese Studies hosted a seminar on Korean and Chinese yueh-fu (樂府) poetry on June 23 at the NCL. Prof. Joon-Sik Lee (李浚植) of Sungkyun University in South Korea was the keynote speaker at the event, which was chaired by Prof. Chieh-tsung Chang (張介宗) of National Chengchi University. Prof. Lee's paper, entitled 'A Comparative Study of Yueh-fu Poetry in Korea and China,' discussed the influences Chinese yueh-fu poetry-a type of folk story that was sung to the accompaniment of music in ancient times-on the yueh-fu tradition in Korea, particularly since the late Koryo period (918-1392). He observes that while the general subjects and word choice of the Chinese yueh-fu was retained, the Korean renditions of these tales adopted local place names, characters, and historical events. By the fifteenth century, corresponding to the middle Choson period (1393-1910), Korean yueh-fu underwent a significant change and began to develop along a distinctly indigenous path.