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E917
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Hong Manjong on
Appended Corrections (Compendium of Remarks on Poetry)
Entry Text
文章雖曰小技。業之最精也者。蓋非麤心大膽之所可易言。而世之言唐者。斥宋曰。卑陋不足學也。學宋者斥唐曰。萎弱不必學也。茲皆偏僻之論也。唐之衰也。豈無俚譜。宋之盛也。豈無雅音。只在吾自得之妙而已。今世啁啾之輩。自謂超宋越唐。詩尚毛詩選詩。文尙虞書秦漢。而究其所詣。則無音響。無意味。可笑不自量也。芝峯類說云。人有身居堂下。眼在管中。而妄論古人優劣。或聞人所言。而定其是非。如此者。非有眞知實得者也。至其所自為詩若文。則不惟不及古人。有若小兒之學語。擧子之常談而已自識者見之。豈不憐且笑哉。芝峯此言。必有所激而發。今並錄此。以為妄論者之戒。
Although writing is a minor craft, it is the most refined among achievements and is not something that careless and audacious people can discuss easily. In the world, those who talk about Tang poetry dismiss Song poetry and say, “It is vulgar (piru), not worth learning.” While those who learn Song poetry dismiss Tang poetry and say, “It is weak (wiyak) and needs not be learned.” These are all biased claims. When the Tang declined, how could there have been no vulgar (pi) music? When the Song flourished, how could there have been no elegant (a) sound? The only thing that matters is self-attained exquisiteness (myo). Today, there is a chattering bunch who claim they have surpassed Tang and Song poetry. As for poetry, they venerate poems collected by Mao Heng 毛亨 (ca. 200 BCE) and Xiao Tong 蕭統 (501–531). As for prose, they venerate the Shangshu (Book of Documents) and writings from the Qin and Han dynasties. They carefully study the meanings found in these texts, but their writings are without resonance (ŭmhyang) or savory meaning (ŭimi) and are laughable beyond measure. The Chibong yusŏl (Topical Discourses of Chibong) says, “There are people who stay in the house, look through a narrow tube and preposterously discuss the merits and failings of the ancients. Some people appraise these works based on what they hear from others. These people have not attained true knowledge. Their own poetry or prose does not come close to the works by the ancients, but only sounds like children learning to speak and examination candidates’ cliché talk. When those who understand see this, couldn’t they help but laugh?” Yi Sugwang must have spoken these words out of ire. I record them here as a warning to preposterous talkers.
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