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Chinese language literature of Korea

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Chinese-language literature of Korea

Chinese-language literature in Korea (Korean hanmunhak) is literature written the Chinese language in Korea, which represents an early phase of Korean literature and influenced literature in the Korean language.

Contents

Classical Chinese in Korea

The role of the Classical Chinese Han language or Hanmun language in Korea was akin to the same role in Japan of Chinese Kanbun and in Vietnam of Chinese Hán văn; a role which is broadly comparable to that of the Latin language in Europe. During this period the use of written Chinese language did not indicate that Korean literati were fluent in spoken Chinese.

Korean literature

The role of Chinese language was so dominant that the history of Korean literature and Chinese language are almost contiguous till the 20th Century.

Korean works in Chinese are typically rendered in English according to modern Korean hangul pronunciations:

  • Samguk Sagi (三國史記) "Three Kingdoms History"
  • Samguk Yusa (三國遺事) "Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms"
  • Geumo Sinhwa (金鰲新話) "New stories from Mount Geumo"
  • It is disputed whether Chinese or Korean was the original language of some works:

  • Dream of Nine Clouds (九雲夢, Hangul 구운몽).
  • References

    Chinese-language literature of Korea Wikipedia