The Comparison of Tradition between China and Korea through “Biography of Xing Fu”
Both Chinese culture and South Korean culture have a very long history. The two cultures share many things in common. Chinese characters and Confucianism had great influence on ancient Korean Peninsula in terms of national thought and social mental state as well as the development of its classical literature. When Korean was established at the very beginning, Confucianism had become the dominant thought. What is more, the introduction of Hsin-li Hsueh also had greater impact on Korean classical works. The Confucian thoughts of Loyalty, Righteousness, Chastity, and Piety were deeply rooted in Korean classical literature. The regulation of Hsin-li Hsueh had resulted in the appearance of the thought of “no sweet without sweat” and the theme of “punishing evil-doers and praising good-doers” as well as the frequent usage of Chinese allusion in Pansori novels. With the introduction of ancient Chinese literary works into Korea, literators in Korean Peninsula not only enjoyed all these works in terms of reading and referring, but also flexibly put all the overseas cultural genes into their literary production. Biography of Xing Fu was the typical one. The thesis is going to analyze the imago of swallow and cucurbit and ancient Chinese classical literary works in Pansori novels from the standpoint of cultural transmission and variation so as to interpret the deep root of Chinese element in Biography of Xing Fu, which will definitely provide a better understanding of this
novel.