Hanmunhak or Literary Chinese literature in Korea (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

: 한문학

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...

: 漢文學) is Korean literature written in

Literary Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...

, which represents an early phase of Korean literature and influenced the literature written in the

Korean language Korean ( South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographic ...

Classical Chinese in Korea

The role of the

or Hanmun (

: 한문;

: 漢文) in Korea was akin to the same role as

Kanbun A is a form of Classical Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period to the mid-20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. ...

in Japan and in Vietnam, Hán văn; a role which is broadly comparable to that of the

Latin language Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of t ...

in Europe. During this period the use of written Chinese language did not indicate that Korean literati were fluent in spoken Chinese.James B. Palais Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyŏngwŏn and the ... 1996 p639 "Unfortunately, Yu found that despite the facility of educated Koreans in reading classical Chinese texts, there were absolutely no civil officials who understood the spoken Chinese language. King Sejong in the early fifteenth century had faced ..."

Korean literature

The role of

was so dominant that the history of Korean literature and

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...

are almost contiguous till the 20th Century. Korean works in Chinese are typically rendered in English according to modern Korean

hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

pronunciations: *

Samguk Sagi ''Samguk Sagi'' (, ''History of the Three Kingdoms'') is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. The ''Samguk Sagi'' is written in Classical Chinese, the written language of the literati of ancient Korea, ...

(三國史記) "Three Kingdoms History" * Samguk Yusa (三國遺事) "Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms" *

Geumo Sinhwa ''Geumo Sinhwa'' () is a collection of novellas, written in Chinese characters by a Korean author Kim Si-seup (who was born during the reign of Sejong the Great). Like most of the early literature of Korea it forms part of the Chinese-language li ...

(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,

: 구운몽).

References

{{Authority control Chinese-language literature of Korea Korean literature