Brief introduction to Heo Nanseolheon and her family
Biography:
She was born in 1563 and died in 1589 in the middle of Joseon Dynasty. She had been recognized a genus since her early age. At the age of 15, she got married to Kim Seong-lib. Although she was very good at writing and painting not to mention her personality, she was ignored by her husband and mother-in-law. Unfortunately, she lost two children one after another. All these agonies made her poems sentimental and sorrowful. To make matters worse, her father and her elder brother died all of a sudden. After this disaster, she became week rapidly. And she died when she was just 27 years old. She is said to have had three deep resentments. First, to be born a woman, second, to be born in Joseon, last, to be a Kim Seong-lib’s wife.
Family:
Her father was Heo Yeop, who was a great scholar and gave full supports to his children so that they could enhance their talents. She had five brothers and sisters, among them three were by her stepmother. And Heo Bong was her elder brother, who helped her to grow up with the wonderful literary talent and Heo Gyun was her younger brother, who took a great role in leaving her works after her death. Especially, Heo Bong was a mentor who helped her to develop her literacy and talent for writing poems with various ways. It was quite natural she relied on him among others. He was exiled to death for criticizing Yi Yi. And without Heo Gyun’s effort, her works couldn’t survive. He broke Nanseolheon’s will to burn all her works. So now 213 poems remains among more than 1,000 poems.
Periodical Background:
In the middle of Joseon Dynasty, women were not that prohibited from writing and painting as we can know from the examples of Hwang Jin-hee, Mae Chang, Hong Lang, an so on. It depended on how the family atmosphere was friendly to women. But after mid-Joseon, women’s public and social participations became more and more highly restricted. Even Silhak scholars like Bak Ji-won, Lee Hong-dae discriminated and underevaluated Nanseolheon’s works.
Literary works:
Although any of her works is not left behind, these three poems are most popular. The first one is Gwanghanjeon Baekokru Sangryangmun. Gwanghanjeon means a virtual palace in the moon and Baekokru is said to be a heavenly tower where writers and artists go after their death. Sangryangmun is a kind of prayer, which was read in a ritual when a building’s crossbeam was placed. She imagined that she was invited to the Sangryang ceremony of Gwanghanjeon Baekokru which is regarded to be in the world of Taoist hermit. She wrote this just when she was eight years old. And the second one is Gokja. Gokja means an elegy. This poem is the one of her saddest poems. She wrote this poem after two children died. The last one is Mongyu-Gwangsangsansiseo. Mongyu means to play in the dream and Gwangsangsan is a broad mulberry mountain. Siseo means to write a poem. This is the poem in which she predicted her death describing twelve seven fallen red leaves. Beside these poems, there are many other poems in which we can see her insight toward the society of equality.
Significance:
China first appreciated Nanseolheon’s poems. Wu Mingji, Ming Dynasty’s general and poet was invited to Heo Gyun’s house and Heo Gyun introduced great poems from Silla Dynasty to Joseon Dynasty. Based on these poems, The Collection of Joseon Poems was published in 1606 in China including Nanseolheon’s 58 poems. Two years later, Nanseolheon’s collection was published in Joseon, and about 100 years later in Japan. Her literary works are significant in that many great poets appreciated her poems and her works have many literary values such as their delicate expressions and linguistic senses, and so on. That’s why we have to replace the term ‘woman’ with ‘great’. She is a great poet who represents Joseon Dynasty, not a woman poet.
