• Sijohaknonchong
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• v.26
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• pp.151-185
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• 2007

The main industry of the Chosun dynasty was farming, which was related to the people's lives in every respect. By the end of the Chosun dynasty commerce was a new industry becoming increasingly more beneficial. I study how these two industries were being expressed in the classic Sijo. The classic Sijo is a main literary genre created by the upper-class. Even though industry was very important for sustaining the Chosun dynasty, Confucian scholars and government officials(members of the upper class) didn't actually work in the industries of farming and commerce. But sometimes they returned to their rural hometowns, because they owed large amounts of land which they let the servants farm for themselves. As the main composers of Sijo were these Confucian scholars and government officials, I study a collection of their Sijo which expresses the life of industry. In order to achieve this goal, I analyze several sides of the classic Sijo : for example, its writers(along with their personalities) throughout different periods: the point of view of persona; and the specific life of industry and the way it is expressed in the Sijo. First, I look at the writers of the different periods and their personalities. During the fourteenth century to the seventeenth century, the main writers of Sijo on the life of farming were Confucian scholars and government officials. During the eighteenth century to the nineteenth century, the main writers of Sijo on the life of farming were Confucian scholars, government officials, and also commoner singers-the unnamed writers. Second, I look at the point of view of persona. During the fourteenth century to the seventeenth century, the personas were the country man(one's lord and master) and the farmer, who was of two kinds of people : i.e., those trying to work together and those really working together. During the eighteenth century to the nineteenth century, the personas were the country man, who was satisfied with his rural life as overseer to farming, and two kinds of farmers : those who farmed very hard by themselves, or those who criticized the failed tax system. Third, I discuss the specific life of industry and the way it is expressed in the Sijo. During the fourteenth century to the seventeenth century, the writers of Sijo expressed, in a general way together in one Sijo, different kinds of work for example, plowing a dry field and a rice field, picking wild vegetables, and cutting rice and weed. During the eighteenth century to the nineteenth century, the writer of Sijo expressed different kinds of work in a more specific way, each in its own Sijo : for example, buying and selling, bringing land under cultivation for farming. weaving, digging for water, and heavy taxation. I look at three aspects of Sijo concerning industry, but there still remain several aspects of Sijo to study, such as those concerning worship of the king, and those concerning high officials, the common people, and the being of things.