Mid-Joseon poet Heo Nanseolheon (1563–1589) was also an outstanding painter and calligrapher. Though she was renowned for her poetry even in China and Japan, only 213 of her works survive today. A posthumous collection of her works is titled Nanseolheon jip (蘭雪軒集 Nanseolheon Anthology).
1. Life
Heo Nanseolheon was born into the Yangcheon Heo clan under the first name Cho-hui (楚姬). Her childhood name (ja 字) was Gyeongbyeon (景樊) and her pen name (ho 號) was Nanseolheon. She was born in 1563 Gangneung (江陵), Gangwon-do Province, as the third daughter of Heo Yeop. Amid the conservative climate of the Joseon period, Heo grew up in a liberal household, engaged in literary pursuits alongside her brothers. Her father taught her to write, and she learned poetry, together with her younger brother Heo Gyun, from Songok Yi Dal (蓀谷 李達). At the age of eight, she won acclaim as a prodigy after writing Gwanghanjeon baegongnu sangnyangmun (廣寒殿白玉樓上梁文 Inscriptions on the Ridge Beam of the White Jade Pavilion in the Gwanghan Palace). Her elder brother, Heo Bong, fondly described her as “my friend at school.” After marrying Kim Seong-rip (金誠立) at the age of approximately 15, Heo lost both of her young children, misfortune that was subsequently compounded by a miscarriage. In 1585, at the age of 23, she wrote Mongyu gwangsang san (夢遊廣桑山 Dream of a Mulberry Grove on a Broad Mountainside), a work foretelling her own death. She died in 1589, at the age of 27.
2. Writing
Heo is known to have written many works, but most of these were burned after her death in accordance with her dying wishes. Her younger brother Heo Gyun, however, not wanting to see his sister’s talent go to waste, gathered some 210 works based on her surviving texts and his own recollections, created a first draft under the title Nanseolheon jip, and obtained a foreword for the anthology from Yu Seong-ryong (柳成龍). In 1597, Heo Gyun introduced some 200 of Nanseolheon’s poems to Wu Ming-ji (吳明濟), a Ming scholar in Korea during Japan’s second invasion of the country. These works were subsequently featured in Chinese texts including Chaoxian shixuan (朝鮮詩選 A Selection of Korean Poetry) and Liechao shiji (列朝詩集 Collected Poems of the Dynasties). In 1606, Chinese envoy Zhu Zhi-fan (朱之蕃) obtained some of Nanseolheon’s poems from Heo Gyun, later publishing Nanseolheon jip upon his return to China. The anthology was later published in Korea, too. In Japan, the publication of a carved and block-printed version of Nanseolheon jip by Bundaiya Jirobē (文臺屋次郞) in Kyoto in 1711 proved highly popular.
Heo’s works reflect the contradictions of Korean society and her own personal misfortunes. Their characteristics are as follows: firstly, her poetry is interspersed with the unresolved loneliness of a woman, and with the pain of having lost two young children. In particular, her poems express love and desire for her husband and feelings of mourning for children. Secondly, her works highlight the incompetence of the ruling classes and the way they victimize commoners, and the injustice of status-based discrimination. Thirdly, Heo dreamed of breaking away from reality, perceiving herself as a type of Taoist immortal (seonin 仙人). No fewer than 128 of her 213 works express a desire to depart the mortal world and enter the world of immortals. It thus appears that she was infatuated by Taoist immortal thought and skeptical about her own lonely, discriminated existence.
Heo Nanseolheon’s works were published and widely read in China and highly popular in Japan, gaining her a reputation as the leading female poet of her era.
In Gyeonhan jamnok (遣閑雜錄 Essays in Idleness), Sim Su-gyeong (沈守慶) mentions his admiration for Heo Nanseolheon’s poetry; in his postscript to Nanseolheon jip, Yu Seong-ryong describes the work as “evoking emotions at the sight of objects, and conveying the spirit of a patriot concerned about her times and customs.” In Maecheon jip (梅泉集 Maecheon’s Anthology), Hwang Yeon likens Heo Nanseolheon’s poetic talents to those of a Taoist immortal. In Yadam jip (野談集 Anthology of Unofficial Tales), too, Heo’s poetry is highly praised in many places. Kim Taek-yeong (金澤榮) also acknowledges the majesty and high style of her works. Her elder brother, Heo Bong, once went as far as to comment, “her talent is not of the kind that can be learned, and her writing is as good as that of Yi Tae-baek.” Heo was highly rated not just as a female author but for her existence itself. This is thanks to the way her works succeeded in poetically embodying her own sense of being, and in expressing various circumstances in her life.
But Heo’s work also attracts ongoing controversy. While her outstanding talent is acknowledged, some continue to claim that her younger brother, Heo Gyun, plagiarized Chinese poetry or forged other works in her name. Figures such as Yi Su-gwang (李睟光), Kim Man-jung (金萬重) and Sim Heum (申欽), while recognizing the excellence of Heo’s poetry, have slandered some of her key works as forgeries. Some male scholars have been rigorous in their application of double standards when evaluating her poetry, while Yi Deok-mu (李德懋) has taken issue with her arbitrary borrowing of the words of ancient figures. Such criticisms are doubtless related to the male-centered society and patriarchal Confucian ideology of her time.
Reference
Bak Hye-suk, Heo Nanseolheon (Heo Nanseolheon), Konkuk University Press, 2004.
Heo Mi-ja, Heo Nanseolheon (Heo Nanseolheon), Sungshin Women's University Press, 2007,
Jang Jeong-ryong, Heo Nanseolheon pyeongjeon (A Critical Biography of Heo Nanseolheon ), Saemoon, 2007.
http://db.itkc.or.kr/dir/item?grpId=hj#dir/node?grpId=hj&itemId=MI&gubun=book&depth=3&cate1=Z&cate2=&dataGubun=서지&dataId=ITKC_MI_0276A [Hanguk gojeon jonghap DB (General database of Korean classics)] “Nanseolheon sijip” (Anthology of Poetry by Heo Nanseolheon)
http://www.doopedia.co.kr/doopedia/master/master.do?_method=view&MAS_IDX=101013000730572 [Dusan baekgwa (Doosan Encyclopedia)] “Heo Nanseolheon” (Heo Nanseolheon)
