Female Poet Hwang Jin I
Female Poet Hwang Jin I
Hwang Jin I is a typical woman poet in the first half of the 16th century.
She was not only beautiful in appearance, strong in character, but also smart and especially intelligent, so she was known as an outstanding woman poet and artist in her life time with great talent for poetry, calligraphy and melody.
She lived a kisaeng life due to her low social standing, but not being tempted by power or wealth, she defended herself in a high position and challenged with her talent to the noble society which maltreated and despised the poor people.
Hwang Jin I, who was a woman of high self-esteem and despised and derided the bigoted and hypocritical bureaucrats and men of noble birth, and she flattered herself that she was one of the three attractions in Songdo, along with So Kyong Dok, the famous philosopher of the day, and Pagyon Falls, the picturesque waterfall in Kaesong.
She left many anecdotes with her outstanding artistic talent and strong faith in life.
Because of vividness and freshness of poetic representation, delicacy and truthfulness of emotions, her poems were much loved and widely recited by a broad section of the people at later times as well as in those days.
Hwang Jin I, who had a deep attachment to poetry in Korean language, seemed to have created many poems in the period of her life full of ups and downs, but most of them were lost.
Her poems, unlike the Confucians in those times were heavily biased towards the straightforward explanation of Confucian doctrines and suppressed freely expressing human’s sentiment, spoke out a person’s strong affection in a frank and vivid way.
Her poems, impressively depicted the deep inner world and tenderness of the Korean women who valued their faith and principles, make such a difference with the Korean poetic heritage of the Middle Ages.