The Homogeneity of Sŏktok kugyŏl 釋讀口訣 and Hyangch’al 鄕札 and the Principle of Hyangch’al Composition

Abstract:

This study compares the hyangch’al 鄕札 of the Silla 新羅 Kingdom (57 BCE–935 CE) and the sŏktok kugyŏl 釋讀口訣 of the Koryŏ 高麗 (918–1392) dynasty. Both hyangch’al and kugyŏl incorporated borrowed characters (ch’aja 借字) from Chinese to phrase the Korean vernacular. Although hyangch’al is older than kugyŏl, materials written in hyangch’al demonstrate a similar usage of borrowed sinographs and analogous syntactic structures. This affinity between the two systems implies they were created in similar cultural contexts by a similar social class. Based on this, the paper reexamines a well-known principle of hyangch’al, called hunju ŭmjong 訓主音從, wherein word segments in hyangch’al consist of hunch’a 訓借 (sinographs borrowed as semantograms) and ŭmch’a 音借 (sinographs borrowed for their sound), which together comprise ch’aja 借字 or borrowed sinographs. However, the complications inherent to the differentiation of hunch’a and ŭmch’a have led to another crucial division between ch’aja and normal Sinitic being neglected, resulting in a misleading interpretation of hyangch’al. In kugyŏl, a word segment comprises normal Sinitic first followed by sinographs, a rule that also applies to hyangch’al. We call this hanju ch’ajong 漢主借從 (Sinitic leads, borrowed usage follows). This paper reclassifies the four categories of hyangch’al characters and applies this reclassification to the reading of hyangga 鄕歌 songs recorded in hyangch’al. This approach to utilizing findings from research into kugyŏl allows for a more accurate translation of hyangga songs.