Jeong Byeong-uk

Jeong Byeong-uk (Korean: 정병욱; Hanja: 鄭炳昱; Korean pronunciation: [t͡ɕʌŋ.bʌŋ.uk]; March 25th, 1922 – October 12nd, 1982) was a scholar of Korean literature, a bibliographer, and a folklorist. He graduated from the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Seoul National University. He worked as a professor at Pusan National University, Yonsei University, and Seoul National University. Specializing in classical Korean poetry, he laid the groundwork for the study of both Korean classical poetry and Korean classical novels. After Korea's liberation from Japan in 1945, he authored The Theories of Korean Classical Poetry (한국고전시가론, 1976) and Reappreciation of Korean Classics (한국고전의 재인식, 1979). In addition, he contributed to the preservation, research, and popularization of Pansori, writing Korean Pansori (한국의 판소리, 1980). He is known to have been a close friend of poet Yun Dong-ju and was the one who published the first edition of Yun Dong-ju's Sky, Wind, Stars, and Poem (하늘과 바람과 별과 시, 1948).
Jeong Byeong-uk was born in Munhang-ri (문항리), Seolcheon-myeon (설천면), Namhae-gun (남해군), Gyeongsangnam-do (경상남도), South Korea, on March 25th, 1922. He was the eldest of four sons and one daughter of his father, Nam-seop Jeong (정남섭), who was a Korean independence activist and mother, A-ji Park (박아지). In April 1940, he entered the College of Liberal Arts at Yonhi College and during his studies, under the guidance of his mentors, he decided to pursue the study of Korean literary history rather than becoming a writer. However, his academic journey was disrupted in 1944 when he was forcibly drafted into the Japanese military when Korea was under Japanese rule. Stationed in Osaka, he sustained a severe injury to his right arm during a U.S. air raid. Despite these challenges, he resumed his education after Korea's liberation, transferring to the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Seoul National University in April 1946. Two years later, he graduated from Seoul National University and began teaching as an assistant professor at Busan National University while also teaching Korean at Busan Girls' High School. During the Korean War in 1952, Jeong stayed in Busan for evacuation, and there he took the initiative in founding the Society of Korean Language and Literature, of which he served as the President after the Korean War. After joining Yonsei University as an assistant professor in 1953, he transitioned to Seoul National University in 1957, where he taught for 27 years in the Department of Korean Language and Literature. His academic pursuits also took him abroad; he served as a visiting professor at the Harvard-Yenching Institute from 1962 to 1963. Two years after he earned his doctorate in Korean literature from Seoul National University in 1972, he founded the Society for Korean Pansori and became its first president. His leadership extended to roles such as the director of the Seoul National University Museum and a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Korea during the early 1980. On October 12th, 1982, he passed away at the age of 60 due to complications from acute hypotension and liver cancer.
Driven by the scholarly belief that classical literature must be appreciated by modern readers in order to become part of Korea's national cultural legacy and a contributor to the people's intellectual sophistication, Jeong Byeong-uk dedicated himself to analyzing and systematizing classical Korean poetry including Joseon Si-jo[時調] and Koryo-gayo[高麗歌謠]. By collecting and researching data for 15 years, he compiled classical Korean poems and published Dictionary of Sijo Literature (시조문학사전) as a result. He also discovered and introduced numerous long classical novels stored at Nakseonjae (낙선재), a royal library during the Joseon Dynasty. His academic work is characterized by a combination of aesthetic critical analysis and empirical analysis, through which he precisely explored the literary and historical dimensions of Korean literature. Specifically, he dedicated his life to revealing the essence of traditional Korean rhythm and aesthetic characteristics of 'Meot(멋).' He also contributed to a shift in Korean language education, helping it move from an emphasis on grammar and rote memorization to a focus on literature and writing. In recognition of his contributions to Korean literature and education, he was honored with the Korea Book Author Award (한국출판문화상 저작상) in 1967, the Oesol Award (외솔상) in 1978, the Samil Prize (3.1 문화상) in 1980, and the Eun-gwan (Silver Crown) Order of Cultural Merit, Republic of Korea Medal (은관 문화 훈장) in 1991. Internationally, he contributed to promoting and elevating the stature of classical Korean literature. As a visiting professor at the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Collège de France, he lectured and published works on the historical tradition and characteristics of Korean literature. In addition, he actively took part in international academic conferences. In 1971, he presented at the international Conference on Korean Studies at the University of Hawaii, at the International Conference of Orientalists in Paris in 1973, and at the Academic Association of Koreanology at Tenri University in Japan in 1977. Furthermore, he wrote the section on Korean literature in the Encyclopedia Britannica (브리태니커 백과사전).
Devoting himself to the study, appreciation, and popularization of Pansori, Jeong Byeong-uk founded the Society for Korean Pansori in 1974. From 1974 to 1978, he hosted over 100 Pansori shows with the late Chang-gi Han, a Korean journalist and entrepreneur who founded the Korea Britannica Company, the Korean branch of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and provided financial support for the shows. To preserve Pansori, traditional Si-jo[時調], and Chang, which is the singing part in Pansori, he invited 20 renowned Pansori singers and recorded their full-length performances, thereby ensuring the survival of Pansori in audio form. He then published and distributed these recordings on LPs, each accompanied by explanations of each track, contributing to the revival of Pansori. In addition to preserving Pansori in audio form, he also made efforts to preserve it in written form by transcribing its melodies into musical scores and converting the lyrics into written text. Exploring the history and artistic nature of Pansori in his work, Korean Pansori (한국의 판소리, 1980), he defined Pansori as a pinnacle of traditional Korean culture and art, earning deep respect from Pansori elders. In his later years, he expanded his research to explore the aesthetic principles of traditional Korean arts, encompassing not only poetry, literature, and Pansori but also traditional Korean music and dance. As part of this effort, at Seoul National University, he also served as the faculty advisor for the early Folk Masked Drama Research Society (민속가면극연구회), which studied, organized and performed Talchum, the traditional Korean masked dance.
With a strong resolve to remember Yun Dong-ju (윤동주), Jeong Byeong-uk took on the pen name "Baekyeong (백영)," meaning white shadow, inspired by Yun Dong-ju's poem "White Shadow." He regarded it as his greatest achievement to preserve and later bring Yun's handwritten collection Sky, Wind, Star, and Poem (하늘과 바람과 별과 시, 1948) to the public. Their relationship was more than close friendship; they were in-laws, as a decade after Yun Dong-ju's early passing, Yun's younger brother Il-ju Yun (윤일주/尹一柱) married Jeong Byeong-uk's younger sister, Deok-hui Jeong (정덕희), and it was Jeong Byeong-uk who played the role of matchmaker for this marriage. Their friendship began when Yun Dong-ju, a then third-year student at Yonhi College, read a prose titled "The Legend of the Cuckoo" (뻐꾸기의 전설) written by Jeong, who was freshman at the time, and visited Jeong in person. During Yun's third year, both Yun and Jeong lived in a dormitory, and in Yun's fourth year, they moved from one boarding house to another, spending over two years together. On Sundays, they studied the English Bible together at church, led by Yun, who was a Christian. Between Yun's graduation from Yonhi College in 1941 and his departure for studies in Japan in 1942, he bound three copies of his handwritten poems, keeping one for himself, giving another to his mentor, Yang-ha Lee (이양하), and the third to Jeong Byeong-uk. Later, in 1944, as Jeong was forced into military service, he entrusted Yun's handwritten collection to his mother in Gwangyang (광양) for safekeeping. The two copies held by Yun and Lee Yang-ha were eventually lost, but Jeong's copy remained preserved, wrapped in silk and stored in a jar beneath the floorboards of his family home. In 1948, Jeong combined his copy with poems kept by Cheo-jung Gang (강처중), who was a schoolmate of Yun Dong-ju during the time at Yonhi College, publishing a 31-poem posthumous collection on January 30th in 1948. Moreover, he worked tirelessly to promote Yun Dong-ju's poetry in schools, and in 1968, he supported the establishment of a Yun Dong-ju memorial by donating the prize money he received from the Korea Book Author Award (한국출판문화상 저작상) and the Oesol Award (외솔상).
Records of Sea Voyages by Choe Bu