《西厢记》在韩国的传播与接受

16世纪初年,朝鲜文人(李朝时期)已经知道著名元杂剧《西厢记》。到了18世纪,文人们对《西厢记》故事已非常熟悉。韩国收藏的《西厢记》的汉文本和韩文本很多。朝鲜文人对《西厢记》的评价褒贬不一,贬之者视如灾书,褒之者奉为奇书。不少文人对《西厢记》作了深入的研究。除了派往中国的使臣和历代少数留学生及书商,大多数朝鲜文人没有机会观看中国的戏曲演出,所以他们对中国的了解多数是从书本上得来的,因此对中国戏曲的理解难免会有错误。他们始终将《西厢记》当作案头文学来阅读。《西厢记》曾对朝鲜的文体文风产生过影响,一些文人还模仿它写了一些作品如汉文演本《东厢记》、汉文小说《春香传》等。

The Spread and Acceptance of The Western Chamber in Korea

At the beginning of the 16th century, the famous Yuan-Dynasty Zaju plays "The Western Chamber" had been known by literati in Li Dynasty. And it was popular in literati in the 18th century. "The Western Chamber" had spread to North Korea no later than the 18th century. A variety of editions of the book, both in Chinese and in Korean, spread in South Korea. Korean literati showed different appraisals to it: some saw it as damage while others saw it as a miracle. Many literati not only did deep research into the book from various aspects including the characters, structure, language, rhythm, etc., but also compared it to the Korean artistic forms. However, except those ambassadors who were sent to China, most of the literati's knowledge of Chinese drama was only limited in the relative books but not from real plays, and misunderstandings were inevitable. "The Western Chamber" was always on the desks of Korean literati during that period of time and it had even influenced the Korean style of writing. Some Korean literati wrote some works of literature and art imitating the Chinese drama, such as "The Eastern Chamber" in Chinese, "Biography of Chun Xiang" in Chinese.