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This paper is aimed on looking into the ways how Chuanziheshang(船子和尙, ?～?)’s gatha was applied to Korean classical poetry in Goryeo and Joseon Dynasty. Chuanzi’s gatha is as following: "A line of a thousand feet goes straight down. The slightest motion of a single wave, and ten thousand waves follow. The evening is still, the water cold; the fish aren’t feeding. I come home with a fully empty boat, laden with moonlight.(千尺絲綸直下垂, 一波纔動萬波隨, 夜靜水寒魚不食, 滿船空載月明歸.)"
Priest Hyesim(慧甚) and Yi Gyubo(李奎報) in later Goryeo Dynasty are presumed the first writers to have applied Chuanzi’s gatha to their literal works in Korea. Hyesim listed it in his collection of the evaluation and hymns of the Zen(禪), Seonmunyeomsong(禪門拈誦) and minutely interpre- ted its meaning while Yi modified and rewrote the gatha from his unique standpoint.
Other Zen priests after Hyesim also frequently quoted or modified Chuanzi’s gatha. Whenever they applied it, its original connotation of Zen was firstly deliberated. However, a couple of stanzas of the gatha were commonly denied; furthermore, its whole meaning was often upset in this case. Such overturn was due to the Zen priests’ general inclination not to adhere to fixed thinking.
Chuanzi’s gatha was also applied by many Confucian scholars and poets such as Yi Saek(李穡) and So Seyang(蘇世讓), but their way to deal with it was quite different from that of Zen Priests: most Confucian writers reflected just certain characteristics of the gatha instead of taking notice of its overall meaning. In other words, Chuanzi’s gatha was only brought into their poems to present their pure life of leasure in the countryside.
Besides, Chuanzi’s gatha was made use of in Korean vernacular fisher- men’s poems and in expert sijo singer’s works in order to express the authors’ uplifted pleasure and delight. In these works, plural characters and conversations with each other appear while there usually appears just one character in the poems of Zen priests or Confucian writers. Moreover, pungryu(風流, pleasure) and heung(興, delight) were directly presented, so not only the meditative mood but also the original connotation of Zen lying behind the text of the gatha were thoroughly got rid of in the poems of this category.