A Mid-Spring Night's Dream: Collecting Poems for A Dream Journey to Peach Blossom Spring

Abstract

This study focuses on the cultural and social context of A Dream Journey to Peach Blossom Spring (Mongyu towon to), and function. The painting was a pictorial addition to the sich'uk @TE(, a mounted) and interpret the. The prince presented a dream record, an accepted literary form at a time when there was a general belief in the prophetic meaning of dreams, and required twenty-one celebrated writers to compose eulogistic poems to accompany the painting, which served as a visual description of his dream. The poets wrote in such a way as to allow the viewer to repeatedly imagine the Peach Blossom Spring. As such, the painting functioned as visual inspiration for the twenty-one writers and became an ornament for their poems. By revealing the process of making the sich'uk and the effect of the dream record, this study re-evaluates the content, style, and composition of A Dream Journey to Peach Blossom Spring.