Jang Ji Yon (1864―1921) is the writer of the editorial “Let’s wail bitterly and loudly.”, which denounced the evil crimes of the Japanese imperialists that fabricated the “Ulsa Five-Point Treaty” in 1905, and expressed the burning indignation over the national ruin.
A patriotic literary man Jang Ji Yon, with burning love for the country and nation, was very active in writing literature for conveying the proud tradition of literature and art of our nation. One typical example is the compilation of “Taedong Selection of Poems” in Juche 8 (1919).
The book is divided into 12 volumes and 6 books. Volume 1 contains “Song of konghu” by Ryo Ok in Ancient Korea and other poems by over 150 persons including Ulji Mun Dok, Choe Chi Won, Jong Ji Sang, Ri Kyu Bo and Ri Je Hyon, who did some creative activities in the period from the Three Kingdoms to Koryo. Works by more than 1 700 persons during the feudal Joson dynasty are found from Volume 2 to Volume 10. Volume 11 and Volume 12 have poems composed by some women and Buddhist monks like Sosandaesa and Samyongdang, and other fine ones by unknown writers.
The compilation of this book by Jang Ji Yon was aimed at restoring the national spirit fading out under the cruel colonial rule of Japanese imperialists and at protecting and preserving the national poetry inheritance. “Taedong selection of poems” serves as an important reference for research into the development history of our national literature since it is a collection of a large number of national poems and songs that shows the long development history of our national poetry in a systematic and detailed way by means of those composed in each period.
Kim Son Yong, researcher at the Academy of Social Sciences
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