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Choi Chi-won’s second summons and connecting Korea with China (KOR)

Published: 05 Nov. 2025, 10:07

Kim Myung-hwa

The author is a playwright and director.

Choi Chi-won (857-908), a Confucian scholar of late Silla (57 B.C.-A.D. 935), was born in Gyeongju. At age 12, he left for early studies in Tang China, pushed by his father to pass the civil service exam if he was to go abroad. To stay awake, he pricked himself with a needle while studying, eventually entering office. During the Huang Chao Rebellion, he wrote the “Proclamation to Repress Huang Chao,” earning acclaim as a writer.

Korean President Lee Jae Myung, left, chats with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the first session of the APEC summit at the Gyeongju Hwabaek International Convention Center in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, on Oct. 31. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

But he was unable to settle in the turbulence of the Tang court and returned to Silla. On that journey, he composed the poem “Crossing the Sea.” A few days ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping quoted its first line — “With sails raised I set out to sea, a long wind drives me 10 thousand li” — during a state banquet with Korean President Lee Jae Myung. Xi used the same line 12 years ago when President Park Geun-hye visited Beijing.

Whether this reflects Chinese admiration for Choi or a scarcity of suitable classical references in Korea-China relations remains open to interpretation.

According to the Samguk Sagi, the young Choi returned to Silla hoping to serve his homeland with the knowledge gained in Tang China. But he found a country in decline. “The world was in chaos, and many were suspicious and unwelcoming, so he was sent to provincial posts,” it writes. He did not achieve high office, yet it may have been this distance from power that allowed him to produce writings influential in both Korea and China for centuries.

Choi is also valuable in understanding the performing arts, where records from the Three Kingdoms era are scarce. He described the Hwarang spirit as pungnyudo — the “Way of Wind and Flow” — recognizing the place of art in human life. In his poem “Five Performances of Native Music,” he listed court entertainments such as geumhwan (juggling golden balls), woljeon (masked play with satire and humor), daemyeon (masked dance drama), sokdok (group dance with drums) and sanye (lion mask dance). Though many of these likely came through China or the West, he called them hyangak (native music), not Tang music, as he valued the transformation of foreign culture into Silla’s own.

Neither fully accepted by Tang nor Silla, Choi nevertheless connected both worlds. His spirit — spanning kingdoms and centuries — remains relevant in the 21st century. May that commitment to understanding carry across distances, even to the U.S. and China.

최치원의 두 번째 소환
김명화 극작가·연출가

신라 말기의 유학자 최치원은 경주 출신이다. 12살의 어린 나이에 당나라로 조기 유학을 갔다. 갈 바에는 과거에 급제하라는 아비의 명을 받들어 바늘로 자신을 찔러 잠을 쫓아가며 공부해서 벼슬길로 나아갔고, 황소의 난이 일어나자 ‘토황소격문’을 써서 문장가로 인정받았다.

그러나 혼란스럽던 당나라에 정착하지 못하고 신라로 돌아온다. 그 귀국길에 읊은 시가 며칠 전 한·중 정상 국빈만찬에서 시진핑 중국 주석이 연설 도중에 인용한 ‘범해(泛海)’다. 인용구는 첫 시구로 “돛을 달아 바다에 배 띄우니 긴 바람이 만리에 나아가네”.

이 시구는 시 주석이 12년 전 박근혜 대통령 방중 시 인용한 것을 또 사용한 것이다. 그 정도로 최치원에 대한 중국인들의 깊은 사랑을 드러낸 것일까, 혹은 한·중의 역사에 인용할만한 옛 전거가 그렇게 적은 것일까.

청년 최치원은 당나라에서 습득한 지식을 펼칠 포부로 파도를 헤치며 신라로 돌아왔지만 ‘세상이 말세가 되어 의심하고 꺼리는 사람이 많아 용납되지 못했으므로 외직으로 나갔다’라고 『삼국사기』 열전 편은 기록하고 있다. 비록 크게 출세하지 못했지만, 어쩌면 그랬기에 많은 글을 남겼고 후대의 중국과 한국에 영향을 미쳤을 것이다.

삼국시대의 자료가 부족한 공연 예술 분야에서도 최치원은 고마운 존재다. 화랑정신을 풍류도로 설명하며 예술의 가치를 인정하고, ‘향악잡영오수’라는 시를 남겨 신라시대의 연희인 금환·월전·대면·속독·산예의 내용을 짐작하게 해준다. 대부분 서역이나 중국을 거쳐 들어왔을 그 연희들을 당악이 아닌 향악(鄕樂)이라 이름 붙였듯, 이역의 문화가 신라화한 과정을 소중하게 여겼으리라.

당나라에도 신라에도 기댈 곳이 없었지만 후대까지 둘을 이어주었던 최치원의 정신이 21세기에도 이어지길 희망한다. 우정의 노력, 만리 밖 미·중까지 나아가길.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.