Jeokbyeokga is one of the five surviving stories of the Korean pansori storytelling tradition. The other stories are Simcheongga, Heungbuga, Chunhyangga and Sugungga. It is also known as Hwaryongdo.
Plot
The basic plot of
Jeokbyeokga is from the 14th century novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms by
Luo Guanzhong.
It starts when characters
Liu Bei,
Guan Yu, and
Zhang Fei take an oath by blood to become brothers at Dowon. The last part is Liu Bei and Guan Yu's episode of Red Cliff. The highlights of
Jeokbyeokga include 'the Sorrow of the Military,' 'Fire of Red Cliff,' 'Bird Song,' and 'Jangseung Song' which don't exist in the original version of
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Those come from
deoneum which have been slowly made over a long period of time by the singers of
pansori.
[The story of korean traditional music, Sungjae-Lee] In the
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the military is only used to redound the glory of the main admiral character and hero; however, in
Jeokbyeokga, the military part stands out. Especially
Sin Jae-hyo's
Jeokbyeokga version made this part more prominent.
[
Korean traditions encyclopedia] Pansori is a performance in which a soloist leads a long story. In order to keep audience's interest, the singer should make proper humorous expressions. The humorous aspects of military are found in
Jeokbyeokga, which are not shown in the
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The
Jeokbyeokga altered the consistent grand and sublime atmosphere, adding the humorous expressions.
See also
