Hyangga (Korean: 향가; Hanja: 鄕歌) were poems written using Chinese characters in a system known as hyangchal during the Unified Silla and early Goryeo periods of Korean history. Only a few have survived: 14 in the Samguk yusa (late 6th to 9th centuries) and 11 by the monk Kyunyeo (10th century).^[1]

Written using Hanja in a system known as hyangchal the hyangga are believed to have been first written in the Goryeo period, as the style was already beginning to fade. A collection of hyangga known as the Samdaemok (삼대목; 三代目) was compiled in the late 9th century by Wihong, the prime minister of Queen Jinseong of Silla, and the monk Taegu-Hwasang, but was since lost.^[2] The surviving hyangga consist of 14 recorded in the Samguk Yusa and 11 in the Gyunyeojeon by Kyunyeo.^[1]

The name hyangga is formed from the character for "back-country" or "rural village" (鄕) – which was often used by the Silla people to describe their nation, specifically to distinguish these distinctly Silla poems from "pure" Chinese literature – and the character for "song" (歌). These poems are accordingly sometimes known as "Silla songs."

Eighteen of the 25 surviving hyangga reflect Buddhist themes.^[3] Another dominant theme was death. Many of the poems are eulogies to monks, to warriors, and to family members — in one case, a sister. The Silla period, especially before unification in 668, was a time of warfare; the hyangga capture the sorrow of mourning for the dead while Buddhism provided answers about where the dead go and the afterlife.

The structure of hyangga is not completely understood. The only^[4] contemporaneous reference is a comment by Hyŏngnyŏn Chŏng, the compiler of Gyunyeo's biography that "their poetry is written in Chinese in penta- and heptasyllabic lines, [while] our songs are written in the vernacular in three gu and six myeong".^[5] What is meant by "three gu and six myeong" remains unresolved; Peter H. Lee interprets it as "three-line stanzas of six phrases each",^[5] while Alexander Vovin translates it more literally as "three stanzas, six names".^[4]

Since the work of linguist Shinpei Ogura in the 1920s,^[6] surviving hyangga have traditionally been classified into one of three forms: a single-quatrain form used in folk songs; an intermediate two-quatrain form; and a ten-line form of two quatrains and a concluding couplet, the most fully developed form of hyangga.^[5] This classification has been questioned in Korean scholarship since the 1980s,^[7] and a new hypothesis, proposed by Kim Sung-kyu in 2016, suggests that there were really only two forms of hyangga: a single-quatrain form and a two-tercet form.^[8] Kim interprets two consecutive lines of the ten-line form as one long line with a caesura, and the so-called "concluding" couplet of the ten-line hyangga to be a refrain for each of the stanzas, thus forming two tercets with shared final lines.^[9] Kim further argues that apparently eight-line forms are the result of a line being lost during transmission.^[10]

The two hypotheses are illustrated below with the ten-line work Jemangmaega, written for the funeral of the poet's sister.^[11]

A typical hyangga is "The Ode for Life Eternal" (or, perhaps, "The Ode for Nirvana"), a song that calls upon the Moon to convey the supplicant's prayer to the Western paradise, the home of Amita (or Amitabha, the Buddha of the Western Pure Land Sukhavati). The poem's authorship is somewhat unclear; it was either written by a monk named Gwangdeok (Korean: 광덕; Hanja: 廣德]) or, one source says, the monk's wife.^[12]

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Hyangga in the Samguk yusa

Title	English	Author	Date	Graphs[13]	Lines[13]	Location	Text
Hyeseong ga[14]	Song of a Comet	Master Yungcheon	c. 594	83	10	2:228	혜성가
Seodong yo[15]	Song of Seodong	King Mu of Baekje	c. 600	25	4	2:98	서동요
Pung yo[16]	Ode to Yangji	anonymous	c. 635	26	4	4:187–188	풍요
Won wangsaeng ga[17]	Prayer to Amitāyus / Ode for Life Eternal	Gwangdeok or his wife	c. 661–681	77	10	5:220	원왕생가
Mo Jukjilang ga[18]	Ode to Knight Jukji	Deugo	c. 692–702	60	8	2:76–78	모죽지랑가
Heonhwa ga[16]	Dedication of the Flower	an old herdsman	c. 702–737	34	4	2:79	헌화가
Won ga[19]	Regret	Sinchung	c. 737	56	8	5:232–233	원가
Chan Gipalang ga[20]	Ode to Knight Gipa	Master Chungdam	c. 742–765	71	10	2:80–81	찬기파랑가
Dosol ga[21]	Song of Tuṣita Heaven	Master Weolmyeong	c. 760	37	4	5:222	도솔가
Je mangmae ga[22]	Requiem for the Dead Sister	Master Weolmyeong	c. 762–765	75	10	2:79–80	제망매가
Do Cheonsu Gwaneum ga[23][lower-alpha 1]	Hymn to the Thousand-Eyed Sound Observer	Huimyeong[lower-alpha 2]	c. 762–765	81	10	3:158–159	도천수관음가
Anmin ga[25]	Statesmanship	Master Chungdam	c. 765	98	10	2:79–80	안민가
Ujeog ga[26]	Meeting with Bandits	Master Yeonghae	c. 785–798	75	10	5:235	우적가
Cheoyong ga[27]	Song of Cheoyong	Cheoyong	c. 879	61	8	2:88–89	처용가

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The 11 hyangga composed by Kyunyeo (923–973) are:^[28]

1. Yekyeong Jebul ga [Veneration of Buddhas] 예경제불가
2. Chingchan Yorae ga [In Praise of Tathagata/Buddha] 칭찬여래가
3. Gwangsu Gongyang ga [Abundant Offerings to Buddha] 광수공양가
4. Chamhoe Opjang ga [Repentance of Sins and Retribution] 참회업장가
5. Suhui Kongdeok ga [Rejoice in the Rewards of Virtue] 수희공덕가
6. Cheongjeon Beopyun ga [The Revolving Wheel of Law] 청전법륜가
7. Cheongbul Juse ga [Entreaty to the Coming of Buddha] 청불왕생가
8. Sangsun Bulhak ga [Faithful Observance of Buddha's Teachings] 상수불학가
9. Hangsun Jungsaeng ga [Constant Harmony with Other Beings] 항순중생가
10. Bogae Hoehyang ga [Salvation of All Living Beings] 보현회향가
11. Chonggyeol Mujin ga [The Everlasting Conclusion] 총결무진가

• Sijo
• Gasa (poetry)
• Korean literature