POEMS AND STORIES FOR OVERCOMING IDLENESS: P'AHAN CHIP. By YiIllo. Translated, Annotated, and with an Introduction by Dennis Wuerthner. Korean Classics Library: Historical Materials. University of Hawai‘i Press, 2024. Pp. x + 457. Hardback, $75.00.

Wuerthner is assistant professor of East Asian literature at Boston University. This volume represents the first complete English translation of Yi Illo's 李仁老 (1152–1220) P'ahan chip 破閑集, generally considered Korea's first sihwa 詩멱 work. The collection comprises eighty-three entries across three fascicles, blending poetry, literary criticism, biographical sketches, and historical anecdotes. Yi Illo composed these texts during the period of military rule (1170–1270), when military officials dominated political affairs and civilian literati had limited political influence. Wuerthner notes that the Northern Sòng work Lěngzhāi yèhuà 冷齋夜멱 (1121) by the Chán monk Juéfàn Huìhóng 覺範慧洪 (1071–1128) served as a major source and structural model. The title carries multiple interpretations: “overcoming idleness” suggests dispelling leisure or curing the “malady of idleness.” The Introduction contextualizes Yi Illo within Koryŏ intellectual history, examining his official career, literary circles including the “Bamboo Grove Gathering” and “Hoedong Elders' Society,” and the circumstances shaping his work. Wuerthner traces the text's transmission history from thirteenth-century manuscript circulation through 1260 woodblock printing to Chosŏn-period editions and modern scholarship. He elucidates how P'ahan chip functions simultaneously as literary criticism, social observation, and cultural preservation, documenting poems and figures that might otherwise have been lost. The translation is organized with detailed annotations identifying each entry's focus—whether poetics, biography, Buddhist-Daoist syncretism, or geographical description. Wuerthner's meticulous notes illuminate classical Chinese allusions, Koryŏ toponyms, and intertextual references to Táng and Sòng literary traditions. Particularly valuable is his analysis of Yi Illo's poetic theory, especially discussions of parallelism, tonal patterns, and the relationship between poetry and moral cultivation. The translation captures Yi's sympathy for scholars facing adversity, including his close associate Im Ch'un, and his nuanced observations on contemporary affairs through literary allusion. This work significantly expands access to pre-modern Korean literature in the English-speaking world. Beyond its value for specialists in East Asian literary studies, it illuminates cross-cultural poetics, the transmission of Chinese sihwa traditions to Korea, and literati cultural practices across historical periods. Wuerthner's scholarly apparatus demonstrates how medieval Korean literary commentaries continue enriching contemporary understanding of Sinographic literary traditions.