'PANSORI'

Pansori was not named when it originated.
It was called chang, sori, gwangdaesori, changak, geukka, gagak, changgeukjo before the name was distributed widely. There is no knowing in detail when the name of pansori originated. Pansori appears for the first time in {A History of Josun Changgeuk} published by Jeong No Sik who was born in Mangyeong, Gimje, and went beyond to North Korea after independence, at the department of publishing, Josun Ilbo in 1940.
So the name of pansori would originate a little earlier than the time. But it doesn't appear so frequently in this book.
It is conspicuous that, first of all, he used the name,'changgeuk', by naming the title not {A History of Josun Pansori}, but {A History of Josun Changgeuk}. It means that, then, the name of pansori was not distributed so widely.
It is said that the name of pansory was distributed widely after independence. Almost every old pansori-lovers or pansori-experts explain so similarly. Then, why now, after 200 years from its origin, is the name of pansori , rather than others, distributed so widely? It is because the name of pansori expresses its characteristic better than any other one. So it is necessary to grope for investigating how the name of pansori is created and what it means. So, a researcher usually finds an origin of the work, researching a subject. 'Pansori' is a compound word made with 'pan' and 'sori'.
First of all, let us study the word of 'pan'.
There are some opinions on the word of 'pan'. First of all, 'pan' composes the same meaning as that of 'noreumpan', 'sireumpan', and 'gutpan'. They have the meanings of the places where noreum, gut, and sireum are open. There are many people in a 'pan'.
A place where one person does something is never named 'pan'. In addition, 'pan' is named only for a special behavior. So there are not so many cases where the word of 'pan' can be attached. The word of 'pan' has a meaning that a special behavior is open among many persons
Second, the word of 'pan' has a similar meaning as that used in 'sireum han pan ' or 'baduk han pan'. Here 'pan' means a 'complete course' from the first to the end.
So, in the case win or defeat has to be decided, 'pan' can be used when it is decided as one result.
Third, the word of 'pan 'has a similar meaning as that used in 'pannoreum' or 'pangut'. 'Pannoreum' or 'pangut' is a play open by wandering expert entertainment groups.
They organized expert entertainers' groups, gathered persons, going around, and made earnings by collecting it from the spectators. So, here 'pan' means behaviors or plays open by experts. As discussed, 'pan has a lot of meanings. In the case of the first case, 'pansori' has a meaning of a sori performed for many persons publically. There are many kinds of plays, some of which has no classification between players and spectators, and others of which have it. Here, a place where many persons gather is, of cause, the place where many spectators gather. A play open in front of spectators is a performance art.
So pansori of the first meaning means performance art. In the case of the second meaning, pansori means 'a saying about a complete course from the first to the end'. This is the same concept as 'whole' in a plot described by Aristotles. Aristotles describes in {Poetics} that "a whole has a start, medium, and end". The start has nothing in front of itself, and it has something which exists or generates next to itself.
The end, on the contrarily, has nothing which, surely or at the most cases, comes next to itself. The medium has something which comes to itself or another which comes to it. So well constructed plot doesn't start or end at an arbitrary point."
Then, pansori will means a sori which sings a story which has a start, medium, and end.
In the case of the third meaning, pansori means that performed by experts'. It means that pansori is a sori only those who acquire expert skills through expert training can perform. Many pansori manias want to perform pansori by themselves. In fact, it's not satisfactory only to listen to something, if they like it so much. Anyway, they also will be eager to perform the pansori. But it's not so easy, for pansori is an expert art only those who go through expert training can perform, as if all of the persons who like circuses can not perform them. It is the same case as all who like circus cannot perform circus. It is not reasonable for only expert artists to be able to perform expert arts, and for general persons to be satisfactory to see or listen them.
Proper seeing or listening to something needs knowledge and sense similar to those owned by experts
So those who are able to listen it well is called 'guimyeongchang'.
The discrimination between 'guimyeongchang' and 'myeongchang' through terms like this is an evidence that the audience of pansori acknowledges that pansori is an expert art from the early times.
What does 'pansori'mean? It has three meanings presented above. It is why all of three meanings presented above have proper characteristics. Then, what does 'sori' mean? Some assert that 'song' means lyric and short materials, but that 'sori means epic materials. that is, long songs including stories. But, namdo folk song or seodo folk song is called 'namdo sori' or 'seodo sori'. Field songs are called 'gimmaeneun sori' or 'dalgujisori'. So it seems improper. The dictionary meaning of 'sori' is " the fast vibration of air or things listened to ears". 'Sori' is all of the phenomena accepted by our listening sense. So the explanation of pansori on 'sori' is improper. Some say that it is because 'pansori' can express all of the nature sounds that 'pansori is called especially 'sori'. But it is prejudice, for music can express all of the nature sounds. It is the most reasonable to consider 'sori' in 'pansori' to be the abbreviation of 'moksori'.
The field where human's vocal is used in music is vocal music.
Then, 'sori' of 'pansori' means that 'pansori' is a kind of vocal music. Vocal is a sound uttered by a part of human body. So it is excellent so much in human expression. It is because vocal is human not because vocal is more beautiful or accurate than the sound of musical instruments that vocal is No. one or human vocal cords are the best musical instruments. Of cause, it is because all of human beings have vocal, everybody can use it, and expression scope is wide, for use history is long that human vocal is better than other musical instruments. But, ultimately, it is because vocal is human. There is nothing more valuable, to human beings, than human. So, it is very important that 'pansori' expresses something with the materials of human vocal, and that the fact is emphasized by the term.