Kisaeng was a term used in Korea for women of the lowborn class who served as entertainers at court and at provincial government offices, a custom that began in the Koryo dynasty. Not a great deal is known about them during this period, but the treatise on music in the History of Koryo describes the entertainments they performed at court, native music (hyangak) and banquet music (tangak), the latter referring to ta-ch'u and tz'u from the Sung Court Entertainment Bureau repertory introduced into Koryo in the latter half of the eleventh century.

While in court dances kisaeng are often portrayed as goddesses with life-prolonging powers, in the annals and biographies in the History of Koryo they are typically associated with untoward behavior, be it dissension among officials or unkingly decorum. But the increasing frequency of such accounts as the dynasty progressed suggests that the popularity of kisaeng as concubines increased throughout the latter half of the Koryo period.

The earliest of the Koryo sihwa or "conversations on poetry," Yi Il-lo's, P'ahanjip, contains some poems written to kisaeng that illustrate an aesthetic preference--one he shared with his contemporaries--for seemingly effortless verse that displays an erudite knowledge of classical (Chinese) literature. Pohanjip, Ch'oe Cha's "supplement" to P'ahanjip, includes a very small number of couplets and poems in Chinese written by kisaeng. There are far too few to form the basis for any conclusions about Koryo kisaeng as poets, but they reflect the sharp wit, bantering tone and surprising concern with "virtue," defined as an exclusive relationship with one partner, that appear frequently in stories about kisaeng in the Choson period.

Yi Kyu-bo, Koryo's most prolific poet, addressed a number of poems to kisaeng throughout his long life that are recorded in his Tongguk Yi Sanggukchip. Because many of them are occasional poems for which dates are known, they provide eloquent illustrations of settings in which kisaeng appeared.

Numerous translations from the History of Koryo and these poetry collections have been included, in an attempt to bring Koryo kisaeng and the society in which they lived more clearly into view.