East Asian Legends & Classics
Legends and classical literature of Korea, China and Japan, explained from the original texts, with comparisons of how the same story differs across the three countries.
10 Articles
In Search of the Supernatural: Why Do Grudges End in Graves and Trees? (2/3)
Quoting lines from Scroll 11's “The Grave of the Three Kings,” the Donghai filial wife entry and “Han Ping and His Wife,” and from Scroll 16's “Song Dingbo Catches a Ghost” and the Ziyu entry, we examine the place where grudge and love come to rest, and set it beside the account in the Hebo entry of Scroll 4.
In What Spirit Did Gan Bao Write the Soushen ji (1/3)
Reading in the original the record of the Gan Bao biography in Jin Shu 82, passages from the preface to the Soushen ji, the transmission split into a 20-chapter and an 8-chapter text, and the Chisongzi and Dong Yong tales of chapter 1, to establish how Gan Bao approached his writing.
Where Have Foreign Institutions Recorded Admiral Yi Sun-sin's Greatness?
Britain's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) calls Yi Sun-sin 'Korea's greatest commander' and records his integrity and humility along with it. The evidence comes from the Korea Heritage Service's Korea Heritage Portal, from Korea.net, and from Gunsa, the journal of the Military History Institute at the Ministry of National Defense.
How Did Lady Suro Return from the Sea?
The records say people gathered to sing and struck the hills with a stick. We read the story exactly as it stands: the order of events in the Lady Suro entry of Samguk Yusa Volume 2, and the accounts in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture and in the National Folk Museum of Korea's Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture.
Seongjin Has Awakened — So Why Is It Still Called a Dream? (3/3)
Reading the dialogue with Master Yukgwan in Chapter 16 of The Nine Cloud Dream, and the quotation of Zhuang Zhou's butterfly dream, in the original Chinese, and weighing them point by point against the Tang tales Zhenzhongji and Nanke taishou zhuan, the Joseon dream-journey records and the 19th-century Ongnumong, in order to ask where the dream is placed.
The Nine Cloud Dream: How Its Eight Romances Repeat Across Chapters (2/3)
Drawing on Chapters 3, 6, 13 and 15 of 九雲夢 at Chinese Wikisource and on passages from The Nine Cloud Dream (구운몽) at Korean Wikisource, this article traces how Yang So-yu's romances return as introduction, reunion and roll call, and points out how the Chwimi Palace passage and the petition in Chapter 15 close that arrangement.
Where do Samguk Sagi Book 13 and the Lay of King Dongmyeong differ on Jumong's egg?
Jumong's birth from an egg already appears in Book 13 of the Goguryeo Annals in the Samguk Sagi, and the Lay of King Dongmyeong retells the same story as a long poem of 141 rhymes and 282 lines. This article draws on the Wikisource translation and the explanations in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.
Why does the dating of Guunmong narrow to 1687? (1/3)
The emergence of the Seopo yeonbo held at Japan's Tenri University, the Chinese Nojon text found by Jeong Gyu-bok, and the text of chapter 1 carried on Wikisource serve as the grounds for weighing the date, the order of the editions, and the structure of the opening scene.
In Which Text Was Korea's Dokkaebi Story First Recorded?
The National Folk Museum of Korea and the Academy of Korean Studies both name the Dohwanyeo and Bihyeongnang entry in Samguk Yusa Book 1 as the first dokkaebi story on record. This article answers the question on the basis of that entry and the preface to the Giyi chapter.
Why do the Samguk Yusa and Jewang Ungi name different mothers for Dangun?
The Samguk Yusa names a woman transformed from a bear, and the Jewang Ungi names Hwanung's granddaughter, as Dangun's mother. We answer by setting the Wikisource translation of the Samguk Yusa beside the original text carried in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture entry.