The short answer: what this article covers
Arguably, the romantic career in The Nine Cloud Dream (九雲夢) is not built by adding new characters alone. A name that has already appeared returns in passages from other chapters, and the invocation in Chapter 15 gathers eight names in one place and lists them. This article draws only 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. It is the second installment of a three-part series.
The introduction to The Nine Cloud Dream (구운몽) at Korean Wikisource presents the work's origin as a tradition: "It is a representative work of Korean yangban fiction, said to have been written by Kim Man-jung during his exile on Namhae to ease the idleness and the worries of his mother, Lady Yun." The sentence does not assert a motive for the writing; the qualifier "said to have been" is plainly attached. I do not treat this account of the work's origin as established fact.
The same text has a passage in which Seongjin thinks of worldly wealth and rank: "Alas, our Buddhist way is nothing but a single bowl of rice and a single cup of pure water." The lament measures the life of religious practice in the smallest of portions. Great Master Yukkwan lists Seongjin's offenses this way: "You went to the Dragon Palace and drank wine, and there is guilt in that; and on your way back you traded playful words with the eight fairies on the stone bridge and broke off flowers to give them." The rebuke binds the wine, the flirting and the flowers together in a single breath.
In The Nine Cloud Dream (구운몽) at Korean Wikisource, Yang the Recluse names his son with these words: "This child's bones and features are pure and clear; an immortal from heaven has come down in banishment." He calls the boy So-yu and gives him Cheon-ri as his courtesy name. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (Academy of Korean Studies) defines the frame novel as "a novel that has one or more inner stories inside a story," and the same entry adds that "a frame novel usually begins with the outer story, passes through the inner story, and then flows back out to the outer story." I set this definition down only as the encyclopedia's own explanation.
Chapter 3: the Luoyang tavern and Gye Seom-wol's discernment
In Chapter 3 of 九雲夢 at Chinese Wikisource, the scholars of Luoyang introduce a woman this way: "彼娘子姓桂名蟾月，非但姿色歌舞獨步於東京，古今詩文無所不通，且其詩眼尤妙矣。" The sentence leads with Gye Seom-wol's (桂蟾月) beauty and her singing and dancing. Its weight, though, arguably falls on the second half, which adds that she is versed in the poetry and prose of all ages and that her eye for poetry is exquisite.
The Nine Cloud Dream (구운몽) at Korean Wikisource carries a judgment to the same effect: "Her discernment in letters was so uncanny that a single look settled whether a piece would pass the examination." Here Gye Seom-wol is the one who grades writing. The gathering at the tavern in Chapter 3 has a single rule: "諸詩之中，桂卿擇其一首而歌之，則作其詩者，今夜當與桂卿好結芳緣，而吾輩皆作賀客而已" The scholars write the poems; Gye Seom-wol does the choosing, and everyone else falls back into the role of congratulating guest.
At the meeting with Gye Seom-wol, Yang So-yu thinks of someone else: "去年我會過華州，偶見秦家女子，其容貌才華，足與桂娘可較伯仲，而不幸今也則亡" He speaks of the Jin girl he saw in Hwaju as already dead — a remark that reads as a device for leaving the later reunion open. The Nine Cloud Dream (구운몽) at Korean Wikisource gives her name: "This lady's surname was Jin and her name Chae-bong; she was the daughter of Censor Jin."
In the same text, Jin Chae-bong is presented as the first woman in Yang So-yu's life, and the calamity that struck her family is reported as well: "Censor Jin took part in the rebellion and was put to death, and his daughter was being taken to the capital." This passage speaks of a transfer, not a death. Set side by side, the rumor Yang So-yu heard and the text's own account appear to contradict each other.
Gye Seom-wol's request and the Prince of Yue's words in Chapter 15
In Chapter 3 of 九雲夢 at Chinese Wikisource, Gye Seom-wol asks one thing of Yang So-yu: "惟願郎君娶賢婦於高門，以奉大夫人後，亦勿棄賤妾焉。" She speaks first of a worthy wife from a high family, then adds that he should not cast her aside. The request reads as counting a wife's place and her own place differently from the start.
In the same chapter she recommends someone outright: "鄭司徒女子，窈窕之色，幽閒之德，爲當今女子中第一。" She calls Minister Jeong's daughter the first among the women of the day. The one recommending is a courtesan, the one recommended a minister's daughter. I take the passage as a place where the words that introduce a match travel across differences of rank.
Gye Seom-wol mentions her own name alongside two others: "天下有『青樓三絕色』之語，江南萬玉燕、河北狄驚鴻，洛陽桂蟾月，蟾月即妾也。" Jeok Gyeong-hong's name (狄驚鴻) is already inside this line. The Nine Cloud Dream (구운몽) at Korean Wikisource makes the same count: "Among us of the courtesans' quarter there are three great beauties in all the world: Man Ok-yeon of Jiangnan, Jeok Gyeong-hong of Hebei, and Gye Seom-wol of Luoyang." Both passages bundle the three names together in advance, and both do so through the mouth of a single speaker.
In Chapter 15 the Prince of Yue describes Yang So-yu's career in love this way: "獵取美色甚於飢謁，朝求於東暮取於西，窮燕趙之色，飫鄭衛之聲" With the words about seeking in the east and taking in the west, the Prince of Yue impeaches Yang So-yu. These words can be seen as one more voice inside the work summarizing that career, and the order the reader counts overlaps with the order a character counts.
Chapter 6: Ga Chun-un as fairy and as ghost
In Chapter 6 of 九雲夢 at Chinese Wikisource, Minister Jeong reveals a character's identity: "此兒非鬼非仙，即吾家所育賈氏女子，其名春雲" He first denies that she is a ghost or a fairy, then says she is Chun-un, the Ga girl raised in his own house. Those words settle the woman who appeared as fairy and as ghost into one person.
In the same chapter Yang So-yu sums the business up briefly: "昔神女朝爲雲暮爲雨，今春娘朝爲仙暮爲鬼。" He pairs morning with evening and fairy with ghost, and this parallel can be read as folding two meetings into a single sentence.
I take Ga Chun-un's manner of entrance as a small model of the repetition. The work does not invent one more name; it dresses the same name in a different appearance and gains one more scene. That approach multiplies scenes rather than characters.
Chapter 6: Gye Seom-wol's cut hair and the name Jeok Baek-ran
Chapter 6 of 九雲夢 at Chinese Wikisource reports news of Gye Seom-wol: "蟾月去年春，與遠方相公結一夜之緣，其後稱有疾病，諸絕遊客" After a single night's bond she pleaded illness and turned her visitors away. She explains the circumstances herself: "自剪頭髮，稱有惡疾，僅免脅迫之辱。盡謝華妝，幻着山衣" She cut her hair, gave up her finery and changed into mountain clothes.
These two passages can be read as sentences that explain the conditions of a reunion. The bond of Chapter 3 does not end with one night, and the lines in Chapter 6 record the intervening time as a change in the body. Here I see how the work joins a reappearance to what came before without leaving a gap.
In the same chapter a young man appears before Yang So-yu: "小生北方之人也，姓狄名百鸞，生長窮鄉，未遇碩師良友" This youth is Jeok Gyeong-hong in men's clothes. She gives the name Jeok Baek-ran and asks to be taken in as his student. An entrance that changes both name and sex can be seen as belonging to the same line as Ga Chun-un's two guises.
Chapter 6 ends with a scene in which Yang So-yu misreads the woman beside him: "更見之：則翠眉明眸，雲鬢花臉，柳腰之勺約，雪膚之皎潔，皆蟾月，而細審之則非也。" Every feature matches Gye Seom-wol, yet on close inspection she is not Gye Seom-wol; the sentence holds likeness and difference in one breath. At the banquet of longevity toasts in Chapter 13, the guests praise the two women together: "洛陽桂蟾月、河北狄驚鴻，擅名久矣，果絕豔，非楊丞相風流，何能致此也？"
Chapter 13's investiture and the eight names in Chapter 15
Chapter 13 of 九雲夢 at Chinese Wikisource divides the places into three: "乃下教；以英陽公主封魏國公左夫人，以蘭陽公主封右夫人，以秦氏本大夫之女，封爲淑人。" Jeong Gyeong-pae, as Princess Yeongyang, is made Left Lady; Princess Nanyang, Right Lady; Jin Chae-bong, Suk-in. Each of the three places carries its own name — left, right and suk-in — and the investiture passage can be seen as recording these bonds as titles rather than as feelings.
In the same chapter Jin Chae-bong gives two grounds for her own bond: "丞相惟知以《楊柳詞》共結舊日之約，而不知以紈扇詩得成今日之緣也。" She points out that the chancellor knows only the old promise made through the "Willow Song" and not the poem on the silk fan. The writing appears twice, and the promise is stacked in two layers. I read her remark as language that attaches a fresh ground to a reappearance.
Chapter 13 records the three days after the wedding in order: "是夜與英陽公主聯衾...是夕又與蘭陽公主並枕。第三日往於秦淑人之房。" The first night is Princess Yeongyang's, the second Princess Nanyang's, and on the third day he goes to Lady Jin's room. The narration sets the three women side by side in the same sentence pattern, so that the order of the titles and the order of the days repeat in the same shape.
The invocation in Chapter 15 gathers the eight names in one place: "弟子鄭氏瓊貝、簫和李氏，綵鳳秦氏、春雲賈氏、蟾月桂氏、驚鴻狄氏、嫋煙沈氏、凌波白氏，越宿齋沐，謹告於南海大師之前。" The list ties given name to surname and repeats the formula eight times. In the same chapter the two princesses confer: "今吾二妻六妾，義逾骨肉，情同姐妹，其中或有從外國而來者，豈非天之所命乎？" The arithmetic of two wives and six concubines comes out plainly here. Yang So-yu offers his own count as well: "小妾桂、狄、沈、白四介女，或未及釋葛時所卜，或奉命外國時所從，而皆在婚禮以前。"
The word "dream" in Chapter 13 and the turn in Chapter 15
Chapter 13 of 九雲夢 at Chinese Wikisource records the feeling of the wedding scene: "三位上仙，齊會一席。光搖五雲，影眩千門。丞相雙眸亂纈，九魄超忽，只疑身在於黑甜鄉也。" This is the scene in which the two princesses and Lady Jin are gathered in one place, and Yang So-yu feels as though his body were inside a dream. The word "dream" attaches itself to the brightest scene of all.
In the same chapter he asks more directly: "吾與夫人只卜後生之相逢矣，今日我在夢中，而亦不知夢耶？" He says first that he had expected to meet her only in a next life, then asks whether the present moment is not a dream. The question can be seen as a character doubting his own position.
Chapter 15 marks the turn in a single sentence: "泰極否至，天道之恆。興盡悲來，人事之常也。" When fullness passes, decline arrives; when joy is exhausted, sorrow comes. In the same chapter Yang So-yu asks to withdraw: "丞相自以盛滿可戒，大名難居，乃上疏乞退。" The warning against being filled to the brim and the difficulty of holding a great name stand side by side.
The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture explains the function of the frame this way: "The functions of the frame range from revealing the source of the inner story or the reason it is told, to concealing the narrator of the inner story." The range of functions is broad. I note only that the word "dream" is repeated in advance inside the work; how that word defines the overall structure is not something I will assert on the sources used here.
Chapter 15: Chwimi Palace, the vow at Namak, and where to read the originals
Chapter 15 of 九雲夢 at Chinese Wikisource records Yang So-yu's new residence: "城南四十里有離富，即翠微官也，昔玄宗避暑之處也。" Chwimi Palace (翠微官), forty li south of the city, had once been Emperor Xuanzong's summer retreat, and the emperor grants the place to Yang So-yu. That the reward at the end of a career of service should be a former ruler's summer retreat is worth noticing. The account that Yang So-yu played the tungso at Chwimi Palace and looked back on his life, however, cannot be confirmed in the sources used here.
The same chapter links the harmony of the eight women to another setting: "此雖諸夫人聖德，能致一家之和，而蓋當初九人在南岳時，其發願如此故也。" The narrator speaks first of the ladies' virtue, then cites the vow the nine made when they were at Namak. The number eight and the number nine meet inside one sentence.
It is clear where readers can check these passages for themselves. The Korean text is available in the entry for The Nine Cloud Dream (구운몽) at Wikisource, and the Chinese text in the Chapter 3, 6, 13 and 15 documents of 九雲夢 at Chinese Wikisource. The term "frame novel" can be found in the entry at the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (Academy of Korean Studies). The same encyclopedia explains that dream-journey (mongyurok) fiction takes a "reality–dream–reality" structure and so has the composition of a frame novel, and it notes that the frame-novel form has the advantage of diversifying the narrator's point of view.
Set the same passages from the two texts side by side, item by item, and differences in wording emerge. First, the three names appear as 萬玉燕·狄驚鴻·桂蟾月 on one side and as Man Ok-yeon, Jeok Gyeong-hong and Gye Seom-wol on the other. Second, Gye Seom-wol's judgment is called 詩眼 on one side and "discernment in letters" on the other. Third, the Korean text gives the name of the woman seen in Hwaju as Jin Chae-bong. Whether these differences come from the editions or from the choices of the translation cannot be confirmed on the sources used here. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture rates The Nine Cloud Dream (구운몽) as "the finest of the frame novels written in the Joseon period."
Related reading: Why does the dating of Guunmong narrow to 1687? (1/3)
Summing up
Yang So-yu's bonds read as written in three layers: introduction, reunion and roll call. Chapter 3 makes Gye Seom-wol the one who chooses the poem, and the same chapter brings up the names of Jeok Gyeong-hong and Minister Jeong's daughter for the first time. Chapter 6 brings Ga Chun-un on as fairy and as ghost, and Jeok Gyeong-hong under the name Jeok Baek-ran. Chapter 13 divides the places of Left Lady, Right Lady and Suk-in, and records the order of the three days in the same form.
Chapter 15 lists the eight names and sets down the count of two wives and six concubines. The same chapter holds both the passage on fullness and decline and the petition asking to withdraw, and the Chwimi Palace passage and the vow at Namak are there as well. I read this arrangement as a way of counting out repetitions and then tying them together at the end. Readers can check the same passages directly at Wikisource and in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.