The Story of Hong Gildong

by Translated

  2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_names.

  3. The Joseon dynasty was founded in 1392 by General Yi Seonggye (King Taejo, r. 1392–1398), who ascended the throne after completing his coup d’état of the Goryeo Kingdom. The dynasty came to an end in 1897 when the penultimate Yi monarch Gojong (r. 1863–1907) changed the beleaguered nation’s name to Daehan Jaeguk (Empire of Korea) as part of his desperate and ultimately futile effort to strengthen it against foreign powers. The country lost its independence to Japan in 1910 with the forced abdication of Gojong’s son Sujong, the last royal ruler of Korea.

  4. Kim Taejun, Joseon soseolsa (Seoul: Doseo chulpan, 1989), 71–78. Kim published a new edition of the work in 1939, under the title Jeungbo Joseon soseolsa (Enlarged History of Joseon Fiction), in which he adjusted the more flamboyant language of the original to make the text more scholarly. For comparison see Kim Taejun, Jeungbo Joseon soseolsa (Seoul: Hangilsa, 1990), 81–91.

  5. Yi Sik, Gukyeok Taekdang jip (Translated Works of Taekdang), vol. 6 (Seoul: Minjok munhwa chujinhoe, 1996), 236.

  6. Lee Yoon Suk, “Hong Gildong jeon jakja nonui ui gyebo” (The genealogy of discussion on the authorship of Hong Gildong jeon), Yeolsang gojeong yeongu 36 (December 30, 2012): 381–414.

  7. Yi Myeongseon, Yi Myeongseon jeonjip (Complete Works of Yi Myeongseon), vol. 3 (Seoul: Bogosa, 2007), 244. On recent research into identifying the first prose work to be written in hangeul see Lee Pok-kyu, “Chogi gukmunsoseol ui jonjae yangsang” (The mode of existence of early Korean novels), Gukjeeomun 21 (2000): 25–44.

  8. There, the following is found: “There are tales of old times that are widely known from town to town, about people like So Daeseong, Jo Ung, Hong Gildong, and Jeon Uchi. Each of those books was written in the eonmun script and narrates the life story of a single character.” Quoted in Lee Yoon Suk, “Hong Gildong jeon wonbon hwakjeongeul wehan siron” (Essay on the determination of the original text of The Story of Hong Gildong), Tongbang hakji 85 (January 1994): 247–85, 271.

  9. For details on laws concerning the status of secondary children, see Martina Deuchler, “‘Heaven Does Not Discriminate’: A Study of Secondary Sons in Choso˘n Korea,” Journal of Korean Studies 6 (1988–89): 121–63.

  10. In addition to Deuchler, “Heaven Does Not Discriminate,” see JaHyun Kim Haboush, A Heritage of Kings (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 94–95.

  11. On the role of secondary sons and people of other secondary status in late-nineteenth-century Joseon, see Kyung Moon Hwang, Beyond Birth: Social Status in the Emergence of Modern Korea (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004).

  12. See Hobsbawm, Bandits, 42–63.

  A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION

  1. See Lee Yoon Suk, “Hong Gildong jeon wonbon hwakjeongeul wehan siron” (Essay on the determination of the original text of The Story of Hong Gildong), Tongbang hakji 85 (January 1994).

  2. See Ho˘ Kyun, “The Tale of Hong Kil-tong,” trans. Marshall R. Pihl, Jr., Korea Journal (July 1, 1968): 4–21, and Peter H. Lee, Anthology of Korean Literature: From Early Times to the Nineteenth Century (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1981), 119–47. For another translation of the gyeongpan 30 version, see Hong Kil-tong chon / The Story of Hong Gil dong (Seoul: Baekam, 2000)—no translator is credited.

  TRANSLATION

  1. King Seonjong: Korean kings of the Joseon dynasty are generally referred to by their posthumous “temple names.” When the fourteenth king of Joseon died in 1608, he was originally given the temple name of Seonjong, but it was changed to the slightly loftier Seongjo in 1616 by the order of his son Lord Gwanghae. It is highly unlikely, however, that the reference here is to that monarch, who was known by the name for only a few years. The gyeongpan and wanpan versions of The Story of Hong Gildong identify the king in the narrative as Sejong the Great (r. 1418–1450), while the Jo Jongeop 31/33 version refers to King Sejo (r. 1455–1468). “Seonjong” may be a mistake, but since imagined locales also appear, it is likely that the author made up the king to create a fictional time for the story. That also has the advantage of avoiding problems of anachronism since government institutions like the Military Training Agency (hullyeon dogam, see note 83) and the Office for Dispensing Benevolence (seonhyecheong, see note 96), which are mentioned later in the narrative and other variants of the story, were created after the reigns of Sejong and Sejo.

  2. Jangan: One of several names used during the Joseon dynasty for the capital city of the kingdom (today’s Seoul). In the course of the story it is also referred to as Gyeongseong and Gyeongsa.

  3. mo: A placeholder term used instead of the real name of a person or a place. The personal name of the minister is not given here as if to protect the identity of an actual person, to make the narrative seem as if it is a historical account about real people.

  4. high minister: (jaesang) The word refers to someone who attained one of the three highest positions in the government at the State Council (uijeongbu): chief state councilor (yeong uijeong), state councilor of the left (jwa uijeong), and state councilor of the right (u uijeong). Whenever there were two positions of near equal ranks, they were differentiated by the terms “left” (jwa) and “right” (u), with the left higher than the right. The three councilors acted as the closest advisers to the king. Although the actual power wielded by the high ministers differed from one period to another, from the reign of one king to another, the status of jaesang always represented the apex of prestige in government service. Later in the narrative, it is mentioned that Minister Hong was once the usang (another name for state councilor of the right), the third-highest position in the state.

  5. assistant section chief: (jwarang) The hierarchy of state service positions, attained after passing the mungwa civil service examinations (see introduction) and then through promotions, was organized into nine grades (pum), each of which was subdivided into the senior (jeong) and the junior (jong) for a total of eighteen ranks, with the highest rank of senior first (e.g., the jaesang, the high ministers of the State Council), and the lowest of junior ninth. Assistant section chief (jwarang) is a position of senior sixth rank.

  6. Ministry of Personnel: The central bureaucracy of the Joseon government was composed of the Six Ministries (or Boards) of Personnel, Taxation, Rites, War, Punishments, and Public Works. The Ministry of Personnel (ijo), where Hong Inhyeon works, handled matters pertaining to appointments and promotions in state service.

  7. jang: A unit for measuring length. Its value changed over time but through most of the Joseon dynasty period a jang measured a little over two meters (approximately 6.5 feet).

  8. great happiness in his heart: Traditionally, a dream featuring a dragon is a sign of a great fortune to come. It was important, however, to keep the dream a secret until the fortune came about, since revealing it could negate the prophecy.

  9. inner chamber: (naedang) Married couples of respectable yangban families slept and spent much of their time in separate quarters. The wife’s chamber was known as naedang and the husband’s sarangbang (outer chamber).

  10. he made her a concubine: During the Joseon dynasty, a man could have only one woman as his wife (though polygamy had been allowed previously, during the Goryeo dynasty), but men who could support more than one woman in their household brought extra women in as their concubines. See introduction.

  11. lunar months: Prior to the modern era, the yearly calendar was reckoned by the twelve cycles of the moon (29–30 days), with the new year beginning with the appearance of a new moon, usually in late January or early February.

  12. hear only one thing to understand ten: From “One who understands ten things from hearing only one thing,” a traditional expression of admiration for a particularly intelligent and astute person. The saying is of ancient origin, an example of which can be found in The Analects, in a passage in which Kongzi (i.e., Confucius) asks his disciple Zi Gong about the
intellectual capability of Yan Hui (Kongzi’s favorite disciple). Zi Gong answers, “How dare I compare myself with Hui? Having learned one thing, he gives play to ten.” (Book 5, 9) Confucius, The Analects, trans. Annping Chin (New York: Penguin Classics, 2014), 64.

  13. if he dared to call him Father: “I cannot address my father as Father, my older brother as Brother”—the famous complaint of Hong Gildong that is repeated throughout the story. The expression encapsulates the frustrating condition of being a secondary child of a concubine with no legal standing in society.

  14. Gongja and Maengja: Korean names for the Chinese philosophers Kongzi (Confucius—traditional dates, 551–479 BCE) and Mengzi (Mencius—traditional dates, 372–289 BCE), the founding thinkers of Confucianism.

  15. my portrait memorialized in Girin House: An expression used to mean one has become renowned for having performed a great service for the country. Giringak (Girin House) is Korean for the Chinese Qilinke. Qilin is a mythological animal that was described as a combination variously of different parts of a dragon, a tiger, a deer, an ox, and a horse, sometimes with a horn. Later it was identified with the giraffe (girin is the word for a giraffe in modern Korean). In Chinese history, the Han dynasty emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BCE) built a garden in the capital city of Changan that was called Qilin Garden. His grandson, Emperor Xuan (r. 74–49 BCE), built Qilin House at the site, and in it he displayed the portraits of eleven of his most loyal and meritorious subjects in a hall of fame. Both the garden and the house were destroyed after the fall of the Han dynasty, but the fame of the building survived in the expression signifying the achievement of the highest recognition for service to the country.

  16. “Kings, lords, generals, and ministers are not made from a special blood”: An ancient expression of Chinese origin, from the writings of the grand historian Sima Qian (145–86 BCE), in his biography of the rebel Chen She. It means that anyone, no matter how humble his origin, can attain positions of power and prestige given the right set of circumstances, talents, and ambitions. It also implies that people who are already in positions of power are not there because of some innate quality of their inherited blood. Burton Watson, in his translation of Sima Qian, renders the expression as: “Kings and nobles, generals and ministers—such men are made, not born.” See Sima Qian, The Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty, trans. Burton Watson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 219.

  17. royal insignia: (byeongbu) This was a special insignia granted by the king to a military commander of high status. A wooden panel inscribed with the royal order granting the general his rank and mission was split in two, and the commander carried one half while the other half remained in the capital with the monarch. The perfect fit of the two pieces guaranteed that the insignia was genuine.

  18. Jang Chung’s son Gilsan: Jang Gilsan was a real-life outlaw who operated during the reign of King Sukjong (r. 1661–1720). Originally an itinerant entertainer, an occupation of lowborn status (cheonmin), he became the bandit leader of landless peasants. He is also mentioned in gyeongpan versions of The Story of Hong Gildong. This reference poses one of many problems in attributing the authorship of the work to Heo Gyun, who died in 1618, decades before the appearance of Jang Gilsan. This also makes it problematic to identify the Hong Gildong of the story with the real-life bandit Hong Gildong who lived during the time of Lord Yeonsan (r. 1494–1506).

  19. the Way: Do is the Korean word for the Chinese dao, the practice of which can denote mastering esoteric or supernatural knowledge, including the principles of Daoist philosophy, or learning some specialized skill, including a martial art.

  20. Mother Goksan: Minister Hong’s senior concubine, Chorang. Commoners and lowborn people were often referred to by the name of their hometown rather than their personal name. As revealed several paragraphs later, Chorang comes from the town of Goksan in Hwanghae Province. Although concubines had no legal standing in society, they were part of an informal hierarchy within the household. As she was the minister’s senior concubine, Gildong, the son of a junior concubine, was obligated to treat her with the respect due to a household “mother.”

  21. courtesan: (gisaeng) A professional entertainer and prostitute, a lowborn status (cheonmin) occupation for women, comparable to the Japanese geisha.

  22. Yi Taebaek and Du Mok: Korean names for the Chinese figures Li Bai (701–762; courtesy name Li Taibai) and Du Mu (803–852), two of the greatest poets of the literary golden age of the Tang dynasty (618–907). They were famed throughout East Asia not only for their poetic skills but also for the nobility of their bearing.

  23. shamans and physiognomists: (munyeo and gwangsangnyeo) Both were occupations of lowborn status (cheonmin), mostly for women (male shamans and physiognomists were rare, as they are in modern-day Korea). Shamans conjured sprits to bring fortune, to dispel misfortune, and to prognosticate the future, while physiognomists read people’s facial features to tell their fortunes. For a fascinating study of the life of a contemporary shaman, see Laurel Kendall, The Life and Hard Times of a Korean Shaman: Of Tales and the Telling of Tales (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988).

  24. Sungrye Gate: During the Joseon dynasty, the capital city (alternatively referred to in this story as Jangan, Gyeongseong, Gyeongsa—today’s Seoul) was protected by a wall all around it, with four great gates (daemun) at the four directions. An alternative name for the Great South Gate (Namdaemun) was Sungrye Gate. It is in today’s Jung District of Seoul.

  25. nyang: The Joseon dynasty currency. It is difficult to estimate its value, as it varied from period to period, but typically a nyang bought about five mal (around thirty liters or seven gallons) of rice in autumn, when the grain was plentiful after harvest season, and about two mal (around twelve liters or three gallons) in spring. Chorang’s gift of fifty nyang is a substantial amount.

  26. the destruction of your entire family: The Joseon dynasty punishment for treason, especially for those who sought to usurp the throne, was death not only for the perpetrator but also for three generations of his household (i.e., parents, siblings, and children), which effectively wiped out the entire family. The physiognomist is warning that since Gildong possesses the qualities of a king, he might harbor a royal ambition in the future and engage in actions that could cause the destruction of all the members of the family. It is interesting that while the physiognomist is seeking to slander Gildong in order to turn his father against him, her discernment of his kingly nature turns out to be correct as he does become a monarch in the end.

  27. “Kings, lords, generals, and ministers are not made from a special blood”: The physiognomist repeats the Sima Qian quotation uttered previously by Gildong (see note 16), but with a different nuance. Gildong was lamenting his condition, wondering how Sima Qian could claim that anyone, no matter how humble his background, can rise to a position of power when his own status bars him from all legitimate paths to social advancement. In this case, however, the physiognomist is warning the minister that precisely because anyone can rise to power under the right set of talents and circumstances, Gildong might conceive the idea that he could do so himself, which could lead to the destruction of the family.

  28. the Six Teachings and the Three Summaries: (Yukdo samryak), Korean for the Chinese Liutao sanlue, two classics of military strategy. The Six Teachings (Liutao) is attributed to Jiang Ziya, an adviser to King Wen, who founded the Zhou dynasty in 1046 BCE. The Three Summaries is associated with the Han dynasty general Zhang Liang (262–189 BCE), who is thought to have received it from a legendary figure named Huang Shigong. English translations of both texts can be found in The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China, trans. Ralph D. Sawyer (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), 40–105 and 292–306.

  29. astrology, geomancy: The Korean words cheonmun and jiri can denote the modern scholarly fields of astronomy and geography, respectively, as well as the magical arts of astrology and geomancy (pun
gsu jiri). Later in the narrative, Gildong examines the stars to fathom the health of his father, who is far away, and uses his knowledge of land to pick out auspicious sites for his parents’ tombs, so astrology and geomancy are the appropriate translations here. (For more on geomancy see note 113.)

  30. “What is said in daytime is overheard by the bird, and what is said in nighttime is overheard by the rat”: A traditional proverb meaning secrets are hard to keep because someone is bound to gossip and be overheard.

  31. Juyeok: Korean name for the ancient Chinese classic of philosophical magic and divination, Zhouyi—better known in the West as I Ching or the Book of Changes.

  32. assistant section chief: (jwarang, see note 5) To this day, Koreans commonly refer to one another by their professional positions even among close acquaintances. In the course of the story, as Minister Hong’s older son, Inhyeon, attains various different appointments throughout his career, he is referred to as the third minister (chamui), the governor of Gyeongsang Province (Gyeongsang gamsa), and the minister of personnel (ipan—short for ijo panseo).

  33. broken steamer: The expression (jeungi paui) refers to a cooking implement made of earthenware, used for steaming food, that has been broken. It denotes a done deed that cannot be taken back, and so it is useless to regret it. Comparable in meaning to the English expression “spilled milk,” as in “no use crying over spilled milk.”

  34. the third or fourth watch: In the Joseon dynasty, a day was divided into twelve units of roughly two hours each. The five units of nighttime were called gyeong, or “watches.” The third and fourth watches, during which time Teukjae is to kill Gildong, roughly fall into, respectively, eleven o’clock at night to one, and one in the morning to three.