Korean

Gumiho · Nine-Tailed Fox — The Bewitching Fox-Spirit of East Asia

The Gumiho (Korean Gumiho, 'nine-tailed fox') is the canonical Korean figure of the East Asian fox-spirit (yohou) tradition, the fox-monster that gains nine tails after living for a thousand years. The earliest textual origin is the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shan Hai Jing), compiled in the Chinese Warring States period (fifth to third century BC), in which the Cheonggu region of the Southern Mountain Sutra is inhabited by a nine-tailed fox that 'resembles a fox but has nine tails, cries like a baby, and devours men'. In Korea, the gumiho first appears in the Kim Yu-shin entry of Book One of the Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk Yusa) compiled by Iryeon in 1281. In Japan, it settled into the Tamamo-no-Mae legend of the era of Emperor Toba (reigned 1107-1123). The novel of gods and demons Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi) by Xu Zhonglin of late Ming China (composed late sixteenth to early seventeenth century), in which the consort Daji of the last Shang king Zhou is revealed as an incarnation of a thousand-year-old nine-tailed fox, established the decisive synthesis of the East Asian gumiho canon. Korean-specific features are (1) the gathering of vital essence by means of the fox-bead (hoeok), (2) the taboo motif that the fox becomes human if it conceals its identity for one hundred or one thousand days, (3) the consumption of human livers and vital essence, and (4) the canonical visual iconography of the Korean gumiho in KBS's Legends of the Hometown series (broadcast 1977-2009). The 2020 tvN drama Tale of the Nine-Tailed (starring Lee Dong-wook and Jo Bo-ah) globalised the twenty-first-century Korean gumiho iconography as K-content canon.

Dokkaebi · The Korean Goblin — A Capricious Spirit of Mischief and Wealth

The Dokkaebi (Korean Dokkaebi) is the representative spirit-yokai of Korean folklore, born when a spirit takes up residence in an old household tool or in a broom, pestle, or fire-poker that has been stained with human blood, and it is the decisive iconographic figure of Korean indigenous animism. The earliest text is the entry Tohwanyeo and Bihyeongnang in Book One of the Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk Yusa) compiled by Iryeon (1206-1289) in 1281: the soul of the late King Jinji of Silla (reigned 576-579) had carnal congress with the maiden Tohwanyeo and begat a son, Bihyeongnang, who commanded a band of dokkaebi spirits to build a bridge in one night. This narrative is the canonical Korean origin of the dokkaebi iconography. Canonical tools are the dokkaebi-bangmangi (wish-fulfilling magic club) and the dokkaebi-gamtu (cap of invisibility), and the dokkaebi loves buckwheat-jelly and rice-wine, enjoys wrestling and tricks, and honours promises and repayment. The 1942 study Researches on Korean Folktales by Son Jin-tae demonstrated that the dokkaebi, before being overlaid by the horned imagery of the Japanese oni during the colonial period, was originally a hornless humanoid figure. The 2016 tvN television drama Dokkaebi (Goblin), broadcast from December 2016 to January 2017, globalised the dokkaebi as a K-drama canon.

Cheonyeo-gwisin · The Grudge-Bound Maiden Ghost — A Korean Spirit Wandering With Unresolved Han

The Cheonyeo-gwisin (Korean Cheonyeo-gwisin, 'maiden ghost') is the avenging spirit of a woman who has died unmarried, harbouring han (resentful sorrow), the canonical iconographic figure of Korean horror identified by a white mourning robe (sobok), long, untied black hair, and a pale bloodless face. Also called sonkaksi (the wife who has been lost), the term is composed of the Sino-Korean characters for cheonyeo (maiden) and gwisin (ghost). The iconographic origin lies in the combination of the Confucian conjugal worldview and Korean shamanism (musok) of the Joseon period (1392-1910): the belief that the wandering soul of an unmarried woman roams the nine springs (gucheon), and the doctrine of haewon (the resolution of grievance) by which the wandering spirit attains nirvana only when its han is resolved. The decisive literary canon is the late-Joseon classical Chinese novel The Story of Janghwa and Hongnyeon (Janghwa Hongnyeon-jeon) of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — in which the sisters Janghwa and Hongnyeon of Cheolsan in Pyeongan Province are falsely accused by their stepmother, die unjustly, become Cheonyeo-gwisin, and appeal to the new magistrate Jeong Dong-u, who resolves their grievance — establishing the decisive canon of Cheonyeo-gwisin iconography. The 1977 KBS television anthology series Legends of the Hometown (Jeonseol-ui Gohyang) established the canonical Korean horror television, and Park Ki-hyung's 1998 film Whispering Corridors (Yeogo Goedam) and Kim Jee-woon's 2003 film A Tale of Two Sisters (Janghwa, Hongnyeon, starring Im Soo-jung and Moon Geun-young) settled the twenty-first-century global canon of Korean horror Cheonyeo-gwisin iconography.

A light spear designed for throwing

The javelin is a light spear, about 150 to 200 cm long, designed to be thrown. Unlike an ordinary spear held to thrust, its shaft is thin and light and its balance is set so that it flies far and true. Its most famous variant is the Roman pilum, whose thin soft-iron shank below the head was designed to bend under its own weight once it stuck in an enemy shield, making it hard to pull out: a lodged pilum dragged the shield down and forced the enemy at last to throw it away. The javelin is a universal weapon that arose independently among the civilizations of nearly every continent, and it was usual, just after the throw, to switch to a sword or another spear and carry on the fight.

Korea's traditional garment of curved beauty

The hanbok is Korea's representative traditional garment, composed of a jeogori (jacket) paired with a chima (skirt) for women or baji (trousers) for men. Its defining aesthetic is the creation of graceful curves from straight-cut fabric, embodying the Korean ideals of curved beauty and elegant simplicity. Established in its current form during the Joseon dynasty, it follows strict rules of five directional colors based on yin-yang philosophy, with fabric and ornamentation varying by season and social rank.

The Aspiring Dragon

The imugi is the Korean 'unrealised dragon', a great serpent that must endure a thousand years of practice in deep pools, beneath waterfalls and in hidden caves, accumulating moral merit before it can earn the wish-fulfilling pearl (yeouiju) and ascend as a true dragon. It is depicted as a serpent of immense thickness and scale, with a faint pair of nascent horns on its brow; the same image recurs in folktales collected across South Pyongan, Gangwon and South Jeolla provinces. The earliest Korean-language textual mention is in the 'Sun-o-ji' (1678) of Hong Man-jong (1643-1725), while the most systematic ethnographic record is the field collection of Son Jin-tae (1900-1950?) — published as 'Researches on Korean Folk Narratives' (1947) — and Im Seok-jae's 'Collection of Korean Oral Tales' (Pyongminsa, twelve volumes, 1987-1993), which classifies more than two hundred imugi tales under the 'imugi and the maiden' and 'dragon-pool' types. The Standard Korean Dictionary defines it as 'a great snake that failed to become a dragon', and Korean folklorists treat it as a fusion of the Chinese 'jiao' serpent-dragon with native Korean serpent cults. The image was modernised in the manhwa 'Yongbi the Invincible' / 'Land of the Wind' (Kim Jin, 1992-), in the Hollywood-style blockbuster 'D-War' (2007) directed by Shim Hyung-rae, and in Jeong Ju-yeon's 'Myojin Imugi' (2014).

The Divine Dragon of Korean Myth

The Korean yong is the indigenous Korean dragon, a benevolent water-deity occupying a distinct position within the East-Asian dragon tradition. It is depicted with a long serpentine body, the branched antlers of a deer, the scales of a carp, the talons of a hawk, the soles of a tiger and — most decisively — four toes on each foot, which mark Korea's rank between the five-toed Chinese imperial long and the three-toed Japanese ryu. The earliest extant records are the dragon-deity passages of Iryeon's 'Samguk Yusa' (1281), book I 'Strange Affairs', particularly the entries on Dongmyeong, King Suro and King Munmu, and the dragon iconography on the Baekje and Silla roof-tile-ends of the fifth and sixth centuries. In Korean myth, the yong is the form an imugi attains after a millennium of practice when it finally wins the wish-fulfilling pearl (yeouiju). The image runs through the royal dragon robe (gollyongpo) of King Jeongjo (reigned 1776-1800, National Palace Museum of Korea) and the twin golden dragons on the throne ceiling of the Geunjeongjeon hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace (founded 1395, rebuilt 1865) and is the antithesis of the malevolent Western dragon — fundamentally good, generous and bound to bring rain to the fields.

Hwanung· Korean Sky God Father of Dangun

Hwanung (Hanja Hwanung) is the heavenly god of Korean mythology — the decisive canon, the son of Hwanin (Hwanin), the heavenly god, and the father of Dangun Wanggeom (Dangun Wanggeom) — the decisive canonical iconographic figure who descended to the human world and founded the divine city of Sinsi (Sinsi). The etymology is the decisive canonical vocabulary of Hwan ('brightness') + Ung ('male, hero'), and the aliases Cheonwang ('Heavenly King'), Hwanung Cheonwang (Hwanung Cheonwang), Sinung ('divine hero'), and Ungsang (Ungsang) are the decisive canonical vocabulary. The decisive textual canon is the Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) Volume 1 'Gi-i (Strange Events)' chapter 'Old Joseon Wanggeom Joseon' of c. 1281 — the 7th year of King Chungnyeol of Goryeo — by the monk Iryeon (1206-1289) — the decisive canon in which the illegitimate son of Hwanin, Hwanung, asked to rule the human world, and his father Hwanin looked down upon Mount Samwi-Taebaek (Samwi-Taebaek) and determined it as a place where one could 'broadly benefit humans (Hongik Ingan)', and gave Hwanung three Cheonbuin (Heavenly Seal) and 3,000 followers to descend. The Jewang Ungi (Songs of Emperors and Kings) Volume 2 of Yi Seunghyu (Yi Seunghyu, 1224-1300) of 1287 — the 13th year of King Chungnyeol of Goryeo — is the decisive canon.