Tales of the strange by a Korean Confucian monk = Kŭmo sinhwa by Kim Sisŭp

403 Pages·2020·3.923 MB·English

by  Si-sŭp Kim, Dennis Würthner

Tales of the Strange by
a Korean Confucian Monk

KOREAN CLASSICS LIBRARY: HISTORICAL MATERIALS
Tales of the Strange by
a Korean Confucian Monk
Kŭmo sinhwa by Kim Sisŭp
translated, annotated, and with an introduction by
Dennis Wuerthner
University of Hawai‘i Press/Honolulu
Korean Classics Library
© 2020 The Regents of the University of California
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kim, Si-sŭp, 1435-1493, author. | Würthner, Dennis,
translator, writer of added commentary, writer of introduction.
Title: Tales of the strange by a Korean Confucian monk = Kŭmo sinhwa by
Kim Sisŭp / translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Dennis
Wuerthner.
Other titles: Kŭmŏ sinhwa. English | Kŭmo sinhwa by Kim Sisŭp |
Korean classics library. Historical materials.
Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, 2020. | Series: Korean
classics library: historical materials | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019030169 | ISBN 9780824882594 (hardcover)
Classification: LCC PL988.K54 K8513 2020 | DDC 895.73/2--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019030169
Korean Classics Library: Historical Materials
Series Editors:
John B. Duncan, University of California, Los Angeles
Namhee Lee, University of California, Los Angeles
Robert E. Buswell, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles
Series Editorial Board:
Donald Baker, University of British Columbia
Sun Joo Kim, Harvard University
James B. Lewis, University of Oxford
A. Charles Muller, Tokyo University
Young-chan Ro, George Mason University
Kenneth R. Robinson, International Christian University, Tokyo
Edward Shultz, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa
Senior Editor: Jennifer Jung-Kim, University of California, Los Angeles
This work was supported by the English Translation of 100 Korean Classics program through the Min­
istry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy
of Korean Studies (AKS-2010-AAA-2102).
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Design and composition by Wanda China
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Conventions ix
Part I
Translator’s Introduction 3
Part II
Translation: New Tales of the Golden Turtle (Kŭmo sinhwa)
1. Biography of Master Maewŏltang (Maewŏltang sŏnsaeng chŏn),
by Yun Ch’unnyŏn 71
2. Account of a Chŏp’o Game at Manbok Temple (Manboksa chŏp’o ki) 74
3. Biography of Scholar Yi Who Peered over the Wall (Yi-saeng
kyujang chŏn) 88
4. Travel Record of a Drunken Excursion to Pubyŏk Pavilion
(Ch’wiyu pubyŏkchŏng ki) 103
5. Gazetteer of the Southern Continent Yŏmbu (Namyŏmbuju chi) 115
6. Report of [Scholar Han] Attending a Banquet in the Dragon
Palace (Yonggung puyŏn rok) 128
7. Written at the End of the First Collection [of Kŭmo sinhwa]
(Sŏ kapchip-hu) 145
Glossary of Names and Terms 147
Abbreviations 171
Notes 173
Bibliography 359
Index 371

Acknowledgments
I am indebted to the many people who taught and helped me over the years.
I would first like to express my sincerest gratitude to Marion Eggert of Ruhr
University Bochum, without whom the present translation and study would
never have been possible. I also wish to thank Jörg Plassen of Ruhr Univer-
sity Bochum. I am fortunate to have had these two extraordinary scholars
as teachers.
I am grateful to the Academy of Korean Studies for providing support
for this project. I want also to express my gratitude to the researchers at the
University of California at Los Angeles for their continuous assistance and
encouragement. For their patience and help, I thank Robert Buswell, John
Duncan, and Jennifer Jung-Kim. I am grateful as well for the pointed and
stimulating comments made by the external reviewers. I owe a great debt
to my copy editor, Patricia Crosby, who offered invaluable help and whose
comments and suggestions were both encouraging and instructive. Thank
you, too, to Stephanie Chun of the University of Hawai‘i Press for shepherd-
ing this project to its completion.
Special thanks go to my senior colleagues at Ruhr University Bochum:
Myoungin Yu, Thorsten Traulsen, Andreas Müller-Lee, Florian Pölking,
Dorothea Hoppmann, and Hanju Yang. I am particularly grateful for the in-
valuable help and marvelous material provided by Vladimir Glomb, a truly
magnificent scholar. Thanks go as well to Christian Mularzyk and Felix Sieg-
mund for their valuable critiques and to Elsa Küppers and my friend Robert
Duncan McColl for meticulous assistance in finishing up the manuscript.
My deep gratitude goes to my parents and sisters for all they have done
for me. Finally, I wish to thank my wife, Jiwon, and our children, Joan, Lian,
and Taean, for, simply, everything.
This translation is offered not only in the hope that it will contribute to
the study of premodern Korean and East Asian literature and thought but
also with the wish that it be of value to academic and nonspecialist readers
alike.
vii

Conventions
Korean and Literary Chinese (K. hanmun) used in Korean sources are ro-
manized according to the McCune-Reischauer system. When citing second-
ary sources, I follow the romanization style used by the sources’ authors or
editors. For Chinese and Japanese proper nouns and terms, I have used the
Pinyin and Hepburn systems, respectively. Birth, death, and reign dates are
given for historical figures; at times, the sobriquets are named as well. In
translated passages and quotes from other sources, my interpolations are
within square brackets.
A glossary of names and terms, including Chinese characters, appears
in the back matter of the book followed by a list of abbreviations for some of
the primary sources cited in the notes. All translations are my own, unless
otherwise indicated.
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