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Korean Stories of the Tiger
by Laurie Baker
The Legend of Dan-gun
 A long, long time ago, Hwan-In was
ruling over the kingdom of Heaven. He had a son, whose name was
Hwan-Ung. Hwan-Ung was a clever, compassionate, and constructive man and
Hwan-In treated his son lovingly. One day, Hwan-Ung looked down into the
world of mortals and became interested in them. He asked his father to
let him go to the beautiful Peninsula of Korea to govern. Hwan In
granted his son’s request and sent him along with Pung-Beg (the
Earl of Wind), U-Sa (the Chancellor of Rain), and Un-Sa (The Chancellor
of Clouds) to supervise the world of mortals, and help maintain their
livelihood. The ministers were able to control rain, wind, clouds, and
all natural elements so that grain could grow, life would prosper and
good and evil would be judged. Hwan-Ung and his ministers ruled
wisely.
At that time, a bear and a tiger lived on the earth
in a cave near a sandalwood tree. They both wanted to become human. When
Hawn-Ung discovered their sincere desire he wanted to grant their wish.
Hawn-Ung called them and told them, "If you endure 100 days in a dark
cave eating only garlic and mugwort, you will become a human."
The bear and the tiger took the mugwort and the
garlic into the cave and began their ordeal. They prayed that their wish
might be granted. But the tiger was extremely restless and dissatisfied,
as it could not control its energy. The tiger said, "I can’t
endure these days of sitting quietly in the cave." And the tiger ran
away. But the bear held fast to the end, and after 21 days her wish was
granted and she became a beautiful woman.
The bear-woman was overjoyed and visited the
sandalwood tree, where she prayed that she might have a child. Hwan-Ung
married the beautiful bear-woman and made her Queen. Soon she gave birth
to a prince, which they named Dan-gun, or the Sandalwood King. When
Dan-gun grew up, he reigned as the first human king of the peninsula. He
established a new capital at Pyongyang (now in North Korea) and named
the kingdom Zoson (Choson—Land of the Morning Calm). This all
happened 4,283 years ago.1
Even today, there is a monument in the Taebaek
Mountains near the 48th parallel of the Korean Peninsula
where Dan-Gun was believed to be born. All Koreans know that the tiger
still roams the mountains. While bears are known to have the patience
and fortitude to sleep in caves for long periods of time, the dramatic,
active tiger is not. Though the poor tiger was not turned into a human,
its plight has vibrated in the Korean people’s hearts and even
today their affection for the tiger is special. The Korean tiger is
depicted as frightening, yet familiar; brave and almost sacred, but at
the same time rather slow-witted. He sometimes repays debts, and scolds
the hypocrisy of human society; but other times he is the thief and
hypocrite himself, as in the following story:
The Tiger and Dried Persimmons
 A long, long time ago, a
tiger who was proud of himself lived in a mountain valley. The tiger
thought he was most powerful and wise, so he was very arrogant.
One day the tiger came down to a village for food. The tiger walked
into the garden of a small house where it heard a child crying. The
grandmother scolded the child, "Stop crying this very minute! The tiger
is here!" But the child took no notice and went on crying. The tiger,
surprised, said to himself, "This child must be very brave. He is not
the least bit afraid of me. He must be a hero." So went the thinking of
the arrogant tiger.
Then the grandmother said, "Here is a dried persimmon. Stop crying!"
And the child stopped crying immediately. This time the tiger was
frightened and said to himself, "The persimmon must be a terrible
creature." And he crept away quietly, giving up his plan of attacking
the child.
The tiger went to an outer house to get an ox to eat instead. There
was a thief in the outer house also trying to steal the ox. The thief
thought the tiger was the ox so he jumped on the tiger’s back. The
tiger jumped up, terrified, and ran off as fast as it could go. "This
must be the terrible persimmon attacking me!" it thought. The thief
still rode the tiger and whipped it so that he could get away before the
villagers saw him stealing the ox.
When it grew light the thief saw that he was riding on a tiger and
jumped off and ran away. But the tiger kept running to the mountains
without looking back at the dreaded persimmon!2
There are dozens of folk tales about the tiger. One collection
divides the stories into chapters which reflect people’s attitudes
about the tiger: The Personality of the Korean Tiger, Patron of Filial
Piety, Tiger’s Gratitude, Tiger the Matchmaker, Tiger with Famous
Historical Personages, Tigers as Divinities, Greedy and Stupid Tiger,
Tips for Catching Tigers, and even Tiger Dung which features two
scatological stories.3
The Mountain Spirit
 In ancient times (and
probably even now) the tiger was the messenger of the mountain spirit,
San Shin. In paintings at Buddhist temples San Shin has a shrine behind
the main buildings, up on the mountainside. The tiger always lies
quietly at the side of the old mountain god, waiting to do his bidding,
as in the following story:
named Ok-bun. Her beauty was often compared to the rising moon. Pak,
a commoner, lived in the same village, and had a son whose named was
P’al-bong. It was said that he was as bright as the rising
sun.
These two young people were of different class, but they were very
close, and they had been playing together since they were children. They
often went hiking together in the mountains, Ok-Bun with her herb
basket, and P’al-bong with his jige, or A-frame pack.
As they got older, Ok-bun’s father could see the
inevitable…they were getting serious about each other, and he did
not want his daughter to get any mischievous ideas about marrying some
commoner. He was determined to marry his daughter to Tol-swae, who was
also a nobleman. He told his daughter to stop meeting P’al-bong,
scolding that was not proper for a young noblewoman to wander around
with a common no-account like P’al-bong.
Ok-bun was not rebellious and did not have the heart to disobey her
father, but at the same time she despaired over her impending marriage
and separation from P’al-bong. She lost her appetite, and in time,
started wasting away. Her father was not worried, though, since he knew
she would forget P’al-bong when she married and settled down. He
wanted to get her married quickly, however, before she got sick. So he
arranged for the engagement and set an early wedding date.
P’al-bong felt awful. Whenever he thought of losing Ok-bun,
just because of the class system, he gnashed his teeth and his eyes
became fiery balls of pure fury. But neither P’al-bong nor his
father had the power to do anything to prevent Ok-bun’s
marriage.
The wedding day came. After a splendid feast the bridegroom entered
the bridal chamber, where Ok-bun was waiting for him. And
then.….What?!?!? A tiger in the bedroom!!!
There was such a commotion that everyone in the house was soon
scrambling and running in all directions. In the turmoil the tiger
escaped with the new bride.
Grief stricken, P’al-bong and his father had not attended the
wedding. They were at home, fast asleep. But then they were wakened by a
loud thump in the next room. When they went to see what was going on,
they discovered none other than Ok-bun lying there unconscious on the
floor.
In the meantime, Tol-swae had gotten a search party together to look
for Ok-bun. He thought she had surely been killed by the tiger. They all
went looking for the tiger and the poor bride. P’al-bong’s
father, who was a righteous man, felt obliged to report what had
happened and he went immediately to Ok-bun’s father and explained
everything that he could. On hearing this everyone nodded and said that
it was the mountain spirit, San Shin, at his matchmaking again, and that
no human should interfere. What else could Ok-bun’s father do but
go along with this? Even the bridegroom saw that their marriage was not
to be.
So a marriage between the two childhood sweethearts was arranged and
they lived happily every after.4
In this story, the sometimes fierce tiger plays the romantic
go-between, restoring order to the village and happiness per the
instructions of the mountain spirit.
In other folk paintings, the tiger is accompanied by a magpie.
One interpretation states that the magpie is the village spirit that
announces good omens, and the tiger is the servant that does his
bidding; another that the tiger is a yangban (aristocrat) and the magpie
is the representative of the common people, scolding him for his
insensitivity to their plight. According to another folk tale a
woodcutter saves a tiger from a trap but the ungrateful tiger tries to
eat his benefactor. The magpie intervenes and saves the woodcutter, and
in the paintings he is berating the tiger for his meanness to the
woodcutter. In the pictures the magpie sits above the tiger and the
tiger seems gaze at it with an indifferent, comical or almost crazed
expression.
References
- The Dan-gun Legend has been told often with slight variations. I
have used two written sources for this article: Folk Tales from
Korea, 3rd edition, by Zong In-Sob, 1982, Hollym
International Corp: New Jersey and Tiger, Burning Bright: More Myths
than Truths about Korean Tigers, by Kathleen J. Crane Foundation,
1992, Hollym International Corp: New Jersey
- Folk Tales from Korea, 3rd edition, by Zong
In-Sob, 1982, Hollym International Corp: New Jersey.
- Tiger, Burning Bright, Kathleen J. Crane Foundation, 1992,
Hollym International Corp: New Jersey
- ibid.
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