음양陰陽

1. The Virgin and the Flat Burial

Once upon a time, a traveler urinated next to a grave by the roadside. That night, a beautiful virgin appeared in his dream and said, “I was able to see the precious thing you possess today. My resentment towards this world has been resolved by this, and now I can go to the other world.” She then disappeared.

The place where the traveler urinated was her grave. A woman who dies without knowing a man cannot go to the other world. She wanders on earth forever. The traveler's rudeness, on the contrary, saved the unfortunate woman's spirit. The woman's soul often helped this traveler. Following the guidance of the maiden's soul, he was able to pass the civil service examination. Thus, he was also able to obtain a beautiful wife. On the night of his wedding, the woman's soul appeared again and said, “With this, I have been able to repay your kindness. I will leave now.” She then stopped speaking and did not appear again. After this incident, the bodies of unmarried women were always given a flat burial, without building a mound of earth. This was to keep them out of sight.

November 1921, as told by Ryu Chun-seop of Wansan-dong, Jeonju-gun, Jeonbuk

2. You should not leave your fingernails just anywhere.

Once upon a time, a young man was studying in the mountains. He always came out to the stream flowing in front of the temple to bathe. When he bathed, he always cut his fingernails and urinated on them. However, each time, a mouse would appear from somewhere, eat his fingernails, and lick up the urine, but the young man did not notice this.

The young man, having passed the three-year study period he had promised his family when he left home, packed his bags and set off. He arrived home a little later than the promised date. To his surprise, there was already a young man in his house who was exactly like him—not only in face and clothes, but also in voice and mannerisms—and his family considered this young man their real son. This was because the other young man had returned home exactly on the promised date. No matter what he said, his family only believed the first young man was their true son and refused to let him in. His wife looked at his clothes, and they were all things she had made for him. He looked for distinguishing body features and found that they also matched. When he asked both of them about their family members' ages, both answered correctly. Even when he frequently asked them about their childhood, they both gave the same answers.

Finally, his mother said, “Whoever can tell me how many bowls (鉢) and plates (皿) we have in our house, he will truly be my son.” The fake son answered correctly, but he could not, so he was forced to embark on a journey of wandering. One day, he got lost deep in the forest and was looking for a human dwelling. As dusk fell, he finally found a house with a lamp lit and pleaded at the door to stay for the night. A woman came out and welcomed him.

That night, the hostess said, “I know what you can see. And I also know well the reason why you are suffering.” She then took out a packet of medicine and handed it to the young man, continuing, “Take this medicine and go home. And you, your wife, and the suspicious young man must all drink it. Then everything will be revealed.” The young man did as he was told.

Immediately, the suspicious young man dropped dead and turned into a mouse. His wife suffered from abdominal pain and soon gave birth to numerous baby mice, all of which were stillborn. Only the young man was unharmed. Thus, he finally vanquished the monstrous mouse and became the true son.

This is because the young man's essence was transferred to the rat that ate and swallowed the young man's discarded fingernails and urine. Because it was a rat that received the young man's essence, that rat was able to become a human being who resembled the young man. Therefore, when you cut your fingernails, you must collect them in one place, blow your breath through them, and then discard them in a urine pot.

June 2, 1927, Gyeongnam Masan-bu Pyo-dong, Mr. Myung Joo-young's account

There is a similar story in our region, but without the mention of urine. A rat carried away the fingernails that a young man, who was studying at a temple, had collected in a bamboo tube. The rat then became that young man and arrived at the young man's house at the promised time. The young man, who arrived late, had no choice but to wander. He told a acquaintance about it, hid a cat in his sleeve, returned home, released it in the room, and locked all the doors from the outside. The cat and the young man began a fierce fight, and eventually the young man turned into a large rat and died. It is said that all the rat pups born to the woman were killed.

And while humans are often deceived when animals like rats, foxes, tigers, and centipedes transform into humans, it is said that animals like dogs, cats, cows, horses, and chickens, which are also animals, are never deceived. It is also said that when a monk came and sealed the two young men in a room and recited Buddhist scriptures from outside, the fake young man eventually turned into a large rat and died.

May 1930, Jeonnam Yeosu-gun-eup, Mr. Kim Dong-bin's account

3. The Widow's Illness and the White Dog's Kidney

Once upon a time, there was a very wealthy and powerful family. The head of the household was young, and his mother was a middle-aged woman who had been a widow since her youth. Suddenly, the mother fell seriously ill. She turned into a large snake, almost filling the room, coiling her body. When someone tried to enter the room, she would raise her snake head and open her large mouth to bite. The son summoned all the famous doctors to examine his mother's condition. There were also countless doctors who voluntarily visited. However, no one was able to cure her.

The son appealed to power and locked all the doctors in that field into a warehouse. The warehouse was almost full of doctors. One day, a doctor was seen. He was someone who had learned medicine from a certain immortal, but he came out into the world without heeding his master's advice, who said, “You must study for one more year.”

He was very surprised to see the widow's illness. The master, the widow's son, laid a mat before him and prostrated himself there, pleading, “Please cure my mother's illness somehow.” The doctor pondered various things for several days, but he couldn't come up with a good plan no matter what. One night, in a dream, his immortal master appeared before the doctor and said, “Didn't I tell you to study more? Soon you, like the other doctors, will be thrown into the warehouse of this house.” So he prostrated himself before the immortal and bowed, asking for a prescription for a miraculous medicine. After a moment, the master said, “Get one hundred white dog kidneys (dog kidneys: penis and testicles, i.e., reproductive organs), extract their oil, and have the patient drink it, and she will recover.”

The doctor, waking from his dream, was very happy and immediately called the master to get one hundred white dog reproductive organs. As expected of a wealthy and powerful family, they gathered one hundred white dogs in three days. They extracted oil from them and had the patient drink it. The large snake did not change at all, remaining a large snake, until the oil was almost gone, but when the last drop fell into her mouth, the large snake immediately returned to her original human form, so the story goes.

July 1923, Chungbuk Goesan-gun-eup, Mr. Ahn Ju-sang's story