Week 10 of 소리를 보는 소년 👁👂 Korean Fiction Book Club 🇰🇷

bibliothecary · November 28, 2023, 8:26am

Thoughts on Chapter 4

I was positively glowing after reading this chapter - 장만 is one step closer to his dream!

After the disappointment of finding the temple all closed up, 장만 reluctantly plays the hero, curing a girl’s sudden illness with acupuncture, and her grateful father happens to be a blind man who knows an expert in Buddhist scripture, which 장만 needs to learn to enter 명통시!

The serendipitous meeting with the blind man gives 장만 hope and maybe a bit more confidence in himself, as the man tells him “그런 선한 마음과 용기라면 뭐든 해낼 수 있을 거야.” (The fact we learn the names of these characters, 김소경 and his daughter 연우, makes me think they’ll reappear later in the story.) It’s especially heartwarming as 장만 was so reluctant to offer help to the girl, even though he had the knowledge and skills to relieve her illness, because of how he had been treated in the past.

It’s heartbreaking that 장만 lives with the scars brought about by others’ prejudice, constantly hiding, shying away, wanting to escape, lest he be the target of scorn and ridicule. So far we’ve seen him cover his eyes with his 패랭이, avoiding other people, holding back from speaking his mind or speaking up for himself, flinching when anyone notices he’s blind, and even controlling his expressions. It’s a bittersweet moment when he finally allows himself to smile at the end of this chapter.

I wondered for a moment how likely it would be for 장만 to meet another blind person like that, but the proportion of people with disabilities of all kinds would no doubt be much higher than modern times, with all our medical advancements (I wonder if there’s any data on this?). Perhaps that explains why there were certain occupations that were reserved for disabled people, as being blind (for example) was so common.

The title of this chapter is 귀인 (貴 귀할 귀; 人 사람 인). These are the definitions provided by Naver’s dictionary and the Korean Learner’s Dictionary:

신분(身分)이 높은 사람.

존귀(尊貴)한 사람.

nobleman
지위나 신분이 높은 사람.
A person of high position or rank.

assistant; helper
중요한 일이나 어려운 일이 있을 때 도움을 주는 사람.
A person who gives a hand when there is an important or difficult job to be done.

김소경 also calls 장만 a “귀한 사람”, precious/valuable person. I think it’s obvious that the definition “nobleman” isn’t applicable in this context, but I did find it interesting that 귀인 can also mean a person who helps with an important task, considering 장만 cures 연우 using acupuncture.

I’m looking forward to 장만 meeting the Buddhist scholar 하태수 (in the next chapter?), who will hopefully take 장만 on as a student. I’m picturing a loveable curmudgeon, who’ll demand a lot of 장만, but will be an excellent teacher who will come to care about him.

판소리

Although 판소리 is only mentioned in passing in this chapter, I’ve been interested in finding out more about it for a while, so I’ve taken this opportunity to explore the subject a little.

In a nutshell, 판소리 is the performance of an epic story (typically lasting between 3 and 6 hours, although 춘향전 clocks in at 8.5 hours ) by two people: the 광대(廣大), or 창자(唱者), who stands while singing and performing gestures (발림), and the 고수(鼓手), who sits while drumming and occasionally uttering exclamations (추임새).

Here’s a (very short!) performance to give you a taste of 판소리 (coincidentally, this is part of the traditional story of 흥부, which we’ll be reading shortly: 흥부전 Book club home thread).

The ‘소리’ of 판소리 refers to the singing, and the performer moves between this and a style of dramatic speech delivered in free rhythm, known as 아니리. There is also a certain element of audience participation: 추임새 are exclamations uttered by both the drummer and the audience during the performance, . The term comes from 추어주다, meaning “to praise to the skies”, and typical phrases used are: 얼쑤, 좋다, 얼씨구, 절씨구, 지화자, 이야, and 허이야.

“평양도”, depicting 모용갑, one of the 대명창 (great master singers) of the 조선시대.

There’s a lot of conflicting information on the early history of 판소리, which isn’t particularly surprising as it was predominantly a form of entertainment for the common people, which is reflected in the stories. It is thought to have emerged in the 17th century, having evolved from shamanic rituals, in which the 무당 would sing and her husband accompany her on the drum (although there are many other theories about its origins).

신윤복 ‘무녀신무(巫女神舞·18세기 후반~19세기 전반)’, 종이에 채색, 28.2x35.6㎝, 간송미술관 소장
(a better version of the image from last week, depicting a shaman performing with musical accompaniment)

판소리 became popular among the nobility in the 18th century, although many of the stories appealing to the common people (especially the bawdy and humorous ones) were lost in favour of those that appealed to the upper classes and their mores, such as the filial piety displayed in 심청가.

A bronze statue of 송흥록, one of the 대명창 and considered the 가왕(歌王) of 판소리, at his birthplace of 남원시.

You may be familiar with the tourism campaign “Feel the Rhythm of Korea” featuring music which merges traditional and modern elements. The 판소리 accompanied by modern music and the dancers’ clothes - a fusion of traditional and modern dress - serve as a fitting complement to the backdrop of 서울, with its historic sites and modern architecture.

The full live performance can be seen below. As an aside, if you’re interested in exploring Korean music (beyond Kpop ), this channel is a treasure trove.

The song, 범 내려온다 (Tiger Came Down), is a reinterpretation of a section of 수궁가(水宮歌), although you may be more familiar with it by another title, 토끼전. The rest of the band’s album follows in the same vein, taking excerpts from 수궁가 and setting them to modern music.

남산골

장만 and 덕수 visit 남산골 to find 명통시. As the name suggests, 남산골 is located at the foot of 남산(南山; Southern Mountain), and 골 can have the meaning of “valley” - it seems reasonable to assume this is part of the meaning of the name. Here you can see 남산골 at the top of the map marked with the red pin:

If we bring back our map of 한양, you can see 남산 at the very bottom - notice that the 한양도성 section on the mountain is also marked on the modern topographical map above.

Today you can visit the 남산골한옥마을 (Namsangol Hanok Village), where traditional Korean houses (한옥; 韓屋; 한국 한, 집 옥) have been restored.

There is also a performance venue called the 서울남산국악당 (Seoul Namsan Traditional Music Center).

And of course, being a traditional music center, there will of course be… 판소리! Earlier this year, there was a performance by a 판소리 teacher and her students. What made this event particularly noteable is that the students were non-native Korean speakers!

There is a playlist of individual performances, as well as a group performance, available online.

The teacher has lived in various parts of Europe over the years, teaching 판소리 (who knew there would be the demand? ), and the students that performed included a Korean translator, a musicologist, and a researcher of Korean history, all of whom have advanced Korean language skills.

There is a review of the show that goes into more detail. The author compares 판소리 to Italian opera (“그것이 곧 이탈리아의 판소리가 아니겠는가”) and hopes more foreigners can learn 판소리 and bring their own style to their performances.

To bring things back on topic… This is a photo of 남산골 from the 1880s, taken from 남산. I think the mountain on the left is 북한산, with 광화문 just visible below.

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At the start of the chapter, it says that the boys head out from the town to find 명통시. I was a little confused, since they live in 한양 and 명통시 is also supposedly located there. Later, it’s revealed that they’re in 남산골, and it suddenly dawned on me that 한양 was a collection of towns and villages surrounded by defensive walls, rather than a single city.

The photo above shows the view from the foot of 인왕산 looking towards 목멱산 (the old name for 남산). Let’s have a brief digression and look at the name 목멱산(木覓山): this is apparently the Sino-Korean transcription of the pure Korean 마뫼 (木/마 - 앞; 覓/뫼 - 산), meaning “the mountain in front” (making the 산 in 목멱산 redundant). I suppose this is because the city “faces” south due to Korea being located in the northern hemisphere, with the important buildings (경복궁, 창덕궁) facing the sun, making modern 남산 the mountain in front of the city. During the Japanese occupation, the name was changed by the Japanese to 남산.

남산이라는 단어도 뜻이 앞산으로 마뫼와 같다. 요즘은 南을 주로 남쪽이라는 뜻으로 쓰지만 전에는 南을 '앞’을 가리키는 곳에도 적었다. 그러므로 南山은 앞산을 한자로 쓴 이름이다. 흔한 산이 앞산이다 보니, 우리나라 산 이름 가운데는 남산이 많다.

A shrine to the mountain god, 목멱신사(木覓神祠) - also known as 국사당(國師堂) - was built when the capital moved to 한양. The shrine still exists today, although it was moved during the Japanese occupation to 인왕산.

Returning to the old photograph further up, this is a modern view from higher up (I couldn’t find a good view from the same vantagepoint).

It’s no surprise that the city has grown exponentially since the 조선시대, spilling out far beyond the city walls, although according to the illustration below, it only seems to have expanded beyond the city walls during the 20th century.

It does make me wonder about the population density and the layout of 한양, though - how many towns were there, how far would you walk between them, how many people lived there?

I’ve had a look about for some numbers, and although there do seem to be well-documented historical records (1724 - 5k people make a living from selling beef; 1736 - 10k people make a living from selling beef!), the actual population by year is proving elusive, so I’ve just gathered some data from different sources:

Year	Population
1392	55,490
1400	57,300
1500	94,120
1600	117,220
1700	143,590
1800	184,430
1900	170,820
1910	174,270
1950	1,021,000
1960	2,361,000
1970	5,312,000
1980	8,244,000
1990	10,518,000
2000	9,879,000
2022	9,410,000

Apparently the city walls were built with the expectation of the city holding up to 100,000 people.

수선전도 (首善全圖), 1830s

I have more notes, so I might research and write up more later in the week.

Week 10 of 소리를 보는 소년 👁👂 Korean Fiction Book Club 🇰🇷

Thoughts on Chapter 4

판소리

남산골

Further Reading