00:00:00
the tale of hong gil-dong is justly
00:00:04
celebrated as a kind of foundational
00:00:07
text among the vernacular korean
00:00:10
literary tradition it is often described
00:00:14
as a kind of Robin Hood tale is story
00:00:20
somewhat legendary of a a hero who robs
00:00:29
from the rich and powerful he does not
00:00:32
necessarily give back to the poor as the
00:00:35
Robin Hood legend has it but the idea is
00:00:38
he Rob's the authorities it's much more
00:00:43
a story I would say about rebelling
00:00:46
against the established authorities than
00:00:48
it is about a purely economic means it
00:00:54
is a ultimately I see it as a as a
00:01:00
parable of China Korea relationship
00:01:04
where Korea is the is the the younger
00:01:11
let's say illegitimate child of China
00:01:14
which is the repository of all authority
00:01:17
and most of their troubled history
00:01:23
that's symbolic the the story itself is
00:01:27
fairly simple the this king of Korea has
00:01:33
or not a king a high-ranking minister of
00:01:37
Korea has a primary wife and and son and
00:01:45
then he goes and after a vision of what
00:01:50
what his next child would be like and
00:01:53
how wonderful he goes to his wife and
00:01:56
you know he's in the mood and she kind
00:01:59
of puts him off you know what do you do
00:02:01
go away for me so he goes off and pulls
00:02:06
aside a chambermaid in his palace
00:02:12
you can make of this what you will
00:02:13
certainly there are power relationships
00:02:16
and sexual dynamics at play here you
00:02:20
know have at it it's it in the modern
00:02:24
light it is a bit unsavory but a child
00:02:30
is born from that probably rather
00:02:33
hurried Union then this is killed Paul
00:02:39
and it he does turn out to be a quite
00:02:44
special child as he is growing up and
00:02:48
everybody recognizes that wow this kid
00:02:50
is pretty extraordinary but because he
00:02:53
is the illegitimate son he's really not
00:02:58
entitled to much he does not get to call
00:03:01
his father father he doesn't he has a
00:03:05
brother half brother whom he cannot
00:03:07
address as brother and this is a
00:03:10
sticking point throughout and you feel
00:03:14
for him by building this story around
00:03:17
this basic relationship and this
00:03:21
psychological torment of this child it's
00:03:24
remarkably powerful and very rich till
00:03:27
tongue bowed twice and explained though
00:03:30
I grow to manhood by the vigor your
00:03:32
excellency has passed to me and realized
00:03:35
the profound debt I owe you for the gift
00:03:38
of life and mothers upbringing my life
00:03:40
still bears one great sorrow how can I
00:03:43
regard myself as a man when I can
00:03:45
address neither my father as father nor
00:03:47
my brother as brother he puts it right
00:03:51
there and right in the very beginning
00:03:52
this is a clearly articulated
00:03:56
psychological drama of legitimacy and he
00:04:00
feels cheated of his his birthright but
00:04:05
more than that it's it's not about just
00:04:07
having the authority of the palace
00:04:09
because that doesn't really get much
00:04:10
play here but by just placing it in
00:04:13
those terms and the relationship of the
00:04:15
father to son it is clearly a sense of
00:04:18
the dignity of being legitimate and
00:04:24
who can't identify with that on some
00:04:27
levels the dignity and the cry of having
00:04:32
a open relationship with your own father
00:04:37
this is somewhat heartbreaking and
00:04:41
[Music]
00:04:43
everything builds out of that of course
00:04:48
he cannot be recognized he is not
00:04:52
recognized and his his mother or his
00:04:57
father's primary consort concubine uh
00:05:02
not even the wife is a little jealous of
00:05:06
this this this young man of guilt on and
00:05:11
conspires to have him killed
00:05:14
yes she hires essentially an assassin to
00:05:17
go in and kill him and in this you get a
00:05:21
a clear parallel to the tale of genji
00:05:25
who was a similar story of a of an
00:05:32
illegitimate the illegitimate child of
00:05:34
of an emperor who is in a somewhat
00:05:38
fractious relationship with the rivals
00:05:41
to the throne and here you can see okay
00:05:45
so it's not just Korea it's also Japan
00:05:49
this is meant to be a kind of universal
00:05:52
problem and it's not that hard to
00:05:54
identify with well okay the problems
00:05:56
with complicated families and siblings
00:05:59
and all that it is an issue and in any
00:06:03
traditional culture that recognizes
00:06:06
exclusively primogeniture it's going to
00:06:11
be an issue where the firstborn son the
00:06:14
male heir is pretty much the inheritor
00:06:18
of everything in in an aristocratic line
00:06:22
and everybody else is sort of left to
00:06:26
shift for themselves which is an awkward
00:06:30
situation that leads to lots of
00:06:32
rivalries and backbiting and jealousy
00:06:35
and all of this the
00:06:38
anyway the the coaxin woman the the the
00:06:41
primary concubine hires this hires an
00:06:48
assassin to go and kill a kill dong and
00:06:54
he goes and he's tries to sneak in but
00:06:57
dong showing initially some of what
00:07:01
makes him so special
00:07:04
here's apparently somebody coming or
00:07:07
senses it somehow and makes himself
00:07:10
invisible that's a little bizarre it's
00:07:15
one of several instances throughout the
00:07:18
story where he calls on magical powers
00:07:21
and and and uses these to essentially
00:07:26
defeat his his enemies or evade
00:07:31
punishment of some sort but always just
00:07:34
this miraculous little moment that he
00:07:36
suddenly can do something that whoa
00:07:39
what's that from which I see as a kind
00:07:44
of proto magical realism that tradition
00:07:48
and it's obviously it has some
00:07:50
precedents before this and they're
00:07:51
certainly and antis at the seedings but
00:07:55
here we see an example of the miraculous
00:07:59
the bizarre the fantastical just being
00:08:03
remarked within the story and it moves
00:08:07
on amid essentially realism there's al
00:08:10
it's a very realistic story we have here
00:08:12
with the psychological the psychological
00:08:16
drama playing out the characters are
00:08:18
given real flesh that that moment of
00:08:29
miraculous within the ordinary that you
00:08:33
see playing out an ordinary family drama
00:08:35
you could say this moment of mystery
00:08:38
makes the whole thing seem strange that
00:08:41
pall of mystery shines over Paul doesn't
00:08:47
shine that light
00:08:48
history shines over all of the ordinary
00:08:51
within it and the strangeness of the
00:08:53
mystery then also bleeds into the
00:08:56
ordinary so you have to look curiously
00:09:01
at everything not just the miraculous
00:09:05
but also the ordinary energy why is that
00:09:08
ordinary why is it that way it's a
00:09:10
fairly standard critical move to try and
00:09:14
attract attention to common problems and
00:09:17
just have people take another look at
00:09:19
well you know that's a peculiar
00:09:23
institution you have going on there why
00:09:26
do you do those things that way why do
00:09:28
things happen this way just to try and
00:09:30
prompt that reflexive muscle in the
00:09:34
reader but anyway he disappears I
00:09:39
becomes invisible but then he reappears
00:09:43
kills the assassin and kills the the
00:09:48
associate who had been of the of the of
00:09:52
the concubine who had contracted with
00:09:54
the assassin who was a soothsayer or
00:09:58
whatever I don't know I don't care it's
00:10:00
all complicated who gives a damn but the
00:10:03
the the point is he is now an outlaw and
00:10:07
he has he goes to his father says I've
00:10:12
done something terrible I have to go
00:10:14
away I will come back but I have to
00:10:17
leave and it's it's it's a curious
00:10:22
admission of obligation that he goes to
00:10:27
his father and admits this and says I
00:10:29
have done something bad you're going to
00:10:32
hear about it I have to leave it's like
00:10:35
paying your respects and he's not just
00:10:39
gonna slink off in the night a curious
00:10:41
instance of filial piety and this is
00:10:46
kind of the point throughout all of this
00:10:50
is placed very much within the context
00:10:53
of that father-son relationship of the
00:10:56
the obligations of the father to the son
00:11:00
and the son to the Father
00:11:01
and this is this is Confucianism and
00:11:06
this story is Confucianism writ large
00:11:09
with a critique of it here we have
00:11:13
filial piety the the pretext that as
00:11:17
Confucius says the was it the famous an
00:11:22
elect my my philosophy one master says
00:11:26
to the other my philosophy has one one
00:11:29
thread running through it obligation and
00:11:34
or loyalty and reciprocation and that is
00:11:37
all loyalty of loyalty of one part of
00:11:42
the other and then reciprocation of that
00:11:46
loyalty so you can see how this creates
00:11:49
a kind of social stability a social
00:11:52
balance but it is a balance based on
00:11:56
frozen social structures there is no way
00:11:58
to break out of that a a father owes
00:12:04
owes a certain loyalty to his children
00:12:07
to raise them properly and do all of
00:12:10
that and children very much Oh
00:12:15
loyalty to their father and that
00:12:18
relationship is sacrosanct on a state
00:12:24
level which is really where Confucius
00:12:26
was aiming with this you can see it as
00:12:29
well the king and the subjects the King
00:12:32
owes it to the subjects to create a
00:12:34
stable and prosperous society and the
00:12:39
subjects owe the King obedience and this
00:12:44
creates stability and here you can see
00:12:48
Gil thong who is stuck in a relationship
00:12:52
like this where he is very loyal to his
00:12:55
father but his father is not necessarily
00:12:57
reciprocating and this is the core
00:13:01
tension of this story until Tong fazes
00:13:07
respects goes off falls in with a group
00:13:10
of thieves and is immediately recognized
00:13:15
as as somebody of superior worth of
00:13:20
somebody of great talent and and this
00:13:25
goes to a kind of merit meritocratic
00:13:30
ethos where he is seen as somebody of
00:13:33
great value and so the thieves hundreds
00:13:37
of them apparently instantly adopt him
00:13:40
as their leader and this is a rather
00:13:43
extraordinary situation that he comes it
00:13:45
certainly we know that he has great
00:13:49
talent just in you know the way he
00:13:52
killed the one guy and the associate but
00:13:56
you know is he really ready to lead a
00:14:00
end of hundreds of Thieves
00:14:02
I don't know but supposedly they
00:14:06
recognize it in him and that's just
00:14:08
taken as a given meritocracy valued for
00:14:13
what you can do valued for your talents
00:14:16
not your heritage or your status in
00:14:22
society the wood they go on these raids
00:14:30
the first place they attack is a
00:14:32
monastery there are a couple of
00:14:36
different complications with that we
00:14:37
don't need to go into but very quickly
00:14:39
they fall into a pattern of raiding
00:14:43
government institutions administrative
00:14:46
posts anything that has power and again
00:14:51
it does not seem to be about money they
00:14:55
presumably we're told that they make off
00:14:58
with lots of treasure and that's good
00:15:00
for them we're not really we don't dwell
00:15:02
on that at all we never learn what
00:15:04
they're doing with it how they split it
00:15:06
up are there you know is are they
00:15:09
becoming particularly wealthy with this
00:15:11
we don't know it's just like they go in
00:15:14
and they take from the authorities
00:15:16
that's it they're their identity as the
00:15:19
seems to be excuse me very much uh-oh
00:15:26
with the anti-authoritarian or the
00:15:29
anti-authority character of what they're
00:15:33
doing and significantly you have to
00:15:37
think of this in terms of this is a
00:15:40
popular story this is a popular legend
00:15:42
that evolved through presumably oral
00:15:46
storytelling for a time a little bedtime
00:15:48
story of you know the thief and it's a
00:15:50
great adventure story for that you can
00:15:53
get into it you know it's a good
00:15:55
adventure it's like ah the outlaw of the
00:15:57
rebel he's going off and doing this and
00:15:59
having adventures and it's all great but
00:16:04
the clear parallel is China and Korea on
00:16:08
a national scale because China was
00:16:12
always the big dog in the neighborhood
00:16:14
of each East Asia and Korea was always
00:16:18
somewhat the satellite state a little
00:16:21
subservient their their government
00:16:24
always adhered to like Chinese norms
00:16:28
they adopted Confucianism they did all
00:16:31
their you know their administrative work
00:16:36
all their government work in official
00:16:38
Chinese language and there you could see
00:16:44
how the illegitimate underdog of
00:16:49
gil-dong would be attractive perhaps to
00:16:52
somebody who would then be thumbing his
00:16:55
nose at the authorities and this is fun
00:17:01
this is this is interesting to follow
00:17:05
and you kind of get swept up and
00:17:11
incident after incident is built upon
00:17:14
this construct of questioning a sort of
00:17:20
rebelling against Authority questioning
00:17:23
the legitimacy of the authority itself
00:17:29
when at one point Chilton goes and has
00:17:37
duplicates of himself made
00:17:39
he is magical and he creates some straw
00:17:44
men it's a old legend
00:17:46
again the indicating the the popular
00:17:48
nature of this the almost fairytale
00:17:51
quality of it a popular legend you can
00:17:54
create a straw man of where we get the
00:17:57
phrase and it and it takes on the the
00:18:03
representative properties of the
00:18:06
individual and so one day gil-dong makes
00:18:10
a bunch of straw men and they become his
00:18:13
clones essentially and he sends them out
00:18:16
into korea to go continue his work just
00:18:21
in different places and this makes it
00:18:23
much harder for everybody to find
00:18:26
because you know if if you here if
00:18:29
you're sitting in Seoul and the Imperial
00:18:31
Palace and you hear about a raid by this
00:18:36
by this great thief happening up in the
00:18:39
north while simultaneously another one
00:18:41
is happening way down in the south what
00:18:44
is that it just it's it's a brilliant
00:18:47
military tactic to be quite honest if
00:18:49
you can you know harness magic again the
00:18:54
magical and the and the mundane makes
00:18:58
you consider things but the at one point
00:19:02
a chill dog goes and sees his half
00:19:11
brother and the half brother
00:19:16
instantly sees him and says okay you're
00:19:19
my brother and they they bring him in
00:19:23
they they capture all the they capture
00:19:26
seven others they bring him in and and
00:19:31
well it turns out that they were all the
00:19:35
devil so they captured all these while
00:19:37
the real one was still running around
00:19:39
free so right there you're thinking okay
00:19:43
when he has that moment when the brother
00:19:46
looks at him and says you're my brother
00:19:48
you think okay this is you know this is
00:19:52
the aristocrat this is the primary son
00:19:54
he has the acuity he has the wisdom to
00:19:59
look into someone's eyes as they say
00:20:01
very explicitly into the eyes and
00:20:03
recognize truth and value and identity
00:20:08
and he knows because he can see that is
00:20:11
something you expect of aristocrats but
00:20:14
it's only like a page or so later that
00:20:16
you realize when they all turn out to be
00:20:20
straw men the son the brother the his
00:20:25
firstborn son wasn't that special he
00:20:29
couldn't recognize that this was an
00:20:32
impostor that this was a clone that this
00:20:34
was not the real deal his his merit thus
00:20:39
his talent is called into question
00:20:42
he is the repository of the tradition he
00:20:46
is the one who gets all the benefits of
00:20:48
that tradition but he is not as wise he
00:20:57
is not as talented as his younger
00:21:00
illegitimate brother and you see this
00:21:05
going on and it's a recurrent thing that
00:21:10
that plays out where eventually the the
00:21:16
story takes a turn and gildong leaps he
00:21:23
says all right I'm gonna take off and he
00:21:29
goes and he voyages out and here the
00:21:32
story takes a little bit of a turn if
00:21:34
you're reading it as the as the Robin
00:21:38
Hood tale the the he's stealing from the
00:21:44
rich part really kind of ends with the
00:21:46
with the destruction of the straw men so
00:21:49
you're not certain well I thought that
00:21:51
was the story I was reading what's
00:21:53
what's happening here you're probably
00:21:56
supposed to lean in a little and
00:21:58
question the text at this point it seems
00:22:00
a bit like an episodic shift
00:22:02
whereas everything before it had been
00:22:05
very neatly organized and constructed to
00:22:07
give a sense of deliberation and
00:22:09
intention but it does take a little bit
00:22:13
of a shift so you realize that well
00:22:15
maybe the robbing from the rich thing
00:22:17
isn't so central maybe this is about
00:22:20
something more it's not just about the
00:22:23
legend it's about something more so till
00:22:27
dawn goes off to another land he leaves
00:22:30
Korea and he he kills monsters and
00:22:36
become and is essentially made king of
00:22:40
this land he marries he marries two
00:22:44
girls who are heralded for well one is
00:22:48
heralded for for great talent that is
00:22:54
all we're told about her we don't know
00:22:55
anything about her she does not appear
00:22:57
to be anybody particularly wealthy or
00:22:58
special in any other way so but she has
00:23:02
great talent and talent is what he's
00:23:05
interested in he marries that one
00:23:08
because she was one of the she was one
00:23:10
of the damsels in distress of the the
00:23:13
prisoners of the monster they kill the
00:23:15
monsters he marries the talented one as
00:23:19
the primary wife and then takes the
00:23:23
second prisoner who is not who may be
00:23:26
very talented but we're not really told
00:23:28
that and that makes her and makes her
00:23:31
his second wife so his secondary wife
00:23:34
and then he settles in to being a good
00:23:37
leader and he seems to be quite good um
00:23:41
[Music]
00:23:44
he takes care of his army all of his
00:23:47
thieves have now become his army and he
00:23:50
sees to it that he reforms agriculture
00:23:53
so that they are well fed and well
00:23:56
trained and he seems to be a good
00:23:59
administrator a good king
00:24:05
but he also starts looking abroad he
00:24:08
also starts looking around and saying
00:24:10
well gee maybe I could do some other
00:24:11
stuff here it says here the island
00:24:17
kingdom of luke tau to the south with
00:24:19
its many thousand Li of fertile land had
00:24:21
constantly held theld Kong's interest
00:24:23
and attention as truly a country country
00:24:26
of heaven central London's calling his
00:24:29
men together one day he said it is now
00:24:31
my intention to attack Wow as I am
00:24:34
asking every one of you to give his all
00:24:36
in this effort which is a weird
00:24:40
imperialist turn he has gone from being
00:24:46
the outlaw to being the absolute
00:24:49
authority he conquers this other land he
00:24:57
claims a Mandate of Heaven because it's
00:24:59
army the righteous army these are all
00:25:02
little warning signs for absolutism
00:25:05
personally um when he sets himself up as
00:25:12
as the new king and essentially an
00:25:15
emperor at this point he invites back to
00:25:21
visit him his brother who was you know
00:25:25
who had essentially taken over from his
00:25:28
father as a you know mid-upper mid-level
00:25:34
functionary in the government bureaucrat
00:25:36
and you know doing quite well for
00:25:40
himself but he is now essentially
00:25:42
appointed as the emissary to this new
00:25:45
king so the brother gil-dong who who was
00:25:50
never the legitimate one it was always
00:25:53
like you know chafing under the in the
00:25:56
shadow of his older brother
00:25:59
now kill dong is the king and he's in
00:26:02
the position of having his brother come
00:26:05
to appeal to him and the relationship is
00:26:09
absolutely flipped and if anything
00:26:12
exacerbated
00:26:17
but there's something in the
00:26:19
characterization of this bizarre little
00:26:22
sequence where after he is made King the
00:26:27
text doesn't even reference him as till
00:26:30
dawn that much anymore
00:26:32
for a good stretch there he has
00:26:35
identified only as the king so he has
00:26:37
become the state essentially he has
00:26:40
become the new empire and and you have
00:26:45
to view him that way and so how is he
00:26:49
react is he making the same mistakes is
00:26:52
he investing too much faith in
00:26:58
legitimacy at this point it's it's it's
00:27:02
a little troubling at this point because
00:27:04
what you want what you would want is to
00:27:05
him to come along personally I would
00:27:08
want maybe not you uh I would want to
00:27:11
see him come in and try and correct some
00:27:13
of the wrong saying okay I grew up
00:27:15
feeling this way I want to fix that and
00:27:18
it's it's a little uncertain it's a
00:27:20
little ambiguous as to whether or not
00:27:23
she does once he gets power certainly
00:27:27
they emphasize the meritocracy the would
00:27:38
the stability the constructions of the
00:27:43
government are now based on meritocracy
00:27:45
but the continuity is still there and
00:27:48
the way he coaches the the very ending
00:27:52
of it he the buttons he's pushing are
00:27:54
all about the continuity the stability
00:27:57
the the the conservative nature of what
00:28:03
he has built you when the when his own
00:28:09
mother the former chambermaid who is now
00:28:13
identified as the coup Dowager when she
00:28:17
dies he he holds a specific mourning
00:28:22
period of three years of observe
00:28:25
inches and this comes out hard on the
00:28:28
heels of of others he is more in for his
00:28:32
held observances for morning services
00:28:34
for his father who died at this point
00:28:37
for even for the the evil stepmother if
00:28:41
you will the the Kings what his father's
00:28:45
wife and and and he has done all of
00:28:49
these things very properly very
00:28:53
judiciously very ceremoniously he has
00:28:57
observed all of these social norms so
00:29:00
what he seems to be positive what the
00:29:02
story seems to be positing is that
00:29:05
stability lies best in talent as opposed
00:29:11
to birth he's not suggesting throwing
00:29:16
out the aristocratic system altogether
00:29:19
he emphasizes that his own first son
00:29:24
became Crown Prince upon his passing at
00:29:28
his instruction but that all of his
00:29:31
other children and remember he had at
00:29:34
least two wives at this point so he was
00:29:36
setting up the same dynamic all of his
00:29:39
other children also became princes and
00:29:41
princesses so you could argue this
00:29:45
saying that well he's he's really just
00:29:48
he's still just favoring his own
00:29:51
children but that's kind of what it
00:29:53
ristic that's kind of what royal
00:29:54
families are supposed to do so I'm not
00:29:56
sure if you can really slam him for that
00:29:58
he is continuing the same basic
00:30:01
structure of the society but with a
00:30:04
slight modification and here again you
00:30:07
got a step back to the chinese-korean
00:30:11
dynamic where China is China is the
00:30:17
authority and Korea is just saying okay
00:30:21
look we can observe Confucianism too we
00:30:23
have adopted Confucianism we we buy into
00:30:27
100% loyalty and reciprocity filial
00:30:31
piety the whole thing and we're not
00:30:34
looking to revolutionize anything
00:30:38
we just want to be recognized for what
00:30:41
our talents can bring and you can't
00:30:45
impose your will upon us impose your
00:30:48
superiority over us ignoring those
00:30:52
talents when you do that you deprive
00:30:56
yourself because our talents have
00:31:00
potential and you see that in the way he
00:31:03
sets up this kind of ideal Kingdom on
00:31:08
his own just you can talk about
00:31:13
imperialism you can talk about the heavy
00:31:14
end of the the righteous army but he
00:31:19
establishes something inherently very
00:31:21
conservative inherently very imperial
00:31:26
inherently very profitable probably and
00:31:29
all he's saying all this story is saying
00:31:33
is don't base legitimacy on something so
00:31:44
silly and unreasonable as tradition
