Cheung Puk-chang, the Seer

In this tale, Master Puk-chang is a famous Korean scholar who is a wonder and a mystery from birth. If he simply glanced through a book, he could repeat it word for word. Without any special study he mastered astronomy, geology, medicine, fortune-telling, music, mathematics and geomancy, the art of reading the land, and he knew every one of them as thoroughly as an expert.

The tale describes him as deeply learned, too, in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and he was always talking about things other people could not begin to understand. He knew what the birds were saying, understood the voices of nature and a great deal more besides.

As a boy he went with his father when his father traveled as an envoy to Peking. In those days people from strange, far-off lands also came there to pay tribute, and Puk-chang made friends with them along the way. He had only to hear their language once, and he could talk with them easily. His own countrymen were amazed, and so were the Chinese, and so were the foreigners themselves.

The history books hint at many curious stories about Puk-chang, but few of them were properly written down, and most are lost. The source writer says that he remembers one account passed on by witnesses he trusts.

One day Puk-chang went to visit his aunt, his father’s sister. She asked him to sit down, and as they talked she said, “I had some harvesting to see to in Yong-nam County, so I sent a servant down there. He should have been back by now, and still he hasn’t come. I’m afraid he has run into robbers, or a fire, or some other trouble.”

“Shall I tell you how he is getting on and how far along the road he has come?” said Puk-chang.

His aunt laughed. “Are you making fun of me?”

From where he sat, Puk-chang seemed to gaze far off toward the south. At last he said, “He is just crossing the hill called Bird Pass in Mun-kyong County, in Kyong-sang Province. Oh dear! A passing yangban, a gentleman, is giving him a beating. But I can see it’s his own fault, so you needn’t worry about him.”

His aunt laughed. “Why would anyone beat him? What for?”

“It seems this official was eating his dinner at the top of the hill,” said Puk-chang, “and your servant rode right past him without getting off his horse. Naturally the gentleman was very angry. He had his servants seize your man, pull him off his horse and slap him across the face with their rough straw shoes.”

His aunt could not believe it and treated it all as a joke. Yet Puk-chang did not seem to be joking.

Curious, she marked the day on the wall after he had gone. When the servant came home, she asked him what day he had crossed Bird Pass, and it was the very day she had marked. Then she asked, “Did you get into trouble with a yangban when you came that way?”

The servant looked startled. “How do you know?” he asked. Then he told her everything that had happened to him, and it was exactly as Puk-chang had described it, down to the smallest detail.

About this story

“Cheung Puk-chang, the Seer” is chapter IV of James Scarth Gale’s Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (1913), one of Im Bang’s stories. Gale prefaces this legendary account with material he attributes to Korean histories: Puk-chang was called “The Mystery” in Peking, spoke to foreign envoys in their own languages and was said to see what was happening in distant valleys.

Gale also discusses what his translation calls “spiritual-eye distant-vision”. Puk-chang’s view of Bird Pass illustrates that supernatural idea within the tale; this does not verify the ability or describe the beliefs of all Taoists or Buddhists.

Read the original: Korean Folk Tales (Project Gutenberg)

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult: includes a servant being beaten and characters who treat that punishment as deserved.

The date on the wall and the servant on the road

The aunt records the date before the servant returns. This detail makes the eventual agreement feel more exact than a vague prediction. Yet the marvel can distract from another event: an official orders a servant beaten for not dismounting. Puk-chang calls it the servant’s fault, but readers need not accept his judgment. Seeing something, even in a magical tale, is different from responding to it fairly.

Ask two kinds of question

Write one question the aunt uses to check the prediction and one question she could ask about the servant’s well-being. How would the emphasis of the ending change if the second question mattered as much as the first?

Questions to ask

• What special gifts did Puk-chang have?
• Why did the servant get into trouble at Bird Pass?
• How did the aunt check whether Puk-chang was telling the truth?

You may also like

• The Geomancer — another Korean expert who can read what others cannot see
• A Visit from the Shades — a dream that turns out to be true
• Ta Hong — another tale from Gale’s collection