The Home of the Fairies

In the days of King In-jo, who reigned from 1623 to 1649, there lived in Ka-pyong a young follower of Confucius who was not yet married. He had not studied very much, having read only a little history and literature. For some reason he left home and set off for Kang-won Province on horseback with a servant. When he reached a certain mountain, a rainstorm caught him and soaked him through. Then, mysteriously and for no reason anyone could see, his servant suddenly died. Frightened and miserable, the young man moved the body to the side of the hill, left it there and went on his way weeping.

He had gone only a little farther when his horse collapsed under him and died too. What a plight he was in: his servant dead, his horse dead, rain pouring down and the road unknown to him. He had no idea what to do or where to go, and, forced to walk, he broke down and cried.

Just then he met an old man with wonderful eyes and hair as white as snow, who asked him why he was crying. The young man told him that his servant and his horse were dead, that it was raining and that he did not know the way. The old man took pity on him, raised his staff and pointed. “There is a house over there, just past those pines. Follow that stream and it will take you to where there are people.”

The young man looked where he pointed and saw a clump of trees about a third of a mile away. He bowed, thanked the stranger and set off, but after a few steps he looked back and the old man had vanished. Marveling, he went on toward the place and, as he drew near, found a whole forest of huge pines and countless bamboos, with a wide stream flowing past. Under the water there seemed to be a floor of pure white marble, like a great pavement, and the water was the same depth all the way across, easy to wade.

A mile or so farther on he saw a beautifully decorated house with perfectly shaped pillars and entrance steps. Wet as he was, carrying his thorn-wood staff, he went in at the gate and sat down to rest. The floor was marble too, smooth as polished glass, without a crack or seam anywhere. In the room stood a marble table with a copy of the Book of Changes on it, and in front of it a jade brazier where incense burned, filling the room with fragrance. Besides these, there was nothing else to be seen. The rain had stopped, and all was still and clear, without a breath of wind. The noisy, troubled world seemed to have drifted far away.

As he sat there gazing in amazement, he heard footsteps at the back of the building. Startled, he turned and saw an old man who looked as ancient as the turtle or the crane, and very dignified. He wore green robes and carried a jade staff of nine sections, and the sight of him was enough to stun any person on earth. Seeing that this must be the master of the place, the young man went forward and bowed low.

The old man welcomed him kindly. “I am the master here, and I have been expecting you for a long time.” He took him by the hand and led him away. As they walked, the hills grew more and more enchanting, and the soft breezes and the light seemed to touch him with strange blessings. Then suddenly the old man was gone, so the young man went on alone and soon came to another palace, also built of precious stones, with great halls stretching away as far as the eye could see. He had often seen the royal palace when he went to Seoul for the examinations, but next to this, the royal palace was like a mud hut with a straw roof.

At the gate a man in ceremonial robes met him and led him in. They passed two or three pavilions and came at last to a special one, and he climbed to the upper floor. There, resting at a table, he saw the ancient sage he had just met, and he bowed to him a second time.

The young man, raised poor in the country, had never been used to meeting great people, and he was too frightened to raise his eyes. But the ancient master welcomed him warmly and asked him to sit down. “This is not the dusty world you are used to,” he said. “It is the home of the immortals. I knew you were coming, and so I was waiting to receive you.” Then he turned and called, “Bring something for our guest to eat.”

Soon a servant brought a table piled with food such as was never seen on earth, and plenty of it, and the hungry young man ate heartily of the strange dishes. When they had been cleared away, the old man said, “I have a daughter of marriageable age, and I have been looking for a son-in-law, but so far I have found none. Your coming fits my need. Stay here and become my son-in-law.” The young man, not knowing what to think, bowed and said nothing. Then the host gave an order: “Call in the children.”

Two boys of about twelve or thirteen came running in and sat down beside the guest. Their faces were so beautifully fair that they seemed like jewels. “These are my sons,” said the master to the guest. To the boys he said, “This is the young man I have chosen for my son-in-law. When should the wedding be? Choose a lucky day and tell me.” The two boys counted the days on their fingers and said together, “The day after tomorrow is a lucky day.”

“That settles the wedding,” said the old man to the young man. “Now you must wait in the guest rooms until the time comes.” He sent for a certain official of the immortals, who came forward in light, airy robes, handsome and glad of face. “Show this young man to his rooms,” said the master, “and look after him well until the wedding.”

The official led the way, and the young man bowed as he left. Outside the gate a red sedan chair stood waiting, and he was asked to climb in. Eight bearers carried him smoothly along for a mile or so until they reached another palace, just as wonderful, without a speck or flaw to spoil it. Among graceful groves of flowers and trees he stepped down and entered his pavilion. Beautiful clothes were taken from jeweled chests, he was given a perfumed bath, and so he put off his weather-beaten clothes and dressed in the robes of the immortals. The official stayed with him for company until the appointed day.

When the day came, more beautiful robes were brought, and he bathed and changed. Then he rode in the sedan chair to the master’s palace with twenty or more officials around him, and a guide led them to a special hall called the Palace Beautiful. There he saw the wedding preparations and made his bow, then moved farther in as he was directed. The tinkling of jade bells and the breath of sweet perfumes filled the air as he entered the inner rooms.

Many beautiful women stood waiting, all splendidly dressed like goddesses, and among them he expected to meet the master’s daughter. Soon she came, surrounded by a crowd of attendants and shining with jewels and lovely clothes until she lit up the whole palace. He took his place in front of her, though her face was hidden behind a fan of pearls. When at last he saw her, she was so beautiful that his eyes were dazzled. Beside her, the other women were like magpies next to a phoenix. He was so overwhelmed that he did not dare look up, and the friend beside him helped him bow and go through the proper ceremonies, which were much like those among people on earth. Afterward he went to the bridal chamber, where the embroidered curtains, golden screens, silk clothes and jeweled floor were such as no one on earth has ever seen.

On the second day his mother-in-law sent for him. She looked about thirty, with a face like a freshly opened lotus flower. A great feast was laid out with many guests, and the music was sweeter than anything people on earth have dreamed of. When the feast was over, the women gathered up their skirts, raised their sleeves and danced together, singing in such sweet harmony that the very clouds stopped to listen. When the day was done and everyone had eaten well, the feast came to an end.

A young man brought up in a country hut had suddenly met the chief of the immortals and come to share his glory and his way of life. His mind was dazed and his thoughts overwhelmed him, doubts mixed with fears, and he did not know what to do. Yet he truly had come to share the joys of the fairies, and a year or so went by in a happiness no words can describe.

One day his wife said, “Would you like to come into the inner garden and see things as the fairies see them?”

“Gladly,” he said.

She led him into a special park with lovely paths among green hills. As they went on, they came upon charming views, springs and sparkling waterfalls, and the scenery grew more and more enchanting, with jeweled flowers, glittering spray and lovely birds and animals at play. Anyone who entered there would never think of going back to earth.

Then he climbed the highest peak of all, which rose like a tower of many stories. Before him lay a wide sea with the islands of the blessed rising from the water and long stretches of pleasant land beyond, and his wife pointed them all out to him. They seemed full of golden palaces wrapped in a halo of light and peopled with happy souls. Some rode on cranes, some on phoenixes, some on unicorns. Some sat on clouds, some sailed by on the wind, some walked on the air, some glided gently up the streams. Some came down from above and some rose up, some moved west and some north, and some gathered in groups, while flutes and harps played sweetly. He saw so many astonishing things that he could never describe them all. When the day was over, they went back home.

So their happiness went on unbroken, and after two years she bore him two sons.

Time passed, and one day, as he sat with his wife, he suddenly began to cry, tears streaming down his face. Amazed, she asked why. “I was thinking,” he said, “how a plain, poor countryman has become son-in-law to the king of the immortals. But at home is my poor old mother, whom I haven’t seen in all these years. I long to see her so much that I can’t stop my tears.”

His wife laughed. “Would you really like to see her? Then go, but don’t cry.” She told her father that her husband wished to visit his mother, and the master called him in and gave his permission. The young man supposed that he would be sent off in grand style with many servants, but not at all. His wife gave him one little bundle and nothing more. He said goodbye to his father-in-law, whose parting words were, “Go now and see your mother, and before long I shall send for you.”

The master sent one servant with him, and as he went out through the main gate he saw a poor, thin horse wearing a ragged old saddle. He looked carefully and saw that they were his dead horse and his dead servant, given back to him. He started and asked, “How did you get here?”

“I was traveling with you on the road,” said the servant, “when someone snatched me away and brought me here. I didn’t know why, but I have been here a long time.”

Full of awe, the young man tied on his bundle and set off, with the servant from the land of the immortals following behind. But after a short distance, the world of wonder turned into the weary old world, with its fog, its thorns and its cliffs. He looked back toward the land of the immortals, and it was like a dream. He was so overcome that he broke down and wept.

Seeing him cry, the servant said, “You have spent several years in the home of the immortals, but you have not yet become one of them, for you have not yet forgotten the seven passions of the earth, such as anger, sorrow, fear, ambition, hate and selfishness. If you can rid yourself of these, you will have no more tears.” Hearing this, the young man stopped crying, wiped his cheeks and asked to be forgiven.

A mile farther on, he found himself on the main road. “You know the way from here,” said the servant, “so I will go back.” And so at last the young man reached home.

There he found a ceremony going on to drive away spirits. Shamans had been called in and were saying their prayers. When the family saw him walk in, they were horrified. “It’s his ghost!” they cried. But soon they saw that it was really him. His mother asked why he had not come home in all that time, but she had a fierce temper, and he did not dare tell her the truth, so he made up another story. It turned out that the day he came home was the anniversary of the day they believed he had died, which was why they had called the shamans. He opened the bundle his wife had given him and found four suits of clothes, one for each season.

About a year after he came home, his mother, seeing him alone, arranged for him to marry the daughter of a village scholar. Being timid by nature and afraid of upsetting his mother, he did not dare refuse, and so he married, but there was no joy in it, and the two of them never so much as looked at each other.

The young man had a close friend he had known since childhood, who often came to see him after he came home, and they would talk together late into the night. The friend asked why he had stayed away so many years, and the young man told him everything that had happened in the land of the immortals, how he had lived there and married there. His friend looked at him in wonder, for he seemed just the same as ever except for his clothes. When the friend examined them, he found they were made of a very strange cloth, not grass cloth, silk or cotton, but different from them all, and yet warm and comfortable. In spring the spring suit was just right, in summer the summer one and so on for autumn and winter. They were never washed, yet they never got dirty; they never wore out and always looked fresh and new. The friend was amazed.

About three years went by, and then one day a servant came from the master of the immortals, bringing the young man’s two sons. He also brought a letter that said, “Next year the place where you live will be destroyed, and all its people will fall prey to the enemy, so follow this messenger and come, all of you.”

The young man told his friend about it and showed him his two sons. When the friend saw the children, as fine as silk and jade, he told the whole story to the mother too, and she gladly agreed to go. So they sold everything they had, gave a great feast for everyone in town and said their farewells. That was in the year 1635. They left, and no one ever heard of them after that.

The next year came the Manchu invasion, and the village where the young man had lived was utterly destroyed. Gale ends by reporting that people of Ka-pyong told this story in his source’s time.

About this story

“The Home of the Fairies” is from James Scarth Gale’s Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (1913), which translates tales collected by Im Bang. The fairies of the title are the immortals of Taoist legend, the sages and spirits believed to live in hidden paradises among the mountains and on the islands of the blessed.

The narrative gives the departure a date, 1635, and connects it to the following year’s invasion. The Jinju National Museum’s account of Byeongja Horan confirms the historical invasion of 1636–1637. That background does not verify the family’s disappearance, the warning or the destruction of this particular village as narrated.

Read the original: Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Project Gutenberg)

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult: includes apparent deaths, prolonged family separation, an unhappy second marriage and a community threatened with destruction.

A return can create another separation

The scholar longs for his mother even amid the immortals’ pleasures. Once home, fear stops him telling her about his wife and sons, and a second marriage follows. The new wife is given almost no voice. His wish to spare himself an uncomfortable conversation therefore affects someone else’s future.

The remarkable clothes make his private account visible to his friend, and the sons later help convince his mother. The servant’s rebuke about earthly passions expresses this tale’s ideal of immortality; sorrow for family is not a moral failure in ordinary life. The servant’s earlier apparent death is also unsettled when he says he was carried away.

Follow the evidence home

List what the scholar tells his mother, what he tells his friend, and what the friend can inspect. What changes when the children arrive? Then describe the final departure from the viewpoint of a towns-person who has heard the warning but is left behind.

Questions to ask

• How did the young man find his way to the home of the immortals?
• What did the servant say he had to forget to become an immortal?
• What was special about the clothes his wife gave him?

You may also like

• The Story of Urashima Taro, the Fisher Lad — another visit to an enchanted land and a return home
• Sim Chung — a Korean tale of a palace beyond the human world
• Hong’s Experiences in Hades — another journey to the spirit world from Gale’s collection