The Plucky Maiden

Han Myong-hoi was a famous minister in the reign of King Se-jo, in the 1400s. The King liked him enormously, and no one at court could match him in power or royal favor. Sure of his position, Han did exactly as he pleased. Like grass before the wind, everyone bowed when he came, and no one dared say a word against him.

When Han went to govern Pyong-an Province, he broke every law. Anyone who crossed him in the slightest way was cruelly punished, and the whole province feared him as they would a tiger.

One day Governor Han heard that the Deputy Prefect of Son-chon had a very beautiful daughter. He sent for the Deputy and said, “I hear you have a lovely daughter. I want her as a concubine, a lesser wife. I shall be passing through your town on my rounds soon, and I’ll take her then. Have her ready.”

The Deputy was horrified. “How can Your Excellency call my humble daughter beautiful?” he said. “Someone has misinformed you. But since you command it, how can I do anything but agree gladly?” He bowed, said goodbye and went home.

His family saw at once that his face was dark with worry. “Did the Governor send for you, Father?” his daughter asked. “Why are you so troubled? Please tell me.” At first he would not answer, fearing to upset her, but she kept asking until he said, “I am in trouble because of you.” Then he told her how the Governor wanted her as a concubine. “If I had refused, I would have been put to death, so I gave in. But for a gentleman’s daughter to be made a concubine is an unheard-of disgrace.”

The daughter laughed it off. “Why didn’t you think it through better, Father? Why should a grown man lose his life because of a girl? Let the daughter go. Losing a daughter and saving your life is surely better than saving your daughter and losing your life. Anyone can see which is wiser. Put your worry and sorrow away. This is fate, and I will accept it without a fuss, so don’t be anxious. It’s settled now, and all will be well.”

Her father sighed. “Since you seem so willing, my mind is a little easier,” he said. But the whole household was miserable after that. Only the girl seemed perfectly calm. She showed not the slightest fear, laughed her light, happy laugh as usual and went about as freely as ever.

Soon the Governor reached Son-chon on his rounds. He sent for the Deputy and said, “Have your daughter ready tomorrow, with everything that is needed.” The Deputy went home to prepare for the so-called wedding. “This isn’t a real wedding,” said his daughter, “only the taking of a concubine. Even so, prepare the food and the ceremony just as for a true marriage.” And her father did as she asked.

The next day the Governor came to the Deputy’s house, not in his official robes but in the plain clothes and hat of an ordinary man. When he went into the inner rooms, he found the daughter standing tall in front of him. Her hands were raised in the formal greeting, but instead of a fan to hide her face, she held a sword. She was very lovely. He started in surprise and asked what the blade was for.

She had her nurse answer for her. “Though I am a simple country girl, I do not forget that I was born of a noble family. Your Excellency may be a great minister of state, but to take me by force is an unheard-of dishonor. If you take me as your true wife, I will serve you with all my heart. But if you are set on making me a concubine, I will end my life with this sword right now. That is why I hold it. My life hangs on one word from Your Excellency. Please speak it, so that I may decide.”

The Governor was a man who cared nothing for manners and never let anyone question him. But when he saw how beautiful and how determined she was, he was won over at once. “If that is your choice,” he said, “then of course I will make you my true wife.”

“If you really mean it,” she said, “then please go and write out the marriage contract, send the gifts and the wild goose, dress properly, and come back so that we can perform the proper ceremony, drink the pledge cup and be married.”

The Governor did everything she asked, followed every form to the letter, and they were married.

She was not only beautiful but upright and true, a rare person indeed. The Governor took her home and loved her dearly. He already had a first wife and other concubines, but he set them all aside and cared for her alone. She scolded him for his wrongdoings and unjust acts, and he listened and mended his ways. People noticed and praised her as a truly wonderful woman.

She considered herself a true wife, but the first wife treated her as a concubine, and all the relatives agreed that she could never be counted as a real wife.

In those days King Se-jo often visited Han’s house dressed as a commoner. Han would entertain him royally, and his wife would bring in the refreshments and serve them to the King, who called her his “little sister.” One day, while the King was drinking, she suddenly threw herself face down in front of him. Surprised, the King asked what she meant by it.

She told him the whole story of how she had been taken by force and brought to Seoul. Weeping, she said, “Though I come from far away in the country, I am of noble birth, and my husband married me with every ceremony due to a wife, so I should not be counted a concubine. But there is no law in this land that allows a man a second true wife while the first is living, and so they call me a concubine, which is the deepest disgrace. Please, Your Majesty, take pity on me and judge my case.”

The King laughed. “That’s easy to settle,” he said. “Why should my little sister make so much of it and bow down to me? I’ll decide your case right now. Come.” With his own hand he wrote out a document declaring her a true wife and making her children eligible for the highest offices. He wrote it, signed it, stamped it with his seal and gave it to her.

So she was recognized as a true wife, equal in rank and standing to the first. No one ever spoke a slighting word about her after that, and her children took their part in the affairs of the kingdom.

About this story

“The Plucky Maiden” comes from Im Bang’s collection, translated in 1913 by James Scarth Gale as Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies. It uses the name of the minister Han Myong-hoi. Gale’s introductory note includes the extraordinary claim that he had a tame tiger as a boy; that belongs to the source’s storytelling context, not evidence for the events of this tale.

Within the tale, a woman’s recognised marital status affects her children’s eligibility for office. The contract, gifts, wild goose and pledge cup are the heroine’s requested signs of a formal marriage. The account should not be read as a complete history of Korean marriage law or custom.

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

For older readers: includes coerced marriage, threats of execution and a threat of suicide. Read critically with attention to the heroine’s restricted choices.

A promise within an unequal bargain

The maiden insists on a written contract and public ceremony because the governor’s private promise offers little protection. Even those safeguards fail when his relatives invoke the rule against a second wife. The king’s handwritten decision resolves her particular case, but does not remove the unequal power that let the governor demand her in the first place.

Her courage deserves recognition without treating a threat of self-harm as advice or her eventual marriage as freely chosen. Nor does her rise justify dismissing the first wife. The tale allows us to ask whose security depends on one powerful person’s favour.

Compare the three decisions

List what the governor promises, what the relatives recognise and what the king finally grants. Explain why each answer differs. Then identify a protection that should have applied before the governor’s demand, regardless of the young woman’s beauty or noble birth.

Questions to ask

• Why did the daughter pretend to be happy when her father told her the news?
• What choice did she give the Governor?
• How did she change the Governor after their marriage?

More stories like this

• The Resourceful Wife — another brave woman who outwits a powerful man
• Whom the King Honours — King and subject in old Korea
• Charan — another determined Korean heroine