The Encyclopedia of Daily Life: A Woman's Guide to Living in Late-Chosŏn Korea 9780824889647

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The Encyclopedia of Daily Life

KOREAN CLASSICS LIBRARY: HISTORICAL MATERIALS

The Encyclopedia of Daily Life A Woman’s Guide to Living in Late-Chosŏn Korea

translated, annotated, and with an introduction by

Michael J. Pettid and Kil Cha

University of Hawai‘i Press/Honolulu Korean Classics Library

© 2021 The Regents of the University of California All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 26 25 24 23 22 21    6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Pinghŏgak Yi Ssi, 1759-1824, author. | Pettid, Michael J.,   translator, writer of introduction. | Cha, Kil, translator, writer of   introduction. Title: The encyclopedia of daily life : a woman’s guide to living in   late-Chosŏn Korea / translated, annotated, and with an introduction by   Michael J Pettid and Kil Cha. Other titles: Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ. Selections. English | Korean classics   library. Historical materials. Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, 2021. | Series: Korean classics library: historical materials | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021001171 | ISBN 9780824889043 (cloth) | ISBN   9780824889654 (epub) | ISBN 9780824889647 (adobe pdf) | ISBN   9780824889661 (kindle edition) Subjects: LCSH: Food habits—Korea. | Cooking, Korean—History—Chosŏn   dynasty, 1392-1910. | Drinking customs—Korea. | Pregnancy—Korea. |   First aid in illness and injury—Korea. Classification: LCC GT2853.K6 P56 2021 | DDC 394.1/2—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001171 Korean Classics Library: Historical Materials Series Editors: Robert E. Buswell, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles John B. Duncan, University of California, Los Angeles Namhee Lee, University of California, Los Angeles Series Editorial Board: Donald Baker, University of British Columbia Sun Joo Kim, Harvard University James B. Lewis, Oxford University A. Charles Muller, Tokyo University Young-chan Ro, George Mason University Kenneth R. Robinson, Aichi University Edward Shultz, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa Senior Editor: Jennifer Jung-Kim, University of California, Los Angeles This work was supported by the English Translation of 100 Korean Classics program through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2010-AAA-2102). University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.

Contents



Acknowledgments

Conventions

vii ix

Part I Translators’ Introduction

1

Part II Translation

35

Preface

37

Volume 1, Liquor and Food, Part 1

39

Volume 1, Liquor and Food, Part 2

92

Volume 4, Pregnancy and First Aid

136



Appendixes



1. Units of Weight and Measure 2. The Sexagenary Cycle 3. Twenty-Four Divisions of the Year

205 207 211



Glossary

213

Notes

221



Bibliography

251



Index

255

Acknowledgments

This project has been a lengthy undertaking full of surprises and challenges throughout the process of translation and researching matters related to the work. The nature of the text translated here required deep examination to arrive at what can be reasonably assumed to be the ideas and messages of the writer in the early nineteenth century. When this work was written, there was no orthography for the Korean language and our author most likely wrote in the same manner in which she spoke. This complicated an already complicated project, but the reward in the discovery of her ideas was certainly worth the journey. While this project has taken a number of years to complete, what we have discovered in Lady Yi’s writings was revealing of her complex worldview and how how she lived her life. There are many individuals who graciously donated their time and expertise to the translation of Lady Yi’s Encyclopedia. Her broad range of knowledge required the same sort of knowledge and expertise in many different fields. Jung Hwankuk, Professor of Premodern Korean Literature at Dongguk University in Seoul, was of tremendous help to us at translating the intricacies of this difficult text. Kim Jongchul, a doctor of traditional herbal medicine in Seoul, helped with the complicated task of understanding the various herbs and medicinal remedies in this volume. Cha Hye, a traditional therapist of Koyang City, also helped us with her broad knowledge of both traditional medicine and cuisine. Kim Younghwa of Chŏnju City lent us her deep knowledge of traditional Korean cuisine and plants. Without their collective support, this volume would not have been possible and thus we are deeply thankful. We would also like to thank Robert Buswell and Jennifer Jung-Kim of UCLA for their ongoing support of this project. We are certain we tested their limits of patience with our slowness in bringing this volume to fruition. Yet, they always were supportive and understanding with the difficulties we encountered, and we are deeply grateful for their unending collegiality. The Korean Classics Library Editorial Advisory Board at UCLA was very helpful with their comments and suggestions for improving the draft manuscript. So too were the insightful and detailed comments provided by the reviewers of this manuscript. This work was supported by the English Translation of 100 Korean Classics program through the Ministry of ­Education of the Republic vii

viii

Acknowledgments

of Korea and the Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2010-AAA-2102). Finally, we would like to thank Stephanie Chun of the University of Hawai‘i Press for her help in seeing this through to publication. While we have sought complete accuracy in our translation and notes, errors do happen. For these we take full ownership. We also would also caution our readers in following some of Lady Yi’s medical advice: this is a work of the early nineteenth century and reflects Lady Yi’s understanding of the world, science, and the cosmos. However, we are not presenting her knowledge as a fact or as a means for self-healing, but rather simply for what it is, that being her own view of the world that she lived in.

Conventions

We have used in this volume the McCune-Reischauer system for transliterating (Sino-)Korean and Pinyin for Chinese. Names, terms, and titles that are well known in English are given in their standard English versions, but with reference to the original text where deemed appropriate.

ix

Translators’ Introduction

When a pregnant woman walks facing toward the south, if she turns around to her left side when someone calls her, or when her husband calls her going to the privy, the baby is boy. If she turns around to her right, the baby is a girl.1

The complexity and diversity of life is something that might slip by in broad understandings of a particular era, group of people, or events. In looking back to a period in the past, we are oftentimes limited by what the literate people have selected for recording. Also, our view of life in the past is also narrowed by the focus of those in our own time and what they have decided to write about. While it is certainly difficult, if not impossible, to represent a complete picture of a past time, some contemporary scholarship has begun to move away from the history of the elites and towards a more comprehensive history that includes peoples of various social strata. Little slivers of life become apparent when we broaden our scope of inquiry beyond the official or institutional histories of the past. The above quote from the work being examined in this volume, the Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ (‌閨閤叢書 Encyclopedia of women’s daily lives, hereafter The Encyclopedia), gives a bit of insight into the always important issue of determining the gender of a fetus. We know that having a male child in Chosŏn Korea (‌朝‌鮮 1392–1910) was a tremendously important part of a woman’s life, so we can imagine that there were many means to either determine the sex of an unborn child or, as we will read later, even change the sex. It is not, perhaps, as much of a matter of grave importance as larger issues such as defense of the country or governance, but to the people it had as much import in their lives. Thus, we find a considerable amount of space in The Encyclopedia devoted to this very topic. This example is merely a microcosm of whole work: it illustrates what the people, particularly women, ­considered 3

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i­ mportant and worthy of sharing with others. This is the gist of studying the lives of the people and how they viewed their world. The investigation of how people actually lived is something that has garnered a great deal of interest in areas far beyond the scope of this volume. It is a natural outgrowth of the study of history, as students and scholars alike desire to know more than simply dates, significant events, and historical personages. We desire to understand how the lives of past people were similar to or different from ours in the mundane details of living. Simple matters such as diet, clothing, housing, and entertainment are important to our lives, so the same must be true for those who came before us. For example, what was it like to live in ancient Rome? Well, we have books that describe foods, sickness, and so on, which allow us fuller understanding.2 These types of works have permitted much fuller views of life beyond political and institutional histories. In Korean-language scholarship, the study of life history is a relatively new field. There has been an extended period over the last few decades when Korean scholars have undertaken examinations of areas beyond what might have been traditionally classified as institutional or social-political history.3 Thus, we now have very comprehensive studies of aspects such as funerary practices, cuisine, clothing, and entertainment.4 Moreover, these studies have mostly moved beyond the focus of higher-social-status people and include those of various backgrounds. And importantly, the lives of women have also become an important area of study,5 thereby providing us with a much fuller understanding of how people lived in premodern Korea. Even better than bringing various materials together in a scholarly volume is allowing the actors to tell of their lives directly. Diaries and personal memoirs are sources that bring voices long-silent to life again. In Korea’s history there are copious such works written by males, but a much lesser amount by females, reflecting the same situation in the larger body of works written by men versus women, or about men versus women. Nonetheless, we have some fascinating and important works by women that demonstrate how they lived at various points in Korea’s history. One such example is Kyech’uk ilgi (癸丑日記 Record of the kyech’uk year [1613]), an account of the rise to power and reign of Kwanghae-gun (光海君 r. 1608– 1623) written most likely by a palace woman close to the deposed Queen Mother Inmok (仁穆大妃 1584–1632).6 Pyŏngja ilgi (丙子日記 Diary of the pyŏngja year [1636]) was written by Lady Cho of Namp’yŏng (南平曺氏 1574–1645) and details her life during the Manchu invasions of 1636 (丙子 胡亂) and beyond. An autobiographical work entitled Hanjungnok (‌閑中錄 Record of sorrowful days), written by Lady Hong of Hyegyŏng Palace (‌惠‌慶 宮洪氏), describes the writer’s tumultuous life at the royal palace, during



Translators' Introduction

5

which she witnessed events ranging from the execution of her husband to the enthronement of her son and grandson.7 These works are highly important for recognizing that women did not always see history in the same fashion as did the men that authored the official histories of the day, and thus provide us a much fuller awareness of the period in question. The present study is in the spirit of pursing such scholarship. The Encyclopedia, which is introduced and translated here, is a work that will truly bring new understanding of various areas of life in Chosŏn to the English language. As detailed below, this work was presumably written by one Lady Yi in the early nineteenth century. Her compilation was designed to be an aid for her daughters and daughters-in-law for household management. It thus provides a rather comprehensive look at how women of the late Chosŏn period set about doing important tasks for their families, such as the preparation of food, treating and preventing illness, and child-rearing. In this aspect, it is certainly the most significant book of this scope written by a woman in premodern Korea.8

Encyclopedic Literature of the Late Chosŏn An interesting phenomenon of the mid to late Chosŏn period is the advent of encyclopedic literature. Certainly there was influence in this trend from Ming (明 1368–1644) and Qing China (淸 1644–1912) scholars who had broken with the heretofore focus on the Confucian improvement of the self to move towards sagehood. There came about a transformation in the focus of scholarship, and as Benjamin Elman writes, “Abstract ideas and emphasis on moral values gave way as the primary objects of discussion among literati scholars to concrete facts, documented institutions, and historical events.”9 Thus, scholars such as Gu Yanwu (顧炎武 1613–1682) moved away from the metaphysical dualisms in Confucian ethics and instead took up the pursuit of the concrete observation of matters such as farming practice, mining, and geography; by the eighteenth century his work was to have “profound influence on Chinese thought.”10 Chosŏn Koreans visiting Qing were certainly interested in the new intellectual trends taking place there. One such visitor to Qing who had great interest in intellectual developments in China was Yi Ik (李瀷 1681–1763), who would go on to compile Sŏngho sasŏl (星湖僿說 Insignificant explanations by Sŏngho), an exemplary work in this trend.11 Elman cites the subsequent visits of Pak Chega (朴齊家 1750–1805?) to Beijing, where he had great interest in the study of Qing institutions, technology, and evidential research (實學 K. sirhak Ch. shixue).12 Growing from this interest was the

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­ evelopment of the Northern Learning (北學) school in Chosŏn, which d sought to emulate the scholarly vigor of Qing and infuse these new ways of examining the world into Chosŏn. Visitors to Qing would bring back encyclopedic works among other books, and these helped spur the growth of study in such areas within Korea. Others also traveled to China and brought back with them an enthusiasm for Western scholarship that had found its way to the East. Hong Taeyong (洪大容 1731–1783) in particular is seen as a strong proponent for incorporating Western science into Chosŏn society. His writings reflect his understandings of the universe, such as the rotation of the earth and the bonds between humans and the natural world.13 His works, particularly a piece entitled Ŭisan mundap (醫山問答 Dialogue on Mt. Ŭisan [Ch. Yishan]), were general critiques of Chosŏn customs and the prevalence of Confucianism in society.14 Others, such as Pak Chiwŏn (朴趾源 1737–1805) and Chŏng Yagyong (丁若鏞 1762–1836), followed such thinking and helped bring about some new ideas for the remaking of Chosŏn, although the forces for change were not sufficient to hold off the external forces that would eventually enact the largest changes through imperialism. While this new direction in scholarship has been heralded as a harbinger of modernization in Korea in some recent scholarship, we should be mindful that the break was not always as significant as it has been made to seem in some scholarship of the present age. As James Palais wrote, many generalizations about sirhak made in the twentieth century are “misleading half-truths, often the product of an anachronistic misreading of Confucian statecraft in terms of modern, Western categories of positivistic science.”15 Confucianism was, of course, many things to different individuals, and many of the writers of these encyclopedic works were indeed staunch Confucianists. Intellectuals in Chosŏn were of course interested in the flood of new scholarship in the Qing, and some more than others pursued this new direction of inquiry. One of the first fields where we see a break with more or less traditional scholarship is medicine. This actually dates to the late Koryŏ period and before, but the growing discourse concerning medicine was of great importance to the expansion of knowledge in late Chosŏn. A particularly important work was that by Hŏ Chun (許浚 1539–1615). Entitled Tongŭi pogam (‌東醫寶鑑 Exemplar of Eastern [i.e., Korean] medicine), this work covered various ailments, prescriptions, medicines, and prenatal care, among dozens of other topics. It is a comprehensive work of five volumes with four fascicles on internal medicine, four fascicles on external medicine, eleven fascicles on various diseases, three fascicles on medicine, and one fascicle on acupuncture/moxibustion. Particularly, Hŏ’s examination of diet as both a preven-



Translators' Introduction

7

tive and curative medicine is of importance to the volume translated here and clearly something that Lady Yi had great knowledge of when compiling The Encyclopedia. While the Tongŭi pogam had critics in the late Chosŏn,16 it was still the single most important medical reference in the late Chosŏn. It was printed numerous times and became the starting point for many other subsequent publications on medicine.17 Further, it was not only important in Chosŏn, but also transmitted throughout East Asia, where it served as an important reference material for medicine.18 Within Chosŏn, we can note what might be the start of encyclopedic literature with the compilation of Chibong yusŏl (芝峰類說 Topical discourses by Chibong) by Yi Sugwang (李睟光 1563–1628) in 1614. This twenty-­fascicle work covers a broad range of topics such as astronomy, geography, the flora and fauna of Korea, types of foods, Confucianism, and historic personages. Following this seminal work were numerous others that moved away from more or less commentarial works to those examining the world in detail. Yi Ik’s work mentioned above is a fascinating example of this type of work. Under five main topics of the environment of the world, living things, human affairs, scholarship on the classics, and literary criticism, this thirty-fascicle work covers many aspects of life during his times. Even the government became involved in such scholarship, as witnessed by the publication of the Tongguk munhŏn pigo (東國文獻備考 Reference compilation of documents on the Eastern Country [i.e., Korea]) under the edict of King Yŏngjo (英祖 r. 1724–1776). This chronological work covers the geography, governmental systems, economy, and culture of the country. Growing from this new trend in scholarship was the development of the study of the verification of names and evidential studies (名物考證學). While the roots of this type of study date far back into history, it was not until the eighteenth century that it came into vogue in Chosŏn.19 Heretofore scholars might have written of nature but did not use scientific or direct investigation to do so. Rather they relied on written documents. The change of this period was the direct investigation of nature as seen in the works of men such as that of the aforementioned Yi Ik. Others include Yi Kyugyŏng (李圭景 1788–?), who compiled Oju yŏnmun changjŏn san’go (五洲衍文長箋 散稿 Random expatiations of Oju), and Yu Hŭi (柳僖 1773–1837), who wrote Mulmyŏng ko (物名考 Treatise on the names of things).20 The intellectual curiosity of this time is evident as the vanguard of scholarship moved away from the study of abstract or theoretical objects to the direct investigation of the world surrounding humankind. Numerous other works were close inspections of a particular environment. An excellent example of this is Chasan ŏbo (玆山魚譜 Register of Hŭksan fish) written by Chŏng Yakchŏn (丁若銓 1758–1816) in 1815 during

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The Encyclopedia of Daily Life

his exile on Hŭksan Island. In this work, we find detailed descriptions of the habitats and characteristics of some 155 types of fish and seaweeds. Other works were of great practical use to the people of Korea, such as the Kamjŏ po (甘藷譜 Observations on the sweet potato) of Kang P’illi (姜必履 1713–?), and Haedong nongsŏ (海東農書 Farming in the Eastern Country [i.e., Korea]), compiled under royal edict by Sŏ Hosu (徐浩修 1736–1799). In a similar view were those works that centered on rural life. These too were important to Lady Yi when compiling her guidebook. While there had been works devoted to farming since the earliest years of the dynasty, the ones written after the Japanese and Manchu invasions expanded considerably the knowledge available for farm management. Pak Sedang (‌朴‌世‌堂 1629–1703) compiled Saekkyŏng (穡經 Manual for farming), and Hong Mansŏn (洪萬選 1643–1715) wrote Sallim kyŏngje (山林經濟 Farm management). The former work covered items including cultivation of fruit trees, livestock rearing, and irrigation; the latter was more concerned with the daily tasks and problems that farmers could encounter and covered topics such as growing vegetables; cotton; apiculture; livestock rearing; storing, processing, and cooking various foods; medicine; pest control; and even taking care of items such as swords and musical instruments. Hong’s work was further expanded with the publication of Chŭngbo sallim kyŏngje (增補 山林經濟 Expanded farm management) under royal edict in 1766. This undertaking was done by Yu Chungnim (柳重臨 n.d.) and enlarged the work from its original thirteen fascicles to twenty-four in total. The expanded work is notable in that it includes sections on the management of the domestic aspects of a household and child-rearing, tasks that were most commonly under the purview of womenfolk. A final work that is certainly worthy of note is that of Sŏ Yugu (徐有榘 1764–1845), who compiled Imwŏn simnyuk chi (林圓十六志 Sixteen treatises written in retirement). Sŏ, as will be discussed below, was related to Lady Yi through marriage. Sŏ was the son of the abovementioned Sŏ Hosu who compiled the Haedong nongsŏ, the comprehensive work on farming practice that includes chapters on cultivating crops, fruit trees, vegetables, animal husbandry, and medicine. While Sŏ Yugu was the author of a number of important works, Imwŏn simnyuk chi is seen as the cumulation of his lifelong interest in farming life.21 This compilation contains a total of 113 fascicles in fifty-two volumes and is largely divided into sixteen treatises. The treatises are as follows: farming methods including irrigation, land measurement, land reclamation, fertilization, and growing various crops; cultivating vegetables, melons, herbs, and seaweeds; horticulture; arboriculture and crops such as tobacco; sericulture, weaving, and spinning fabric; astronomical observation as related to



Translators' Introduction

9

farming; animal husbandry, hunting, and fishing; foodstuffs and beverages; housing, transportation, and ornaments; medicine related to childrearing and geriatric care; traditional East Asian medicines; annual functions and rituals in rural communities; calligraphy, painting, and music; hobbies and bookbinding; topography and products of each province; and economic matters such as how better to structure the country’s economy, managing a household, and agricultural management. Not only does the work contain extensive details of the above topics, but it is further illustrated with drawings that help illuminate Sŏ’s discussion. It is truly a masterpiece for understanding rural life and economy in the late Chosŏn period. We also need to consider how women added to this expansion of knowledge. Before Lady Yi, there was Lady Chang of Andong (安東張‌氏 1598–1680).22 While these two women lived in very different times, we can note some similarities in their writings. Lady Chang is known for writing Ŭmsik timibang (음식디미방 Recipes for tasty food), the oldest extant cookbook by a woman, and thus her focus is entirely on the preparation of food and drinks. Lady Yi too wrote extensively on food, but also included many other aspects of domestic life in her work. Among Lady Chang’s 146 total recipes are over fifty types of alcoholic drinks. This demonstrates a very important area of the domestic sphere in Chosŏn: the need to entertain guests with various foods and drink. This too is mirrored in Lady Yi’s work, which includes numerous recipes for drinks, wine cups, and also remedying excessive drinking symptoms such as hangovers and other alcohol-related illnesses. Also important among female intellectuals of the late Chosŏn was Yi Sajudang (李師朱堂 1739–1821), who was also an aunt of Lady Yi. Her work, T’aegyo sin’gi (胎敎新記 New guidelines for prenatal care), was the most important guidebook on this topic in nineteenth-century Chosŏn. Completed in 1800, her aforementioned son Yu Hŭi divided the work into chapters and verses, added annotations, and added explanations in Korean script.23 This ten-chapter work was completed in 1801. Topics covered include proper behaviors for a pregnant woman, diet, care of the body, and past customs concerning prenatal care. It is quite clear when comparing the content of The Encyclopedia to this work that Lady Yi was heavily influenced by her aunt’s work and incorporated much of the work into her own.24 As we can see from the above, Lady Yi was certainly situated in a good place to have access to knowledge and a tradition of writing. Despite her background, Lady Yi’s writings are more than the simple conveyance of knowledge.25 Rather, we have her interesting commentary on what might work and what might not, asides to her own personal experiences, and other comments that seem downright humorous or, perhaps, sarcastic. In this

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aspect it seems a work quite unlike other writings by women, save, possibly, the Kyech’uk ilgi mentioned above, which also has a rather cutting and sarcastic tone at times in its critique of King Kwanghae. The Encyclopedia has also been praised very highly as a groundbreaking work in the history of scholarship by women in Chosŏn. Yi Hyesun cites a number of scholars whose research has placed Lady Yi’s compilation at the pinnacle of female scholarship at this time. Thus the work is lauded as being a “record of the activities of women in upper-status homes in late Chosŏn,” as a “compilation of domestic economics” and even as “the women’s sirhak.”26 Pu Kilman emphasizes the great utility of the work to women of the nineteenth century in managing the domestic sphere, and how it demonstrates further that women did not just read for pleasure, but they also read educational works such as this to expand their knowledge of their environment.27 However one might want to frame this work, it is quite clear that it was a very significant work in terms of both providing educational materials to women in late Chosŏn and the early twentieth century, and an exemplary work of scholarship by a female intellectual in early nineteenthcentury Korea. In twentieth-century scholarship on Korea’s history, many of the writers of volumes such as those discussed above and others who looked beyond traditional scholarship have been grouped together under the neologism sirhak. While this might be a convenient way of writing of this group, it is also highly problematic.28 These writers might not have wanted to write treatises on Confucianism, but they were certainly not against many Confucian tenets. Moreover, they were very different in how they viewed their world and what changes or improvements that they sought or desired. It is probably sufficient to state that where they truly differed from those before them was that their beginning point for scholarship was found in the reality of things and their actual manifestation. This kind of hands-on inquiry was indeed new to intellectuals in Chosŏn and led in many wonderfully diverse directions. The work of Lady Yi is certainly one of those directions, and a major contribution to bringing this new scholarship to writings by women.29

Women, Writing, and Literary Culture One of the most difficult questions concerning women, writing, and literary culture in premodern Korea is that of how all this came together in an environment that did not necessarily reward or foster women engaging in such activities. The writers of this volume believe that writing, consumption, and



Translators' Introduction

11

circulation of knowledge in general among women can be understood best by examining the various categories of literary works that were enjoyed or used by women. We do not see the creation of literary works as necessarily a linear process, but rather a confluence of inputs from various aspects of life. That is, written works did not always rise from the creative process of a single individual woman, but like the oral narratives that permeated the society of womenfolk could quite well be the result of group compilations, with both written and oral aspects. Moreover, the knowledge that is found in these works was not from a single category of knowledge but rather a blend of formal and informal erudition from a wide array of sources. It is with this understanding of literary culture that we will examine some categories of writings by women in late Chosŏn with the aim of demonstrating the multiplicity of literary culture in women’s lives. This multiplicity is prominently manifested in The Encyclopedia and indeed is one of the most discernable features of the writing therein. To begin with, we need to look at some misconceptions concerning women and writing in this time period. There are three main areas where we find these assumptions as follows: women were largely illiterate (especially when speaking of hanmun), female authors were few and far between in Chosŏn, and book culture by the late Chosŏn had corrupted women a great deal and caused an overall decline in morality. Such negativity is found in many places. To wit, Ch’ae Chegong (蔡濟恭 1720–1779) wrote: All that womenfolk of these days are eager to do is to read novels. As days and months pass, the number of these works has reached to more than eleven hundred types. Brokers cleanly copy [the novels] and earn money by receiving payment each time they lend the books. Since womenfolk are not knowledgeable, they sell their hairpins and bracelets, to go into debt, to borrow the books that allow them to pass their long days, sometimes even forgetting to sleep.30

Could this possibly be true? Perhaps, but this also smacks of overreaction by males who did not seem to like the idea of women reading and enjoying various books. Certainly, there are the issues that accompanied the novel elsewhere in the world such as the opening of new avenues for information and ideas. And perhaps even more important are the alternative realities that women were able to encounter through romance and adventure novels. Imagine, a woman could read about a romantic love affair in Unyŏng-jŏn (‌雲‌英傳 The tale of Unyŏng), a heroic, country-saving heroine in Pak-ssijŏn (朴氏傳 The tale of Lady Pak), or breaking down social barriers to find love as in Sukhyang-jŏn (淑香傳 The tale of Sukhyang). It is no small wonder

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that some men found such trends disturbing and harkening of the ruin of ­morality and accepted norms for womanly behaviors. However, one should wonder if this had much, or any, effect on women and their book-reading and writing activities. Below we examine a few examples where we can see a strong female presence in the creation of literature and literary culture in Chosŏn. I will look at three categories: novels, educational works, and shamanic narratives. Women and Novels In fiction we can certainly find the voices and aspirations of women. Ascertaining authorship can be problematic, but if we can move beyond some nagging assumptions, there are works that probably owe their creation to women. But to make that leap, we need to put behind us the idea that women were not capable of excellent literary creations. Some fictional works of the late Chosŏn have strong romantic plotlines featuring the pursuit of love by women. While the authorship of many of these pieces is not known, some writers were quite sympathetic to the situation of women, the primary audience that read these works. One novel that might well have been written by a woman is the aforementioned Unyŏngjŏn written in the early seventeenth century.31 This work features unbridled passion on the part of the female protagonist, Unyŏng, and also her blind fall into a passionate yet illegal love affair.32 In the following excerpt from a letter written by Unyŏng to the object of her love, we can see the depth of her longing: Looking at you through the beaded blinds, I imagined my fate as your wife, and seeing you in my dreams, I continued the love that I will never forget. I was too sad to listen to the song of the cuckoo in the pear tree or the sound of the night rain on the leaves of the paulownia tree. I could not even gaze at the trails of the fireflies outside my window or the lonely shadow of the solitary lamp in my room. Sometimes I just sit absently by the folding screen, and at other times, I alone go out to the railing where I secretly appeal to the blue sky for relief from the pent-up rancor that binds the blood in my breast. I do not know: is my love also thinking of me? If I suddenly die before seeing my dearest, even if the heavens and earth vanish, my deeply sorrowful heart will not disappear.33

In this work, the female protagonist does not simply long for her lover but takes an active role in realizing her wishes. As a matter of fact, she is the one that makes all of the preparations and plans for the two lovers to come



Translators' Introduction

13

together, including arranging for a secret tryst with him at the palace. She describes their first night together as: I put out the lamp and went to the sleeping mat with him; the pleasure of that night, I cannot describe with words. The night soon turned to dawn; as the rooster urged the daybreak, the chinsa rose and went back.34 From that time on, there was not a night that he did not come at dusk and take leave at dawn. Our love became deeper and our affection for each other grew even warmer: we did not know how to stop these meetings.35

While this is a fictional work, I believe that the focus on romantic love— as opposed to novels focusing on sexual conquest by males—matches the expectations that many women had for their own lives. The focus on romantic love and the female viewpoint in Unyŏng-jŏn is a very strong clue as to the authorship. We are hard pressed to find other novels of this period that have similar qualities. The world as viewed by a woman stands in great contrast to contemporary works such as Chu Saengjŏn (周生傳 The tale of Master Chu) or Wi Kyŏngch’ŏn-jŏn (韋敬天傳 The tale of Wi Kyŏngch’ŏn), where the male protagonists pursue their passions with a blind determination for the conquest of the object of their lust. Other fictional works that might in some way owe their creation to women would include narratives such as Changhwa Hongnyŏn-jŏn (薔花紅 蓮傳 The tale of Changhwa and Hongnyŏn) and K’ongjwi P’atchwi-jŏn (The tale of K’ongjwi and P’atchwi), which might well have roots found in the stories circulating in the oral culture of Chosŏn.36 This connection between oral and written cultures helps demonstrate the common bond between these inputs in the writings of some women. While there is a need for further study of these tales, an examination of the basic storylines reveals that these are narratives told of women and from primarily a sympathetic view of the hardships that some women might have faced in Chosŏn. This retelling of women’s lives and the positive resolutions in these stories indicate that women saw injustices that they wished to overcome in some fashion. Thus, the cathartic value of these narratives was quite high for women and reflects a female view of the world of late Chosŏn rather than that of what we could expect of males in the same period. Another genre of fiction that was highly popular among elites in late Chosŏn was works centering on domestic life of upper-status families. Known variously as kyubang (閨房) or lineage (家門) novels, these works were the products of upper-status women who wished to emphasize the “elite” aspects of their lineage, whether real or imagined. Ksenia Chizhova writes that the novels were highly educational and that they shared a

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common “moral paradigm with Confucian classics and histories.”37 Beyond that importance, the widespread presence of such literary works helps to demonstrate a very pervasive literacy among upper-status women by this period. In short, all these types of fictional works quite clearly indicate that women of the upper-status groups were not only consumers of literature in the late Chosŏn, but also producers of the same. Educational Works by Women The Encyclopedia examined here presents an interesting case of a practical guidebook and its consumption among women of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But it was not the first of the Korean educational works written by and for women. That honor would seem to belong to Queen Sohye (昭惠 王后 1437–1504), who compiled the Naehun (內訓 Instructions for the inner quarters) in the late fifteenth century.38 This was a work that was derived from various Chinese source materials and aimed at fashioning Confucian behaviors among upper-status women at this time. Subsequently we can cite the creation of Ŭmsik timibang by Lady Chang of Andong, which was followed by other such works. But works that centered on education beyond the household were certainly the dominant category for these works. The vast majority of such works were written by males to instruct females in proper behaviors,39 but there were also those that are thought to have been written by women. Most important here is the rather enigmatic work entitled Konbŏm (壼範 Rules for women). This midto late-eighteenth-century work was less a code for proper behaviors than it was a primer explaining the important Confucian works of the day, thus giving women an understanding of Confucianism.40 Also, in the field of educational works are the treatises on Confucianism written by late-Chosŏn female philosophers. Im Yunjidang (任允摯堂 1721– 1793) and Kang Chŏngildang (姜靜一堂 1722–1832) sought to understand Confucianism more fully and saw their own studies of Confucianism as part of their own quests for sagehood, much the same as males of the same time would have. Given the conflicts between Confucianism and women in this period, Youngmin Kim has argued that their works are invaluable sources that clearly reveal how some woman of their time viewed Confucianism.41 And finally, works such as The Encyclopedia examined here helped to bring a full array of knowledge to women and their daily lives. The fact that such works were produced and seemingly highly popular helps us understand that these works were quite necessary for women of this time. Beyond the educational aspects of these works, there is also the understandable comfort and comradeship in hearing a woman’s voice



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instruct. Such encounters for women were important as it allowed them to hear their own voices within the text.42 Shamanic Narratives and Women Without doubt, shamanism43 and folk practices were largely the domain of women by the mid- to late Chosŏn period. Much has been written on this, so I will not belabor the importance of these spaces to women of this time. Suffice it to state that this worldview provided women a space where they could live their lives outside of the dominant Confucian values that dictated social norms elsewhere.44 Important to this discussion are the shamanic songs that were prominent during this time: muga (巫歌) were primarily created by women and for a female audience, and they well illuminate the function of providing a mental space for fulfillment and release. Interesting in many shamanic narratives is the prominent role of women and how they are able to contend with difficulties on their own. Unlike official or public life, where women were somewhat limited in their public roles, shamanic narratives opened new spaces and roles to women. Fictional characters were able to overturn injustices, contend with discrimination, and accomplish things that men could only dream of doing. These shamanic “superwomen” provided women with momentary release from the difficulties or, at the very least, the confinements of reality. As with any fictional work, the audiences of these narratives were able to live vicariously through the protagonists, and this allowed them to contend with hardships or limitations elsewhere in their lives. Perhaps the most frequently examined shamanic narrative in this regard is that of Pari kongju (바리公主 The abandoned princess).45 In this narrative we find a female protagonist who overcomes every type of difficulty, ably fills the role of an eldest son, travels to the next world and back, and even overturns death! What man could accomplish such a litany of deeds? Pari kongju was a very well-known narrative in premodern Korea, but performances were still well attended. The importance of the narrative was in providing women with a positive role model, one who was able to overcome the difficulties in Chosŏn society that many upper-status-group women faced: social discrimination in regard to males, inability to take active roles outside of the home, and lack of choice regarding their futures. Through Princess Pari, women could vicariously experience many aspects of life that were otherwise off-limits to them. Moreover, through gatherings with other women to listen to this song, women could share moments of drama, heart-wrenching sorrow, and elation.46 It was very much through

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models such as Princess Pari that women were able to contend with the difficulties of the strict patriarchal system of the late Chosŏn. Other shamanic narratives display a similar model of strong and able female role models such as Princess Pari. Chesŏk kut (帝釋 굿 Rites to the Chesŏk deities)47 features another female protagonist that is able to surmount difficulties resultant from a restrictive social system. The protagonist of this narrative is Tanggŭm-aegi, a daughter of an upper-status family who is impregnated out of wedlock by the magic of a monk. Abandoned by her family, she manages to alone raise three sons—who become Buddhist deities—and eventually travels to India to find the father of the children. Here the resolve of the protagonist to overcome the unwarranted rejection by her family and raise her sons properly is a model for women put into difficult circumstances. As in some literary works of the late Chosŏn, we also find women that control great military power in shamanic narratives. These songs demonstrate to female audience members the ability of women to act in roles not open to them in reality and allow vicarious satisfaction in the ability to solve their own problems, especially in terms of security. Ch’ilmŏrit-dang (칠머릿‌당 Song of Ch’ilmŏrit shrine) retells the history of a goddess who leads a million-strong army to Cheju Island, where she settles at a shrine in Cheju City.48 Here, the goddess protects the island people against invasion and also grants prosperity to those who worship at her shrine. While this is not a particularly well-developed character, the fact that a goddess leads such an imposing army reveals desires for the personal safety of women audience members and, further, the hope to ensure such safety without the help of males. While these shamanic narratives were not written literature, they do help demonstrate the circulation of knowledge by oral means. This, as will be further discussed below, was an important component to The Encyclopedia, which flows from a work based on written sources to oral knowledge at times. We can further note at several points within The Encyclopedia that Lady Yi uses incantations to achieve a desired result, such as changing the gender of a fetus, and also the common use of a talisman to ward off malicious spirits. This indicates that literature and knowledge were not necessarily as black-and-white as print on a page. Lady Yi clearly adds to her work with oral accounts that she had heard or experienced firsthand. And it also seems certain that like shamanic narratives, The Encyclopedia also has a ­composer-group element in its creation, as some of the entries must have been added after Lady Yi’s death. Thus, like the shamanic narratives that were created by generations of shamans and transmitted orally, The Encyclopedia also demonstrates characteristics that would have been common



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among womenfolk and their writings and culture in the late Chosŏn. Yi Hyesun notes that The Encyclopedia demonstrates a fusion of folk beliefs with practical experience, thus the blending of everyday life with scholarship.49 This is the window with which we can understand how upper-status women in the late Chosŏn created and consumed literary and educational works.

Pinghŏgak Yi-ssi (憑虛閣 李氏) Lady Yi was born in Hanyang50 in 1759 and died in 1824 at the age of sixtysix. As was common for yangban women of her time, her personal name is not known, but rather we know her by her pen name of Pinghŏgak, meaning the one who relies on no other. She was the daughter of Yi Ch’angsu (李昌‌壽 b. 1710), who served as director of the Royal House Administration (判敦寧 府事), among other government positions. Her mother was the paternal aunt of Yu Hŭi (柳僖 1773–1837), who is known for writing Ŏnmun chi (‌諺‌文‌志 Treatise on the vulgar script) and the aforementioned Mulmyŏng ko. She is said to have been a bright child and already able in Literary Chinese by the age of fifteen.51 She learned works such as the Maoshi (毛詩 Mao’s book of odes) and Xiaoxue (小學 Elementary learning) on her father’s knee from a young age and was said to have been an avid reader with an excellent memory.52 In 1773, she married Sŏ Yubon (徐有本 1762–1822), who was the elder brother of the aforementioned Sŏ Yugu, the writer of Imwŏn simnyuk chi (Sixteen treatises written in retirement). Given the pursuit of scholarship all around her, it is not surprising that she too had a penchant for learning. This further influenced her writing style and was similar to her family members who were among the leaders of the of the observation-based scholarship that was taking place at this time.53 Not a great deal is known of Lady Yi’s life, beyond her own writing in the introduction of the Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ and elsewhere in that volume. In the introduction, she informs her readers that she had moved with her husband in the fall of the kisa year (1809), and they were staying at the Haengjŏng Pavilion (杏亭) at the Eastern Lake.54 She states that she had much free time beyond cooking and thus began to read the books of value to daily life in her husband’s study. We can see her Confucian humbleness in setting out to write this volume though, as she states: In general, what womenfolk do does not leave the inner rooms. Even if one has more talent than others and intelligence to understand the things of old and new, it is not righteous for a woman to embrace this and not keep her beauty inside.55

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Yet, despite her words, she writes that she compiled this work as a means to attend to one’s health. This understanding of taking care of the body was a pillar of the Confucian principle of filial piety by the late Chosŏn. Maintaining health was an important element of filial piety, that is, taking care of the body bequeathed to one by their ancestors.56 She thus saw this work as a part of her duty to herself, her family, and her descendants. This extension of Confucian morality to daily life by women is seen elsewhere in Chosŏn, such as in the aforementioned writings of Lady Chang of Andong. Simply put, this was a means by which women could demonstrate their mastery of Confucian morality in their accepted day-to-day roles. Lady Yi seems rather an exemplar of the upper-status woman in her actions throughout her life. She was devoted to her family and followed her husband wherever he was posted or exiled to in his career in the service of the government. She seems to have had a deep love of scholarship and most certainly was attracted to the vibrant intellectual world of her husband and his relatives. Her husband even wrote a poem about her that describes this love: My wife who lives in the mountains knows well of insects and fish, And there was nothing that she was not able to do in managing the country house. Under the bright moonlight in the reeds, we are together in a dream, Following the Lize, [she] compiles her writings.57

The Lize (笠澤) is a reference to the Tang China work titled Lize congshu (‌笠‌澤 叢書 Collectaneum by Lize) compiled by the scholar Lu Guimeng (陸龜蒙 d. ca. 881). Her husband mentions this in his poem to mark her compilation of The Encyclopedia. Certainly, her life was not an easy one, though, notwithstanding her status. Poverty seems to have been often a problem, but her demeanor was always exemplary. Her husband wrote of how they faced hardships together and that she would “each year weave silken fabric from the silkworms she had raised, and treat him to wine she had brewed with every sort of flower.”58 In examining the content of The Encyclopedia, it is clear that she was quite capable of preparing a vast array of liquors, dishes, and confections. In fact, due to economic difficulties, the couple had moved from the capital to the countryside, where they earned a living while engaged in sericulture and small-scale farming. Her hands-on experience in managing a rural household is quite clear in reading through this work. While she did use many sources to compile The Encyclopedia, she did not necessarily repeat everything that the other sources contained.59 We could posit that



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Lady Yi sought to share the most relevant information with her readers, and also the information that she had personally experienced. Thus, more than a straightforward borrowing from other texts—which she did to a great extent—we can note that she critically examined the content and modified it for her readership. It took Lady Yi over ten years to compile The Encyclopedia. Shortly thereafter, in 1822, her husband died, and this was essentially the end for Lady Yi as well. She is said to have mourned and abstained from washing and food before following him into death a mere nineteen months later.60 What remains is her work, which continued to influence readers long after her death.

Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ (閨閤叢書) While this work is thought to have been written around 1809, this was not verified until much later. The work circulated in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as mainly an unsigned handwritten manuscript; there was also a woodblock print as well, but it was not as widespread.61 It became more widely known in 1939, when it was introduced to the reading public by the Tonga ilbo newspaper on January 31 of that year. The work was linked to Lady Yi after a copy was discovered at a descendant’s home in Chinsŏ of Changyŏn County in Hwanghae Province (津西長淵郡黃海‌道). This complete copy, however, disappeared during the ensuing tumultuous period, and it is not known if it is still extant today. Extant are a 1869 woodblock print version known as the Karam mun’go pon (가람文庫‌本), a truncated woodblock version with the title Punyŏ p’ilchi (婦女必知 Indispensable knowledge for womenfolk), a sixty-eight page handwritten copy held at the National Library (國立圖書館), a handwritten copy held at Yŏngp’yŏng Temple (永平寺所藏本), and a handwritten version of six fascicles owned by Chŏng Yangwan.62 The translation in this volume is based on the Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ first published in 1975 by Pojinjae and annotated by Chŏng Yangwan. This work used the various extant works to piece together a fuller translation and to help clarify differing terms. In the translation that follows, we have noted when the text is supplemented with other renditions, particularly the Yŏngp’yŏng Temple version. It is safe to assume that the original text was written in the Korean script, although some of the versions mentioned above do add Chinese characters at points for clarification. The annotator for the 1975 version mentions the difficulty of the text—various errors in spelling, Chinese terms being written in only the Korean pronunciation, and so on.63 It is also of note that

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there was no orthography for Korean until the twentieth century and that modern features of the Korean language such as punctuation did not exist at the time this work was written. Thus, the work that we are building this English-language translation on has numerous problems in regards to absolute clarity. We can make educated assumptions at what the original writer wanted to convey, but this is not always a concrete truth. Rather, based on the annotations, our own extrapolations, and the knowledge of expert ­colleagues in Korea, we have striven to provide the most plausible translations into English. Determining readership of the text is difficult, if not impossible. We do know that there are various versions of the work, and this in turn can be seen as an indicator of popularity, especially in the case of popular fiction. The subject of circulating libraries (貰冊 saech’aek) has certainly been well examined, particularly in the case of novels that enjoyed popular readership by womenfolk.64 However, there is a difference between novels that circulated as a form of entertainment and educational books such as the work examined in this volume. For example, as shown above, women were criticized by some males for reading novels; yet, we see no such harsh words directed at women who read didactic works such as encyclopedias or cookbooks. Particularly, how does one go about determining how often a certain work was read and by whom it was read? Further obfuscating the problem is the lack of a commercial book market in Chosŏn Korea such as was present in contemporary Beijing or Edo. Thus, we cannot truly look at the market for a particular title as a means to determine the readership of a given book. There does seem clear indication that The Encyclopedia was relatively well circulated for an educational work. Pu Kilman writes that this was one of the widely available domestic guidebooks published in Korean, albeit not nearly as well circulated as the popular novels of late Chosŏn.65 Seeing how Lady Yi intended the work to be shared among her daughters and daughters-in-law, we can posit that the text took on new directions as these readers copied the manuscript and shared it among their relatives and in-laws. This helps explain the various renditions, titles, and lengths of the extant manuscripts. However, the exact path that the work Lady Yi created in the early nineteenth century took to the work of the present day is a murky one that probably will never be fully revealed. Contents The Encyclopedia contains five volumes covering food and drink, needlework and weaving, managing a rural household, disease and medicines, and



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suppressing evil spirits and keeping a household spiritually clean. The present translation is of approximately half the work and covers the first volume on food and drink, and the fourth volume on prenatal care and medicine. These we thought would be of the most use to scholars and readers of today, as they convey very practical information applied directly to lives in those times. The volume on food and drink helps us realize that Korean cuisine is far from static and has undergone great changes over the past two centuries. While today Korean cuisine has spread globally, this work will offer another picture of how people in past times might have eaten and drunk. The eclecticism found in the recipes present here—ancient Chinese dishes, various porridges, fermented vegetables, fish and meat dishes—demonstrate a far different picture of how people might have really eaten in this time period. Likewise, the great many liquors described by Lady Yi point to the creativity of creating new drinks made of the various elements available to her. It is also interesting to see the large number of remedies for over-consumption of drink and the preparations to limit or keep people from drinking. She begins the first fascicle with her worldview on food, humans, and how one should appreciate the things brought before them at mealtime. This is perhaps an aspect of her worldview that was influenced by a mix of Confucianism, Buddhism, and folk beliefs, or just her general humbleness, which had been gained through a difficult life dotted with poverty and hardships. The entry “Five Aspects Scholar Families Should Observe When Eating” reminds her readers to do the following: consider the labor and efforts that went into the production of the foods before them; be filial, be loyal to the monarch, and put others before oneself; guard against greed and desire; treat food as medicine for the body; and eat only after performing one’s duties fully. In this brief entry, we can see Lady Yi’s worldview clearly and understand that she wishes to impart to her readers the need to always be aware of what one is doing and how it affects others. Following is the liquor section, which is a mixture of Lady Yi’s recipes through her own experiences, those that she learned from others, and those that she read about in the books of her husband’s study. There are a number of entries on liquors of various countries, liquors that were made in Chinese states, and dozens of fantastical names of liquors recorded in history books. One could wonder why she went to the trouble of simply listing names without recipes or even full descriptions of these liquors, but perhaps the importance of liquor as an element of hosting others was her rationale. These exotic liquors of China and elsewhere demonstrate the universal importance of drink across boundaries.

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She then moves to her liquor recipes, which detail what ingredients to use and on what days to do so, and the like. What we can see with these very detailed instructions is the importance of making liquors within the turning of the cosmic cycle, and this is indicative of her understandings of East Asian cosmology concerning aspects such as yin and yang, the Five Phases, and folk practices. After describing the various liquors, she then moves to food taboos, how to protect one’s health from over-consumption of liquor, and how to get others to stop drinking. Her methods for the latter are all to be done ­unbeknownst to the drinker, and some are amusing, such as mixing the ash of hawk dung with liquor. She acknowledged the unhealthy aspects of alcohol and terms it a poison that will damage one’s body if over-consumed. This is somewhat ironic as she provides so many recipes, but also telling of how liquor was consumed among the upper-status elites in Chosŏn. She concludes with the following commentary: “As liquor is a crazy medicine that changes the minds of people, it is not something a house should revere, but nonetheless still something that exists. Also, since womenfolk should manage food and wine, I added recipes for making wines at the start.”66 The text then moves on to food preparation and fittingly begins with recipes for making chang,67 or soy sauce. Given the importance of these condiments to Korean cuisine, it is not surprising that Lady Yi devotes much length to various recipes and auspicious days for making this. We can find various records that inform of the importance of chang and the need for the family to take in preparation and storage of this condiment.68 Following this are sections on rice, porridges, and teas before delving into various recipes for kimch’i. Given the importance of this side dish to the cuisine of Korea this is not unexpected. However, readers will be interested to see the kinds of kimch’i described in the volume. While we can find the staples of today’s Korean food, such as the kimch’i made with Chinese cabbage, we can also note fermented dishes made with wax gourds, mountain mustard leaf, and eggplant. Lady Yi then discusses various marine products at length. This section is interesting not just for the recipes but also for the various taboos and stories associated with sea creatures. We are told that “the eyes will greatly be damaged if the smoke when grilling carp reaches the eyes,”69 that “puffer fish possesses all of these five elements, we can guess how poisonous they are without even asking,”70 and that northern snakehead “is an amazing medicine for supplying blood for women since it floats in the water and breathes in the vital energy of Ursa Major (七星精氣) through the seven holes in its head.”71 The knowledge transmitted in this section is an excellent glimpse into the types of marine creatures consumed in the late Chosŏn



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period and helps us better understand the prominent position of fish and other sea creatures in the diet of this time. Likewise, Lady Yi is at her best when discussing meats and the various dangers to be avoided in consuming them. Beef is followed by dog meat. We can read that yellow dogs, by virtue of being the color of earth (戊己土‌色), thus protect the stomach.72 This makes this particular type of meat very beneficial for women. On the other hand, she follows this with a description as to why black dog is good for the kidneys and thus excellent for men. Going through the text, we can clearly see the link between certain foods and having a healthy body, no doubt a prime motivation for compiling this work. After meats and fowl are explored, Lady Yi moves on to vegetables and herbs. This section is rather short and gives pause as such. Perhaps the cultivation of vegetables and gathering of herbs was so common that there was no need to have lengthy discussion of how to prepare them. Early on in Chosŏn, there had already been extensive publication by the government on this very subject as a means to combat famine; for example, we can cite the 1554 publication of the Kuhwang ch’waryo (救荒撮要 Concise reference for famine relief), which lists some 851 types of edible plants and herbs. However, for whatever reason, this section is quite brief. The same cannot be said of the lengthy coverage of rice cakes, confections, and sweets, which accounts for twenty-four pages. Perhaps this is for the same reason as the space devoted to liquor production. Confections and rice cakes were important elements in various life rituals such as the birth of a child, marriage, and even ancestral rites. Thus these were foods that demonstrated a household’s devotion to rituals and the various decorums associated with rites. And quite unlike vegetables, these were not daily foods but rather special ones, so instruction was probably needed for the correct preparation. The food section of this work gives some insight into how Koreans might have understood the relation between health and diet. The extensive commentary throughout focuses on the benefits of various foods to humans. We can also sense the preciousness of food as there are many procedures for the preservation of meats, fish, and vegetables throughout the section. Lady Yi also mentions when certain fruits and vegetables are best, and which regions of the country produce the highest quality foods. The second half of this translation is dedicated to prenatal care and treatment of various ailments. Without doubt, the section on childbirth and childrearing was heavily influenced by the writings of her aunt, Yi Sajudang, who as mentioned above compiled T’aegyo sin’gi (New guidelines for prenatal care).73 But there are numerous other sources that she incorporates into

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her work, including various Chinese works and the most important Korean work on medicine, the aforementioned Tongŭi pogam.74 The section begins with prenatal care, including advice concerning the need to observe righteousness in all things such as only acting and thinking in a correct manner while with child. Following this are food and medicine taboos that must stem from ancient folk beliefs. This again reveals Lady Yi’s mastery of not only written texts, but also the myriad folk beliefs and cures that surrounded both pregnancies and medical emergencies.75 To wit, Lady Yi informs us of items such as the following: “if rabbit is eaten, the baby will have a harelip,” “if bird meat and liquor are consumed together, the baby will be lascivious,” and “if terrapin meat is eaten, the baby’s neck will be short like a terrapin.”76 One does wonder if people of Lady Yi’s time actually believed these things, but that notwithstanding, they do seem to indicate the care that a pregnant woman should take to deliver a healthy child. Of course this was not a new concept and dates back to Han dynasty works, such as Lienu Zhuan (烈女傳 Biographies of virtuous women), that instruct pregnant women not to put anything in their mouths that was not perfect in shape or color, even fruits or vegetables. Given the importance of having healthy children—especially males—to women in Chosŏn, perhaps these inclusions are a means to cover all possibilities. We next find a lengthy discussion of how to tell the gender of a fetus and then how to change the sex of the fetus. Such content is highly reflective of the societal pressures for upper-status women in the late Chosŏn to have male children.77 These methods are also highly reminiscent of shamanic or folk incantations as seen in the following: Before three months of pregnancy have passed and without letting others know, dress in one’s husband’s hat and clothes, go to the well of the house alone at the third watch,78 walk around the well in a left direction three times, and implore “man is yang and woman is yin (K. ŭm)” (namwiyangio, yŏwiŭmira) three times, bend the body to make a reflection of herself in the well, and return [to the house] without looking back. She will then definitely have a baby boy.79

Veiled in secrecy and being performed in the middle of night, such a practice demonstrates the eclectic worldview that actually permeated the lives of upper-status families. While much has been made of the Confucianization of late Chosŏn, in practice, everyday lives were a mix of various worldviews and practices as seen in The Encyclopedia. Such an assertion as above is further bolstered by the following section in The Encyclopedia that discusses t’aesal (胎殺), the evil spirits that were be-



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lieved to harm or kill a fetus. Here we see the mix of folk beliefs concerning injurious spirits within East Asian cosmology that gives properties to the times of the day. Certain days in the sexegenary cycle are noted as are the Twelve Earthly Branches as times when the t’aesal are present. Again, the importance of giving birth to a healthy child—preferably a male—coupled with the high infant mortality rates of the premodern period caused women to seek both answers and solutions to this in varying practices.80 If such practices were observed in the elite yangban (兩班)81 families of late Chosŏn, we can easily deduce that these were commonplace throughout society. This again helps us understand that Confucianism—despite its presence looming above many aspects of life—had its limits, and other worldviews exerted a much stronger influence on the actual living of life among all the people. The Encyclopedia clearly demonstrates such a dynamic among worldviews at the upper echelons of society. The text then moves onto matters of delivery of the child, problems arising from delivery, and how to protect the baby from baleful spirits and elements. Here Lady Yi cites from a Buddhist sutra, Changsu-gyŏng (‌長‌壽 經 Sutra for longevity, 1730), and explains why most infants “live short lives and suffer illness.”82 The sutra discusses a multitude of causes that stem from not only the violation of Buddhist prohibitions such as greed or killing animals, but also those that reflect folk beliefs concerning ghosts and spiritual pollution. This eclectitism of worldviews is a hallmark of Lady Yi’s treatise on childbirth and childrearing. The end of the section on childbirth concerns the burial of the child’s umbilical cord. This is directly linked to the longevity of the child, so Lady Yi outlines with great care days and the appropriate directions to accomplish this. She closes the section with a short poem that gives light to the geomantic connection between the burial of the umbilical cord and the child’s future health and well-being: The umbilical cord was buried on Mt. Puyong.83 The baby will be intelligent, noble, and have a long life. A boy’s [umbilical cord] should be buried after five months and a girl’s after three months. It is right to completely bury the umbilical cord.84

From here The Encyclopedia moves to a discussion of various malevolent spirits that will cause harm or death to the child. The complex ritual proprieties that she advocates demonstrate the absolute primacy of doing all that one can to protect the child. Her methods are a complex blend of folk, Buddhist, Daoist and other worldviews. Yet, at the conclusion of this

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section, she reminds us that Confucianism is what drives everything, “For women to be pregnant is to receive the nature of the father and to return it back to the father. It is one of the Three Obediences (三從之道), and thus is important and great.”85 The text next moves to first aid, and she prefaces the section with a short accounting of the Five Phases (五行) and yin/yang, which will come into play for most everything to be discussed hence. She writes: In general, all things in the world have the nature of meeting and parting. When a tiger blows, it gets windy, and when a dragon calls, it gets cloudy. Magnets grab iron needles, amber picks up thatch, paint/lacquer gets scattered by crabs, hemp is sprouted by lacquer, laurel is tenderized by green onions, and trees whither due to the laurels. All the beasts with fur or wings come from the yang and belong to yin, and all the marine animals come from the yin and belong to yang.86

The understanding of this interrelatedness of all things is a pillar of East Asian cosmology and perhaps should be elaborated upon.87 The first mention of the Five Phases dates to the Shangshu (尙書 Book of documents), a work that is often attributed to Confucius. By the Latter Han dynasty (漢 25–220), a sequence for the interaction of the phases had been established. The Phases are not static and are in constant interaction, revealing their transformative qualities. Through the interconnectedness of the Phases are cycles of birthing or generating and regulating or overcoming. For example, the former can be seen in the following sequence: wood feeds fire, fire creates earth (ash), earth generates metal, metal enriches water (via minerals), and water nourishes the earth. The cycle of regulating is seen in this sequence: wood cleaves earth (roots breaking the ground), earth dams water, water extinguishes fire, fire melts metal, and metal cuts wood. This same cycle is seen in how the Five Phases work within the human body. In terms of medicine and diet, the Five Phases are associated with various organs, reactions, tastes, and other matters as detailed in the table below. Such broad knowledge would have guided many aspects of diet, medicine and the general workings of the cosmos, and we can note this in the writings of Lady Yi. The discussion of medicines ensues, and there is a lengthy listing of various combinations of foods and medicines that are to be avoided. Following are remedies for poisoning from meats, fish, fowl, vegetables and so on. As a primary aim of The Encyclopedia was to provide first aid for emergencies, the coverage of various poisonings is quite detailed. Also



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Table 1  The Five Phases and Their Associations Phase

Wood

Fire

Earth

Metal

Water

Direction

East

South

Center

West

North

Season

Spring

Summer

Late autumn

Autumn

Winter

Grain

Barley

Beans

Broomcorn millet Brown rice India millet

Time

Morning

Midday

Afternoon

Evening

Late night

Reaction

Birth

Growth

Change

Harvest

Storage

Taste

Sour

Bitter

Sweet

Spicy

Salty

Color

Blue-green Red

Yellow

White

Black

Sensory organ

Eyes

Tongue

Mouth

Nose

Ears

Five vital organs Liver

Heart

Spleen

Lungs

Kidneys

Six viscera

Small intestine

Stomach

Large intestine

Bladder

Gall

Body

Muscle

Arteries

Skin

Body hair

Bone

Emotion

Anger

Joy

Anxiety

Sorrow

Fear

Sound

Shout

Laughter

Song

Weeping

Moan

included are remedies for burns, cuts, bites, objects stuck in the throat, and splinters. Following is another section where we see the multiplicity in the worldview of the upper-status elites. Lady Yi begins by describing how to make a medicine called “The Firefly Light Medicine of the Fairy” (神仙螢火丹), which she says will “prevent infectious diseases, and no ghost, tiger, various poisons from poisonous snakes, or thieves can attack the person.”88 Subsequently she details how crabs can be used for medicine and also how to avoid the dangers of walking through heavy fog: “When the people walk through a heavy fog, it is said that poisonous energy (毒氣) will not reach the five viscera if one chews grilled unpeeled ginger whole and drinks rice wine (makkŏlli).”89 After covering various other afflictions, Lady Yi moves to anxiety and offers various means to overcome this. She notes that there are different sources for anxiety, but it is worse when greed is the driving force for anxiety. She relays: The one who does not have illness in their mind is not greedy, and the one who is ill in their mind always seeks carelessly. If they are to set the mind at ease by sometimes being alone and sitting properly, sometimes

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The Encyclopedia of Daily Life sitting with the Four Friends (四友),90 and reading books, this will keep a firm basis and allow time to be spent in a leisurely way by resolving the resentment and the cluttered mind; thus one can easily cure the disease and all of the symptoms will disappear.91

While Lady Yi cites Mencius as the source of the above wisdom, the Buddhist view of greed as a cause of suffering is also clear in her words. Following this the text moves to discussion of how things interact. In this lengthy section we can again note the prominence of folk practice with incantatory actions. Thus the advice ranges from the practical—“If lotus root and stems are put in rat holes, the rats disappear, and old tea leaves can be burnt to get rid of flies”92—to the fantastic—“If two dragonflies are buried under the outside door of kitchen facing the west on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and not fed for three days, they are said to turn into blue pearls.”93 It is this combination of practical, scientific, and fantastic that highlights the text and understandings of how things work and interact. While Lady Yi is not necessarily writing that these things absolutely work, she is nonetheless conveying the information as being heard of or possible. Other advice is probably reflective of the times in which Lady Yi lived. Slaves (奴婢) were a major source of labor for yangban families, but runaway slaves were also a significant problem, as the government had neither the resources nor the interest to track down runaways slaves. Thus, we find some ways to keep such an event from happening: If a runaway’s clothes are wrapped around the center of a well, the runaway will return of his her own will; if the seam on the back of a servants’ clothes is broad-stitched to the width of one cha and six ch’i (about 48 cm) out of thread made from hemp that was used to wrap up an earthenware steamer, the servants will not think about running away.94

Likewise, we are informed how to keep a husband and wife happy together and to bring harmony to a house in general: “If the wife’s hair is buried in the ground in front of the kitchen, the husband and wife will live saccharinely; if someone else’s hair is buried in the ground in front of the kitchen, people will not become angry and always smile.”95 As the work continues, we find many other such entries that would seem to demonstrate a widespread belief in the incantations or other offerings that will cause spirits to intervene on behalf of the supplicant. The work continues with many entries taken from Chinese sources that border on the fantastic. As one reads through these entries, it gives rise to the thought that there is probably no way that people actually believed such



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things, but nonetheless they were commonly circulated among the people. We are told how to disappear—“Make a powder out of a white dog’s gallbladder, dried t’ongch’o (Tetrapanax papyriferus) stems, and the inside yellowish part of a cinnamon tree, mix, make small globules, and take”96—and how to walk on water—“According to Suyang ch’ongsŏ (壽養叢‌書 Collected works of Suyang), catch a spider with a red abdomen on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, dry it in shade under the roof for one hundred days, make powder out of it, and apply it on the feet. Then one can easily walk on water.”97 Perhaps this is Lady Yi’s way of demonstrating that she had knowledge of such things, but at no point does she actually state that she has experienced such matters. This is quite unlike elsewhere in the work, where she mentions her personal experiences. The text then moves to methods for ridding oneself/one’s house of pests. This section seems to clearly indicate the types of pests that gave the most trouble to people in Chosŏn. The offenders are predictable and include rats, mosquitoes, fleas, lice, bedbugs, and cockroaches, among others. Some methods are amusing (and perhaps effective): “If a phallus of a large rat is cut off and the rat is released, it will be better than a cat to bite and kill all the rats in the house.”98 Some seem derived from experience: “Put two to three ton (7.5–11.25 grams) of mercury with one ton (3.75 grams) of dried arrowroot powder on one’s palm and mix with saliva. Put this in cotton, twist and make string, wear on the waist, and lice will disappear.”99 Finally, there are those that seem to use talisman or incantatory method to achieve an end: “Write characters for wind (風) and between (間) and put them between the windows and on the wall, and there will then be no more mosquitoes.”100 The various methods discussed perhaps demonstrate how remedies circulated among the people with some basis on authoritative texts—such as Chinese works—others perhaps arising from experience, and still others based on age-old folk practices. This volume ends with a lengthy accounting of the various regional goods; descriptions of animals, birds, and insects; and how to treat various illnesses. As has been discussed above, the practices are a blend of many worldviews and sources. Lady Yi adds her commentary on whether she has experienced certain things or not, where she has heard things from, and so on. It is clear to this writer that she was truly engaged with many of these practices and had tried them. For malaria, which must have been quite common, she writes, “Steam five or six Korean apricots when cooking rice, make forty-nine pellet medicines, boil Korean apricot tea before sunrise, and take seven pills with the tea seven times a day when malarial symptoms occur. This is also very efficacious.”101 What seems to truly stand out in this work is the blend of worldviews

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and the ease with which Lady Yi moves from recipes for food and drink, to science—as in the Five Phases and yin-yang—to folk practice, and to tales of the fantastic. The blend of these aspects and others helps us to better understand life in the domestic sphere of late Chosŏn. Lady Yi’s life roles seems to have covered everything from Confucian matriarch, to traditional doctor, to shaman conducting rites, to storyteller of the fantastic. And while she was no doubt a unique individual with her own insights, we do not believe that she was in essence fundamentally different from other women of her status and time. Their lives were an agglomeration of worldviews and practices and thus defy simplistic classifications.

Lady Yi and Her Worldview While working through the various drafts and revisions of this translation, the voice and worldview of Lady Yi has become quite vivid to the translators of this work. Far from a distant figure whose inner thoughts cannot be ascertained, Lady Yi has come forward as a vibrant personality with much to offer her readers. Her personal asides give life to the work, as do her occasional humorous remarks. She is quite unlike what one would expect of a Chosŏn-period writer, and rather much like someone that one could meet today and enjoy their company. What seems most interesting is the humanness of her intent towards others and desire to share her knowledge. While of course all people in past times were indeed humans, at times when studying historical writings, this human touch is not always highly visible. This is sometimes due to the constraints of writing style or medium, such as Literary Chinese. Following certain forms and conveying information in an accepted manner tended to limit the human element from becoming readily apparent in many writings. In the case of Lady Yi, however, she was not particular bound by writing style or the constraints of an accepted means of transmitting knowledge. Writing in the han’gŭl script freed her from the limitations of following a prescribed writing style in a second language (i.e., Literary Chinese). Further, the use of the vernacular gave her the ability to use idiomatic expressions, describe actions that other Chosŏn women would easily understand, and even colloquialize expressions otherwise only written in Literary Chinese. There is also the confluence of her knowledge, derived from both written and oral sources; this too speaks to the multiplicity of the circulation of knowledge among womenfolk in late Chosŏn. Of course, there is a downside to all this freedom of expression in her writing: in the translation of this text, we have found numerous points where the exact meaning of Lady Yi’s



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writing is simply not ascertainable. Particularly, some expressions used in cooking or preparing medicine are not clear, and the myriad plants, herbs, and minerals used in her recipes are sometimes very difficult to pinpoint with exactness given the obvious spatial distance. The items that she chose to include in her work are also telling of how she saw her world. In the food and medicine sections that are translated in the present volume, we find some noteworthy trends. In the food section the main feature is the emphasis on liquors, teas, confections, and meat dishes, all of which point to the creation of items that would be used for entertainment of others or rites of the household. This focus is seen in other Chosŏn-period cookbooks—of note, Ŭmsik timibang (Recipes for tasty food). Concerning the quite similar content of this work, Lee SoonGu wrote that this demonstrates the author’s competency in conducting “ancestral rites and serving honored guests, which were the most important roles for an upper-status group women.”102 Regardless of how Lady Yi saw herself within Chosŏn society, her role as a wife of an upper-status male was to manage the home in a manner that befitted her status, and that would have included preparing ritual foods and drink, along with serving guests. Thus, notwithstanding the very eclectic worldviews we can see in her writing, her duties to the household are reflected in the inclusion of certain types of foods. This was also the exact type of knowledge that she needed to convey to the womenfolk of her house. Yet along with the needed information are the influences of other worldviews seen in the need for selecting auspicious dates for brewing both liquor and chang, magical elixirs to prevent drunkenness, and so on. Her duty to her family was not only in observing Confucian decorum, but further to ensure success in their endeavors. Her humor comes forth as well, especially in this most interesting aside when describing the slender shad: “It is commonly said that there are five types of han (恨) and one of those is that the slender shad has too many bones.”103 Such a statement seems almost sacreligous given the importance that han is given by some writers of Korea today, but for Lady Yi in the early nineteenth century, it was something that must have seemed both humerous and fitting for this maddenly bony fish. One can only imagine her reaction to volumes dedicated to this emotion today. Also noticable are her sentiments on what is morally acceptable when giving a recipe for steamed piglets: If obtaining a pregnant pig take out small mice-like things from the womb and clean thoroughly. Season and put back into the womb again and steam whole. The taste is immeasurably beautiful, but it is not easy to get hold

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The Encyclopedia of Daily Life of these, and further not a virtuous thing to slaughter intentionally. Thus, instead, get a tender pig and scald.104

Her voice is strong and clear, and this must have easily been discernable to her readers. One should be guided by principle and morality above all else. The medicine section is likewise an amalgam of worldviews that help us understand the complexity of life in the late Chosŏn. We see the fears of women over not having sons and the many means to ensure that the fetus will in fact be male. She also expresses her concerns on whether these methods actually work: “In general, when an embryo becomes a fetus, it is said to be divided into left and right. It is not likely that female embryo would become male embryo, but I write this here since it is recorded in medical books and there were cases that people had experienced as such at that time.”105 Perhaps she is just doing her duty in covering the various methods to change the sex of the fetus, but she goes on to caution that some of the methods she has recorded could actually be dangerous and cause the loss of the fetus altogether, and “this could make one guilty for a hundred cycles [if one was to lose a baby].”106 Here we can simply see her concern for the well-being of all babies and their mothers. Perhaps most notable in this section is the syncretic worldview of Lady Yi. The blend of folk practice, East Asian science based in the Five Phases and yin-yang, and cosmology is strikingly visable. The combination of elements and time to be either followed or avoided is throughout. So too is the interaction between various plants and animals and the body. Times too matter, and this is derived from practices surrounding the Four Pillars (‌四‌柱)107 that govern human lives. From all this interrelatedness, one could ponder on how difficult it must have been to follow such complicated practices in reality. However, from reading Lady Yi’s instructions we can see that knowledge like this must have been so deeply ingrained in the lives of the people that one did not really have to think much about it, but simply follow the “right” course of action. Finally, in working through the entries on medicine and even food, it is abundantly clear that Lady Yi was indeed the master of her world. Her knowledge of the environment, where to find certain things, and what properties they had is vast. In a time when food poisoning, animal and insect bites, and illness must have been quite common, one needed quick and accurate medical advice, and this is where Lady Yi shines. For flat spider bites, “Apply lye, potassium powder, and orpiment paste mixed with vinegar”108; for poisoning from vegetables, “Give one ton (3.75 grams) of burned black chicken droppings mixed with water, and take a lot of oil”109; and for dysentery, it “heals if three blooms of rose mallow are boiled and taken; do



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this three times.”110 It seems there was little that could not be conquered in Lady Yi’s writings.

The Translation While we have done our utmost to ensure a smooth, readable, and accurate translation to our readers, we realize that there are very real limitations to this work. First is simply that of distance from Lady Yi and her world. In the two centuries that have passed since she began this compilation, much has changed. And a large part of the change concerns the transmission of knowledge. In Lady Yi’s world, there were largely two means to transmitting knowledge: orally and with a written text. The Encyclopedia is a blending of these two ideals, as we can note in her asides to what she has heard or otherwise experienced. While the greatest portion of the information in the work is from written materials, she nonetheless interjects her opinions and firsthand knowledge. The Encyclopedia is thus like many other works of late Chosŏn, a blend of oral and written literatures. The orality of the text also results in terms and descriptions that are not presently found in Korean. This too has resulted in places that are unclear in the text. One of the main obstacles in translating this volume is the identification of various herbs, plants, fish, and minerals. For the most part Lady Yi uses terminology that can be labeled localized or indigenized. That is, she names these items in the language of her day, locality, and experience. Moreover, since she wrote in han’gŭl and only provided the pronunciation for Chinese characters in han’gŭl (a practice termed ŭmdok), it is at times very difficult to ascertain the present-day name of the plant or mineral. While the annotator of the volume translated here provides Chinese characters at places, it is at times simply an educated guess at what the original might have been. In the following translation, we have provided the scientific names for plants, animals, marine products, and minerals wherever possible. Along with the Latin binominal name, we have also added an English name where possible, and where not possible have included just the Korean name. While the methodology is not perfect and there are some inconsistencies in modern-day terms, in the end most everything translated below has been given enough detail that cross-referencing should be possible. It is also noteworthy that some plant/animal names in Korea are presently being renamed through efforts by the Korean government. Many plants were first classified during the Japanese colonial period in the early twentieth century, and this has resulted in plants that are indigenous to

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the Korean peninsula having Japanese scientific and common names.111 Some common examples include the maehwa (梅花 Prunus mume), which is commonly referred to as either the Chinese plum or Japanese apricot; however, this is misleading to the Western reader, and thus we have used the Korean plum in our translation. Other plants have different scientific names throughout East Asia, such as sŭnggŏmch’o, which is known in Korea as Angelica gigas, in China as Angelica sinensis, and in Japan as Angelica acu­ tiloba, although they all refer to the same plant.112 We have also used traditional Korean units for weights and measure. While these units could be somewhat ambiguous in the past, it was how Lady Yi measured and weighed. We have added metric equivalents as well, so if one desired to make a certain recipe or concoction, it would be possible. Finally, we have opted to use Lady Yi’s titles for the various sections rather than those of the annotator. While the annotator’s subtitles are perhaps more easily traced into modern Korean, the fact of the matter is that there is no way to see if this is always correct. We felt it more faithful to the original text to stay with Lady Yi’s terminology. A final note is that this work seems to have been added to after the death of Lady Yi. We find this in added entries at spots, references to works that were not available during her life, and in inconsistencies between dates given for an event and the span of her life. For example, Imha p’ilgi (‌林下 筆記 Random jottings by Imha) is cited in the text when discussing how to increase one’s ability to read/write, but this work was written by an individual who would have compiled his work long after Lady Yi’s death.113 At other spots we find the same manner of inconsistencies that demonstrate that Lady Yi was not the only compiler of the work we have at present. This brings us back to the nature of the work: that is, a blend of written works and oral traditions, the latter of which would absolutely lend itself to adding or augmenting an existing tradition. Such a practice was common in shamanic narratives, folk songs, legends, myths, and elsewhere, and thus the authorship of such works is generally attributed to a composer group rather than an individual. While Lady Yi probably did compile the largest part of The Encyclopedia, it is important to acknowledge that the work continued to grow after her death. Thus, like an oral tale, The Encyclopedia continued to evolve as Lady Yi’s daughters and daughters-in-law added their contributions as the work spread in nineteenth-century Korea.

Preface

In fall of the kisa year (1809), we were are staying at the Haengjŏng Pavilion (杏亭) at the Eastern Lake. In my spare time between cooking rice and preparing side dishes, I went to my husband’s quarters and read the desperately needed writings of practical use in our daily lives, sought out others that were buried in fields or mountains [in seclusion], and read everything my hands could reach only to expand my knowledge and to pass the time. Suddenly it came to mind that people in the old days said a good memory is not as good as poor writing. How could this knowledge be helpful if not recorded for the time when I will [inevitably] forget? Thus, when reading, I selected the most useful information and sometime added my own opinions as well. I have come up with five volumes. The first volume is on foods and liquors. It contains recipes for making soy sauce and soy paste, liquor, rice, rice cakes, confections, fruits, and many different side dishes. The second covers sewing and weaving. I have ­included information for measuring clothing and patterns for tailoring scholar and court robes, as well as dying, weaving, embroidering, and breeding silkworms. It also contains sundry information such as how to mend cookware and how to light lamps. The third is on rustic life. The major concern is domestic farming life from how to manage farm work, plant flowers and bamboo, and raise horses, cows, and chickens. The fourth is concerned with childbirth and medical remedies. Here I discuss prenatal education, know-how for raising a baby, cutting the umbilical cord, first aid, and places that are harmful for the fetus, along with various drug taboos. The fifth contains methods to keep a home spiritually clean and to suppress evil spirits, and ways to keep yin and yang in a home and drive out evil spirits and curses. Using this, readers should be able prevent unexpected ordeals and keep a distance from the deceptions of male (覡) and female (巫) shamans. In general, I tried to write broadly and explain in detail in each category so the meaning is clear and nuanced. If once this book is open and read, the meaning should be understood and easily followed. The names of the 37

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books I used are written in a smaller script directly below each entry. I wrote “newly added” in places where I added my opinions. Putting all this together, I have entitled the book as Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ. For the most part, womenfolk’s activities do not leave the inner rooms. Even if one has more talent than others and intelligence to understand the things of old and new, it is not righteous for a woman to embrace this and not keep her beauty inside. Even more, with my stupid foolishness, how could I dare to write my thoughts down? However, the main gist of this book— although it has much information—is to attend to one’s health. Also, it has important methods for managing a household which will be truly useful and is something women should study. Therefore, with this preface, I give this book to the daughters and daughters-in-law of the house. Written on the winter solstice.

Volume 1, Liquor and Food, Part 1

According to the “Neize pian” of the Lizhi (內則篇 禮記 “Patterns of the family,” Book of rites), rice should be eaten when serving beef, barnyard millet should be eaten when serving lamb, Chinese millet should be eaten when serving pork, foxtail millet should be eaten when serving dog meat, barley should be eaten when serving wild goose, and cucumber should be used when cooking fish. This is said to be about the highs and lows as well as the four seasons. It is said to eat rice like spring, to eat soup like summer, to eat soy sauce like fall, and to drink liquor like winter. This means that rice should be warm, soup should be hot, soy sauce should be cool, and liquor should be cold. In general, more sour foods are produced in the spring, bitter ones in the summer, spicy ones in fall, and salty ones in winter. It is said to be smooth and sweet when the tastes are in balance. These four tastes are related to wood, fire, metal, and water.1 Since vigor arises from taste and the smooth and sweet taste which arises from balancing the four seasons symbolizes the earth, the earth opens up one’s stomach.

Lizhi “Neize pian,” What Emperors Ate First day: suno (rice with meat sauce) Sun means to boil and o means to sauté. Prepare early harvest rice, and add meat sauce and oil on top of the rice—this is suno. Second day: sunmo (Chinese millet with meat sauce) Mo means to form a shape by copying. Prepare the same way as suno except that Chinese millet should be used in place of rice. Third day: p’odon (baked pig) Remove the internal organs of a pig, stuff it with jujubes, wrap the pig with reeds, paste mud over the reeds, and bake in a fire. Then slather 39

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the pig with porridge made from early-harvest rice and soak the meat with pure oil as much as possible. Boil water in an iron pot (kama) and boil the pig for three days and three nights. Cut into thin slices and serve with vinegar and meat sauce. Fourth day: p’oyang (baked lamb) Follow the same recipe as for p’odon except use lamb instead of pork. Fifth day: tojin (pounded delicacies) Pound a moderate amount of the back flesh from a cow, sheep, elk, deer, and roe deer, remove sinew, and cook it over a fire. Serve with vinegar and meat sauce. Sixth day: cha (steeped beef) Slice newly butchered beef thinly, cut off all the sinew, and steep in good liquor. Take the meat out of the liquor the next morning and serve with meat sauce, vinegar or soy sauce. Seventh day: o (roasted delicacies) Thinly cut and pound any of three meats such as beef, lamb or venison and remove the sinew. Weave bamboo leaves [into a mat] and place cloth on top of it. Place the prepared meat on it and sprinkle finely ground cinnamon and ginger. Serve when dry. Eighth Day kallyo: (dog’s liver and fat) Wrap a dog’s liver with the fat covering its intestines (omentum) and serve without seasoning. The Eight Delicacies of the Next Generations Dragon liver The beak of a phoenix Leopard fetus The lips of an orangutan Sole of a bear Baked camel hump flesh Carp tail Baked owl Names of Foods Eaten on Seasonal Holidays in China2 There was a place called Zhangshoumei jia (張手美家 K. Changsumi ka) located outside the Changhe gate in China.3 Here, people made all the great delicacies of land and sea and sold these on holidays. The names of the dishes spread to the four corners and even the gourmets from Seoul4 gathered there.



Translation

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First of the first lunar month: 元陽鸞5 wŏnyangnan Fifteenth of the first lunar month (sangwŏn—full moon): 油畵明珠 a drawing on beautiful beads Seventh of the first lunar month: yakpap (medicinal rice)6 and yuk il ch’ae (six and one vegetables) Fifteenth of the second lunar month ( porŭm): 涅槃兜 the fourth heaven of nirvana Sangsa (first “snake” day of the third lunar month): 手裏行廚 temporary kitchen in hand Hansik (the 105th day after the winter solstice): Winter porridge Buddha’s Birthday (eighth day of the fourth lunar month): 指天餕饀 Heaven’s stuffing Suritnal (Tano, fifth of the fifth lunar month): 如意圓 wish-granting dish Pok (“dog” days): 綠荷包子 green lotus steamed bun Days for sacrifice to the earth gods:7 辣雞鸞 spicy phoenix8 Ch’ilsŏk (seventh day of the seventh lunar month): 羅喉羅飯 throat-­ gathering food Han’gawi (fifteenth day of the eight lunar month): 玩月羹 beautiful moon  soup Ullambana (fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month): Ullambana-hoe9 盂蘭 餅餤 offering a basin of orchid rice cake Ninth day of the ninth lunar month: 米錦 brocade rice Tongji (winter solstice): 宜盤 appropriate dish Nabil:10 萱草麫 day lily soup Napp’al:11 法王料斗 Sakyamuni’s hopper

Names of Foods Sinch’i wŏlhwa pan (新治月華飯): Newly made moonlight rice dish Piran hoe (飛鸞膾): Raw dish of winged phoenix Hyangch’i sun’gaeng (香翠鶉羹): Fragrant green quail soup Ch’ŏnil-jang (千日醬): One-thousand-day-old bean sauce Yongsu-jŏk (龍鬚炙): Roasted dragon beard Ch’unhyang pŏm-t’ang (春香泛湯): Spring-scent floating soup Ch’on’gŭm taehyang-byŏng (天金大香餠): Sweet-smelling rice cake pounded by heavenly gold Yŏnjugi-yuk (連珠起肉): Rising meat like stringed beads T’angjang pup’yŏng-myŏn (湯醬浮萍麵): Noodles cooked with duckweed

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Seasonal Delicacies Kwibihong (貴妃紅): Food to which red milk is added Chunsun-jang (준淳醬): Food made with thinly sliced meat and lamb Ongno-dan (玉露團): Food made with milk Kwangmyŏng ha-jŏk (光明蝦炙): Roasted fresh prawns Kŭmŭn hyŏphwa p’yŏngjŏl (金銀協和平折): Food coated piece by piece with pounded sesame seeds Ponghwang-dae (鳳凰臺): Food made from the white flesh of small fish Paekyong-gu (白龍灸): Food made from mandarin fish flesh T’onghwa yŏnujang (通化軟牛腸): Food with lamb’s brain as filling12 Sŭngp’yŏng-jŏk (昇平炙): Food made from three hundred tongues of lamb and deer Hongyang chijang (紅羊肢掌): Food made from the four hooves of a lamb Kyŏnp’ungyok (牽風浴): Rice cake immersed in oil Sŏgangyo: Food made by cutting and pounding bellflower root Han’gunggi: Sautéed water chestnut (mushroom flower) Five Aspects That Scholar Families Should Observe When Eating First, consider the extent of the labor involved and where the food came from. This food is gained through laborious efforts such as plowing, planting, harvesting, pounding, winnowing, and cooking. Moreover, in taking a live animal, butchering it and creating a tasty dish, it requires the effort of ten people for one person’s dish. Even when eating at home, meals are made possible through the help of the ancestors. Although it is not wealth, one gains a government post due to the recompense of one’s ancestor’s merit, and is able to eat through the sweat and blood of the people. Thus, it is not something one should talk [boast] about. Second, consider the great virtue and do your utmost to be devoted. Serve your parents first, serve your king second, and achieve prestige later. If these three things are accomplished, one should be naturally devoted. If one does not do these three things, they should be ashamed and not seek pleasure in tastes. Third, guard against excess and desire in one’s mind. One should control one’s mind and nurture good character. Guard against these three things in addition to one more. It is foolish to desire good food, frown at unsavory food, and not acknowledge where the food came from while eating all day. It is foolish not to do so. A virtuous scholar should avoid fault by not seeking to eat his fill. Fourth, consider food as good medicine and have it cure the pains of one’s body. The five grains and five vegetables allow people to grow. Fish



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and meat should be served to one’s aged parents. One who has a gaunt face is ill from starvation. All of the four hundred and four types of illness are from the accumulation or blockage of the body’s circulation.13 Thus, consider food as good medicine and eat it daily until slightly less than full. One who knows satisfaction should always think of it [food] as taking medicine when holding chopsticks. Fifth, eat only after accomplishing good deeds. A virtuous man does not violate his benevolent mind even in between meals. It has been said a virtuous person is the one who does not eat the stipend provided by the country without practicing benevolent deeds. Foods That Should Not Be Eaten According to the “Neize pian,” baby terrapin, dog’s intestine, pig’s brain, the “Z” (乙) shaped bone of fish, the large intestine of a terrapin, and chicken’s liver should not be eaten. Pheasants that are so large that one cannot grab the tail and wild geese that are of a too deeply green color should also not be eaten. A wild duck with green feathers on its wing joints and the liver of a kite (sorigae) should not be eaten either. The intestines of deer, the head of fox, spine of lynx, and the head of a rabbit where it adjoins the brain should be thrown away.

Names of Liquor of Various Countries About the Liquors of Past and Present The Gujinzhu (古今注 Notes to things old and new)14 tells that in Oson-guk15 there is a gourd called ch’ŏngjŏn-haek (靑田核). The tree that bears this is not known, but its flowers and fruit are as large as a gourd which can hold about four to five toe of water.16 If one empties the inside of the gourd and fills it with water, the water will turn to liquor. Liu Zhang (劉章) once held a banquet with two of these gourds and he could provide for over twenty people.17 By the time one gourd is finally used up, the liquid in another gourd will become liquor. However, if it is aged too much, it will become bitter. Liquor is called sut’a-rak (水酡酪 water-milk) in Ch’ŏnch’ŭk-kuk (‌天‌竺‌國) and panya-t’ang (般若湯 sutra-soup) among the monks in north.18 The people of Chinnap-kuk (眞臘國) do not drink liquor because they consider it to be immoral. They only drink with their wife inside and especially avoid drinking in front of their elders.19 According to records of Punam,20 there is a tree similar to a p ­ omegranate tree in Tonson-guk (頓遜國);21 if the juice from the flowers is put in a pot for several days, it becomes a fine liquor.

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The people of Karŭng-guk (訶陵國) make liquor out of willow flowers and seeds, which is said to make people easily drunk.22 The liquor of Sŏmna-guk (暹羅國) is considered as an efficacious medicine among the four barbarians.23 The liquor is called double-distilled spirits since it is processed twice. Put several tens of kŭn24 of tanhyang (丹香)25 in a pot and burn this until the inside of the pot is lacquered with its burnt scent. Then put the liquor in the pot, seal the mouth with beeswax, bury it in the ground for two or three years, and use. If one drinks this liquor on a boat, he will become drunk only after three or four cups. The price of this liquor is thus twenty times more than regular liquor. A person suffering from illness can recover after only a couple of drinks and be released from the pain of illness. There are many who make wines in Taewan-guk (大宛國).26 One who made much wine had as much as one million sŏk,27 and the taste of the wine did not change even after a number of years. If one drinks the thousand-day liquor (千日酒) of Chungsan, he will not be sober until one thousand days later. There is sŏnjang-ju (仙漿酒) liquor in Kuru-guk (句漏國)28 which if one drinks, he will be sober after a dozen or so days. If one drinks the chŏnghyang-ju (程鄕酒) liquor of Kyeyang (桂陽), he will only be drunk after traveling one thousand ri.29 There is a wine (chunsunju 逡巡酒) in Xiliang (西凉)30 which becomes liquor almost instantly after it is made. And there is a liquor of beauty (miinju 美人酒) in Yuri-guk (瑠璃國).31 A beauty holds the liquor in her mouth overnight and it then becomes nicely scented liquor. Names of Liquors Made by Empresses Empress Dowager Gaotai (高太皇太后):32 Scented spring (香泉) Empress Dowager Cao (曹太后):33 Sea of jade (瀛玉) Empress Zheng (鄭皇后):34 Waves of the Yellow Sea (坤儀) Empress Zhang Wenxing (張溫星皇后):35 Clear beauty (영록) Empress Ziang (向太后):36 Sky pure (天醇) Empress Liu Mingda (劉明達皇后):37 Pond of beads (瑤池) Queen Zhu (朱太妃):38 Milk of beads (瓊소) A Brief History of the Names of Liquors (Recorded in Jiuxiaoshi [酒小史 A brief history of liquor])39 Chunqiu period 40 (春秋적): (椒漿酒 ch’ojang-ju) Pepper liquor of Ch’unch’u-jok Gaoyou (高郵):41 (五加皮酒 ogap’i-ju) Acanthopanax medicinal liquor



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Ansŏng (安城): (宜春酒 ŭich’un-ju) Liquor suitable for spring Sŏgyŏng (西京):42 (金漿醪 kŭmjang-ryu) Golden wine Changan (長安): (新豊週 sinp’ung-ju) New-abundance famous liquor Luzhou (潞州):43 (眞珠紅 Chinju-hong) Liquor as red as pearls Hangzhou (杭城):44 (秋露白 ch’uro-baek) White fall dew, liquor made of fall dew, which was pure and spicy Guanzhong (關中):45 (桑落酒 sangnak-chu) Mulberry fall liquor, liquor made when mulberries drop from the trees Chuzhou (處州):46 (金盤露 kŭmban-no) Gold bowl dew, dew in a golden bowl Xiangzhou (相州):47 (碎玉 swoeok) Ground jade of Xiangzhou Pixian (郫縣):48 (郫筒酒 pihyŏn-ju) Pixian bamboo container liquor, liquor brewed in a large bamboo container Huainan (淮南):49 (醴菉春 yerokch’un) Green-spring liquor, liquor made of mung beans Jizhou (薊州):50 (薏仁酒 ŭiin-ju) Liquor made of adlay seeds51 Yun’an (雲安):52 (麴米酒 kungmi-ju) Malt-rice liquor Zhengzhou (鄭州):53 (謝家紅 Saga-hŏng) Sa (Ch. Xie) Family’s red, red liquor of the Sa family Jianzhang (建章):54 (麻姑酒 Mago-ju) Taoist fairy Mago liquor, a liquor made with Mago’s recipe55 Xiyu (西域):56 (葡萄酒 p’odo-ju) Grape wine, strengthens the vital energy of the body but its nature is hot, and thus beneficial to people in the north and harmful to those in the south Wusun Kingdom (烏孫國):57 (靑田酒 ch’ongjŏn-ju) Green field liquor King of Andingjun (安定郡王):58 (洞庭春色 Tongjŏng ch’unsaek) the spring scenery of Dongting (洞庭)59 Nanman (南蠻):60 (牝狼酒 pillang-ju) Betel palm liquor, liquor made of medicinal ingredients Huzhou (湖州):61 (玉井秋香 okchŏng ch’uhyang) Jade well fall scent, the liquor Li Bai used to drink62 Su Dongpo (蘇東坡):63 (羅浮春 nabu ch’un) Luofu spring (enjoyed by Su Dongpo), spring of Mt. Luofu64 Lu Shiheng (陸士衡):65 (松醪 songnyu) Pine wine (enjoyed by Lu Shiheng) Duke Quan (王公權): (荔枝綠 yojirok) lychee’s green (enjoyed by Duke Quan), the green of the lychee tree Sung Delong (宋德隆): (月波 wŏlp’a) Moon wave Han Wu (漢武): (百味旨酒 paekmiji-ju) Hundred-taste liquor (enjoyed by Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty), liquor of a hundred tastes Wei Zheng (魏徵):66 (醽醁翠濤 yŏngnok ch’wido) Glorious blessing green wave (enjoyed by Wei Zheng), clear and beautiful green wave Sung Liuhou (宋劉后): (玉腴 ogyu) Jade oil (enjoyed by Sung Liuhou)

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Liu Shiwei (劉拾遺): (玉露春 ongno ch’un) Jade dew spring (enjoyed by Liu Shiwei), a spring of jade dew Li Taibai (李太白):67 (玉浮梁 okpuryang) Jade floating pillar (enjoyed by Li Bai), it is written in the Qingyilu that Li Bai enjoyed this liquor.68 Records concerning the Names of Liquor Cups (Recorded in Gongji zhu [觥記注 Notes of grand records])69 During the time of the Yellow Emperor there was a jug made of agate and filled with precious dew even until the time of Yao and Shun. This remained full of dew when the age was unspoiled, but dried up when the world became chaotic. In the time of Zhou,70 they had bowls of glass beads and the southern Ch’ang had a bowl made of hawksbill turtle.71 In the time of King Wu of the Northern Zhou Kingdom,72 a kingdom to the west presented an “always full bowl” (常滿盃 sangmanbae), and in the time of the Qin Shi Emperor,73 a bowl of red jade. During the age of Emperor Wen74 of the Han dynasty there was an alchemist by the name of Xin Yuan Yu (新垣衍), who offered a jade bowl to the Emperor and in the time of Emperor Wude of Tang,75 a country to the west [of China] offered a glass bowl called p’aryŏ-bae (crystal bowl). One government official of Koryŏ had a cup of which the green-­colored pattern was like threads dizzily woven, with a thickness like that of a blade of grass. Its foot was engraved with golden letters. This was called the “selfwarming bowl” (自煖杯 charanbae, a bowl that warms up the liquor by itself). When the king ordered liquor poured in this bowl, it became warm as if newly heated liquor was added. The queen of Wei (魏后) had an agate vessel that could hold over three toe of liquor.76 She also had a jade bowl which was said to have made by the ghosts of the west [of China].77 In the time of Tang, Koryŏ (高麗) presented a “purple sunset” bowl, Sŏnbin (鮮賓國) offered a crystal bowl, Parhae (渤 海) presented a gourd-shaped bowl, and P’aji (波紙國) presented a patterned conch bowl.78 Wisteria for wine bowls grows in abundance in the barbarian countries to the west. Zhang Qian (張騫) once traveled to the Taewŏn kingdom (‌大‌苑‌國) as an envoy and brought it back with him. It grows as large as one’s arms, the leaves are similar to kudzu, and the flowers are like those of a paulownia tree. The fruit is very hard and if once made into a liquor bowl, it is so lovely that its patterns are translucent. This bowl is truly precious for when liquor is poured into the bowl, it retains its aroma and beauty for long, and if one floats flower petals in this bowl, he will soon become sober. The Sanmahana kingdom (潵馬罕兒國) was in the land of Kyebin



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(‌薊‌賓‌國) at the time of Han China.79 They presented a bowl called “reflect the world.” It was shiny and clear, and reflected the details of the world. Tales of Drinking Recorded in Chibong yusŏl (芝峰類說 Topical discourses of Chibong)80 It is natural to be intoxicated with flowers in daytime, and while cheery, it is right to sing nicely. It is also proper to beat a drum and cymbals when parting after drinking. A man of letters should refrain from excessive songs when drinking and be careful to follow rules (this is the decorum that causes one to refrain from excessive drinking and follow the rules of propriety). When a man of eminent ability becomes drunk with others, more cups of liquor and vigor are added as a matter of course. It is good to be fascinated with bamboo in the summer and with water in the autumn. According to the poem “Guijiu song” (桂酒頌引 In praise of cassia wine) written by Su Dongpo,81 liquor is the stipend of the heavens (天祿). Thus, we can know the good or bad fortune of the one who made the liquor by tastes of good or harshness. People today believe that if the taste of liquor is sour and bad, the home where it was prepared could have hardships. In China, they use a lot of ash when making liquor. Thus, clear liquor is used as a medicine in many cases. According to a poem written by Lu Luwang,82 the ash scent of liquor is just like that [as good as that] of last year. According to the Pangmul-pyŏn (博物編 Encyclopedia), there is a burial pit of a hundred-year-old tomb where liquor ripens. If a liquor bottle was put into the pit and taken out, it becomes excessively strong and pungently cold, and is said not to have changed its taste or color even after a year.

Various Types of Liquor Chinese Matrimony Vine Wine (枸杞酒 Kugi-ju) On the first tiger day of the first lunar month, dig up the roots of a Chinese matrimony vine and dry them in the shade. Put one kŭn (600 grams) of dried roots into one mal (1.8 liters) of strained rice wine on the first rabbit day of the second lunar month. Remove the dregs after seven days and serve; however, one should never drink this wine after a meal. On the first snake day of the fourth lunar month, pick the leaves of a Chinese matrimony vine and make wine with it on the first horse day of the fifth lunar month using the same method as above. Pick flowers of the vines on the first monkey day of the seventh lunar month, and brew using the above method on the first

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chicken day of the eighth lunar month and serve. Pick the vine’s fruits on the boar day of the tenth lunar month, and make the wine using the same method on the rat day of the eleventh lunar month and drink. There once lived a woman on the Hexi River who was a niece of the Daoist Bai Shan Fu (白山甫). She found the recipe and drank this wine and her face was like that of a fifteen-to-sixteen-year-old youth when she was 390 years old. One envoy of Han met her and heard about this recipe. After a hundred days of taking this, his white hair became black, his lost teeth reappeared, and he did not age at all even after years had passed. Ogap’i-ju (五加皮酒 Acanthopanax) Wine It is called gold salt and also known as the grass of letters. Since it received the vital force from the och’a-sŏng (五車星 Five chariot constellation) above, the leaves have five fingers. According to the people of old, a lock of ogap’i would be better than having a cart full of jade which has no use, and no one would claim gold to be precious if they brewed wine with the grass of letters. According to the Shijing (詩經 Book of poetry): Not to spare one’s jade-like hands, They compete to dig up the gold salt. Auspicious Days for Brewing Wine Based on the ancient almanac, the fourth day of the sexagenary cycle (‌丁‌卯 chŏngmyo), the seventh day of the sexagenary cycle (庚午 kyŏngo), the twentieth day of the sexagenary cycle (癸未 kyemi), the thirty-first day of the sexagenary cycle (甲午 kabo), the thirty-second day of the sexagenary cycle (‌乙‌未 ŭlmi), the opening of spring (春氐 ch’unjŏ), high summer (夏亢 hahang), the star of autumn (秋奎 ch’ugyu), and the day of winter dread (冬危 tongwi) and open days (滿成開日) are considered auspicious days to brew wine.83 Days When Wine Should Not Be Brewed On the twenty-fifth day of the sexagenary cycle (戊子 muja), the fortyfirst day of the sexagenary cycle (甲辰 kapchin), on the day of destruction (‌滅‌沒‌日 myŏlmul il), on suhŭn day (水흔일), and on the thirty-fourth day of the sexagenary cycle (丁酉 chŏngyu). Chŏngyu is the day when Du Kang (‌杜‌康)84 of the Zhou dynasty died—he is said to have been a great brewer of wine. Also, Peng Zu (彭祖)85 was said to not entertain guests on the day of the chicken (酉日 yu il), one of the ill-starred days (百忌日).



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In general, water should be carefully selected when brewing wine, as the taste of the wine will not be good if the taste of water is bad. Wine made with river water of the ch’ŏngmyŏng day (淸明 clear day) or the kogu day (‌穀‌雨 rain for the crops day) are especially good in its color and taste because the water is influenced by the vital energy (氣) of the climate. Wine made with fall dew is called White Autumn Dew (秋露白 ch’urobaek), and it is said to be particularly fragrant and has a pungent taste. Flower Scented Wine Recipe (花香入酒方 Hwahyangip-ju pang) When chrysanthemums are in full glory, put two toe (3.6 liters) of flowers in a pouch and hang it inside a wine brewing vessel that holds one mal (18 liters) of wine; the vessel will then be full of the scent of flowers. Flowers that are fragrant and not poisonous such as Korean plum blossoms86 or lotus flowers can be used for this as well. Flowers can be scattered on the top of wine but citron should not be immersed in the wine as it will sour the wine. Instead, put the citron peels in a pouch, hang it inside the pot, seal the top tightly until it is fermented, and the scent of wine will be wonderful. Peach Blossom Wine (桃花酒 Tohwa-ju) In the first lunar month, pound two mal and five toe (45 liters) of good rice after washing thoroughly and mix with a like amount of boiled water. When this becomes ice-cold, mix it with one toe each of good malt and flour. Place the mixture in a pot until the peach blossoms are in full bloom. At that time, wash three mal (54 liters) of rice and a like amount of glutinous rice thoroughly, leave overnight, and then mix together and steam. Boil six mal (108 liters) of water, mix with the steamed rice, and leave until cold. Put 2 toe (3.6 liters) of peach blossoms on the bottom of a pot, add the mixture of steamed rice and the prepared mother brew to this.87 Next, put three or four peach tree branches in the center and leave the mixture to ferment. Although the original recipe is as such, if one desires to make a smaller amount, reduce the amount of rice, malt and water in a rough estimate and leave it in a cool place until fermented. Lotus Leaf Wine (蓮葉酒 Yŏnyŏp-ju) Wash one mal (18 liters) of good rice thoroughly, let it sit overnight and then steam the rice. Boil two jugs of good water and mix with rice after both the rice and the water are cold as ice. Prepare seven hop (1260ml) of finely pounded good malt. Spread lotus leaves on the bottom of a pot, put the rice

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on top of it, and spread the malt in last. Repeat this layering in the same fashion as when preparing to steam rice cakes. Seal the pot tightly and leave it in a cool, shady place until fermented. By all means, do not let water from outside into this. Since this can easily sour on a warm day, if it is made in the cool autumn days before the frost falls and before lotus leaves become dry, the scent and the taste are marvelous and will not spoil for long. After brewing this wine, even if some other good wine is added, the scent and the taste are still the same. Azalea Wine (杜鵑酒 Tugyŏn-ju) On the first boar day of the first lunar month, wash two mal and five toe (45 liters) of polished white rice clean and pound; then boil water with a gourd bowl floating until the water splashes out of the pot. Put the pounded rice in a wide earthenware pot and mix with the boiling water evenly, using a rice paddle. Water should be equally measured with the same toe measure that was used to gauge the rice before boiling. Leave the pounded rice ­thoroughly mixed with boiled water in a cold place overnight until the bottom of it is ice-cold when touching with one’s hand. Wet good pounded malt with much dew until it is blanched, and the color becomes milky-white. Sift with a fine sieve and evenly mix in one toe and three hop (2.5 liters) of malt with seven hop (1.26 liters) of flour. Put a clean pot under the warm sun and wrap it with an empty straw sack. Make a straw fire, lay the pot face down, and stand it up when the inside of the pot is thick with the scent of straw fire. Wipe out all the fireflakes with a clean cloth and put the prepared mother brew in it while the smoke is still in the pot. Seal it tight, and leave in a shady, cold place. When the azalea flowers are in full blossom in the third lunar month, wash three mal (54 liters) each of polished white rice and glutinous rice thoroughly, soak in clear water, rinse with clean water again, and then drain. Measure the same amount of water as the rice—using the same measuring cup as before—which could be as much as sixty bowls. Steam regular rice using plenty of water so it is soft with nothing hard in it; also steam glutinous rice, a bit longer than usual, with one or two toe (1.8–3.6 liters) of water per one mal (18 liters) of rice. Stir the steamed glutinous rice and let it cool right away, and spread the steamed regular rice in a wide earthenware pot, then cover with the lid. Boil the remaining water after steaming the rice until it bubbles, add hot water (a couple of gourds) to the earthenware pot of steamed regular rice, stir it again, and then leave it with the lid on. When the steamed regular rice is soaked with water and is fully swollen with steam, stir and spread the rice evenly on a mat to cool. Check if the rice is



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cool or even cold by putting one’s hand here and there. Bring out the prepared fermented rice and mother brew and add the rice and the glutinous rice in a separate container. If it is difficult to mix evenly since the mother brew is little in quantity and the rice is too much, mix the mother brew with once-boiled water after it is thoroughly cooled. Next, in a large pot, spread one layer of the mother brew and rice mixture, and another layer of the mother brew and glutinous rice mixture, and then the flowers. Repeat this process and finish the top layer with the rice and mother brew mixture. Reserve about one bowl of the cool boiled water and use that water to rinse both of the containers used to mix the rice and mother brew and pour that in the pot as well. Trim the azalea flowers cleanly and remove the pistils and stamens, and then add one mal (18 liters) of the flowers to one pot of wine. The color of wine is not pretty if too many flowers are added, so add those little by little when layering with the mixed rice. After fourteen or twenty-one days, if the residue in the pot has sunk to the bottom, put a lit candle in the pot at night. The flame will extinguish if the wine is not aged enough and will continue to burn if the wine is aged. The clear wine will be visible when the thin layer at the top of the pot is removed by gently making a hole in the center. A lot of lees and flowers will be floating in the wine, and it will be quite sweet-smelling and very lovely. The taste of wine will change in a porcelain bottle or earthenware pot, so store it in a glazed pottery vessel. When the heavier ingredients sink and the wine is clear, the lees and white flowers will float on the top again. In general, the wine will not spoil easily if made with the rice which was steamed for a long time and cooled sufficiently. Also, if well-blanched malt is used, there will be no impure taste and the color will be as clear as cold water. The taste of the wine will be clear, pungent and not change if the dregs are settled many times in an odorless, clean, and sun-dried jar. Malt Wine (少麴酒 Soguk-chu) On the first boar day of the first lunar month, pour eight toe (14.4 liters) of cold water into a pot and add seven hop (1260 ml) of good coarse malt to the water; after three days, sift out the malt using the water in the pot and strain. Pound five toe (9 liters) of cleanly washed polished white rice, steam it without opening the lid, then gently stir the hot steamy cooked rice, and mix it with the strained malt water; after three days thoroughly stir with a peach tree branch which branched out in an easterly direction, and then leave it sit with a lid on in a cold place. If the mixture is sweet and bitter when tasting it sometime in the

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f­ ollowing month, thoroughly wash another one mal (18 liters) of polished white rice and then set it overnight. Next, steam it enough while sprinkling seven to eight toe (12 to 14 liters) of water until it becomes softened, pour the steamed rice on top of the prepared mother brew while steamy hot, mix thoroughly with a peach tree branch, and then allow the mixture to set for twenty-one days until the dregs sink to the bottom of the pot. If the pot is too large, the wine will smell stale, and if the pot is too small, the wine easily overflows, so an ample but suitably sized pot should be used. The wine should be kept in a windless warm place in general and heat from fire or sunlight should be completely avoided. All wines will sour if there is any warmth left in the steamed rice before using. However, when making sokuk-chu, after soaking the malt in cold water for three days and straining it, both the steamed rice and prepared mother brew should be used while steamy hot. Thus, the wine is uniquely beautiful and its color is like cold water, and it makes one less drunk. Summer Wine (過夏酒 Kwaha-ju) In between the spring and summer, pound one or two toe (1.8 or 3.6 liters) of polished white rice, cook it with water until it makes a thick paste, allow the mixture to cool down completely, and then add powder malt in the same manner as described below in the recipe for Medicinal Wine (方文酒). When the taste becomes bitter, steam one mal (18 liters) of glutinous rice, cool it thoroughly, and mix with the mother brew. Again, when the taste becomes bitter, add some distilled soju (燒酒), and in seven days, pour twenty pokcha (a measuring cup for oil) of soju into the mix.88 Hundred Flowers Wine (百花酒 Paekhwa-ju) Gather all the flowers beginning with the plum blossoms and camellia flowers in the winter, to chrysanthemums in the fall of the following year. Dry the whole flower buds without removing the stamens in the shade, put the dried flowers in pouches, and make wine on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month when the chrysanthemums are in full bloom. The fragrance of other flowers disappears when dry, but as the chrysanthemum is even more fragrant after it is dried, use it as the main flower. Use sufficient flowers such as peach, apricot,89 plum, and lotus and also blossoms from healthful flowering plants such as Chinese matrimony vine and shepherd’s purse; use one ton (3.75 grams) of the other flowers each. Do not use Japanese rhododendrons, plantain lily, or bush clover flowers, as they are awful.90 Shape dough into [rice cake-sized] rings with two toe (3.6 liters) of



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glutinous rice flour and boil. Pound all the boiled dough by adding the water used for boiling the dough if it is too thick until it drops when it is ladled out. Add and mix one toe (1.8 liters) of good malt seasoned with dew, making sure not to let any other water in the pot, put it in a pot supporting the bottom with a wedge, and leave it in a windless and cool place without the lid. When the top and bottom turn yellow and bubbly, wash about four toe (7.2 liters) of rice thoroughly, soak it in water for a while, grind it to make a thick paste, cool it down until ice-cold, mix with prepared mother brew, add and mix with one toe (1.8 liters) of additional malt to make certain there is plenty, but do not let any other water in, put this in a clean pot which was exposed to burning straw smoke, seal the pot several times tightly, leave it in a place like the first time until the whole pot becomes bubbly with liquid.91 Next, wash one and a half mal (27 liters) of glutinous rice and five toe (9 liters) of rice and steam by adding water like when making injŏlmi rice cake, but add even more water when steaming the regular rice until it is dripping wet. After steaming, spread the steamed rice out so as to make it ice-cold and then mix with the mother brew; add two toe (3.8 liters) of once-boiledand-cooled water if it is too thick. In a proper sized pot, put one layer of the rice-mother brew mixture, and one layer of weighed and equally divided flower mix. Prepare a bit more than one toe (about 2 liters) of chrysanthemum petals, but do not dry those as with the other flowers. Repeat this method as you cook rice cake layer by layer, but sprinkle the chrysanthemum petals on top. Mix three hop (540 ml) of flour with the rice-mother brew mixture, sprinkle one handful of malt on top and press evenly. Seal the pot tight so that air cannot escape. When fermented, liquor ants92 as well as the chrysanthemums will float on the top. Not only is the scent and taste of this wine more outstanding than others, but it is also especially effective to supplement one’s energy. When making wine, it is even better to use nothing but the water boiled with and large, aged Chinese matrimony-vine roots or pine-tree joints for a long time and then cooled. Be particularly picky in selecting water. Water drawn from the center of the river or in between the rocks should be used but it is even better if you put blanched dried pine buds on the bottom, sliced citron peels on the top, and a bag of coarsely ground pepper in the center. Chaje sinjŭng (自製新增)93 Sweet Scented Wine (甘香酒 Kamhyang-ju) Thoroughly wash four toe (7.2 liters) of polished glutinous rice, soak it in water for a while, grind it, and sift with a fine sieve. Before that, prepare

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particularly good malt, wet with dew and repeatedly blanch; then grind it and sift with a fine sieve again and again. Form the dough into [rice cakesized] rings with glutinous rice flour and boil a good bit until it floats on the top of the pot. While still hot, put these into a porcelain bowl with a wide brim and narrow base, add one toe (1.8 liters) of malt, and mix with a spoon until cherry-sized bubbles arise; then tightly affix thick paper to seal the top and leave it in a warm place with a lid on and covered by a thick cloth. When this becomes sweet as honey in three days, thoroughly wash one mal (18 liters) of polished glutinous rice and soak it overnight; next, steam the rice and scoop it little by little directly out of the steamer into a bowl and thoroughly mix with the proper amount of mother brew until it becomes watery. Put the mixed rice and mother brew in a properly sized clean pot as soon as it is mixed until finished, but make certain to cover the steamer when scooping the rice out of the steamer or putting the mixture into the pot so as to not lose the hot steam. After putting everything in the pot, press the top with your hands firmly and seal it tightly, and leave it in a warm place with a lid on. When it becomes sweet, move it right away to a cool place. It will be sweet and beautiful in taste if used within twenty-one days, but there will be a lot of blue-green mold on the top, so it should be skimmed off before serving. Use half regular rice and half glutinous rice if one desires to have a bit of a pungent taste. Pine-Tree-Joint Wine (松節酒 Songjŏl-ju) Wash five toe (9 liters) of polished white rice repeatedly, soak for a while, grind it, mix with five toe of boiled water using the same measure that was used for the rice, leave until ice-cold, add one toe of malt and seven hop (1.26 liters) of flour to the mix, seal tightly, and leave it in a place neither cold nor hot. Next thoroughly wash two mal (36 liters) of pine-tree joints, add water and boil for long until the taste is strong, and cool down. Wash five toe more of polished white rice and one mal (18 liters) of polished sweet rice thoroughly, soak for a while, and steam separately. When steaming the white rice, use two mal (36 liters) of the water boiled with the pine tree joints. Using enough water, steam it thoroughly, let cool until ice-cold, and mix in the mother brew evenly. Put the once-boiled pine-tree joints on the bottom of a pot, put the thoroughly mixed steamed white rice in next and the steamed sweet rice on top, bind the top so it is tightly closed, and leave it to age in place neither hot nor cold while being mindful of the weather. Put chrysanthemum petals on top if it is autumn, azalea flowers in spring, and hang citron peels over the top (but not in the wine) in the winter. One’s mouth will be full of the scent of flowers and pine



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with its unique taste. The wine will alleviate palsy,94 build up the energy and vigor of the body, and be effective even with those who are unable to move their arms and legs. Pine-Sprout Wine (松筍酒 Songsujn-ju) For one mal (18 liters) of wine, wash two toe (3.6 liters) of white rice until it is as white as jade and soak it until the following day. Then, grind the rice, sift with a fine sieve, and mix with one toe of good malt. Make a thin porridge of white rice powder mixed with malt and blend this with malt. In four or five days, wash one mal of polished sweet rice, steam, and let it cool until it is ice-cold. Before that though, prepare one mal of pine sprouts by removing the fine hairs, blanch, and then cool down completely. Sift the mother brew with a fine sieve and mix with the steamed rice evenly, and in an appropriately sized vessel, alternately layer the rice-mother brew mixture and pine sprouts like when preparing rice cake. Seal the top of the pot tightly and leave the mixture in a place neither too hot nor cold. After seven days, pour thirty pokcha (a measuring cup for liquor or oil) of strong clear soju into the vessel and let it age before serving. The pine sprouts should be cleaned thoroughly but boil only lightly to ensure they do not lose their unique pine scent. Also, make certain to layer in the rice and pine sprouts when they are ice-cold. If you want to make more than one mal, adjust the amounts of rice, malt, pine sprouts and soju. Han Mountain Spring (韓山春 Hansanch’un) Wash one mal (18 liters) of glutinous rice repeatedly, soak it in water, steam and cool it till ice-cold. Sun bleach seven hop (1.26 liters) of good malt over and over, put in boiled water overnight, put it in a silk wine sack, and pour it out as when making starch; mix this with the steamed rice, put it in a pot, and fill with water to about the same or a bit more than the level of the rice. Prepare five hop (0.9 liter) of skinned pine nuts, cutting each into two or three pieces, and twenty-one large jujubes. Put one ton (3.75 grams) of coarsely ground black pepper in a ramie fabric bag and securely tie the top. Then put all of this in the same vessel, but the rice, pine nuts and jujubes should be layered on top of the pepper bag. Seal the top of the vessel with thick paper [bound with string], cover that with a tray, lid or brassware of some manner, and then leave it to sit in a place that is neither hot nor cold. After three days, when the mixture is less bitter and much sweeter, add seven pokcha of pungent clear soju. After six or seven days, although it seems subdued on the top, liquid will come out over the rim. If pushed aside, the

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pine nuts and liquor ants will float on the top, and the taste of the liquor is very pungent while still sweet. Three-Day Wine (三日酒 Samil-ju) To one mal (18 liters) of water drawn at daybreak in the winter, or water once boiled and cooled in the summer, add two toe (3.6 liters) of malt and mix in a pot. Wash one mal of polished white rice thoroughly and make a porridge mixture with this. Mix the porridge with the malt water (do not add any other malt) and let it age. A clear wine will be ready in three days. One-Day Wine (一日酒 Iril-ju) Make porridge neither thin nor thick with two toe (3.6 liters) of glutinous rice and mix with five hop (0.9 liter) of fine malt powder in a pot. Stir this with a bamboo stick for two to three hours until bubbles begin to rise. Bind the top of the pot with thick material, leave in a warm place, and it will be ready by evening. The taste will be very pungent and clear, and liquor ants will float on the top. Medicinal Wine (方文酒 Pangmun-ju) Wash one mal (18 liters) of polished white rice thoroughly and grind. Boil one mal and two toe (21.6 liters) of water and mix with the rice. Cool this down thoroughly and then mix one toe and three hop (2.34 liters) of malt and leave it to ferment. After seven days when it becomes watery, soak two mal (36 liters) of polished white rice in water and steam. Put the steamed rice in a good-sized pot and pour in about twenty toe (36 liters) of boiled water. When the rice soaks up the water, stir well and let cool until cold and mix with prepared mother brew. Serve in about fourteen days but only after a candle placed in the pot does not extinguish. Green Wave Wine (綠波酒 Nokp’a-ju) Grind three toe (5.4 liters) of polished white rice and make a thin porridge with ten toe (18 liters) of boiled water. Leave this until cold and then mix in seven hop (1.26 liters) of malt. When this thins, steam one mal (18 liters) of glutinous rice by adding enough water and then leave it until cold. Mix the two, let it age for fourteen days, and serve when a candle does not extinguish when placed in the pot. One can increase the yield as much as one desires by adjusting the portions.



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Five Types of Medicinal Wine (五種酒方文 Ojong-ju pangmun) On the day you wash and soak one mal (18 liters) of polished glutinous rice in water, soak one toe (1.8 liters) of powdered malt in water as well. Cook glutinous rice, cool it down until cold, and mix in the sifted water in which the malt was soaked. After three days and when it has a savory sweet taste, pour in forty-five pokcha of soju and leave. It will begin to have floating grains of rice in about seven days, but it could take seven days or even fourteen days to be ready. When the color of the wine and soju are not separated, and the taste is well mingled, it is ready. Even in summer, it is easily aged when leaving the vessel in a warm place with a lid on after adding the soju. Pepper, cinnamon, ginger, jujubes, and pine nuts are used. Grind the pepper and cinnamon and put them in hemp cloth bags before putting in the pot; crush the ginger, grind the pine nuts, and wash the jujubes cleanly, before putting all three in the liquor directly. One ton each (3.75 grams) of black pepper, cinnamon, pine nut powder, and ginger, and one toe (1.8 liters) of jujubes are needed along with one toe of malt and two and a half bowls of water for soaking the malt. One should be very careful when selecting the malt. When Wine Is Sour The sour taste will disappear if you immerse a bag that has two or three toe (3.6 to 5.4 liters) of stir-fried red beans in the wine while still steamy hot. When Wine Ferments Too Slowly Pour a bit of good wine into the center of the pot, and it will ferment right away. If the ashes of an eggplant branch get into the vessel, the wine will change into water. When drinking soju in summer, add some honey and pieces of ice, and stir directly and drink; not only will this taste good, but it will also have no poison. When distilling soju, if the container that the soju drips into is too close to the fire, it will catch fire. If this happens, cover the container with a green wrapping cloth and it will be extinguished at once. If someone drinks too much soju, the mouth and nose will be fiery. If he was to drink cold water, he will die on the spot. Have him drink warm water and pour warm water on his navel after enclosing it with loess.95 The fiery feeling in the mouth and nose will then disappear. Since the poison in wine always goes to the teeth, they are easily

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damaged. After drinking, one must brush his teeth to prevent toothaches. Liu Ji who lived in Loyang always brushed his teeth even when he was drunk, and he is said to have not had any decayed teeth even when he was seventy.96 According to “Saengju-ga” (Ch. “Shengjiu-ge” 生酒歌 Song of fresh wine) of Yang Tingxiu:97 Fresh wine is clear like snow, Decocted wine is red as blood. Decocted wine is not as good in its tangy taste as fresh wine, It is only tinged with the scent fiery force of fire. Foods Not to Be Consumed after Drinking Liquor For sickness from drinking liquor, kyeji-t’ang (a medicine boiled with sprigs of the laurel tree) should not be taken. As one who is drunk takes in yang energy, he will vomit without fail. For this reason, those who drink do not enjoy sweet tastes. If one eats noodles after drinking makkŏlli (rice wine), the vital energy pores 98 will be blocked, and if one lies down in a windy place when drunk, the lower abdomen will be damaged.99 Although one gets very thirsty after drinking, he should not drink cold water. If the cold energy (ki) goes into the bladder, dropsy, hemorrhoids, and a disease symphonized by thirst will occur.100 As foods such as ripe persimmons, yellow chestnuts, apricots, cherries,101 and yellow corvina are incompatible with liquor, do not eat after drinking. A Method to Be Sober and Not Drunk When someone is dead drunk, wash his/her face with hot water in a closed room and comb their hair dozens of times, and then he/she will be sober. He/she will be refreshed only after brushing his/ her teeth with salt three times and gargling with warm water (from the Tongŭi pogam [Exemplar of Eastern medicine]). A Recipe to Help Quit Drinking Put seven toe (12.6 liters) of liquor in a bottle and add five ton (18.75 grams) of finely ground cinnabar. Close the mouth of the bottle firmly and leave it in a pigpen so that pigs can move and shake the bottle as they like. After seven days, take it out and serve. He will never drink again of his own



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will after that. Another recipe is to decoct the grass growing upside down inside a well. This too will have an immediate effect. Also, it is wonderfully efficacious if served with wine mixed with dew found on bamboo leaves. For all of these recipes, it should not be revealed to the person who takes it. It is also instantly effective to serve liquor mixed with the ashes of hawk dung. Recipes for Soberness and to Prevent Illness from Drinking The Daoist Hermit’s Elixir to Prevent Drunkenness (神仙不醉丹 Sinsŏn pulch’wi tan) Grind an equal amount of arrowroot flowers, arrowroot, white Pachyma hoelen, redbean flowers, elecampane, asparagus roots, amomum seeds, moutan (skins of peony tree root), ginger, thick cinnamon of an at least five to six-year-old cassia tree, the fruit of a Korean matrimony vine, dried tangerine skin, alisma, licorice root, and white salt. After mixing with honey, form a little ball about the size of a musket ball. If this is chewed with a cup of warm wine, even ten cups of wine would not make one drunk per one pill. The Elixir to Prevent Drunkenness from Ten Thousand Cups (萬盃不醉丹 Manbae pulch’wi tan) Soak four nyang (150 grams) of arrowroot in saltwater for a day, drain, and sun-dry. Put one nyang (37.5 grams) each of shelled ginkgo nuts and green gingko buds in honey, roast on a roof tile, and dry. Dry four nyang of both small bud tea and mung bean flowers in the shade. Put one nyang of arrowroot flower in a child’s urine for seven days and roast (stir-fry without oil), and put four nyang of dried tangerine peel in saltwater for a day and roast. Put four nyang of chrysanthemum buds that have yet to open, five chŏn (18.75 grams) of pea flower, one chŏn of ox bezoar, and four nyang of potassium chlorate in a cow’s gallbladder and steam. Grind one incense stick together with the gallbladder skin, mix with gallbladder, and make pills (out of the prepared ingredients above) the size of a paulownia-tree seed. If one takes this pill when half drunk, he will be sober. If one repeats every time he drinks, he will not be drunk even after years. Two-Flower Powdered Medicine (雙花散 Ssanghwasan) Prepare an equal amount of arrowroot flowers and red bean flowers and grind to a powder. Put two ton (7.5 grams) of the powder in once boiled water and drink, and one will be sober right away.

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Treasure Powder of Pleasant Drunkenness (醉鄕寶屑 Ch’wihyang posŏl ) Grind five chŏn (18.75 grams) each of the root of arrowroot, white nutmeg, black cardamom seed,102 and dried clove buds, two and one-half chŏn (9.4 grams) each of catechu and licorice roots, four nyang (150 grams) of quince, and one nyang (37.5 grams) of roasted salt,103 and mix. Take this with warm water, and one who is drunk will be sober right away. And for those who cannot drink, they will be able to drink if taking one ton (3.75 grams) of this with warm water. A Recipe for Making a Sulfur Bowl This wine bowl is a proportional blend of nature, conditioning of yin and yang, and the method of harmonizing the heart (fire) and kidneys (water). It is meritorious for preventing aging, outstanding for making the eyes and ears bright, and wonderfully efficient in treating all type of disease by moving the energy up and down. Rub walnuts in a porcelain bowl and put pieces of sand-free golden yellow sulfur into the bowl. Only use the sulfur that does not make a sound when broken as only those pieces are genuine. Melt this over a low but steady heat since the mixture in the bowl will catch the fire if the heat is too strong. Then, add a little bit of bright colored white aluminum sulfate and melt together. Stir with a stick, and foam and specks will float on the top. Strain the specks and foam using a cotton cloth over another bowl and the mixture remaining in the bowl will begin to congeal. Heat it again to melt and add grapes if you want to make the color blue or cinnabar for red. The darkness and lightness of the color depends on how much is added. Boil for a while after adding the cinnabar powder by stirring with a stick so that it mixes well and the cinnabar powder does not settle on the bottom. Pour the mixture out while it is hot into a good-shaped wine bowl. Place a plate below, hold the bowl in your hand, and spin it gently so that the melted sulfur water can evenly coat the inside of the bowl. When it is coated as thickly as a fire pot, pour out all the remaining liquid into another bowl. When the coated bowl is cool, trim the edges with a sharp knife, wrap it well with paper, and bury it in the ground. The next day, polish until shiny with a horsetail plant,104 but only inside and the rim, not the outside. Wash it with water. Early in the morning daily, if one drinks two bowls of warm wine with this bowl, it is mysteriously good for palsy105 and the gallbladder, and all manner of disease will be cured. This recipe is written in the Bencao (本草 Compendium of materia medica)106 and Congshu (叢書 Collected writings),107 but had not been ­attempted. For fun, I once made this, and sure enough it was exactly as



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said. I do not know if this bowl was beneficial for the prevention of diseases, but it was finer and prettier than any flower bowl. The redness of the bowl is determined by how much cinnabar one adds. It looks like a thin rock dappled with dots,108 and is marvelous with the pattern naturally formed when mixing the cinnabar, if you do not stir it evenly. If you gild or write letters leftward using cinnabar ink on the bowl before coating with the liquid sulfur, it will be embedded on the bowl. According to the original recipe, the bowl will be blue if grapes are added instead of cinnabar. I tried with grape juice, but it did not work, for which reason I do not know. It appears with a yellowish amber hue if it is made without adding cinnabar. If you do not spin to cover and coat the bowl well enough, the bowl will be coarse, and lines will appear. So, it is completely up to how well you stir the bowl. It turns out not only a regular bowl, but also any size or shaped bowl (round or angular) if the sulfur is put into the bowl as desired. Great caution should be used when using the bowl as it does not have a foot and is thus extremely weak. Also, it is said in the original recipe to pour hot wine in this bowl. However, it breaks when hot liquid was poured in, which I do not understand at all: There is an engraving of the “Sulfur Bowl” that reads, With the fellowship of yin and yang, The energy of the great harmony stays on course. Humbly receiving the dew from a Daoist hermit, In this spring I stay for long. A Recipe for Making a Purple Sunset Bowl (紫霞杯) Put stone sulfur in a small sack and hang it in a pot. Boil it in purple duckweed in water ten times. Finely grind ten nyang (375 grams) of true red soil (眞朱), one chŏn (3.75 grams) each of amber, red sand, orpiment, sulfur, tremolitum, red halloysite,109 refined borneol powder,110 Angelica duhurica root, spikenard fruit,111 elecampane,112 Draconis resina,113 Commiphora myrrha, camphor, and seven pun (2.6 grams) of moschus,114 and ten pieces of gilt gold leaves. Put all of the above ingredients into a copper bowl and boil at a low but steady heat until melted. Cover the top of a nicely shaped bowl with fine paper and put a hole in the center of the paper. Pour the molten liquid through the hole and gently spin the bowl to completely and evenly spread the mixture all over the bowl. When done, immerse the bowl in cold water and remove the bowl shell. If one drinks liquor in this bowl, he can repel evil spirits, and since it is mysteriously effective in treating consumption, it is said one can be a Daoist hermit. I did not make this bowl to experiment.

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Since sulfur makes the five metals (gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron) turn black, the color of this bowl is not as good as the one made using a porcelain bowl. This bowl should not be kept in a warm place. As liquor is a crazy medicine that changes the minds of people, it is not something a house should revere, but nonetheless still something that exists. Also, since womenfolk should manage food and wine, I added recipes for making wines at the start. I only recorded recipes that are beneficial for people and added how to make sulfur bowls. Small Fish Wine (魚兒酒 Ŏa-ju) According to the Jingyi-lu (淸異錄 Record of the clear and strange), Pei Du added fermented fish to his warm wine one by one when he drank.115 The fish were fermented in camphor,116 so this wine is called Small Fish Wine. There are more recipes of Small Fish Wine but according to the Muŏn-nok (‌無言錄 Record of no words),117 if one puts one chŏn (3.75 grams) of camphor in hot wine and drinks it, he will bleed from the seven apertures of the head and perish.118 Thus, Small Fish Wine could be poisonous. Not knowing the veracity of these two records, one should not rashly try this.

A Recipe for Chang119 According to the Shuo fu (設郛 Environs of fiction),120 soy sauce (chang/jang) is the master of the eight great dishes, and vinegar is the top taste of all. If the taste of soy sauce is not good, even if it is put on a rare and special dish, the taste will not be harmonious. How could it not be important? Auspicious Days for Making Chang Pyŏngin (丙寅), chŏngmyo il (丁妙日), chegilsin il (諸吉神日), chŏngwŏl usu il (‌正月 雨水日), iptong il (立冬日), hwangdo il (黃道日), and sambok il (三伏日).121 If chang (-jang) is made on one of the above days, it will not be infested with bugs. If it is made before sunrise, it will not be infested either. If the chang is made facing north or the crocks for the chang face the direction of sexagenary stem for the year, it also will not be infested with bugs. Days to Avoid Making Chang It will be infested with bugs if the soy sauce is made on one of the suhŭn il (水痕日), and taste will be bad if made on one of the yuk sin il (六辛日).122



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If the chang becomes infested with bugs, put four pieces of either wolfsbane or stemona japonica root into the crock. All the bugs will die. If you put a willow tree branch snapped on a ch’ŏngmyŏng day, it would work the same, but I am concerned about putting the stick too deeply as it has a bitter taste.123 According to the Changhwa pangmul chi (張華 博物誌 Treatise on broad matters by Changhwa),124 if the chang is made at the first and last quarter of the moon, or on the eighth and twenty-third days of the lunar month when the tide is the lowest, it will turn moldy. Water for Making Chang It is important to be choosy and to use especially good water when making chang. Do not use well water directly after the summer rain stops. Draw good water and place a large earthenware steamer on top of a large earthenware crock (hangari). Next, pour one mal (18 liters) of good salt of which the bittern has been removed in the steamer, and pour water through the steamer fully into the crock. This way the dirt and dry leaves will all be sifted out. Measure out the salt and the water as such and put salt in the crock estimating the amount of meju and the size of the crock.125 If this is stirred with a long stick many times and then left covered for a few days, the salt will sink and it will appear as clear regular cold water. Put the crocks for brewing the soy sauce in a sunny but cool and peaceful place, and be choosy when picking a site since the ground can sink due to pooled water in the summer. If the crocks tilt, a white mold will appear on the exposed side of the crock, so make certain the crock is set straight. If the meju is muddy yellow and not hard enough, it was made too late in the season and is not good for making soy sauce. If the meju is green in color, and small and firm, this was made early and therefore is good. Sun-dry the meju bricks for more than ten days until they become rock-hard. Brush off the bricks to clean, wash twice with water, and put them in the crock. If there is too much meju, the amount of soy sauce is too little, and there is too little meju, the color of the soy sauce will be light and the taste not good enough. So, closely regulate the amount of meju and add to the crock until there is not enough space to put one’s arm up to the joint into the pot. Before adding the meju, put a couple of hot coals on the bottom of the crock and place a soup bowl of honey on top of the coals. Add the meju when the scent of the honey is about to rise. After adding the meju to the crock, pour in the saltwater through a strainer, and fill to the brim. The meju will sink again after rising if the saltwater is too weak. If so, take some saltwater out and add some more salt using your estimation; the meju will float right away. If the crock is dirty, the taste of soy sauce will be harsh. So the crock

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should be cleaned twice a day. Be very careful so as not to get any water into the crock since it will be infested with worms if water gets in. Do not attend any funerals within twenty-one days after you make the soy sauce. Do not be close to the place where there is a newborn baby, and have women who are menstruating and strangers stay away from the crock. Do not allow the soy sauce to overflow by frequently checking the crock. Prepare a smaller crock and put fifty pieces of meju in saltwater to use as chŏgim mul.126 When it becomes ripe and is about to overflow, exchange the water in the crocks [from the big crock to the small crock] morning and evening. If the meju is taken out for soybean paste after one hundred days, the color of the soy sauce will be good and black but in a lesser amount. If taken out after sixty days, about seven jars of lighter soy sauce will come from a crock of fifteen jars. If a bamboo strainer is used, it is hard to scoop selectively. So, make a hole in the center and scoop the sauce by pushing the murky parts to the side. It is recorded in the Bencao that the original taste of soy sauce will come back if two toe (3.6 liters) of muri (rice powder sediment) is added when the taste is not good. Also, when making the soy sauce, get rid of the fat from a lump of beef and boil in water for a while, simmer forty to fifty pieces of abalone for a good while, and put these on the bottom of the pot, and float jujubes on the top. The “Sisok” (時俗 Seasonal customs) section of Changhwa pangmul chi states that this is the best recipe, but it is all up to how well one regulates the salt. Fish Sauce (魚肉醬 Ŏyuk-jang) Dig a hole in the ground and put a good, large sized crock in the hole deeply. Prepare ten kŭn (6 kilograms) of sun-dried beef rump after cutting off the fat and tendons, ten each of pheasant and chicken after scalding and removing the innards, and ten sun-dried gray mullet or sea bream after thoroughly cleaning and removing the scales and heads. Fresh abalone, mussels, large and small shrimp—any sort of fish in general—eggs, ginger, green onions and even tofu are good as well. First, spread the beef on the bottom of the crock, put the fish in next, and then the pheasant and chicken as well. Add the meju in the same method as when making soy sauce. In once boiled but cold water, put seven toe (12.6 liters) of salt per one mal (18 liters of meju), and pour it in the crock as when making regular soy sauce. Wrap the outside of the crock with straw matting, close the mouth of the crock with oiled paper and bind tightly, cover the top with a large earthenware lid, and bury completely by covering with soil.



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Take heed that the crock does not get wet by rainwater. The beauty of its taste is unrivaled if tasted after a year. Green Bean Sauce (靑太醬 Ch’ŏngt’ae-jang) Steam newly harvested green beans in an earthenware steamer, fashion them into a lump the shape of knife handle, cover with bean leaves, and place them in a large straw container until fermented. If the meju is covered with yellow, remove and dry by rolling in a warm place or in sunlight. If you make the sauce by adding salt in moderation so it is not too salty, the taste is clear and quite beautiful. However, it can be easily infested with maggots. The meju should be dried for quite a long time to prevent the sauce from going bad. A Recipe to Make Light Soy Sauce Quickly Roast seven hop (1260 ml) of salt for quite a bit and roast eight hop (1440 ml) of flour until it becomes the same yellowish color as the salt. Mix three hop (540 ml) of old soybean paste with the roasted salt and flour, add six soup bowls of water, and boil until the amount is reduced to four soup bowls. The taste will be very good. The above three recipes are based on Sallim kyŏngje (山林經濟 Rural household management),127 which I did not try. If oysters are added to the soy sauce, it makes the sauce tasty. Also, if you boil the soy sauce with old oyster-salted fish juice, it will be a good light soy sauce as well, which I did not try either. Red Pepper Paste (Koch’u-jang) If you intend to make meju out from one mal (18 liters) of soybeans, pound two toe (3.6 liters) of rice, make sediment, steam, and mix with the cooked soybeans when pounding the beans. Make lumps the size of a handful of meju, dry them quite a bit, finely pound, and strain with a sifter. Put four toe (7.2 liters) of salt in good water per one mal of powdered meju and mix well. The thickness of the mixture should be about the same as adlay porridge.128 To one’s taste, mix five to seven hop (0.9–1.26 liters) of extra fine red pepper powder into this porridge. Cook two toe (3.6 liters) of glutinous rice using enough water and mix with the porridge as well. Some people add crushed jujubes mixed with dried meat powder and a small bowl of honey. The amount of salt and red pepper powder can be regulated to suit one’s taste.

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Fast-Fermented Soybean Paste (Ch’ŏngyuk-chang)129 Roast soybeans and throw out the burnt beans; winnow and split to remove the bean shells, and boil down in an iron caldron (sot) with plenty of water. Put the boiled liquid in a crock, and put the cooked beans in either a small straw bag or gourd that is wrapped thickly many times with a cloth, and leave it in a warm place. In three to four days there will appear fine, threadlike sticky bits. Boil this together with the water saved in the crock. Cook it with plenty of beef, sliced radish, kelp, and red pepper. Soybean Vegetable Paste (Chŭpchii) Wash fall barley and drain using a straining ladle, drain, sun-dry thoroughly, and roast until yellowish. Grind it well with a millstone so there are no whole grains. Winnow good beans to remove stones and impurities, and then boil with enough water. When cooked thoroughly, put in a large steamer with water, mix the ground barley evenly, and steam. Pound this sufficiently in a mortar, grab lumps to fill your hand firmly, and put these in a windless place on a bed of pine needles to keep them separate as when you make songp’yŏn rice cake.130 Turn them over after seven days, remove all the pine needles, and put them on the ground after another seven days. Sun-dry for another seven days and then make into a powder. Next, lightly salt mature eggplants, cucumbers, gourd-melons, and green chili peppers in a single container. When they are salted down, put them in a wrapping cloth to squeeze and dry thoroughly. Put one mal (18 liters) of fermented soybean powder, five hop (900 ml) of honey, three hop (540 ml) of sesame seed oil, three hop (540 ml) of boiled soy sauce, and an appropriate amount of water in a bowl and mix until it becomes a viscous paste like a very thick crude liquor. Add the paste to the dried vegetables in a crock layer by layer as when steaming rice cakes. The crock should be only partly filled. Wrap the crock with oiled paper, firmly bind, and cover the top with a proper sized lid. Dig a pit in compost and line the hole with fresh weeds, and bury the crock deeply. In about seven days unearth the crock and remove a little of the top portion before adding two to three bowls of grain syrup. This will keep it from drying and the taste from changing as well. When salting the greens, salt the cucumbers whole, remove the stems from the eggplants and green chili peppers, and the gourd-melon after scooping out the innards and cutting if too large. It is better to use more eggplants and green chili peppers, but the taste becomes sour if too much gourd-melon is used. For one mal of soybeans about two mal of washed barley should be used, so estimate the amounts to this ratio. Use particularly good-quality beans



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and barley. Also for better results, the compost should be warm. If there is no compost, dig a pit in a sunny spot, add enough grass, and bury. Soybean Nut Vegetable Paste (汁醬 Chŭpchang) In autumn, roast one mal (18 liters) of wheat bran until yellowish and five toe (9 liters) of beans, and hull before grinding together. Mix this into a paste using the final rinse water from washing rice; form into walnut-sized lumps and steam. Ferment by separating the lumps with mulberry leaves until a yellowish-white fungus appears. Dry the fermented lumps, grind finely, and make a paste using good soy sauce. Remove the stalks of baby cucumbers and eggplants, wash thoroughly, and dry so there is no remaining water. In a dry crock, first add the paste mixed with soy sauce before tightly spreading the eggplants and cucumbers; repeat the layering until the crock is nine-tenths full. Add the stalk-less cucumbers and eggplants to the top fully, press down firmly, seal the crock with oiled paper, wrap the top many times, and plaster it with red clay paste. Bury the pot after covering it with horse dung, cover the top with raw fresh grass, and cover the top again with horse dung. Put warm water on the buried pot every three days and take it out after fourteen days. Sweeten with honey and use. (From Sallim kyŏngje)

Vinegar (醋) Recipe for Brewing Vinegar Good Days to Make Vinegar Sinmi, kyŏngja, ŭlmi, che, man, song and kae days, which are the same days as brewing wine.131 Days to Avoid Brewing Vinegar Muja, kapchin and chŏngmi days.132 Do not allow those who are impure or are outsiders access to vinegar. If the taste of vinegar is bad, put a fistful of dirt from a cart wheel into the vinegar pot. The taste comes back if placed near the privy and can easily go bad if warm wine is added. The sourness is reduced if roasted salt is added. Vinegar is second to soy sauce and a very necessary ingredient of the house. The original recipe for vinegar for the four seasons is as follows. On a pyŏngil day,133 roast four toe (7.2 liters) of pounded malt until yellowish, put it in a crock with one jar of freshly drawn water, and tightly seal the mouth of the crock. On a chŏngil day,134 wash one mal (18 liters) of glutinous rice repeatedly, steam it, pour it into the crock while steamy hot, stir with a

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peach tree branch, close it [the mouth of the crock] with thick paper tightly, and leave in a sunny place until it turns to vinegar. Remove and fold the paper used for steaming paegsŏlgi (steamed rice cake) and put a number of those in a crock while not losing the steam; leave the crock in a warm place with the mouth tightly bound, and a variegated fungus will appear. Cook some rice for making wine, mix with malt while hot, put it in the crock, and leave for a long while. It will be sour and settled. If the liquid is clear, pour out carefully. Add a baked lump of malt that is almost burnt and a few dozens of baked jujubes in the liquid, and an extraordinary vinegar will result. In fall, the taste is even better if sour wild pears and half-ripe persimmons are added. It is also good to put dried iris root in the crock. Vinegar made from soju and huju (a weak, second-brewed liquor) does not change its taste even after a long time. If you bring a cotton ball damp with Beijing vinegar in a bottle and pour in good wine, it too becomes extraordinary vinegar. If you gradually make vinegar out of this by adding wine little by little, this Chinese vinegar is the best of all.

Rice and Porridge According to the Shuo fu (Environs of fiction), at the house of Wei Guan135 they always threw away cooked rice on the ground which turned to conch shell,136 and not even after a year, they faced a great calamity. In the house of Shi Chung,137 they threw away rice, which became a conch overnight, an omen of the extermination of his family. Also at the house of Minister Wang Kai,138 the dishwater flew into a drain and white jade-like cooked rice grains covered the ground. At a neighboring temple, an old monk gathered these up and dried them, and they became ten jars of rice. That house (of Wang) was ruined and they were starving. As the monk soaked the rice, steamed it, and fed the family, they expressed gratitude and were ashamed. How can we possibly not be cautious about using things recklessly and not ­acknowledging how precious it is? For making rice and porridge, stone pots are best and earthenware crocks are second.139 When it is extremely hot, thus causing the rice to go bad, spread the juice from amaranth leaves ( pirŭm ip) on top, and the rice will not go bad even after a night. Rice in Red Bean Water (P’atmul pap) Boil good red beans until dark, scoop out the beans, and cook rice with the water. The rice is exceptionally tasty.



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Five-Grain Rice (五穀飯 Ogok pan) Mix and cook two toe (3.6 liters) each of glutinous rice, glutinous sorghum, and whole red beans, one toe (1.8 liters) of glutinous millet, one-half toe (.9 liter) of good fire beans ( pul k’ong),140 and one toe of whole jujubes. The rice smells and tastes sweet. If you want to make more, adjust the amounts. Medicinal Rice (Yak sik) Prepare one mal (18 liters) of large jujubes and chestnuts each per one mal of glutinous rice. Remove the seed from the jujubes and then cut the fruit into three or four pieces and the chestnuts into three pieces. It is not good to soak the rice for too long, so soak it only for a quarter of a day. Steam the glutinous rice but not too long. Take it out right away when the grains are cooked. Add the jujubes, chestnuts, one bowl (chubal) of honey, one toe (1.8 liters) of sesame seed oil,141 and one small bowl (chiryŏng) of thick soy sauce into the glutinous rice while steamy hot, mix well, and put it in a steamer. Save some jujubes and chestnuts and scatter them evenly over the rice. Cover the top with sweet-rice flour and steam, and it will be dark red on top and bottom. It is good to use jujube-seed-boiled water, but it tends to be overly sticky, and dried persimmons are not good due to their bitter taste. Rainwater Rice (Ch’ŏllaksu)142 It is said that the red rice becomes white and white rice becomes red if rainwater is used for cooking. I tried this, but it did not work as such. Milk Porridge (T’arak chuk) Soak the rice and grind it cleanly to make sediment of the rice flour. Use a bit less of rice-sediment water, a full bowl per one full bowl of milk. Begin to cook with the rice sediment water, about the same the concentration as when making pine-nut porridge, pour the milk when about half cooked, and stir to cook. This is a recipe for milk porridge used in at the Naeŭiwŏn (內醫院 Royal Clinic). Use a large brass pot for cooking red-bean porridge. Add sufficient jujubes. Use ginger juice for making the bird-egg-sized dumplings. Lotus-Root-Powder Porridge (藕粉粥 Ubun chuk) Cut large sized lotus roots into pieces, grind with a millstone, and filter with cloth. Grind the filtered powder again and then filter it with a fine hemp

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cloth. By adding a bit of water and removing all the blue/green impurities, allow it settle into a powder. If you eat this porridge cooked with arrowroot starch or potato starch, you will not get old year after year. King of the Nine Fairies’ Thin Porridge (九仙王道糕 의이 Ku sŏn wang togo ŭii) Make powder out of 4 nyang (150 grams) each of dried lotus fruit, white Pachyma hoelen, roasted Dioscorea oppositifolia root, adlay, 75 grams each of malt, roasted Trapa japonica fruit, white flowered Leusesculenta fruit, 37.5 grams of the white powder that appears on dried persimmons, and 750 grams of sugar. Mix it with 5 toe (9 liters) of rice flour, steam the rice cake, and spread out to dry. It is good for the stomach and beneficial to add energy for the aged as a thin porridge after pounding and sifting it when dry. The taste is good and sweet, fragrant smelling, and will boost one’s energy if consumed as rice cake by after steaming layer by layer. Also it quenches one’s thirst if consumed as a drink mixed with honey after roasting and grinding. (Tongŭi pogam) Gruel of the Three Harmonies (Samhap miŭm)143 Soak dried, small sea cucumbers and scour them with a stone to cleanly scrub until all the dark color is removed. Soak East Sea mussels, remove all hairs, wash thoroughly, and add to the sea cucumber in a large earthenware pot for cooking. Add a lean lump of beef, and using good water, boil down over a charcoal fire. When it is cooked very soft, add one toe (1.8 liters) of glutinous rice and cook until it is a thick gruel, and serve by adding a little bit of three-year-old dark soy sauce. It boosts old and young people’s energy and is helpful to the sick. Hazelnut Porridge (Chinja chuk)144 Shell hazelnuts, soak them in water and grind them cleanly with a millstone. Make porridge first with the settled flour that has no impurities, before adding and cooking the remainder. It is not only very tasty but also excellent for boosting one’s energy. Adlay Thin Porridge (Yulmu ŭii chuk) Hull adlay and soak the kernels in water. Next, grind the kernels, remove any impurities by stirring the powder in water, drain, and dry. The porridge made out of this is beautiful in taste, and heals pulmonary distoma as it rids



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body moisture (濕 sŭp). It is said that Ma Yuan, a general of Han China took this to give to his troops.145 Also, if one makes glue from this powder and pastes the windows and doors, it can withstand the wind and will not come off; it is said to have been used on boat windows at sea. Walnut Porridge (Hodu chuk) Shell walnuts, soak them in warm water, peel the inner skin, grind them with water. Then make porridge like when making pine-nut porridge. It is very tasty and good for relieving coughs. Arrowroot Starch Thin Porridge (Kalbun ŭii chuk) Sweeten omija146 berry water with honey and make porridge by adding a suitable amount of arrowroot starch. It allows one to overcome heat, is good for detoxing from liquor, and cures diarrhea.

Various Teas Tea of the Hundred Amusements (茶百戱 Ta paek hŭi) According to Shuo fu (Environs of fiction), tea was highly popular during the Tang dynasty (唐 618–907), and in this age there are peculiar recipes to boil teas that even take the shape of things such as birds, beasts, insects, fish, flowers, and grass. It is dexterous and looks like a delicate cloud, but as it scatters in a blink of an eye and changes form, it is called the Tea of the Hundred Amusements. Oksŏn’go (玉蟬膏), Man’gamhu (晩甘候), Naengmyŏnch’o (冷面草), and Kogusa (苦口師) are the names of those teas. Cinnamon Drink (桂漿 Kyejang) Draw water from a well-flowing stream, boil down thirty rice bowls of water into ten, and make it ice-cold using ice. Prepare two rice bowls of good wine and two nyang (75 grams) of cinnamon powder ground from thick, five-tosix-year-old bark. In a not too big or too small lye-glazed flask (oji pyŏng) that is suitable for pouring water, mix and put all the ingredients—wine, cinnamon powder and water—and close the mouth tightly with oil paper. Cover the top seven more times with the oil paper, bind it, and leave it in an ice-filled basin. Uncover one oil paper layer a day for seven days and then serve. It is good at eliminating phlegm and protecting the lower abdomen, and it tastes very good, too. It makes your body extremely hot, but also

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helps overcome the heat. Do not use earthenware (chil kŭrŭt) or porcelain (sagi pyŏng) bottles. Korean Angelica Root-Cinnamon Drink (歸桂漿 Kwigye chang) Boil down two kŭn (800 grams) of Korean angelica root (當歸 tanggwi) in water from twenty bowls to four bowls. Remove the angelica root and add one kŭn (400 grams) of deer horn gelatin to melt into the mix. Next, thoroughly mix two nyang (75 grams) of dried ginger and the inner yellow part of cinnamon bark with two toe (3.6 liters) of the best quality honey, and put it in a white pottery jar when cold. Cover the top in layers with four layers of paper and three layers of hemp cloth (alternate layers of paper and hemp], and put this in a cold place in summer and in a warm place in winter. Serve half a small cup on an empty stomach. As it supplies energy and blood at the same time, it is truly worth being called an efficacious medicine. Korean Plum Blossom Tea (梅花茶 Maehwa ch’a) After the last lunar month of the year, cut partially bloomed plum blossoms with a bamboo knife, dry, and put them in honey. When the sun is blazing down in summer, if you put this in water, the flowers float right away and the clear scent is lovely. This recipe can be used for chrysanthemum flowers as well. Grape Tea (葡萄茶 P’odo ch’a) Extract the juice from grapes and wild pears,147 add naturally grown ginger juice and honey, and mix well. Put this mixture in once-boiled and cooled water; the taste is very good. Korean Plum Tea (梅實茶 Maesil ch’a)148 Peel plums and then scorch in a straw fire before drying, removing the pits, and making a powder of it. Heat good white honey down a bit, add the powder when boiling, and put the mixture in a porcelain jar. In the summer, mix with water and serve. It is good to quench one’s thirst and can be used instead of chehot’ang.149 Chrysanthemum Tea (菊花茶 Kukhwa ch’a) Pick partially bloomed Indian chrysanthemum flowers,150 remove the green stalks, boil in good water, add honey, and serve.



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Preparing Side Dishes (Panch’an) Kimch’i In general, one should be choosy about water when making kimch’i. The liquid is not tasty if the water is bad. Sŏkpakchi About the time of kimjang151 in late autumn to early winter, mildly salt down thin-skinned, large but not tough radish, good mustard greens (kat), and Chinese cabbage in separate containers. After four or five days, put tasty pickled yellow corvina (chogi chŏt), Korean herring (chunch’i chŏt),152 and rayfinned herring ( paendaengi)153 in plenty of good water for one night. Skin the radish and cut it to the desired length or shape, cut the mustard greens and cabbages to a proper length, and put them in water. When salting down the cucumbers, pour boiling saltwater onto the cucumbers when hot, and add a copper green covered coin or loofah used for washing brassware, which makes the color of cucumbers greener and fresh as well. Take out the cucumbers a couple of days earlier and steep them in water to get rid of the saltiness. Dry ash left over from draining lye, paste it layer by layer over the eggplants, firmly seal the container, and bury. This will keep the eggplants fresh as if newly picked. Take this out on the day for preparing the sŏkkpakchi and put it in water. Cut unripe wax gourd154 in small slices; do not skin it but rather trowel the inside out. Remove the fins and heads of the fish and scale. Remove the stuff from the heads of conch and small octopus, and thoroughly wash. Put the radish155 and cabbage in a basket to drain and put them in a buried pot first. Add greens such as eggplants, cucumbers, white gourd melon after that, spread one layer of the pickled fish on top of it, and put a sufficient amount of ingredients such as chŏnggak seaweed,156 garlic, and red pepper. When adding the peppers and greens, do like when preparing to steam rice cake. Fill up the pot with enough liquid, thickly cover the top with the salted cabbage and skinned radishes, and press down across the top with thin but strong wooden branches. If the water in which the pickled fish was steeped is not enough, add more cold water; however, maintain the proper level of salt by adding good pickled yellow-corvina liquid or pickled oyster (kul chŏt) liquid. The pickled oyster liquid is good in taste, but it easily makes the liquid [in the jar] cloudy if too much is added. So, add one part pickled oyster liquid per two parts of pickled fish liquid into cold water and then fill the pot to its top. Bind the top thickly and cover it with an earthenware lid or a cushion. When ripened and ready to serve in winter (one can add fish and veg-

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etables as follows). Cut stuff like pickled fish, fresh abalone, and small octopus as one desires. If the wax gourd is cut after it is skinned, the color is as jade. The amount of red pepper and garlic can be adjusted to one’s taste. It is not good to make this when the temperature is hot since the liquid can easily sour and the vegetables will not ferment correctly. This should be made about three or four days after salting down the ingredients so as not to lose its taste and to keep its unique scent. Fish-Meat Kimchi (Ŏyuk kimch’i) Whenever using fish such as cod (taegu), dried pollack ( pugŏ), croaker (minŏ), yellow corvina (chogi), or other fish, save the heads and skins as much as possible. When making winter kimch’i after the first frost and as the weather gets cold, thoroughly wash good radishes, tender cabbages, and thick mustard leaves and stems, and salt down suitably. Salt cucumbers and eggplants as usual. Prepare round zucchinis—the size of child’s fist—and pluck the chili pepper leaves with little peppers attached before the first frost falls. They will be too tough and bad in taste if salted. So put them in a pot, press firmly with a hard stone, pour in cold water, and wash them repeatedly when taking out to use; if you do this, they will be good and tender. On the day before making kimch’i, buy a few jars of meat broth with no added water at the soup stock shop (tarim-bang), and add all the saved-up fish heads and skin. Add some beef and boil down until it is thick, and let it cool down until cold. After burying a pot in the ground, add ingredients such as codium, garlic, green onions, ginger, and pepper, layer by layer. Pour in the crushed garlic and put water parsley (minari) here and there in the pot after being thoroughly cleaned. Cover the top thickly (with the greens), and pour the fish and meat broth into the pot fully while using a sieve. If the broth is too bland when tasting, add the saltwater drained from salting down the radishes. Wrap the pot thickly and cover the top with soil. If served around the last day of the last lunar month or in early spring, the taste is rich and savory, and the scent is very good. For this kimch’i, whole radishes and cabbages are used without cutting. Wax Gourd (Tonggwa) Sokpakchi Pick large, defect-free, and face-powder-colored frost-nipped wax gourds. Thinly cut the tops off and completely hollow out the gourd using your hands. Pour good yellow corvina chŏt brine in the gourds fully. Pound codium, green onions, ginger, and red pepper together with a mortar, and put into the gourds as well. Next cover with the cut off tops and thoroughly



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paper in any gaps, and leave these standing in a place that is neither hot nor freezing. If you open the gourds and look inside in winter, they will be full of a clear liquid. Pour the liquid in a clean pot, cut the wax gourds into small pieces and put in the pot, and serve. The taste is quite beautiful. Radish Water Kimch’i (Tongch’imi) Skin nicely shaped smallish radishes without cutting off the tails and salt down moderately. After a day, when they are salted down enough, wash cleanly and put them in a buried pot. Store young cucumbers covered with ash in a pot, the same method as described for eggplants before, and they will be like freshly picked ones. Salt those down too when doing the radishes and put together. Skin good pears and citrons but do not cut them. Cut green onion bulbs about one ch’i (3 cm) long and split into four pieces, but not all the way through to the bottom. Cut ginger into thin but wide pieces. Remove the seeds from chili peppers and cut into squares. On top of the radishes and cucumbers, add a sufficient amount of the vegetables prepared as directed above. Add a proper amount of salt in good water; pour it into the pot using a fine sieve, and seal the top thickly.157 In the winter when it is ripe, slice pears and citrons and add some honey to the liquid, and serve with a sprinkle of pine nuts and pomegranate. It is clear, refreshing, and very tasty. Also, boil pheasant in plain water, remove the fat, cool it till ice-cold, add the tongch’imi liquid, and serve after mixing with the shredded pheasant meat. This is called pheasant kimch’i (saengch’i kimch’i). In the tongch’imi liquid, put thin noodles, thinly sliced radish, cucumber, pear, and citron, and garnish with thin strips of cooked pork and fried egg. Sprinkle with black pepper powder and pine nuts; this is called naengmyŏn. Wax Gourd (Tonggwa) Kimch’i Around the beginning of the ninth month, wash spotless and not-too-watery eggplants, dry off the water, and layer them gently in a buried pot. Next, add a goodly amount of cockscomb flowers (maendŭrami kkot), thickly cover with sorghum leaves or other stiff leaves, and press with a stone. Boil good water and let it cool as ice, add salt so that it is a bit saltier than tongch’imi liquid, pour it in the pot, thickly cover and tie up, and cover with a proper-sized lid. When taken out in the middle of deep winter, both the eggplants and the liquid are red like cinnabar. Slice the eggplants round or long as you desire and add some honey. It is amazing in taste but not suitable as a side dish.

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Tongji After making winter kimch’i, cut the tops and tail off the leafless radishes, cleanly trim, wash many times, roll in salt to coat them, and place them while layering with salt in a buried pot till full. In a few days when the radishes are half-salted, rotate those on the bottom to the top and vice versa. When they are salted in four or five days, soak the saltiness out of the salted cucumbers and put them in a pot together with chili peppers and codium. Pour good cold water to the top without adding any salt, tightly tie, cover with a lid, and bury. If served after the first day of the first lunar month, the liquid is particularly clear, cool, simple, and serene, which is twice more beautiful in taste than other kimch’i.

A Yongin158 Area Recipe for Cucumber Pickles (Oi chi) Remove the stems from a hundred cucumbers, throw out any that are spoiled, and place them in a pot. In clear water used to wash rice, add some cold water and a lesser amount of salt so that it is a bit bland. Pour the water in the pot and rotate the cucumbers from top to bottom the next day. Do every day for six or seven days until fermented. This is the Yongin cucumber pickles, which are famous in our country.159

Mountain Mustard-Leaf Kimch’i (San kat kimch’i) At the onset of spring, skin radishes thinly, make a bit bland nabak kimch’i160 with water once boiled with water parsley (minari), turnips, and scallions grown in an underground cellar, and leave in a warm place. When it is about the time for the kimch’i to be fermented, sort out good-quality mountain mustard leaves, wash cleanly, and put them in a footless bowl without cutting off the roots. Boil water, pour it on the mustard leaves three or four times, but do not make the leaves as if cooked; then blow on it quite a bit as you mix mustard powder in water and cover the top of the bowl thickly with many layers of papers. Wrap the top with thickly padded clothes and put it in a warm place for half an hour without letting the steam escape. After that, mix with the nabak kimch’i that was made earlier. Add dark soy sauce when eating. If the steam escapes, it will be bitter, and if the mountain mustard leaf is a bit overgrown, it will be tough and not tasty. Since the scent of spring comes from this, it is called ponch’unjŏ (報春葅), a kimch’i that lets us know that spring is coming.



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Chang tchanji In summer, lightly boil young cucumbers, radishes, and cabbages in water, and put some clear soy sauce to be salted (after draining). When the crispness has disappeared, slice green onions, ginger, and pine mushrooms lengthwise, and also slice fresh abalone (saengbok) or abalone (chŏnbok) thin and wide [and add them to the same pot]. Add to the pot things like dried codium and red pepper leaves layer by layer, cover with water after properly mixing with good soy sauce boiled with enough beef, and let it age. If there is no abalone available, the mantle of a large dried clam can be used. It is not good to use chŏtkal (salted fermented seafood) for this kimch’i. Another Recipe Remove the seedy part of cucumbers and lightly stir-fry. Finely pound meat, add minced ginger and green onion using a proper amount of oil and soy sauce, mix with pine nut powder and black pepper powder, and put this inside the cucumbers. Tie them up with long, thin chives so the filling will not come out. Boil a soy-sauce soup with green onions, ginger, chives, red peppers, and enough beef; let this cool down and pour it on the cucumbers. When it is aged, make it cold with ice and serve. For cucumber kimch’i, it will not be moldy if made with boiled water. Abalone Kimch’i (Chŏnbok kimch’i) Lift out the abalones and slice them thin and wide with a knife. Thinly slice citron peels and pears and put them inside of the abalones after making them into the shape of a pocket. Make a slightly bland kimch’i out of them using saltwater and let it age. This kimch’i is said to have a taste of Taoist hermit according to the Yakch’ŏn-jip (藥泉集 Miscellany by Yakch’ŏn).161 This tastes even more mysterious if items such as radishes, green onion, and ginger are added.

Marine Products A Method for Washing Fish For fish with slippery skin, apply a couple of drops of oil and it will not be slippery any longer.

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A Method for Boiling Fish First, boil soy-sauce soup, add the fish, and then add a little bit of wine; this will make the bones become very tender. If boiled with white garden-balsam seeds or trifoliate oranges,162 the bones become tender as well. A Method for Baking Fish Skewer the fish with a long stick through its mouth, hold it at a distance from the brazier fire, and turn frequently in a warm heat. Then some liquid will come out from its mouth. If you cut the fish into pieces and bake after this, it will have a particularly beautiful taste. A Recipe for Fish Meatballs (Wanjat’ang) Remove the bones and scales of a large fish and finely pound the flesh. Thoroughly pound one meat such as pork, beef, pheasant, or chicken, and then add black pepper powder, ginger, green onion, p’yogo mushroom, and oil sauce, and mix thoroughly. Make a meatball about the size of a chestnut. Put one pine nut inside of the meatball and cover it with egg or starch, and then boil in soy-sauce soup. Carp (Ingŏ) It is good to eat carp after the water freezes in the winter, but it causes convulsions ( p’ungbyŏng) if eaten in the spring.163 If one counts the scales on the fish lengthwise, there will be thirty-six. If there is even one scale on the fish that is in the opposite direction [than the others], it is of royal blood (龍種), and should not be eaten. In Tang China, the punishment was sixty lashes for eating carp because it sounds similar to the royal family surname. Thus at that time, people dared not to call it carp, but used Duke Red Fish (赤鯶公) instead. (From: Bencao kangmu [Compendium of materia medica].) When the carp is still alive, hang it up and cut off the tail to let the blood flow out; this will take away the fishy smell. If one cuts a dead carp open from the stomach, there will be two lines of blood vessels on the backside. It will not have a fishy taste if boiled after removing these and getting rid of the yellow liquid from the gills (agami) by piercing it with a knife. Do not remove the scales, and cut the fish in large pieces. Put the fish in the center of a caldron. Boil water until it reduces by two-thirds; then add red-pepper paste to the water and mix. Pour this into the caldron using a



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strainer, add one small bowl of unstrained rice wine, and boil. The soup will be thick and tasty and have a texture almost like porridge (chuk). Another Recipe Pour a lot of water in a caldron, [add the carp to it] add one small bowl of clear wine, boil down the liquid until it is almost gone and let it cool. Serve with vinegar sauce. For both recipes [above], add ginger and green onion when the fish are cooked.164 If there are carp eggs, remove them to save until the fish is halfcooked and then add. A Recipe for Making Carp Bones Tender Wash the fish as always. Do not cut up the fish, and put black pepper, ginger, and green onions in its stomach, binding it afterwards with thread. Add half a bowl of wine to some water in an earthenware pot (hangari), add the fish, and bind the top of the pot three times so as not to lose steam when cooking. On a low but steady heat, cook for a quarter of a day, let it cool, and serve in a bowl. The bones will be tender and like white powder. According to the Bencao, one should not eat carp caught from the water off a mountain peak, and the eyes will greatly be damaged if the smoke when grilling carp reaches the eyes. In the last lunar month, wash large carp as usual and dry. Soak the carp in good wine after adding one nyang (37.5 grams) of salt, some ginger, and Korean peppercorn165 per each carp. The wine should cover the fish by one ch’i (3 cm). Turn fish over daily until the flavor is absorbed, sun-dry, and then slice thinly and serve. (From: Sallim kyŏngje [ Rural household management].) Slender Shad (Chunch’i)166 It is commonly said that there are five types of han (恨)167 and one of those is that the slender shad has too many bones. This fish is the herring (chunch’i) people commonly refer to nowadays. It is called siŏ because they are caught in spring and it is written in Yangsheng shu (養生書 Writings of Master Yang) that herring is beautiful in taste.168 A Method for Removing Bones from Slender Shad Wash the fish, cut it in pieces, stand the pieces on a cutting board, bend the middle of the fish, and press the both ends with hemp or ramie cloth. The

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thin fish bones will then poke out through the cloth. Pull out each and every piece and there will be fewer bones. Next, boil the cut-up fish, sieve out the flesh with a strainer, and add various types of seasonings. You can then reshape the meat again like a herring or mandu dumplings (such as pheasant dumplings); then cover with starch, boil in the water that was used for the initial boiling of the fish, and boil again after seasoning with oil, soy sauce, and green onions. It is good since there will not be even one piece of bone with this recipe. According to the Bencao, slender shad scales are like silver and different from those of other fish. They [the fish) love their scales so much that they will not move at all once caught in a net. If the fish are put in limewater and then sun-dried, the scales will fall off, and these have been used to make bridal hairpins (hwajŏn 華鈿). A Recipe for Grilling Crucian Carp (Pungŏ)169 Make a large charcoal fire and cover it with thin layer of ash. Wash the carp thoroughly but do not wash against the [direction of the] scales and place it on the fire. The scales will soon dry and raise up. The scales will stick to the fish again if cold water is applied. Do not stop applying cold water on the fish when the scales rise up [so they go down again]; do this five or six times. Next hold the fish upside down and using a pheasant feather quill, poke while applying oil sauce until tender. The scales will come off naturally, and the taste is exceptional. According to the Bencao, carp should not be eaten together with garlic, mustard, pork liver, pheasant, chicken, sugar, or lily turf.170 Steamed Crucian Carp (Pungŏ tchim) Scale a large carp, gut the fish [through the stomach] by pounding the spine with a knife, put [stuffing) inside of the fish as when making fish dumplings, and add two spoons of good vinegar. Put a small piece of alum ( paekpan 白‌礬) in its mouth. Put starch powder on the underside where it was cut and bind the fish with thread. In a pot with a little bit of water, boil the fish with oil sauce over a low but steady heat, adding flour and egg to the soup. According to the Shan hai jing (山海經 The classic of the seas and mountains),171 when carp are swimming around in water, one will be in the front and two will follow behind. For this reason, pungŏ are also called concubine fish ( pich’ŏpŏ 婢妾漁), or lowly blue-clad fish (ch’ŏngŭiŏ 靑衣‌漁).172 However, the Bencao states that while all the fish belong to the phase of fire,173 only pungŏ belong to the phase of earth, which governs the stomach



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and maintains strong and healthy stomach and intestines. It is written in the Lushi Chunqiu (呂氏春秋 Mr. Lu’s spring and autumn annals)174 that among fish, the so-called “man of the administration” (t’ongjŏng chippu 通政執夫) is the most beautiful. Yellow Corvina (Chogi)175 If the back of a yellow corvina is massaged and boiled, the flesh will not break up. A half-dried yellow corvina, if washed and then dried again, does not get saturated with oil. If a place is yielding a good catch of the fish, gather a lot. Fish can be caught as many as three times in one spot within one hundred days, but the fish caught the first time will be large and tasty. (The bone in the head for this fish is called the “rock in the head” and will cure kidney stones [石淋].) Puffer Fish (Pogŏ) The water pig (河豚), or puffer fish, are highly poisonous in the blood and eggs, so if eaten wrong, people undoubtedly die. It is not like people do not know about the toxic nature of the fish, but there are many people who take a moment of tasteful joy and are harmed, which is quite heartbreaking. If the puffer fish are full of anger, they grind their teeth and their abdomens become greatly puffed-up, from which we can realize that they are very poisonous. A Recipe for Boiling Puffer Fish When cutting open and examining the stomach of the puffer fish, blood vessels lie both horizontally and vertically. Cut these with a knife and scrape the blood vessels away meticulously to remove even those that are threadthin. Wash the fish repeatedly so that there is not even a trace of blood vessels on its back or stomach; notwithstanding this, the flesh should not be broken up. In a pan, put a small piece of alum, a good amount of oil, clear soy sauce, and water parsley (minari) before boiling. Soft roe (iri) are originally not poisonous, beautiful in taste, and long ago were called the “milk of Xi Shi” (西施乳).176 Serve by putting the eggs in the stomach of the fish, bind with thread, and cook over a low but steady heat for two to three hours. This soup does not taste fishy in the least even after it gets cold, which is quite strange.

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Another Recipe Fillet the puffer fish, cut into pieces, cook it in a pan with oil, and boil. The taste could not be more beautiful, and one need not to worry about making mistakes or failing to remove all the poison. According to the Bencao, among the poisonous fish, those that have no scales, puff up their stomachs, grind their teeth, or close their eyes and make noise are most dreadful. As puffer fish possess all of these five elements, we can guess how poisonous they are without even asking. However, the fish is widely known for its great taste from ancient days, so it is difficult not to eat. As it should be greatly avoided to have the soot [from cooking the fish] fall in the kitchen, this was cooked in the courtyard. Also, the drinking of sungnyung177 after eating this food was greatly avoided. Fermented konjaengi178 detoxifies puffer fish poison. If one of its eggs is put in water overnight, it will swell as large as a water chestnut. Flathead Gray Mullet (Sungŏ)179 Lu Shilong (陸士龍)180 stated that flathead gray mullet is the great dish of the East Sea. It is beneficial for the stomach as it eats mud and thus contains earthly energy. Also since it is used in all kinds of medicine, it is excellent among all kinds of fish, and therefore is called the “excellent fish” (suŏ 秀‌漁). As a food, it is better than any other meat dish. Golden Mandarin Fish (Kwŏrŏ)181 Another name for this fish is the golden-scaled fish (錦鱗魚 kŭmninŏ). These days the name of ch’onjŭngŏ is used for this fish, but I consider this to be incorrect since this fish was called the “emperor fish” (天子魚 ch’ŏnjaŏ) as it is said the fish was enjoyed by the emperor. According to the Yang-saeng ki (養生記 Records of Mr. Yang),182 this fish builds up weak constitutions and is beneficial to the stomach. However, it has to be eaten after thoroughly removing the spine since the bones are poisonous and people could easily die from eating it. Sweetfish (Ŭn’guŏ)183 According to the Tongguk yŏji sŭngnam (東國輿地勝覽 Augmented survey of the geography of the Eastern Country, [i.e., Korea]), these fish live in waters that flow toward the south. It is extremely beautiful in taste in the spring



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and summer and not so good and has a lack of flesh when the autumn wind blows high and strong. Squid (Ojŏgŏ 烏賊魚)184 As the squid floats on the water and sees crows, they will die. For this reason, they are called “the crow-enemy fish” (烏賊魚). Their boat-shaped bone works great for bleeding hemorrhoids and cuts. The ink from the squid is used for writing letters but the letters will fade and the paper turns blank after a year. There is an ancient poem about this: [As a] Pledge an oath in the ink of a squid, Humans resemble [fleeting] mountain clouds in Chu.185 Cut its flesh thinly and into the shape of a domino, add a little cooking oil, and stir-fry lightly. For dried squid, soak in water and cut. Stuff the squid in a whole chicken and cook in strained seed soup. This is good for getting rid of phlegm when eaten in summer and is also good stuffed in a pullet dish. The Bencao states that Emperor Qin Shi (秦始皇 r. 220–210 BCE) of Qin was playing with a small purse and it dropped into the sea. At that time, it became a squid as the shape was quite similar. Also, since there is ink in this fish it is called “the empty white that engages in activities” (虛白從事). Fermented Salted Herring (Ch’ŏngŏ chŏt)186 Spread out the herring on a straw grid, sprinkle with salt, and add layers of the herring; cover these with a straw mat and leave overnight. As the liquid from the fish drains through the gaps in the grid, layer the herring with salt into a pot. Done as such, the herring can be kept whole without losing their heads even after a year. Dried herring is commonly called kwanmok (貫目), which is incorrect. When holding a herring to the light, there is a fish that the light goes through to and from the eyes. Only that fish is called kwanmok (through the eyes). The taste is particularly good when dried, but it is difficult to get one kwanmok out of two thousand herring. When cooking kwanmok, dried sweetfish or any other fish with soy sauce, or after boiling the fish as a soup [follow this recipe]. In a separate bowl, add two or three spoons of oil and one pinch of finely ground and sieved red pepper powder and mix well. Dissolve it on the top of the fish soup after it is done boiling. The color is so beautiful, and it stimulates one’s appetite. Also, it looks like there are red beads scattered on the soup.

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Various Pickled Fish (Kyoch’imhae) In the fourth lunar month when the peonies are in full bloom, oysters bear eggs at a peak. Collect the oysters, wash them in seawater, pickle the oysters, and serve in the following spring. This is called chŏn’gul chŏt. Remove the intestines of flathead gray mullet, yellow corvina, large-eyed herring ( paendengi), fresh abalone, horned turban (sora), or other fish by cutting open the stomach—but not going against the grain of the scales—thoroughly washing and draining. Cut large fish into pieces and leave small fish whole, and put them in an oyster pickling pot layer by layer, seal the pot tightly, cover it with ash, and serve when it is well aged after several months. The fishbones are tender to eat and beautiful in taste, but if water gets in the pot or if it is opened frequently in the summer, it will become infested with maggots. So cover it with ash and close tightly. Whitebait (Paengŏ)187 These fish live in places where auspiciousness lies (王氣 wanggi), and gain weight only after the water freezes, which is different from all other fish; their taste is also beautiful. Seabass (Nongŏ)188 The fish with large mouth and fine scales is the songgang (松江) seabass. Emperor Yang of Sui China (隋煬帝, r. 604–616) called these seabass kŭmje okhoe, “gold-like seasoned dish and jade-like raw fish.” The seabass caught in our country is a great raw dish but not as good as those and should not be eaten together with milk. Octopus (Munŏ) Another name for the octopus is the eight-branched fish ( p’aljo-ŏ). It is caught in the oceans off the northern provinces. If cut like coins and pan-fried, the taste is clean and light. Octopus eggs are precious medicine used for the head, stomach, and nourishing of the blood, which is useful for vomiting or diarrhea. The poulp (nakchi) is called the small eight-branched fish.189 Trout (Songŏ)190 The color of this fish is lovely, and it looks like the joints of a pine tree; thus it is called the pine fish. It has a beautiful taste when boiled whole and the



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color and taste of eggs are the best among the fermented fish roe. These fish are caught in the area of Kowŏn.191 Croaker (Minŏ) This fish is tasty when dried but its texture is thick and the taste not so good if eaten fresh. In the autumn, slice thickly and dry. It is even better than olive flounder (kwangŏ). Amur Catfish (Megi) Boil water and scald this fish, and the black and slippery stuff will come off. If boiled with good red pepper paste and a little bit of honey, it has a good taste. Northern Snakehead (Kamulch’i)192 The Bencao states that while most gallbladders of animals and fish are bitter, only the bladder of the northern snakehead is sweet. I tried it and indeed it was. The taste of this fish is not suitable for dishes or side dishes but it is an amazing medicine for supplying blood for women since it floats in the water and breaths in the vital energy of Ursa Major (七星精氣) through the seven holes in its head. Mussels (Honghap) While everything that comes from the ocean is salty, this alone is bland and thus called the bland vegetable (淡菜 tamch’ae) and also called the Lady of the East Sea (東海夫人 Tonghae puin). The ones with red flesh are female and tasty; those with white flesh are male and not as good as the red ones. Those caught in the East Sea are smaller and darkish and are best for maintaining health; those caught in the North Sea are large and fleshy, but their taste is not as good as those from the East Sea. Stir-fry raw and use in soup for a sweet and tasteful [dish]. The Bencao states that if one eats a lot of these, his/her hair will fall out. Sea Cucumber (Haesam) According to the Shuofu (說郛 Environs of fiction),193 there are bugs in the South Sea which do not have bones, live in the water, and look drunk if out of the water. I suspect that these are probably the sea cucumber. The best

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sea cucumbers are caught in the North Sea and the second best are caught in the East Sea. Fresh Abalone (Saeng pok) This is also called the “light that travels one thousand leagues” (千里光 ch’ŏlli kwang). The abalones that have nine holes in their shell are called the “rock that rapidly brightens” (石決明 sŏkkyŏlmyŏng)194 and are used for medicine to brighten the eyes. Also, if boiled with deep blue seawater, it is called suk pok (boiled abalone). The Yakch’ŏn-jip (藥泉集 Miscellany by Yakch’ŏn)195 states that it has the flavor of the Daoist fairies if kimch’i is made with thinly sliced abalone that is made into pouches stuffed with thinly sliced yuzu ( yuja) skins and pears. When making this kimch’i, use less salty water with ingredients such as green onions and ginger. In the tenth lunar month, the pheasants come and become puffer fish.196 The abalones caught around Ulsan are the best.197 When soaked thoroughly in water throughout, cut into thin pieces and pound. Or when dry, peel thinly and spread out to dry. When dry, grind and wet again after wrapping in a cloth. Put this in an abalone shaped mold and serve it when using a side-dish box for the elders. Pacific Cod (Taegu) This fish is caught only in the East Sea (東海) and not in China. There is thus nothing recorded in the Chinese documents about this fish and they only call this a great dish. Dried cod from Myŏngch’ŏn in the northern province are famous.198 Terrapin (Chara) Terrapin stew is called the soup of queens (wangbi t’ang) and is said to be extremely tasty. It is a very effective medicine for relieving lumps or discomfort in the chest,199 but since it bears the mark of a king (王) on its underside it is not an ordinary fish. Also, it has long been said that people saved a terrapin and received its grace in return from long time ago, and thus not something one should eat. Further, there is a record of Mencius stating, “there are so many fish and terrapins to even eat,” we should consider this as well.200 The Bencao states that if cooked using mulberry wood, terrapin gets tender easily. Those with only three legs are extremely venomous. A man



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of Qing (淸)201 ate a three-legged terrapin, and husband and wife terrapins are said to had revenge on their enemy, risking their own lives. Reed Fish (Ungŏ)202 Cut the fish thin like grass blades, place on paper, let the water and fat drain, cut into smaller pieces, and serve raw. Crab (Ke) Crab is called hae (蟹)203 because it sheds its shell like cicadas shed their skins in the late summer or early autumn. In the Baopuzi (抱朴子 [Book of the] Master who embraces simplicity)204 crab is called the “cowardly young master” (無‌腸 公子), and since a crab walks sideways, it is also called panghae (螃蟹). There is also the constellation of the crab (Cancer) in the twelve constellations. According to the “Foodstuffs of Mengshen” in the Bencao, the crab holds two one ch’i (3 cm) ears of rice in the eighth lunar month, moves while facing the east, reaches the ocean, and dedicates these to the Sea King (海‌王 hae wang). Although crab aids digestion and is beneficial to the stomach and the Five Vital Organs and Six Viscera (五臟六腑), since there were those who ate crab and died due to the poison the crab has in its stomach, it is said to quickly use rhubarb (taehwang), millet leaf (ch’ajogit), and wax gourd (tonggwa) juice. Crab with eyes facing each other should not be eaten. When immersed in salt, it gets very tasty, and when immersed in liquor, it heals joint pain throughout the body (肢節痛 chijŏl t’ong) and removes torment in the Five Viscera. However, if taken with soft persimmon, it causes diarrhea and intestinal convulsion. In playing the kŏmun’go (six-stringed zither), there is the notes of sangjo and kejo.205 The Bencao informs that some of the peoples of China had never seen a crab, and when they saw it first, they did not know where or how to use it. They thought it to be something to drive away ghosts and hung it on the tops of doors. Sure enough, it turned out to mysteriously effective in curing malaria (瘧疾 hakchil). However, after they discovered that crab could be eaten, the miraculous curing power was said to have disappeared. Thus, it is said that if people do not speak out, ghosts will not know.206 A Method to Store Crabs for Long In general, although dozens of crabs are put in a single container, if honeylocust tree fruit (早莢 chohyŏp) is added to the bowl they will not die

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for over a year. Also, if a piece of suyu fruit207 is put in the center of the crabs, no sand will appear for even over a year. A Method for Making Fermented Crab (Kejŏt) with Liquor or Vinegar Wrap large crabs in hemp skins, put them in a pot, and store in a warm place until the crabs froth up. Stir-fry one kŭn (600 grams) of crab, seven ton (26.25 grams) of salt, one-half kŭn (300 grams) each of liquor and vinegar, two nyang (75 grams) of sesame oil, and five pieces of green onion root stalks. Mix in one-half nyang (18.75 grams) of soy sauce and one ton (3.75 grams) of black pepper powder with the cooked crabs. On the bottom of the container, put one ch’i (3 cm) long pieces of honeylocust tree fruit and put the crabs on top. Pour the liquor and vinegar over the crabs and let it age for half a month and serve (Sallim kyŏngje). This method is recorded in Ponbang (本方), and I wrote it here since it is not commonly known among the people. However, I did not try it myself and thus do not know if the taste is good. A poem of pickled crab in wine by Yang Tingxiu208 reads: Traversing waters and seas while making flowers in the waves, With the wine pickled crabs, I call my friend and go to a tavern. Milky flakes are fully coagulated on the claws like jade beads, Golden pieces are melted away and rise in the [crab’s] stomach, not becoming sand. A Method for Making Fermented Crab (Kejŏt) with Salt Boil saltwater to be extremely salty and let it cool. Clean the crabs thoroughly, and when they are dry, submerge them in the boiled saltwater. Add honeylocust fruit peels (chŏnch’o) and cover the top with dry leaves and firmly press down with wooden sticks. The next day, drain the saltwater, boil the water again, and pour it back over the crabs. The taste is beautiful if served after aging and will not spoil for a long time. A Method for Making Fermented Crab with Soy Sauce Pour good, dark-colored soy sauce in a pot, add a couple of large pieces of beef, and boil over a charcoal fire after pasting the bottom of the pot with mud. This will keep it from smelling like it is burning. Boil until thick and then let it cool down.



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Clean good crabs thoroughly and dry. Put them in a pot, press down with wooden sticks, and pour the soy sauce mixture over the crabs. In a couple of days, drain the soy sauce and boil again, cool it down and pour it back into the pot. Since the crabs that have closed mouths are poisonous, sort through and take them out. Add honeylocust fruit peels after the seeds have been removed and serve when aged. This is a widely used and excellent recipe. It is even tastier if a little bit of honey is added and will not spoil for a long time. However, as crabs and honey are incompatible, it is extremely harmful, so not too much honey should be added. It will easily overflow and spoil if light shines into the pot—even at night—so extra caution should be taken not to allow light into the pot. A Method for Baking Crab Scrape as much as possible of the innards from raw crabs and put into a bowl. Beat the shells and legs with a knife, and sift out with a sieve the liquid and mix with the crab innards. Add together finely minced ginger, green onions, black pepper powder, beaten eggs, and a bit of starch or flour in the bowl and mix. Cut a bamboo container in half lengthwise and then bind tightly with string to put it back together. Put the crab stuffing in the bamboo container, cover the top firmly, and boil until thoroughly cooked. Untie the string and open the bamboo containers to take out the cooked crab stuffing. Slice either in ovals or lengthwise, skewer, apply oil sauce, and grill. It will be beautiful in taste. Steamed Crab Remove the yellow and black innards from the crabs separately. Next mix the yellow innards with eggs and a suitable amount of soy sauce and oil, add black pepper, green onion, ginger, and then cook in a double boiler in a bowl without a foot. When this is half-cooked, evenly spread with the black innards of the crab after mixing with a bit of oil and cook in the double boiler again. When this is thoroughly cooked, slice with a knife, and pour wellmade and tasty crab soup [made from the crab liquids] over the top. Garnish with thinly sliced strips of fried egg whites and yellows. If oil is applied to fish or meat in the summer, it will not spoil or become infested with flies. Crabs that have only one eye, four or six legs, are hairy or fleshy on the underside, that have spots on the back, mottled legs, or red eyes are all very poisonous [and should be avoided].

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If live crabs are put in a container with a scalded chicken for a few days, the crabs will eat the chicken juice and their innards will be larger and the taste also becomes beautiful. If there is no chicken, use smashed tofu instead. When the crab innards become larger, cut the lower joints of the crab legs and tie them up high for a few days with a bowl underneath; a clear liquid will drip from each leg. If this is aged, it will all become chang. Foods Incompatible with Fish Do not eat crabs with persimmons, pears, or honey, and do not eat clams and vinegar together. Do not eat fish without either intestines or gallbladders, and do not eat terrapin and pirŭm (Amaranthus) together. Do not eat fish with milk or anything sour. If one eats fish that has hair on its insides, he/she will die. If one eats catfish and Chinese catnip (K. hyŏnggae; Schizonepeta tenuifolia) together, they will die; moreover, if one was to eat small carp and lily turf (K. maegmundong; Liriope muscari) together, one will die as well; carp have insects in their heads in the spring, so they should not be eaten [at that time]. It is also recorded in the Yang seang-sŏ (養生書 Writings of Master Yang) not to eat fish without scales.

Meat Dishes If a dead animal has a closed mouth, it is poisonous. If beef, lamb, or pork is boiled or roasted using mulberry wood, worms will occur in the person’s [who ate the food] stomach. If domestic animals die with disease or for no particular reason, those should not be eaten. Dogs with six toes, white dogs with black heads, or black dogs with white heads are poisonous, so those should also not be eaten. If one eats the meat of animals that naturally died with its head on the ground, he/she will die. If one eats the meat of an animal that was slaughtered, and its head was on the ground but did not get any dirt on it, he/she will die as well. If one eats sliced meats that do not get dry for a long period of time, he/she will die. The meats that do not move when grilling should not be eaten. If there is a pearl-like dot in the center of the meat, it should not be eaten. If one partakes of raw rice wine while eating beef as a side dish, he/she will have tapeworms in their excrement, and one should not eat pork with chili pepper and ginger. After eating warm meat soup, one should not drink cold water right away. If one eats white dog meat and uncooked green onions, he/she will bleed out of the nine holes



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of the human body.209 Do not eat pork which floats in water, and do not eat vinegar or anything sour after drinking milk. When drying sliced meat in summer, if a little bit of oil is applied, it will not become infested with flies. If rotted meat is boiled with a rice plants cut in about one ch’i (3 cm) lengths, all the spoiled taste will go into the plant. If one bores several holes in a walnut shell and cooks rotted meat with three such walnuts—as all of the bad taste goes into the walnuts—the walnuts will taste like spoiled meat and rotted meat will regain its original taste. When boiling meat add three or four fruits of the paper mulberry tree (K. tak namu; Broussonetia kazinoki) and bind the cracks of the pot after covering the lid with paper so as not to lose steam; the meat will then become tender easily and is tasty as well. In general, when grilling meat, if one sprinkles either dried sesame flower powder or perilla flower powder on top of the meat, oil will not run off the meat. Skewered meats (sanjŏk) should be grilled this way as well. If pork and beef are eaten together, tapeworms will occur in the excrement, and if meat is eaten with ginger, one’s teeth will go bad. It is written in the Sikkyŏng (食經 Classic of food)210 that beef becomes tender easily if it is cooked with apricot pits and reed leaves. Dried Beef Slices (P’yŏnp’o) Finely pound tender and fatty meat, season it with salt, add a little oil, black pepper powder, Korean peppercorn (ch’ŏnch’o),211 hulled and roasted sesame seeds, crushed pine nuts, and knead them all together. Make nicely shaped meat slices out of the mixture, apply a little bit of oil, sun-dry, and serve.

Volume 1, Liquor and Food, Part 2

Beef Jerky (Yakp’o) Finely chop tender lean beef and remove fat and tendons by straining through a coarse sieve. Mix boiled soy sauce and oil with finely chopped green onion, ginger, black pepper together with the meat and knead in a little bit of honey. On wide and flat leaves, spread the mixture thinly like flower-shaped griddle cakes and sprinkle with pine nuts. When this is about half dried, serve as a side dish for the elderly. Beef Pearls (Chinju chwaban) Thinly slice beef top-round meat (udun sal), shred, and then cut again lengthwise until the meat is shaped as pearls. Stir-fry and the smelly liquid will come out when it is half-cooked. Add a proper amount of especially tasty soy sauce and plenty of oil at this time and stir-fry again after adding a bit of honey. Add sesame and black sesame seeds for stir-frying again and serve with a bit of black pepper. Stir-Fried Beef with Red Pepper Paste Beef (Chang pokki) Mix equal amounts of tasty red pepper paste (koch’ujang) with tenderized and sifted meat. Add honey to one’s taste and a little bit of minced greenonion whites and ginger. Put enough oil in a frying pan until it spreads out and covers the pan and fry over a low but steady charcoal heat. Stir it often enough so it does not burn and when the oil is about all absorbed, sprinkle with a little bit of fine husked sesame seeds, stir, and use. Skewered Roasted Rib Eye (雪下覓 Sŏrhamyŏk) Sŏrhamyŏk indicates the food that people want on a snowy day. It is called syŏrimok these days, which is wrongly used among people. 92



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Slice rib-eye (tŭngsim sal) into wide and long pieces, but much thicker than meat used in a casserole. Tenderize the meat with a knife so as to make thin cuts on it, skewer, and apply an oil sauce. Make a strong charcoal fire, cover the top [of the coals] with thin ash, and grill the meat over the coals. When the meat is about to sizzle, dip it in cold water and grill it again. Repeat this process three times, and then grill it until the meat is tender after applying oil sauce, minced green onions, ginger, and black pepper. Cow’s Hoof Jelly (Chokp’yŏn) When making cow’s hoof jelly, do not take out any of the oil when cooking the hooves since the color will become diluted and not pretty. Scoop out the hooves and pour it in a thin and even layer in a wide and flat bowl, and let it solidify. Finely pound pheasant meat and mix with black pepper powder, crushed pine nuts and oil sauce for seasoning. Spread this mixture on top of the hardened jelly and pour the liquefied hooves over the top in a proper thickness. Add toppings such as thinly fried egg yolks and whites that are julienned as well as crushed pine nuts and black pepper before serving. Beef Intestine Sausage (Soe kopch’ang tchim) Thoroughly clean beef intestines inside and out and cut to one-cha (30 cm) lengths. Pound beef, pheasant, and chicken meat; season it with various seasonings and oil sauce. Then stuff the mixture into the intestines fully, and tie both ends with thread. Pour water in a large pot, put bamboo sticks across [the pot and above the water], and place the stuffed intestines on top. Be careful not to immerse the filled intestines in the water. Cook covered over a low and steady heat and remove when cooked. When cool, cut into a horseshoe shape and serve with vinegar soy sauce. Beef Oxtail Soup (Soe kkorigom) Cook meaty whole oxtails until tender, shred the meat, mix with boiled and sliced beef ribs (short ribs) and lung, and season with oil sauce, black pepper, and ground sesame seeds. Add a good amount of boiled green onions, and make the soup seasoning with clear soy sauce and red pepper paste. The taste is special like dog soup. In general, when making meat soup, the meat should be added after the soup has been boiled enough. The taste is not as good if the ingredients are added before the cold water boils. This is same with fish soup.

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Dog Meat (Kae kogi) Those who do not know about dog meat often say that the meat should be thoroughly cleaned to remove the bad smell. However, the Bencao asks, why would anyone throw away the blood as even the blood is sweet when the meat is fleshy? As the blood is not only beneficial to people but also enhances the meat’s taste, the meat smells bad all the more if washed in water and boiled. Raw beefsteak leaves (ch’ajogi, Perilla frutescens) remove the dog smell if added to the dog soup and also get rid of the poison in the meat. Thus, a dog should be killed not by stabbing, but rather be hung and when skinned, the blood and meat should be put aside instead of throwing any of it away. A dog with red eyes in the spring is about to become mad, so it should not be eaten, and dog should not be eaten in the ninth month either. On the Dog Day (戌日) of every month, dog meat should not be eaten. A yellow dog that has even yellow eyes belong to the color of earth (‌戊‌己 土色) and thus protects the stomach.1 This is a very effective medicine for women’s disease of the blood (血分). Black dogs of which the belly, its four legs, or tail are black has the color of water (壬癸水色) and thus is an efficacious medicine for the kidneys (腎臟); so it is beneficial for men.2 A Recipe for Steamed Dog Meat (Chŭng ku) Obtain a plump, healthy dog and [after slaughtering] do not wash the meat, but the intestines should be thoroughly cleaned. Mix a little bit of red pepper paste with light soy sauce, and boil the dog meat with oil, vinegar, ground sesame seeds, water parsley (minari), and green onions in a pot; initially add the ribs and four legs and then add the vegetables. Place the lid upside down on the pot and pour water on the lid and wrap the lid with a cloth so as not to lose any steam. When one can hear the liquid boiling, remove the pot from the heat for a moment, scoop out the water from the lid, pour cold water in the lid again, and boil over low heat. Repeat three times, and the meat will be tender and fall off the bones of its own accord. For the fire, do not use hardwood, but three bags of straw will be enough. When the meat is thoroughly cooked, do not use a knife but shred the meat by hand along the grain. Cut the intestines, season with salt and other seasonings, and make soup with the boiled meat broth, but do not add too much flour since it will become too thick. For the dog soup, season the meat with plenty of ground sesame seeds and oil, and cook in a double boiler. According to the Bencao, this should not be eaten with apricot pits, garlic, or small fish caught in the streamlet; moreover, if grilled and eaten, it will cause sogaljŭng (消渴症, a disease symptomized by excessive thirst).



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In the Sallim kyŏngje (Rural household management), there is a recipe for cooking dog meat in a wax gourd. After removing the bones, to one kŭn (600 grams) of meat, mix in one bowl of makkŏlli and good vinegar, one-half nyang (18.75 grams) of salt and a proper amount of oil sauce. Thinly cut open the top of a large wax gourd and remove the insides. Shred the meat thinly and stuff the wax gourd fully with the meat mixture. Cover the gourd with its top [that was cut off], skewer the lid with sharp bamboo sticks on both the left and right firmly, seal it again with paper so as not to lose any steam, wrap with straw, and bind with straw string. When the straw is about half burnt over a [weak] fire made with rice hulls, bury the gourd in the fire overnight. Take out the gourd the next day. It is said that the taste of both the meat and the gourd are excellent. Venison (鹿肉 Nok yuk) As venison does not conflict with any of the twelve birth animals3 and because deer eat numinous grasses, even Daoists do not mind eating deer meat. If one taking herbal medicine eats venison, the medicine will be rendered completely ineffectual since deer feed on grasses that serve to detoxicate. Deer eat nine type of grasses which serve to detoxify such as kudzu flowers and leaves (ch’ik), day lily (wŏnch’uri), artemisia (hwin ssuk), nokhong, water parsley (minari), licorice (kamch’o), chedu, assan, and ije.4 Lamb (羊 Yang) Lamb is an excellent medicine for those who lack energy and feel cold (hŏnaeng), but since its nature is extremely hot, children and pregnant women should not eat it. If the liver is eaten raw, it is said to possibly cure those suffering from amaurosis (淸盲 ch’ŏngmaeng). The Bencao states that as the eyes of sheep do not have pupils, a mirror can be polished with the ashes of sheep leg bones and a sheep’s skull can make metal (soe) disappear. Sheep with a single horn are greatly poisonous, and lamb meat should not be served or stored in a copper bowl. Pork (猪 Chŏ) Pork originally does not have tendons. Its nature is extremely cold, can cause illness (tongp’ung),5 and is harmful due to roundworms, so those who have nervous disorders caused by wind (風病) and young children should not eat too much. If eaten with beef, it causes worms in the stomach. Usually,

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ginger is avoided when cooking pork. Do not eat pork with crucian carp or lamb’s liver. Steamed Pork (蒸豚 Chŭng ton) If intending to serve as a side dish with liquor, tenderize the meat of a hog’s head, knead, and put it back [on the head]. Next apply tasty fish sauce on the head and steam. Slice, add some black pepper powder, and serve. The Bencao states that if boiled with seeds of honeylocust fruit (chwiŏm namu; Gleditschia japonica sinensis var. koraiensis) and yellow beeswax (黃蠟 hwangnap), it will not cause paralysis, and the meat will easily become tender if cooked with old brushwood. A Recipe for Pork-Skin Jelly (Chŏp’i sujŏnghoe) Remove the oil and all other miscellaneous stuff from pork skin and clean thoroughly. Add one mal (18 liters) of water and a bit of black pepper per one kŭn (600 grams) of pork skin, and cook over a low and steady fire. When it becomes runny, thinly slice, and cook in the same water again. When it is cooked neither thin nor thick, sieve the mixture and let it coagulate. Serve with vinegar sauce. Steamed Pig Womb (Chŏjadae chŭng) Cook a pig womb until tender and cut it into short pieces (madi).6 Finely chop pork and beef, mix with buckwheat flour, and add all sorts of seasonings. Stuff the piglet womb with this, and cook it with either chicken or pheasant, and abalone, sea cucumber, cooked abalone, and other vegetables. While cooking, season it with salt and oil sauce. Steamed Piglet (Ajŏ) If obtaining a pregnant pig, take out the small mice-like things from the womb, and clean thoroughly. Season and put back into the womb again and steam whole. The taste is immeasurably beautiful, but it is not easy to get hold of these, and further not a virtuous thing to slaughter intentionally. Thus, instead, get a tender pig and scald. Place the whole pig together with its intestines in a large pot and add plenty of green onion, water parsley, and peeled turnip. Add the meat first and vegetables later. When it is thoroughly cooked and tender, remove the bones, and shred the meat thinly. Slice the fat and intestines, cut green onion in one ch’i (3 cm) lengths, and prepare



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either raw or cooked abalone (if none are available, use abalone stock), as well as sea cucumber, p’yogo mushrooms,7 and dried slices of wax gourd, then mince the white ends of fresh green onions and ginger. Put all of these into the pot after slicing and season with good soy sauce as one desires; add plenty of ground sesame seeds and oil and knead so as to mix well. Put this in a large brass bowl and cook in a double boiler. Garnish with strips of egg yellows and whites as well as black pepper powder and chopped pine nuts. Serve with mustard (kyŏja) sauce. A Recipe for Grilled Pork Skewer a large piece of pork and grill over a charcoal fire. Dip the meat in the final washing water of grain repeatedly and grill it again and again. Turn it frequently, poking with a sharp bamboo skewer often (to allow the sauce to enter the meat), and apply oil sauce. Slice and serve. This is a Chinese recipe for grilling pork. Fowl Like Pheasant (Kkwŏng) and Chicken (Tak) As pheasants belong to the trigram8 igwae (離卦) that is fire, its comb turns red when boiled; chickens belong to the trigram son’gwae (巽卦) that is wood, and thus the color of the comb changes when boiled. Neither should be eaten together with walnuts, mushrooms, or barley. According to the Chunyŏng kŏyo,9 when pheasants and chickens reach about one year old or so, they will turn into snakes. The Zhongyong states that i (the first character of the trigram igwae 離卦) becomes the pheasant. I is fire among the Five Phases (五行), which is also called ch’i (雉, pheasant and also carries the meaning of governing as well) as its form is civilized and its disposition upright. According to the Lizhi (Book of rites), pheasants are strong in their nature and maintain fidelity (‌節). The Zhou li (周禮 Rites of Zhou) informs that a [regular] man will catch a wild goose and a scholar will capture a pheasant. This is because pheasants are beautiful in color and keep their fidelity. As there was an empress of the Han dynasty named Ch’i (雉; C. Zhi), pheasants were called wild chickens (tŭl tak) afterwards. Pheasants can be caught and eaten from the eighth month through the second month. They are poisonous and not so tasty in the other months. Young pheasants are consumed in the seventh month, but there is no cure if one gets a pheasant bone stuck in their throat. According to the Huangdi shu (黃帝書 Writings of the Yellow Emperor),10 if pheasant or chicken are eaten on a pyŏngo day (丙午),11 men will not have any offspring and women will cease menstruation; thus it is to be greatly avoided.

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Steamed Pheasant with Beef (Pongch’ong tchim) When scalding a pheasant, do so gently so as not to damage the skin. Cut off the wings and legs of the pheasant, skin them gently, and gently turn them inside out. Leave only the lower joints of the bones with the skin and chop the upper joints. Remove the bones from the flesh, and mix in a little beef after finely mincing and removing any sinew from either meat. To this add the white bottoms of green onions, finely minced ginger, and black pepper powder; mix well. Add some soy sauce with oil to properly season, knead, and spread it out on a small portable table. Next fashion the meat into large pheasant leg shapes and gently wrap these with the pheasant skins; make various other shapes as one desires. When making stew, cook the meat with vegetables and plenty of seasonings as well as some flour, and when grilling, grill until half-cooked on top of paper and then grill further after applying oil sauce. A Recipe for Grilling Pheasant Meat When grilling pheasant meat, wet very clean white paper, wrap the meat up with the paper completely, grill until it is half-cooked, remove the paper, and then grill until cooked after applying oil sauce. Quail (Mech’uragi) In winter, while flying about the fields, quails get caught loitering around when seeing cows or horses. They cry anxiously and sadly if raised in a cage. To make quail stew, first feather the bird carefully so as to not damage the skin. Remove the feet and intestines, and clean thoroughly. In finely chopped beef, add various seasonings and mix. Stuff this mixture inside the quail. Use a bit of winter scallions12 and water parsley for vegetables. Make a powder of dried p’yogo mushrooms, rock ear lichen (sŏgi),13 and bamboo shoots; mix this with some oil sauce and black pepper powder and use. The liquid is a bit thick, so it is better to add a bit of water after the meat is cooked. The Bencao states that quails are the ones that tree frogs (K. hama; Hyla japonica) changed into. If quail is eaten with pig liver, a wart will grow on one’s face. Sparrow (Ch’amsae) Sparrow can be eaten from the tenth lunar month through the first month of the new year, but should be avoided in other months. Sparrows eat toxic



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worms, and the hatchlings in the nest will die from hunger when the mother bird is caught. For bird meat, soy sauce or paste should be avoided as it does not go well with the meat. For grilling or pan-frying, season with salt and oil. Chatnamu sae14 The crossbill of Hoeyang15 is called the paekcho (栢鳥) and has an especially beautiful taste. The Bencao states that the chicken is of the wind and since it cries after absorbing the energy of the rising sun at the fifth watch,16 those suffering from illnesses caused by wind should not eat it. Danxi xinfa (丹溪 心法 Danxi’s methods for mental cultivation)17 relates that the heavens open at the first watch18 and that the earth opens at the second watch.19 Chickens are related to the earth and crow around the time of the second watch when the earth opens. The red-chested, white-feathered, black-boned chicken20 is greatly beneficial to people, but it is only a true ogol chicken when the bones are dark blue, but that is difficult to find when only seeing the bird’s outward appearance. Usually, the bones will be dark blue when the eyes and tongue are black. After butchering the fowl, it should be hung upside down for half a day to let the blood drain out and make the meat tender and tasty. However, be careful as centipedes will gather if they smell the chicken. Old hens or cocks will become tender instantly if boiled on cherry-tree skewers, and also be soft if cooked with a small piece of roof tile from near a chimney. (From Wan bing hui chun [萬病回春 Recovery from ten thousand illnesses].)21 For young chicken stew, stuff the bird the same as when cooking quail but it is beneficial and tasty to add a little pounded fresh shiso leaf22 into the stuffing. For grilling, the taste will not be good if a young chicken is scalded in hot water, so it should be feathered the same as pheasant. Divide the fowl into four pieces [with the wings and legs attached], wash, marinate with salt and oil for long while, and lightly grill over a charcoal fire. Next, dip the pieces into the water used for the second rice washing and then expose to the heat again. Repeat this thrice, apply oil sauce which is mixed with chopped green onion and black pepper powder on the meat, and grill until the meat is thoroughly cooked. The Soup That Pleases the Mouth (悅口子湯 Yŏlguja t’ang) Slice neatly pheasant, old chicken, sea cucumber, abalone, lamb, omasum (K. ch’ŏnyŏp), lung, the fatty part on the ends of cow intestine (konjasoni), brain, pork, turnip, water parsley, bellflower roots (toraji), green onions, p’yogo mushrooms, large shrimp, and beef, and stir-fry with oil in a pan. Water

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parsley is better when frying while covered with egg. Vegetables should be pan-fried as they are, and it is better to have more pork for this dish. Arrange the ingredients in a steamboat pot in neat layers. For fish, pan-fry after covering with egg yolk and egg white separately, and slice neatly. Make small rice-cake balls with glutinous rice flour stuffed with the seasoned pheasant meat and pan-fry. Place the chicken, fish, and vegetables colorfully side by side on a tray. Thinly fry egg yolks and whites separately, and also fry egg mixed with dark crab innards, the color of which will be scarlet. Cut these in square shapes and sprinkle on top of the pot. Slice elongated rice cakes thinly, cut noodles into three to four ch’i (9–12 cm) lengths, and place these together with the stuffed rice cakes and vegetables. Build a charcoal fire under the steamboat pot. Boil soup with pork broth adding enough beef and all the meat-drippings from the stir-fry, and pour all of this into the steamboat pot. When boiling, add the white rice-cake slices, noodles, and vegetables until boiled and serve after sprinkling with black pepper powder. The Soup That Is Better than Kisaeng or Music (勝妓樂湯 Sŭnggiak t’ang)23 Remove the feet and intestines of a fat old chicken. Pour one bowl each of liquor, oil, and good vinegar into the body cavity, and then skewer with a large bamboo stick. Cut and stuff a goodly amount of p’yogo mushrooms, green onions, and pork fat into it. After putting a poached egg inside the chicken, cook the soup as if making kŭmjunggam (錦中湯).24 This is a food of Japanese official residences and the meaning of the dish is that this soup is better than either kisaeng or music. Lady Pyŏn’s Dumplings (Pyŏn-ssi mandu) Boil a fat old chicken whole without adding anything over a steady low heat. Finely mince the meat, and add plenty of ground pine nuts, black pepper powder, and oil sauce, before lightly stir-frying. Sieve flour with a silk sieve, knead it, roll out the dough very thinly so light passes through it as when making thin flat rice cakes (utki ttŏk). Cut the dough into squares, wrap up the stir-fried meat in it by pinching the corners, boil in the same water that the chicken was cooked in, and serve with vinegar sauce. Seven-Scent Chicken (Ch’ilhyang-gye) Scald a fat old hen, remove the intestines, and clean the insides thoroughly. Add a total of seven ingredients such as a boiled bellflower root, four or five



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pieces of ginger, a pinch of green onion, a pinch of Korean peppercorn, one small bowl of soy sauce, one small bowl of oil, and half of a small bowl of vinegar. Put the chicken and the rest of seasonings in an earthenware pot, bind the mouth with oil paper, cover with a porcelain dish, and cook in a double boiler. The Bencao records that chickens that shrink up are poisonous. Further avoid eating mustard, purple scallions (chach’ongi), dog liver, carp, green onions, plum, or glutinous rice together with chicken. Poisonous Types of Poultry/Fowl Do not eat chicken or pheasant with blue-colored livers. Do not eat black chickens with white feet or white chickens with black heads. Colorful Meats and Vegetables (Hwach’ae) Fillet fresh gray mullet thinly, cover with starch and julienne as when cutting raw fish. Likewise, julienne the rest of the ingredients such as omasum, lamb, beef intestine tip (konjasoni), pheasant, large shrimp, abalone, sea cucumber, and boiled pork. Skin a nicely colored cucumber and julienne and do the same with water parsley, p’yogo mushrooms, sŏgi mushrooms (Umbilicaria esculenta), green onions, chrysanthemum leaves, ginger, fried egg yolks and whites, and red pepper. Cover the vegetables and meat as well as the fish with starch, and boil in water. However, it is too messy to put all of this in one pot, so cook one after another. Thinly julienne white radish and dye with lotus water and boil in water. Arrange the fish, meat, vegetables on the bottom of bowl; add the egg yolks and whites, sŏgi mushrooms, large shrimp, sliced chrysanthemum leaves, dyed radish slices, ginger, and sliced red pepper on top of it. It is not only refreshing in its taste but also appears brightly dappled with the five colors, and thus pleases the eyes as well. This food is served from third lunar month until the seventh. It is not that good to serve on colder days as it gets cold easily. Egg-Batter Fish (Chŏnyuŏ) If whole eggs are used to pan-fry fish, the color is poor and not pretty. Instead make a small hole in the eggshell and remove all the egg white to one bowl before cracking open the eggs and putting the yolks in another bowl. Fillet large pieces of fish and cover with flour. In a heated pan, add enough oil and pour in the egg whites and yolks separately, using a spoon to spread them evenly. Place an egg white covered fillet on top of egg white in the pan when the egg white is set on the bottom but has not finished cooking

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on the top. This way the fish and egg will stick together and be cooked; do this again when turning the fillet over. Do the same for egg yolks [cooking pieces of fish as with the egg whites], and the white and yellow colors will be especially bright and shiny. Gather the black crab innards, add some oil and egg, stir quite a bit, and fry with the same as above. The yellow part of crab intestines can be used after mixing with egg for coating the flour-covered fish or pheasant fillet when pan-frying. When they are half-cooked, place the fish or pheasant and fry together, it will be scarlet in color and tender in texture. Harmonious Ways to Prepare Eggs (Chohwa kyeran-bŏp) Make a bag with a small mouth out of leather or oiled paper. Crack open many eggs without breaking or disturbing the whites and yolks and pour into the sack. Tie the mouth firmly, put it in a well, and leave it to be cold overnight. The egg white and egg yolks will be mixed of their own accord. If this whole bag is boiled in water, it will become an egg as large as a chawan.25 If the sack was shaken when putting the eggs in the beginning and the eggs membranes are damaged, it will not come out well. If eggs are eaten with green onions, it is said that tapeworms will come out when one defecates. After one writes or paints with borax on the egg shell of chicken or duck, if washed with hair ash lye when the painting (ink) is dry, and boiled in the water, the writing or painting will appear on the boiled egg white when unshelled. The Yang sheng zhu lun (養生主論 Treatise by Master Yang)26 states that as pigs do not have sinew, the meat27 does not have vital energy (kiun); chickens do not have bone marrow and crabs do not have stomachs. Thus, all are deficient in the energy by their very nature and none should be eaten in excess.

Vegetables Pine Mushroom Stew (Songi tchim) Lightly skin pine mushrooms (Tricholoma matsutake), fan out the stems, and slice open the top so it open wide. In pounded beef and pork, add tofu, oil sauce, and various seasonings; mix very well to make stuffing. The size can vary as one desires. Wrap this stuffing with mushroom slices, dust with fine flour, cover with egg, and pan-fry with oil. Next, prepare soup with sufficient meat and add some flour, beaten egg, and bring to a boil. Add the panfried stuffed mushrooms, and boil again. Serve with fried egg whites and yolks garnish, and season with black pepper powder and chopped pine nuts.



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Bamboo Shoots (Chuksun namul) Thinly slice and cut bamboo shoots and parboil. Pound beef and pheasant meat to tenderize, season p’yogo and sŏgi mushrooms with black pepper powder, and stir-fry all the ingredients with enough oil and a little bit of flour. If the bamboo shoots are salted as they have been brought from far away, soak in water for a bit more than a day to get rid of the salty taste by changing water, and then use. Angelica gigas (Singamch’ae)28 In the spring, gather tender stems of singamch’ae, parboil, peel, skew it together with tenderloin, apply seasoned meat juice and grill. It is also good to use this with pheasant meat and the white ends of winter scallions when making a skewered dish in winter. White Gourd Melon (Tonggwasŏn) Take a white gourd melon harvested after being hit by frost, slice it into round and even pieces, and stir-fry with oil. Find some faded mustard that was hit by the morning dew many times. Use after covering with the mustard mixed with water and a lot of honey as well. Korean Squash (Hobak namul) Pluck young and tender Korean squash about the size of a fist and cut to a good thickness. Slice some pork, finely pound quite a bit of beef, and add green onion, peppers, and sŏgi mushrooms. Heat up a brass kettle till hot, add enough oil, stir-fry the squash and meat mixture quickly, and serve after sprinkling with finely ground sesame seeds. Also, for an appetizer to be served with liquor, make small rice pancakes the size of a coin, and stirfry mixed with the above. Perilla Seed Fry (Imja chwaban) Beat glutinous rice flour finely and make dough as when making fried glutinous rice crackers (kangjŏng); however, when kneading, add enough husked and roasted sesame seeds, finely ground black pepper, Korean peppercorns, and red peppers together with chopped pine nuts, and add a little bit of bland, but good soy sauce. Knead the mixture, steam it as when making kangjŏng, and knead again; then spread it thinly, cut into squares, and pan-fry as when making flower griddle cakes (kkotchŏn).

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Kelp Dish (Tasima chwaban) Soak kelp in water and then dry it again quite a bit until it is not slippery and makes a dry rustle when rubbed together. Winnow good glutinous rice to remove small fragments and make into hard-boiled rice. While the rice is hot, stick the grains on nicely cut pieces of kelp and then sun-dry. When these are dried and become crisp like the crust of overcooked rice (nurungji), deep fry. Next apply a little bit of honey on the sides where there are no rice grains and serve after sprinkling with ground pine nuts. Mesh Ladle Dish (Sŏk chwaban)29 Sift buckwheat flour in a silk sieve and mix with a little saltwater until it runs when scooping out. Heat oil until it gushes out and put the flour mix in the boiling oil as thin as strands of hair. When it gathers and is about the size of flower griddle cakes (kkotchŏn), take hold of bamboo sticks in both hands and make a nice shape [of the flour] and fry. Scoop it out with a mesh ladle when done. Make one piece at a time as it is hard to make many at a time. Mix a little bit of flour into buckwheat flour and sift with a silk sieve. Add a little bit of salt to boiling water and make dough with it until it becomes the proper thickness to shape with one’s hands. Make a stuffing with chopped pine nuts by adding some black pepper powder; shape the dough like a pomegranate, but the size of a jujube. Pan-fry in gromwellcolored oil. Clean green or black laver thoroughly with water, trim away anything not good, make into thin and even shapes, cut it square or round as you like with scissors, dry, and then pan-fry. Soak sea fern (miyŏk),30 trim, tie in knots with whole pine nuts inside, and pan-fry.

Rice Cakes and Sweets According to Shuofu (說郛 Environs of fiction), the houses of the scholar families in Jinling (金陵) have seven peculiar foods:31 韭可照面: Chives are as shiny as possible to reflect the face. 餛飩湯可注硯: Hondon-t’ang (a soup made of various foods mixed together) so clear as possible to be poured in an ink stone. 餠可映字: Rice cakes that can possibly reflect letters. 飯可打擦擦臺濕: Rice is glistening white to possibly plaster a tower.



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麵可穿結帶: Noodles that can be woven and used as a belt. 餠可作勸盞: Rice cakes make it possible to offer a cup of liquor. 寒具嚼注驚動十里人: Once chewing rice crackers, the taste will surprise those even ten li away. Pokryŏng Marvel Rice Cakes (Pokryŏng chohwa ko)32 Finely grind four nyang (150 grams) of white pokryŏng mushroom, lotus fruit, hemp root (sanyak),33 and the fruit of the prickly water lily (kamin),34 and one kŭn (600 grams) of sugar. Mix this with two toe (3.6 liters) of polished rice flour, and prepare to steam in an earthenware steamer. Cut it into pieces when steaming by making lines with a bamboo knife. Steam it while covered with a hemp or other wrapping cloth. This rice cake will not cook when steamed while covered with wooden lid. This can be dried and cooked as rice porridge as well. Mix the finely ground white pokryŏng mushroom with rice flour half to half, sift with a fine sieve, add either sugar or taffy to sweeten, and mix; put cinnamon powder and chopped pine nuts on top, and steam it in the same manner as when making steamed white rice cakes ( paeksŏlgo). It is beautiful in taste and good for one’s health as well.35 Steamed White Rice Cakes (Paeksŏlgo) Finely pound to make powder out of one toe (1.8 liters) each of polished white rice and polished glutinous rice, four nyang (150 grams) each of roasted hemp root and lotus root after removing the center, and the fruit of the prickly water lily, and one and one-half toe (2.7 liters) of sugar. Mix all together and steam. The taste is extremely good and it strengthens and is helpful to one’s health. The above comes from the “Poyak-mun” (“Preventive medicine section”) in the Tongŭi pogam. It is not only for strengthening energy and beneficial to one’s vitality, overcoming weakness, and strengthening the stomach, but also is extremely beautiful in taste. Fried Wheat Rice Cake (권전병 Kwŏnjŏn-byŏng) Make a dough that is neither too thick nor too thin with buckwheat flour mixed with sugar and honey, and steam it. Take a piece of steamed dough as big as a plum, knead, roll thinly, and pan-fry. It will turn out to be like a delicate lotus leaf and is called kwŏnjŏn-byŏng. It is called songp’ung-byŏng (pine-wind rice cake) if is cut round before cooking.

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Yuzu Rice Cake Balls (Yuja tanja) Keep the skins of the yuzu when preserving yuzu in honey to make yuja chŏnggwa, and then dry and make powder out of them. Pound dried persimmons until thin, mix glutinous rice flour with honey, add a little bit of tanggwi powder, and mix the dried persimmons and yuzu powder.36 Steam this mixture as when making glutinous rice crackers (kangjŏng). Make stuffing with shelled and dried chestnuts after boiling and sifting, mix with honey, add black pepper powder and cinnamon powder. Wrap the stuffing with the steamed mixture, and roll those in red bean powder to coat after roasting in a pan without oil and then sweeten. First Full-Moon Rice Cakes (Wŏnso-byŏng) Sift sweet-rice flour in a silk sieve, knead after adding sugar, stuff with jujubes that have been steamed and filtered, and make round balls the size of large kyŏngdan. Boil these in sweetened sugar water and serve floating in a sweet liquid such as honey or omija water.37 This rice cake is made and enjoyed for the first full moon of the lunar new year in Beijing, and for that reason is called wŏnso-byŏng (元宵餠). Another Method for Making First Full-Moon Rice Cakes Make a slightly sticky and tender dough with glutinous rice powder and cold water. Shell walnuts and pound, add ground pine nuts, cinnamon powder, sugar, and black pepper powder to make a stuffing. When stuffing, make a shape as when making dumplings. Boil in water and scoop out when it floats. Coat with sugar and serve in omija water with honey. The stuffing can be somewhat coarse. Angelica gigas Ball Cakes (Singamch’o tanja)38 Pound fresh angelica gigas leaves, mix with glutinous rice flour, pound more in a mortar, boil in water, and mix with honey until doughy. Put red-bean honey stuffing in a small piece of dough, coat with chopped pine nuts, and serve. Reluctant-to-Swallow Rice Cakes (Sŏkt’an-byŏng) Gather one hundred well-ripened persimmons (susi 水枾), skin, and peel them as when peeling chestnuts. Spread the thin peels out to dry and then



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make powder out of them. Mix with rice flour (1:1 ratio) and add enough sugar so it will be sweet. Taste and add good honey if it is not sweet enough. Next add sweetened tangerine slices and sweetened ginger slices, and mix well as you would mix white radish slices when making radish rice cakes. When preparing to steam, mix chopped pine nuts and cinnamon powder with rice flour mix, sprinkle jujubes and cooked chestnuts fully on the top after julienning and mixing with chopped pine nuts. Cover it with washed mulberry paper, cover the paper with another type of flour, and steam. The sweet and spicy taste is too good to even swallow, which is why it is called “reluctant-to-swallow rice cake.” Peach and Apricot Rice Cakes (Tohaeng-byŏng) Remove the seeds from ripe peaches and apricots, steam them, and sift. Separately mix rice flour and glutinous rice flour and add plenty of peach and apricot juice, sun-dry, and then put them in an oiled paper sack and store so as not to be spoiled. In either autumn or winter, remove the contents and make a powder before mixing with either sugar or honey and garnishing with jujubes, chestnuts, pine nuts, black pepper powder, cinnamon powder and the like. Next, steam the mixture using rice flour. For glutinous rice, make dough rings, boil, knead, and then make balls stuffed with dry-­ roasted honey and red bean stuffing. Finally, cover with honeyed red beans or ground pine nuts. These small ball-shaped rice cakes are marvelous with the dense scent of peach and apricot in one’s mouth. Newly Harvested Fruit Rice Cakes (Sin’gwa-byŏng) Slice newly harvested ripe chestnuts and green jujubes. Skin good persimmons after getting rid of the bitter taste by soaking in saltwater and slice thinly. Mix all of these with newly harvested rice flour, early harvested green beans, add honey, shell and sprinkle on newly harvested mung beans, and steam. Dawn Vision Rice Cakes (渾沌餠 Hondon-byŏng)39 Mix glutinous rice flour with raw honey and add powdered tanggwi root in an amount equal to one-third of the rice flour. Add two ton (7.5 grams) of cinnamon powder, one ton (3.75 grams) of black pepper powder, five p’un (1.875 grams) of dried ginger as well as one hop (0.18 liter) of coarsely chopped pine nuts. After spreading a cloth on a chŭngpyŏng steamer (‌蒸‌餠), spread roasted and honeyed red bean powder mixed with cinnamon

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powder on the cloth and then spread the prepared washed and pounded rice (ttŏk karu) thickly on top of that. Make stuffing out of dried chestnuts mixed with honey and other seasonings; using a handful of stuffing for each, make rounded balls with flat bottoms and place them in rows on top of the pounded rice that is spread [on the cloth]. Cover the tops again lightly with pounded rice so as the stuffing cannot be seen and the round shape is clear. Place jujubes, chestnuts, pine nuts on the round tops closely, and spread the dry roasted red bean powder thickly. Cover with dried glutinous rice flour once more to prevent the shape from breaking. Wrap the top with a cloth, steam it in a siru steamer, remove the rice topping, and serve by cutting each round piece.40 Taro Rice Cakes (T’oran-byŏng)41 Boil taro root thoroughly, skin, add some glutinous rice flour, and pound so as to be thoroughly mixed. Next make rice cakes and pan-fry with sesame oil. Sweet-Potato Rice Cakes (Nambang kamjŏ-byŏng) Wash sweet potatoes unpeeled, dry, and make powder out of them. Next, mix with glutinous rice flour and make rice cakes out of it. It is even sweeter than rice cakes mixed with honey. The sweet taste will disappear if the sweet potatoes are exposed to the air after drying. So, dry them as a whole and make powder as needed. Various Fruits Rice Cakes (Chapkwa-p’yŏn) Remove the seeds of jujubes and dried persimmons, slice very thin, dry a little, and slice them as thinly as hair. Do the same with chestnuts and mix together. Make many ring-shaped balls of dough out of glutinous rice flour, boil, and knead with honey water. Boil dried chestnuts and make thick stuffing by adding honey, cinnamon powder, and black pepper powder. Shape the stuffing into squares and thinly cover them with the kneaded dough. Coat with honey, sprinkle the prepared toppings and chopped pine nuts as well, and serve. Rice Wine Cakes (Chŭngp’yŏn) Polish good rice as shiny as jade, wash again and again, and soak it in water overnight. Drain it, pour clean water through a wicker to rinse and to remove any residue, grind, and sieve with a silk sifter. Boil water until it leaps up,



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mix flour with it to make a dough that is even thicker than when making songpy’ŏn.42 In cold water, add raw rice wine (makkŏlli) to the point where it has just a little taste of wine. Open up the dough in the center, put this wine water together with two to three p’un (0.75–1.125 grams) of sesame seed oil, and mix thoroughly so that there is not even one lump left in the mix. If it is sour and definitely has the flavor of wine when tasted, and if the dough mix drops slowly when you pick it up with your hand, tightly wrap it with oil paper and a wrapping cloth and leave it in a warm and not breezy room. When opened and it has risen, for red-bean honeyed stuffing, add cinnamon powder, dried ginger powder, and black pepper powder and roast; but it is easier to make it stick when it is a bit wet. Even after it has risen, cold water can be added if the dough seems to be too thick before preparing to steam in a steamer. To steam, spread a cotton cloth on the steamer and add the red-bean stuffing one after another in lines but not touching each other, and add the runny dough on top using a spoon. It will run down naturally and make round shapes. After adding dough with a spoon where the round shapes are clear and red-bean stuffing can be seen, put thinly sliced jujubes, dried persimmons, and split pine nuts on the top. Especially on the edges, top them cleanly and evenly in order. Cover the top with a cloth and steam it with the same way as when making mandu but add plenty of water.43 When it is all done, put oil on it before slicing for serving. When steaming, take out only after the color of jujubes has become black. If you want to make it green, add powered tanggwi root when making dough. It will not be harmful if the raw rice wine from the market is good and sweet; however, the taste of these rice cakes will not be good if the wine from the market is sour and bitter. So, when planning to steam chŭngp’yŏn, make white rice out of one toe (1.8 liters) or seven hop (1.26 liters) two days before making the rice cakes. Let the rice cool (so it is cold), mix with good nuruk, and let it brew.44 When it is about half-ready and when the taste is both sweet and bitter, filter the wine, and use it to make the dough for rising. It makes the dough rise easily and the taste is also good. Sŏgi Lichen Rice Cakes (Sŏgi-byŏng)45 If sŏgi is ground and (directly) mixed with flour, it is not beautiful. Remove all the grit from the sogi, sun-dry, finely grind, sieve with a sift, and preserve. When ready to use the sogi, put it in a brass pot, add hot water once-boiled so it leaps little by little, and mix with a spoon frequently and repeatedly. As the powder becomes swollen and increases in quantity and tenderness, add a little bit of oil and marinate with honey. Mix the sogi honey with flour

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and steam it. The rice cakes will be tender and their color quite unique. Even one handful of dried sogi powder can fill a bowl when water is added and it swells. Using this method, not only does it make a very tasty rice cake with a beautiful color, but also leads to sparing use. Steamed Rice Cakes Coated with Honeyed Red Beans (Tut’ŏp ttŏk) Polish sweet rice as shiny as jade, grind it with a millstone, and remove any impurities by mixing in water, letting it settle, and then pouring the water out. Spread a cloth on a sifter, spread out the wet powder evenly on the cloth, and place nice-sized stuffing balls made of dry-roasted honeyed red-bean stuffing one after another. Do not put them too close to each other; after finishing, cover them with the wet powder again. Sprinkle the top densely with thickly sliced high-quality dried persimmons and jujubes, and steam. Separate the rice cakes into round shapes per stuffing, cover with dry-roasted red bean power, and serve. The powder should be thick since it will not be good if it is moist. Sponge Cake (Kidan kao) Pound non-glutinous millet. Boil good whole jujubes with seeds as well as whole red beans and mix with the pounded millet powder. Put in a steamer haphazardly instead of neatly stacking one line after another, and steam. This is a Chinese rice cake. Hemp-Scented Rice Cakes (Sŏyŏ hyang-byŏng)46 Steam fresh hemp so it is fully cooked, cut up, soak in honey, and cover with thinly sliced pine nuts. It is good to pan-fry after slicing and coating with glutinous rice flour. Pine endodermis Rice Cakes (Songgi ttŏk)47 Pound pine endodermis finely to make a powder and mix with glutinous rice flour. Make rice cakes by putting pine nut stuffing in it and pan-frying with sesame oil. It is also good if pounded pine endodermis is covered with glutinous rice flour, pan-fried in sesame oil, and then soaked in honey. Frost Flour Rice Cakes (Sanghwa)48 Sieve flour with a silk sifter. Make wheat bran porridge, mix with two or three handfuls of powdered nuruk yeast, leave it overnight, and sieve it in



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the following morning after fermentation. Mix the fermented mixture with flour half and half, put it in a bowl, and leave in a warm place with the top covered firmly so no air can enter. After a half day, it will swell up, becoming large and looking like a beehive. Make rice cakes by putting seasoned and shelled red-bean honeyed stuffing on it, covering the top thickly and bottom thinly. Spread out white paper in a warm room, lay out the rice cakes, and do not let a breeze get in [the room]. They will rise and the outside will look sleek. Spread a hemp cloth on a larger steamer, put the rice cakes in cold water, and place the floating ones one after another on the steamer and steam. When they are cooked, sprinkle water on the rice cake and serve. If it is difficult to have it all ferment at once, use raw rice wine instead. Radish Rice Cakes (Muu-ttŏk) If glutinous rice flour is not used for making this rice cake, it is like the one from the market. Slice radishes thin and broad, soak in saltwater, drain in a strainer, and mix with regular rice flour. Remove all the flour lumps except those naturally sticking to the radishes and put them in a steamer to prepare to cook. The rice cake will be tender if glutinous rice flour is used. Spread glutinous rice flour thickly on top, not regular rice flour, to cover the radishes. Top with garnish, sprinkle on red-bean powder, and steam. Snow-White Rice Cakes (Paeksŏlgi) Wash the rice repeatedly, pound and sift with a silk sieve again and again until it is the finest powder, before putting it in the steamer without making dough; otherwise, the color will be yellowish and not good. If these rice cakes are for ancestral rites (chesa 祭祀), make a square flat frame out of a thin and wide wooden board to the size, width, and length of a wooden mallet (mach’i), put a long handle on it as a kettle lid handle, and apply white paper on the frame. After placing the rice powder for making paeksŏlgi, cover the top with the flat frame after washing the paper. Make an iron knife that is a bit longer than the length of the flat frame attaching long iron handle on the center of the top edge and cut the outside lines of the flat wooden frame like a mallet. However, if steamed as such, the size of rice cake will shrink a bit. So, when cutting the edges of the frame with the iron knife, cut each one p’un (0.3 cm) larger than the size of the frame. Remove the wooden frame on the top, decorate the cake with three pine nuts each to make a flowery shape, cover with paper and steam. When taking out of the steamer and if holding the rice cake with one’s hands while steamy hot, there will still be the lines of knife and thus it is not necessary to slice the rice cake again. Right

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after the cakes are out, put them on a plate/dish making a perfect angle, and it will look evenly cut as if it was planed. The color is like white snow and very shiny, and it does not go bad for a long time even on a very hot day. Mung Bean Rice Cakes (Pingja) Grind mung beans thickly. Right away, pour oil in a heated frying pan so much that the food can be submerged and spoon in the ground mung beans. While frying, put chestnut stuffing mixed with honey on the tops and then cover the top with more ground mung beans. Frequently press and touch with a spoon to make the shape of a flower-patterned cake. Top with a pine nut in the center and place jujubes so it [the cake] looks as if it is sliced into four pieces. Jujube Rice Cakes (Taech’u choak) The taech’u choak is good and tender after kneading with cold water. If kneaded with hot water, the taech’u choak will become tough and have a pale color. Flower Cakes (Hwa-jŏn) As the color will be yellowish and it will require a lot of oil if kneaded with cold water, make dough with boiled saltwater. Knead until it does not break apart when grabbing by the hand and make cakes in the shape of chrysanthemums. Place them on a flat tray, put chestnut stuffing in them, and make thin lines with a tweezer. It is good to add a lot of azaleas and roses but will be bitter if too much chrysanthemum is used. It is also good to pan-fry after removing the green stalks of chrysanthemum and coating with flour. Steamed Pine Rice Cakes (Songp’yŏn) Make rice flour very fine and make the dough a bit thinner that when making thimble-shaped rice cake (kolmu-ttŏk); steam, pound it quite a bit, and shape long and thick as if making thick-round rice cake (sudan),49 but do not add any flour. Coil it up in a bowl, take a little piece, and make a little bowl shape—so thin that one can see through it—and put honeyed red bean stuffing mixed with cinnamon powder, black pepper powder, and dried ginger powder, and make into the shape of songp’yŏn (crescent-shaped halfmoons). If they are too small or round, it is rather crude. Make them like a



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willow leaf and of the same size. If steamed on and in between pine leaves, it is extraordinarily tasty. Glutinous Rice Cakes (Injŏlmi) In China, these are considered the best rice cake for tenderness. To make this rice cake tender, remove so much as one grain of rice from glutinous rice and soak the glutinous rice in warm water for four or five days, changing water daily; then drain and steam until it is thoroughly cooked. After steaming, pound it time after time. When preparing the rice in the beginning, polish the rice to be lustrous as jade and wash it again and again, as much as a hundred times. Add thinly pounded jujubes when pounding the steamed rice and coat with roasted red bean powder. It is good when roasted as well. Flower Noodles (Hwamyŏn) Remove all the stamens from azalea flowers, dampen in water, cover with starch evenly and thoroughly, and cook in boiling water. Serve in omija soup with pine nuts floating on top. Egg Drink (Nanmyŏn) Sieve flour using a silk sifter again and again. Remove the egg whites and only mix the egg yolks with flour. Knead and pound this quite a bit, roll the dough thin and cut as thin as hair. Cook it in boiling water again and serve in omija soup. Japanese Noodles (Waemyŏn)50 It is not good if used right after boiling, so soak it in water to remove the salty taste, wash it again, and use it in either omija soup or sesame seed soup (kkaeguk).

Oil Flour Confections (Yumilgwa) Medicine Cookies (Yakkwa) The reason yumilgwa are called medicine cookies is because flour is a resource for the vital energy (氣) from the four seasons, honey is the best of the medicines, and oil kills insects and detoxifies as well. To make one mal (18 liters) of yakkwa, three toe (5.4 liters) of oil and

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honey each are needed and a lot of soaking syrup (chŭpch’ŏng) as well. Put two toe (3.6 liters) of honey, one-half toe (0.9 liters) of oil, a little less than one small bowl ( posigi) of soju in a bowl and knead quite a bit until it is well mixed. Put the dough on a tray, roll it out with a wooden roller, make shapes of yakkwa or tasikkwa as one likes, put oil on them, and spread them out one by one with space between the pieces.51 Fry them over a charcoal fire but make sure not to burn them by turning over with a spoon [frequently]. If the cookie floats, press it down with the spoon until it is cooked thoroughly. When the top cracks open take it out and drench it in soaking syrup mixed with cinnamon powder, black pepper powder, dried ginger powder, and ginger juice. Remove it only when the syrup has thoroughly soaked the inside of the confection. Dry by exposing to air; sprinkle with chopped pine nuts and serve. Glutinous Rice Puffs (Kangjŏng) Kangjŏng are called cocoon cake (kyŏn-byŏng 繭餠) as it is like cocoon and also called cold stuff (han’gu, 寒具). A poem by Liu Yuxi reads:52 The glistening jade-like rice cake, Fashioned by slender and delicate hands Its yellow color shines all the more, As it is fried in clear oil. Sun-dry especially good glutinous rice, cleanly polish, remove even a single grain of regular rice, and soak in water for three or four days. Next, pound the rice and sieve several times in a good sifter, making dough as when you make pukkmi with good wine after mixing some honey so it has a bit of a sweet taste, and steam.53 While steaming, stir it occasionally so it is thoroughly cooked. Remove the dough from the steamer, add three or four spoons of honey, and mix it until it makes cherry-size bubbles, wrap the dough around a wooden roller and pound as when pounding rice cakes. After beating it quite a bit, spread out enough flour and place the dough on top of it flat and even, and slice neatly. Heat up a room till hot and spread out the cut-up dough pieces on a paper in the room; make the pieces neat by shaping and turning over often. When they are dried inside and out, put them in a bowl so every single one dries and finish drying all of them in one night. Wet them with wine, and put them back in a bowl when there are no hard parts and leave it covered with a wrapping cloth for quite a bit. If lumps are found when checking on them, delicately separate them so that they do not lose their shape and touch up when needed to keep the original



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shapes. Spread them out and when they are half-dried, put oil in two pots, boil quite a bit, and cool down in cold water in a double pot. Using the oil pots in turn, put an appropriate number of pieces of the kanjŏng dough in and gently stir to cook it over a low but steady fire. After stirring for a while and when they are about to be puffy, raise the heat and spoon a bit of oil on top of them so they puff easier. If the quality of the glutinous rice is not good or if even one step did not go well, they will not puff up well. Sieve green bean powder with a silk sifter. To make the soaking syrup, add enough honey, boil a bit and then add ginger juice and cinnamon powder. When coating with the syrup, put in several pieces of kangjŏng at once instead of separately so that they stick together, and separate them by adding powder on them and a lot of syrup will clot and cover them; this brings out the special taste. Put some dark honey on white yŏt in a large brass bowl, add a little bit of water, stir to melt, and put the kangjong in to coat.54 Coat with yŏt thoroughly and then powder with differently colored komul.55 [To make komul] soak sesame seeds in water for half a day. When the seeds can be rubbed by hand and the skins come off, drain them into a bamboo basket, put in a mortar, and remove the skins. Put the shelled sesame seeds in a sifter and leave overnight. Next put the seeds in an iron pot, bowl by bowl, and heat over a low steady heat, quickly stirring with a white brush to dry roast. Remove the seeds before they burn and use [as komul] after winnowing. Cover with green peas, Angelica gigas, cinnamon powder, ground pine nuts, pine pollen or black glutinous rice; or for red color, make a powder of roasted and unhusked glutinous rice to mix with chich’i oil and use.56 Huan Xuan57 showed a painting to a guest who left an oily stain while holding the painting with hands that had held han’gu; thus, some people say han’gu (寒具) are not kanjŏng, but rather a type of fried griddle cake (chŏnbyŏng-ryu). Plum Square Rice Puffs (Maehwa sanja) The basic method is the same as when preparing kanjŏng, but when cutting the dough, make the shapes larger and the four corners even and neat. Dry the dough squares and moisten them again before frying—the same as kanjŏng—but fry one at a time. When frying, frequently press the dough so that it does not suddenly puff up and it stays evenly flat and square. Dry the best unhusked glutinous rice quite a bit, allow it to be covered with dew at night, repeat this for four or five days, moisten it with wine, put it in a bowl, and leave overnight.

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The following day, make a hot fire and put the moistened glutinous rice, wet with wine, in a pot little by little stirring it with a rice scoop. When they begin to pop, cover with a wicker tray and let them all pop. Winnow this to get rid of hulls, spread out on a small table, and put those which are nicely popped and prettily cracked in the center on a paper-covered dish. Dry good-sized pine nuts and split in half with a well-sharpened knife so that they do not break. Boil water in brass pot, put particularly white yŏt and honey in a brass bowl, melt and boil down a bit, and double boil in the brass pot. With a thinly cut bamboo stick, trim the four sides of the fried, square rice cakes nicely, apply the white yŏt and honey syrup, layer the popped rice with nice cracks [which look like plum blossoms] one by one in lines, put a white paper on the bottom to turn it over, and do the same on other side again. If too much syrup is applied, it will squeeze out and be messy; and if the lines are not straight, it will not look neat. Sort out good gromwell. Heat oil in a pan and fry the gromwell to be properly cooked before removing it. Put the fried gromwell oil in a large porcelain bowl, add the popped rice (maehwa pap), and mix well to be evenly covered. Make the red colored sanja using red popped rice the same way the other sanja was made. If the sanja is dyed after decorating with popped rice, the color stains the other parts and the popped rice will fall off as well. Thus, this is not as good as decorating with dyed popped rice. Decorate with split pine nuts all facing the same way with lines running along the plum blossom lines; it is very lovely and glistens and is the best among all the types of sanja with an appetizing appearance. Pop two mal (36 liters) of glutinous rice if intending to make only white sanja, and three toe (5.4 liters) of dyed rice will be enough to decorate with red and white. Popped Rice Coated Square Puffs (Papp’ul sanja) For papp’ul sanja, soak glutinous rice for popped rice in water for a day, steam it for quite a while without adding any water, separate the pieces and dry, gently polish, sieve with a coarse sift, and moisten the good grains in makkŏlli.58 After half a day, heat sesame oil to the point that it leaps up. Prepare a one cha (30.3 cm) wide coarse-hemp cloth sack tied at the four corners with a lespedza stick ( pudigi). Put the sack [with the rice in it] into the oil, stir it until all are nicely puffed, fried, drain the oil, and use. Coat the sanja with white yŏt and roll the fried rice grains so they stick. For red color, dye the popped rice grains with gromwell oil; for yellow color, sprinkle pine pollen powder after putting the rice grains on the sanja.



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Flour Puffs (Myohwa sanja)59 Add salt to flour so it is quite salty, add honey, and knead until it is a thick dough. Slice it like in elongated shapes like counting sticks, deep fry as when you make chunggye,60 and cover with different colored garnishes as when making other types of sanja. Buckwheat Puffs (Momil sanja)61 Mix buckwheat and regular flour half and half, knead the dough until it can be easily rolled, roll it thinly on a large cutting board with a roller, cut into neat squares, and fry while still moist. Unlike when making kangjŏng, use high heat from the beginning instead of low and steady heat. Pop glutinous rice for red, shell black sesame and roast for a blue color, roast black sesame without shelling for black color, roast sesame seeds for white color, and roast sesame until it gets yellow. Add some yŏt in a coating syrup, boil a bit, and apply it to the fried dough. Coat with these five colors separately the same way as when making kangjŏng. It looks pleasantly plump and is tasteful. Sweet Crackers (Kamsagwa) Make dough and steam the same way as when making kangjŏng but cut obliquely. Sun-dry the pieces directly and pan-fry the same way as when making flower cakes (kkot-jŏn). Thin Crackers (Yŏnsa) Make dough and steam it the same way as when making kangjŏng, roll it so thin that it is translucent, and cut the same as for buckwheat puffs (momil sanja). On the lid of a brass caldron, put some oil and fry while pressing the tops with a spoon so that the shape does not get twisted. Apply honey liberally and add plenty of crushed pine nuts [to the top]. Thin Cracker Dumplings (Yŏnsaragyo) If you intend to make a lot of this, use one mal (18 liters) of jujubes and if making a little, use five toe (9 liters). Steam jujubes and strain. Boil chestnuts and strain as well. Add one toe (1.8 liters) of finely ground sesame, three hop (0.54 liter) of chopped pine nuts, a little bit of cinnamon and black pepper powders, and make a sweet stuffing out of the jujubes and chestnuts by adding enough honey. Sift flour with a silk sifter, knead with honey water,

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but add a little bit of oil, and roll with a thin bamboo stick so it is translucent like a water dumpling; then make dumplings by putting the stuffing inside. It is tender when the stuffing is thin and not so when the stuffing is thick, so make the stuffing thin by adding enough honey. Pan-fry over high heat, soak them in the coating syrup mixed with ginger juice as well as cinnamon and black pepper powders, sprinkle with chopped pine nuts, and serve. It needs a little oil and a lot of honey, so the skin should be rolled very thin to be tender. The size should be a lot smaller than a dumpling cracker (mandu kwa). Twist and crimp the edge by putting oil on your hands when making them. Cinnamon Ginger Crackers (Kyegang kwa) Pound ginger finely, put in water, and squeeze out all the liquid. Add and mix plenty of cinnamon powder, add one chabam62 of buckwheat and glutinous rice flours each, and steam in a strainer. Make triangle-shaped dumplings and stuff with chopped pine nuts mixed with honey; pan-fry as when frying chŏn, apply coating syrup, and sprinkle chopped pine nuts to serve. Ginger Crackers (Saenggang kwa) Finely chop newly harvested ginger until it is powdery, soak in water, drain with a sieve, and squeeze to get rid of any water. Put a brass pot over a charcoal fire, add the ginger to the pot, and roast by stirring with a spoon for quite some time to dry out all the moisture. Add plenty of honey to this and boil down. When the honey and ginger are combined and well congealed, add nicely colored yŏt in it as much as one desires, and boil down until it is sticky in your hand. Take it out, make shapes [of eggs or ginger], sprinkle with chopped pine nuts and serve. Dried Persimmon Treats (Kŏnsi tanja) Remove the insides and skins of nicely colored and well-ripened dried persimmons to make thin and wide [bowl-shaped], put them in a porcelain bowl, and soak in honey. Put stuffing made of dried chestnuts with seasonings neatly and thoroughly, and sprinkle with chopped pine nuts. Chestnut Rice Cakes (Pam choak) Sieve dried chestnut powder with a silk sifter, mix with honey to make stuffing which is thinner than tea snack (tasik) dough, add chopped pine nuts, cinnamon powder, dried ginger powder, and mix to make stuffing.



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Make small-sized rice cakes by putting this stuffing inside and twisting the ends to crimp as when making dumpling crackers. Apply honey on the top and sprinkle with chopped pine nuts. Chestnut Tea Snacks (Hwangnyul tasik) Dried chestnut powder is usually chunky, and if mixed with honey as is, it will be coarse and not good in color and taste. To make tea snacks that are shiny and nicely shaped, remove all the inner skins of dried chestnuts, sieve with a silk sifter, knead with good honey, and beat or rub with strong hands, put the dough in a rice-cake molding board, and pound them firmly with an iron mallet. Black Sesame Seed Tea Snacks (Hŭgimja tasik) Spread out black sesame seeds on a small table, remove every single white sesame seed, dry-roast in a pan until properly cooked, and pound. They should never be roasted to the point of being burnt. Sieve with a good sifter, add good honey to make thin dough, and [have two people] pound it in a stone mortar thoroughly and for a long time while alternating with one another. When oil floats on the top, gather and squeeze to remove all the oil using a cloth or by strong hands. On a rice-cake mold with deep and clear engraved letters, neatly put sugar only on the letters, and remove the rest if any. Grab a handful of black sesame dough and make into the shape of tasik, and put them on the board. The black and white colors will be clear and look like it is embroidered with white thread on a black silk cloth. If the sugar is misplaced and left here and there, it will not be neat. Dragon Eye Tea Snacks (Yongan tasik)63 Pound the fruit of the longan tree finely, and make into tea snack shapes with moistened hands. Place on a sugared board the same as one would do for the black sesame seed tea snacks [described above]. Mung Bean Starch Tea Snacks (Nongmal tasik) Rinse cleaned yŏnji in thick omija juice, put it in mung bean starch, thoroughly mix to maintain its sour taste, dry in the shade and avoid sunlight, rub it again, and sieve with a silk sifter.64 Mix with honey and knead while adding plenty of sugar. It is tasty if kneaded with cinnamon and ginger powders. However, it is not as good to add cinnamon powder as its color is red.

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Jellied Hawthorn Berries (Sansa p’yŏn) Remove the seeds of good hawthorn berries that have the notched leaves attached, steam using a double boiler so the color does not come out and then sieve twice with a silk sifter. The hawthorn fruits will jellify with raw honey if harvested before being touched by frost. However, if harvested after a frost, first cook raw honey over a low and steady charcoal fire while removing the foam on the top until it gets sticky. Spread out the prepared berries in a square and large dish and pour the heated honey while still hot. If stirred too much, it will make cherry-like bubbles and its color will be cloudy. So evenly mix by gently pressing, make the tops even and flat, and leave in a cold place. It will then be jellied firmly like gelatin. Sliced Hawthorn Preserved with Honey (Sansa tchokchŏnggwa) Sort out good hawthorn berries, slice off the tops and bottoms thinly and split the centers to remove the seeds. In a small brass kettle, add the fruits and enough water to submerge the fruits and parboil. Drain the water and add honey; this way the color and taste will not change over winter and even until spring. If there is water on the berries, the color will change and it will ferment and more water will gather after a long time. So pour honey first [before adding water] if intending to use for making sujŏnggwa (punch). The berries will shrink after a long time if honey is added without boiling in water first. Jellied Cherries (Aengdo-p’yŏn) Put cherries in a brass pot, steam for a bit, sieve with a medium sifter, mix with a proper amount of honey, and boil down in a small brass kettle. When it is thickened like porridge when scooping up with a spoon, add a little bit of starch and boil down until thoroughly cooked and it coagulates like gelatin when putting on a dish for a test. Put it in a porcelain bowl to harden and serve after cutting it into slices. Its color is just like that of jellied hawthorn. If too much starch is added, the color will be cloudy and it will be hard; if it is boiled down too much, the color will be dark. Jellied Raspberries (Pokpunja ttalgi-p’yŏn)65 Make in the same manner as jellied cherries. The main difference is that this is easier to do right than the jellied cherries.



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Honey-Preserved Sifted Quince (Mogwa kŏrŭn chŏnggwa)66 Boil good quinces with a yellowish color and well ripened until they are very tender, sieve with a silk sifter before adding a bit more honey than there are quinces and mix. It is good to add some ginger juice as well. If intending to make jellied fruit ( p’yŏn), follow the same method as when making jellied cherries. However, it only congeals well and the color will only be pretty if it is boiled down a bit less, and more starch is added and mixed to be thicker than jellied cherries. Honey-Preserved Sliced Quince (Mogwa tchokchŏnggwa) Boil good quinces quite a bit until they are tender, drain all the boiled liquid and pour very prettily colored fine honey until the quinces are submerged. Its color will not become bad only if it is moved out [of the heat] and placed in a bowl right away when it is about to be melted. The color is not pretty if there is any water left after boiling. Unlike hawthorns, it is not pretty in color if the honey is even slightly of a lesser quality as well. Jellied Apricots/Jellied Cherries (Salgu p’yŏn/Pŏt p’yŏn) If made the same way as when making jellied cherries, they congeal well. If sliced, the jellied apricots are similar to jellied quince, and the jellied cherries are like yŏt.67 Yuzu Preserved in Honey (Yuja chŏnggwa) Skin the outside of good citron thinly, slice the citron into four pieces, trim the white inner part a bit, slice the remaining peels wide thin and diagonally, and parboil in water. Next, pour melted honey onto the peels, take out all the inner fruit from the inner peels of the citron, put it all in a pot, cook it together, and use. Tangerine Preserved in Honey (Kamja chŏnggwa) Remove the peels of tangerines, remove all the white part inside, slice vertically to remove the seeds if used for ancestral rites (祭祀), and disport by hand after removing all the inner skin if used for eating. Pour the melted honey onto them and use.

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Preserved Lotus Root in Honey (Yŏn’gŭn chŏnggwa) Scrape tender lotus roots cleanly, slice to a proper thickness, parboil in honey water, cook in honey, and use. Preserved Cooked Winter Melon in Honey (Ikhin tonggwa chŏnggwa)68 Scrape the hair off young wax gourds, and slice vertically into a thickness of one p’un (a thickness as wide as one-tenth of a sewing ruler), about that of when stitching. Add some extinguished ash to water, put in the sliced gourds, and diligently stir with a stick all day. The gourd pieces will be naturally wavy and bump into each other in the water, and the shape will be natural looking without any appearance of being cut by a knife. Then, parboil in honeyed water so that the ash water can be all removed from the gourd; next pour in honey and cook. Preserved Uncooked Winter Melon (Sŏn tonggwa chŏnggwa) Put wax gourds in water thickly mixed with extinguished ash, put in an earthenware pot when they become rock hard, and pour honey on it for a day or so. When the gourds push out all the ash water and soak in the honey instead, and when the liquid becomes thin like water, drain all the residue out, and pour in boiled honey again, and close the pot tightly. Leave this until winter or even spring to serve; it will stay hard, be clear in taste, and refreshing. If made with honey as such, the color will be pretty, and it will not go bad even after a long time, but if made over heat, it will get soggy later on. Preserved Ch’ŏnmundong in Honey (Ch’ŏnmundong chŏnggwa)69 Soak ch’ŏnmundong [root] in water so it is swollen, slice thin so it is leaf-like, parboil in water, and cook it with honey over a charcoal fire. Then it will be like amber. Preserved Ginger in Honey (Saenggang chŏnggwa) Skin ginger cleanly, slice it so thinly that one can see the knife blade through it, boil in water twice, and drain twice. Put honey into the water so it is sweet and boil the ginger with the honey water in a brass caldron over a low and steady charcoal fire. When boiling, open the lid frequently so that the water droplets on the lid can be removed. If the water drops fall back in the caldron,



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the jelly will lose its shininess. When it is more than half-cooked, more honey should be added so it is sticky and glistens, and it congeals well. Preserved Japanese Tangerine in Honey (Wae kamja chŏnggwa) Another name of this Japanese tangerine is yugam (yuzu-tangerine), as the fruit inside tastes like a tangerine and the peels looks like that of a yuzu. Peel the skins, slice them as you would slice yuzu skins, and remove the inner skins of each piece while not damaging the fruit inside and keeping the shape. Boil the sliced skins, [fruits are used as they are], place them neatly on all sides, pour over melted honey, and use. Wild Pear Punch (Hyangsŏlgo) Peel wild pears that are sour and hard, add honey water to be sweet, put this all in a brass caldron, top with a goodly amount of whole black peppercorns, add thinly sliced ginger, and boil over a low and steady charcoal fire. It is done when the color becomes red, honey penetrates deeply inside, and even the seeds glisten. For a prettier and redder color, the pears should be sour. If the pears are not sour enough, it is good to add some omija juice. If planning to serve with dried fruits preserved with honey (chŏnggwa), boil down until it has a sticky feeling, and if planning to make punch (sujŏnggwa), boil less so that there is plenty of liquid. Add a little bit of cinnamon powder, sprinkle pine nuts, and serve. Preserved Yuzu, Pear, and Pomegranate with Honey (Yuriryu chŏnggwa) In a soup made with sliced hawthorn preserves, add lightly boiled ginger tea. Julienne raw pear thinly, and also cut thinly the peels of yuzu. Add the inner fruits of yuzu and tangerines after removing the inside skins from each piece in the soup, sprinkle with pomegranate and pine nuts and serve. Water Shield Punch (Sun chŏnggwa)70 Water shield is not found in ponds but in swampy areas. It looks like a lotus leaf that has not fully grown and it is soft and smooth, and it tastes like it is boiled after it is coated with starch. According to the Bencao, it is called thin water shield (絲蓴) from the third or fourth lunar month to the seventh or eighth lunar month. During this time, the sprouts tastes beautiful, lowers fever, detoxifies all types of medicine, and stimulates the appetite. From

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ninth through tenth lunar month it is called mud water shield (塊蓴). The sprouts become bitter and astringent. It is clear and soft if made into punch (sujŏnggwa) in summer by adding omija punch and sprinkling some pine nuts to float on the top. How to Make Softened Persimmons In the eighth lunar month, peel ripened and hard water persimmons, remove the stalks, spread them out on a large wooden board, and dry. Be diligent so that they do not get rained on and turn them over when the tops get dark and lose moisture. When the tops are dry again, turn them over again until the color becomes dark. The taste becomes peculiarly good. When they are thoroughly dried and flattened, shape neatly, and put them in a large earthenware pot one layer after another; however, be very careful so as not to let any water in. Put the dried skins of persimmons as well in between layers. Cover the top with a lot of good straw, bind the pot, and leave it until a white powder arises on the persimmons; then serve for the best taste. The powder on water persimmons (susi) and persimmons (chunsi) is yellowish, and for flat-shaped persimmons ( pansi) it is white as face powder, but the taste is a little bland. Use hard fresh persimmons since if they are ripe and about to be tender, they will easily rot and lose their shape. How to Shell Dried Chestnuts Soak chestnuts in saltwater and quickly wash them by rubbing against one another. When they are dry, put them in hemp cloth sack and leave in a breezy place away from the sun. Shake it frequently and step on them with your feet, and they will not get rotten. Soak in water overnight and rub and wash them quickly again, and the shells come off easily. When boiling chestnuts or ginkgo nuts, the shells come off naturally if boiled with oiled paper. A Method for Roasting Chestnuts without Burning When roasting chestnuts, hold one in your hand without letting anyone know about it and none of the chestnuts will get burnt. Another method is that if each nut is rubbed thrice on your eyebrows and roasted, none will get burnt. One more way is that if one nut is crushed in your mouth, put in oil, and roasted together with other chestnuts, none of the other chestnuts will burn. In general, all fruits will not lose their taste or color if submersed in



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the water of the snow from the third sul day (戌日) after the winter solstice, even in the following year. Chestnuts Soak the chestnuts that have fallen naturally in water, sort out those that float on top of the water, and spread out to dry off the water for a while. [In a jar] put one layer of chestnuts and another layer of dry-roasted and cooled-down sand. Repeat this but not all the way to the top. Instead, put fallen leaves thickly on the top, put a lid on it, and seal the jar with red clay. Do not leave this near a liquor jar, and it will not be rotten even after the following spring. The nut in the very center when opening the burr is beneficial for people. Pears If pears harvested after a frost are layered after a layer of radishes in an earthenware pot, they will not go bad. However, there should not be any scent of liquor nearby. In a sunny spot dig a deep pit in the ground, spread a lot of pear tree leaves on the bottom, cover the top as well, and bury. The pears will not go bad even after a long time and they will not become dry either. Apples Out of one hundred, break and boil twenty apples and let them cool down. Add to an earthenware pot and submerse the rest of the apples in the pot. Bind the mouth of the jar and leave it as is. They will not spoil even after a long time. Ice Persimmons (Hongsi) In the winter, pour water into an earthenware pot and add the persimmons. When it is frozen solid, break the pot and take out the frozen persimmons and put in an icehouse and they will last until summer. A Method for Ripening Persimmons Put fresh persimmons in a bowl. Add two stems of honey locust (chohyŏp 早‌莢) per one hundred persimmons and leave for two days. They will all ripen. Chohyŏp is honey locust. Either the leaves or the fruits can be used.

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Unripened Persimmons Soak unripe and hard persimmons in saltwater—which is a bit saltier than usual—and store in a jar. Even a year later, the color will not change. When ready to eat, put the persimmons in warm water to remove the salty taste. Pomegranates Pluck large and good pomegranates with the branches attached, put in a new earthenware pot, bind the top with paper more than ten times tightly, and the fruits will stay fresh for long. Tangerines and Mandarin Oranges71 Tangerines and Mandarin oranges will not become rotten, even until the spring, if placed in a warm place together with radishes. If kumquats (kŭmgyul)72 are stored among mung beans, they will not rot even after a long time since the nature of mung beans is cold. Peaches Make porridge out of barley flour, cool it down, pour into a new earthenware jar, put red and well ripened peaches in it, and bind well. If served in winter, they look and taste as if newly picked. Grapes If submerged in honey or water from the melted snow fallen on nabil,73 they will last until the following spring. Watermelon Watermelons will last until winter if not exposed to sunshine or not allowed to get dusty. Split them using one’s fingernails rather than a knife; place them in the sun for little bit and then put them in the shade for a while, and serve. It will taste colder than even ice. When steaming dried fruits, it will taste like fresh fruit if steamed after putting dewdrops on it. If watermelon seeds are applied with the sap of the lacquer tree (ot namu)74 and spread out in the sun, the shells crack naturally and the seeds inside will come out naturally.



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Korean Melons75 Korean melons will not lose their taste or color if submerged in water from the snow fallen on nabil together with copper green (tongnok).

Methods to Preserve All Types of Vegetables Radishes and Turnips After a frost, harvest large and good radishes and turnips, cut off their tails with a knife leaving about one-half ch’i (1.5 cm), sear the parts where sprouts come out with an iron, and bury them in the ground. They will not have any sprouts even until spring and the insides will taste like they have been newly harvested. Wax gourds and pumpkins will not go bad if put in a warm room for the winter. Cucumbers and Eggplants Cucumbers and eggplants will be as fresh as newly harvested if stored in the ash that was once used to filter out lye; charcoal brazier ash can also be used. Eggplants do not change color and are tasty if soaked in the water used for rice washing. Remove the green leafy parts and prickles from the fruits keeping the stalks, put them in water to remove the juice two or three times, and dry. When drying them, if applied with saltwater made with the same water the eggplants/cucumbers were submerged whilst invoking, “as this is your own salt, you will easily absorb it,” even after a year the taste and color of eggplants will not change, which is said to be bizarre in the Wakan Sansai Zue (和漢三才圖會 Illustrated Sino-Japanese encyclopedia).76 Dried Pine Mushrooms77 Dried pine mushrooms will be like fresh ones if put in mud. According to the Wakan Sansai Zue, there was a case where everybody in one family died after eating pine mushrooms which were stored in a rice chest overnight, which is an extreme opposite. However, it is not harmful to eat together with rice and side dishes, and the taste becomes even more beautiful if boiled in the water for washing rice, of which the reasons are not known. In general, if one eats sugar first and drinks liquor, it is too bitter to drink, but if one drinks liquor first or mixes it with sugar and drinks, the taste is beautiful. There are some laws of nature as such.

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Aralia Sprouts (Turŭp)78 In the tenth lunar month, cut aralia branches three cha (91 cm) in length, put soil in a large pot, make holes in the soil with a stick, plant the cut off ­branches, leave in a warm room, and water with warm water. New sprouts will appear and can be used for vegetable dishes, which are refreshing and new. Cabbage Root Put the roots of cabbages in a dugout mud hut after the first frost, wrap them all around with dried horse dung, and new leaves will grow which are extremely tender with no tough fibrous parts. Tanggwi Root Put the tanggwi roots in a dugout mud hut, give some warm water, make a fire nearby on a cold day, and it will sprout easily. Bracken79 Steam tender ones that are [still curled] like fists, coat with dried ash, dry in the sun, wash the ash away, dry again, and soak in warm water to use in winter. It is tender and refreshing but do not feed men too much since it will reduce their vitality (陽氣).80 Curly Dock81 Between the ninth and tenth lunar months, dig out quite a few of these roots, plant them in a dugout mud hut tightly and compactly, cover with soil, and close the entrance of the hut with soil as well. When opened in the first lunar month, the hut will be full of silvery stalks. It is tender and soft if made into soup; however, as it has a little bit of sour taste, it is even better if blanched before use. Bamboo Shoots Strip the skin keeping the joints, lightly boil in water, and dry. When using it, macerate it in rice washing water, and it will be as if newly harvested.



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Garlic Peel the skins, macerate in good vinegar, and dry them after a long while. They are odorless and refreshing as well. Chili Peppers Snap tender branches that have pepper leaves and little peppers as well, put them firmly in a jar while pressing the top, place a rock to press them down, pour over with cold water, and they remain tender. If preserved with salt, they will become bitter. Various Fruits That Have Poison Peaches and apricot that have two seeds in one fruit are poisonous, so do not eat. If one takes a bath after eating a peach, he/she will suffer from gonorrhea (淋疾). Do not eat too many gingkoes. Do not eat persimmons together with liquor or radishes. Do not eat persimmons or pear with crab. Do not eat the fallen fruit that has been on the ground for long and thus has ants in it. Do not eat the fallen fruit that has been ripened earlier than the rest of fruits since it has a (poisonous) bad bug without fail. Do not eat the Korean melon that sinks in the water since it will be extremely bad. If flour is used to make apricot pit porridge, it will kill people. Various Greens That Are Poisonous If one eats frost-touched cucumber in the month when chrysanthemums bloom, which is the ninth month, he/she will damage their stomach. Mushrooms that are hairy, that do not have any pattern on the lower part, that will not cook although boiled, that do not have any worms although decayed, and of which the water after boiling [the mushrooms] does not show any reflection when looked into are the ones that poisonous snakes or poisonous bugs passed by. So, they are extremely poisonous. Red mushrooms with twisted heads also are greatly poisonous. If one eats mushrooms on a maple tree, he/she will not stop laughing until they die.

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The water gathered when digging to a depth of about three cha (90.9 cm) of a red dirt area can detoxify this.

Methods to Press Oil Sesame Seeds (Ch’am kkae) More oil comes out from the seeds harvested first, and less from the those harvested second or third. If a room for silkworm breeding is lit with uncooked and pressed sesame oil, no bugs will get in. If used to make medicine, it is mysteriously effective, and if applied in the hair, it makes the hair shiny, dark, and prevents lice. For sesame oil, one mal (18 liters) of sesame seeds will make three toe (5.4 liters) of oil, and for perilla oil, one mal of seeds make two toe (3.6 liters) of oil. According to the Bowuzhi (博物志 Records of diverse matters),82 if one hundred sacks (sŏk) of oil are piled up, a fire will break out. In the time of Emperor Wu (漢武帝 r. 141–87 BCE) of the Han dynasty, a fire broke out [seemingly] without reason; however, it was because there were many oily things piled up in that place. If watermelon seeds are roasted and pressed for oil, the scent is extremely beautiful. If oil is pressed from garden balsam seeds,83 the taste is beautiful, but it will cause the teeth to fall out. If oil is pressed from nine toe (16.2 liters) of beefsteak plant seeds84 and one toe (1.8 liter) of sesame seeds after dry roasting and making into powder, it is extremely tasteful and beautiful in scent as well. If oil is pressed from turnip seeds the same way beefsteak plant seed oil is pressed and consumed, one’s vision becomes extremely bright. A Method to Quickly Press Oil Dry roast one toe (1.8 liters) of sesame seeds, grind finely, and put in boiling water. If it becomes too hot and is about to be cooked, add a small bowl of cold water, stir with a wooden spoon, and leave it for a while with the lid on. When the lid is removed and there is oil floating on the top, scoop the oil from the top little by little, and boil the scooped-out oil in a different pan until the water boils down [and this will become the oil]. If this oil is seen by a person who crossed over a river, it will break up. Another method is to put a small amount of roasted sesame seeds in a small bowl, add some water, and steam it when cooking rice. If taken out, oil will float on the top. Get the oil the same way mentioned above, and it will be enough to serve for one guest.



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Perilla Oil (Tŭl kirŭm) If the seeds are dried in the sun during the day and exposed to dew fall at night many times, it [the oil made out of these seeds] will not make any soot when used as a lamp oil, and the oil is clear and a greater amount comes out. If the seeds are a year old, soak in water for a day, and if two years old, soak for two days before pressing the oil. If the weather is cold and the soaking water is frozen, less oil will come out. A Method to Quickly Press Perilla Oil Grind the raw seeds, steam when cooking rice, put it in a sachet, place under a cutting board, and press with a heavy rock on top. Then the oil comes out naturally. Castor Oil Shell the hulls of castor seeds and dry roast the inner layered seeds. Make sure not to burn the seeds, and grind it on a millstone after it has cooled down. Per each mal (18 liters) of seeds, add one and half jars of water and stir to mix thoroughly. Boil in a cast-iron caldron until it leaps up, and douse with cold water with one’s hands to stop the water from boiling and leaping. The oil will float on the top, so scoop the oil out with a porcelain dish and gather it all in a different bowl. Put the saved oil in another pot and boil down after adding five hop (0.18 liter) of salt. This will cause the water to boil down and only the oil will remain. Four toe (7.2 liters) of oil comes out of one mal of seeds; the dregs can be fed to domestic animals, but do not use this oil as lamp oil for reading, since it is noxious to eyes. Bee-Bee Tree Oil85 This is called fire oil ( puryu) and is to be avoided for lighting. Also, as it is greatly harmful to the eyes, I will not write how to press this oil. However, if the residue of this oil catches fire, that charcoal fire will last three or four days although the smell is not good. Cottonseed Oil Gather cottonseeds, grind them with a millstone, sieve with a sifter, dry roast, and press for oil. The oil does not produce soot when burning and it is bright as when using sesame oil.

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A Recipe for Grain Syrup Wash one mal (18 liters) of glutinous sorghum thoroughly, steam it to be cooked, and let it cool. Make two toe (3.6 liters) of malt into powder, mix with two bottles of cold water, and put it in a jar to brew. If this is prepared when it begins to darken right after the sun goes down, take it out when a rooster crows, if it is the time when the days are short, and take it out when the sun rises if it is time when the days are long. Put it in a liquor sack and remove all the murky particles so it is clear in the same way as when making liquor. Remove seeds from four hop (0.72 liter) of jujubes, simmer [together with the clear liquor] to be thickened but neither too thick nor too thin which is about the thickness of honey; put this in a jar [altogether], firmly bind the mouth, cover the top with a lid, and bury in the ground. If taken out in thirty days, a very good white syrup is made. An Added Recipe: A Method to Make White Yŏt from Kwangju Wash one mal (18 liters) of rice repeatedly and cook. When it is about cooked, mix 1.5 toe (2.7 liters) of malt powder with three bottles of warm water, and mix it with the rice in the caldron. Cover with the lid and make a side fire to heat up the caldron just enough to be warm, and the rice will be fermented and become watery in half a day. Filter it with a fine hemp cloth the same way as when making starch, pour it back in the caldron, cook it by a low and steady side fire again so that the bottom of the caldron does not get cold. Take it out when the color is like amber. This will be black yŏt if stuff such as shelled seeds are added; if the amber yŏt is placed on nails one kan (1.8 meters) apart and stretched repeatedly with all one’s might, it will become solid white-as-snow yŏt. Yŏnan Rice Punch Remove all the internal organs from large clams and wash with rice-washing water thoroughly. Press with a hemp cloth to remove the water, and put them out to dry in the open air for a bit. Polish good rice thoroughly and cook it. Make a fine powder out of malt and add the same amount as the rice. Remove the seeds from umbrella sedge (wanggol)86 and put everything into a jar. When putting the ingredients in the jar, add ten or more jujubes and half of a handful of whole pine nuts as well. Serve after three or four days when the color of the clams becomes red. It is good to add a little bit of oil and salt, and sometimes it is good to make it without the clams, just adding jujubes, pine nuts, and a little bit of oil and salt.



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According to the method of Xuan Huxian (玄扈先)87 for making salt that will always be full and never lessen, place a large jar which can hold ten sacks (sŏm) in the middle of the yard on top of large, flat stone and fill it with white and good salt. Pour as much good soft water into the pot as the salt, so the salt and water are at about the same level. When using it, scoop out the water and boil it down. It will become salt right away which can be used as needed but pour the same amount of water back into the jar and leave it in the sun. It will revert to the original salt in the jar and thus can be used forever. Cover the lid on a windy or rainy day and let the sun shine on it on a good day. The taste is bitter if bad salt or seawater is used, so good white salt and soft water should be used. (From the Sallim kyŏngje.) A Recipe to Steam Crabs Blue If crabs are steamed with five or six pieces of persimmon stalk, they will become blue. A Method to Maintain the Red Color of Shrimp Even If Dried Dry-roast shrimp with salt, put them in a bamboo container when cooked, salt, wash with well water, and sundry. Then the red color will not change.

Newly Added Omitted Recipes Slice the part where the stalk is thin on a large well-ripened watermelon, put in either some honey or sugar, put the sliced lid back on the melon, cover the cracked part thoroughly and firmly with paper, and cook it in a caldron with water. Add water so it is a little lower than the cracked part so as it does not get in [the melon]. Cover it with something like an earthenware saucer and boil quite a bit. When it is cooled down, if served with ice, it becomes frosty as if freshly harvested, sweet, clear, and the cold taste is particularly good. On top of it, as it does not have cold nature in it, it is not harmful for the old and the children to eat and is rather good for heath. Cold Herbal and Honey Drink (chehot’ang) Prepare one kŭn (600 grams) of Korean apricots after peeling the skins, scorching with a straw fire, drying, and removing the seeds, one nyang (37.5 grams) of ch’ogwa,88 five chŏn (18.75 grams) each of finely ground ch’uksa89 and sandalwood,90 and five kŭn (3000 grams) of refined honey (煉蜜).91 Mix

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all together, boil, pour into a magnetic bowl (chasŏkki), and serve mixed with cold water in a stone bowl. Chŏnyak Make a fine powder out of five nyang (187.5 grams) of white yŏt, one nyang (37.5 grams) of the inner yellow part of cinnamon bark, and one nyang each of cloves and black pepper. Prepare two small bowls of jujubes after removing the seeds and steaming, and three small bowls each of agyo92 and refined honey. First slowly cook the gelatin, mix in the honey and jujubes, add all four types of the prepared powder, and thoroughly mix and boil. Take it out, spread it on a dish, and serve after it is congealed. Peel the skins of the whole green Korean plums (maesil)93 and green apricots (salgu). Grind copper green extremely fine and put it in a copper bowl together with the peeled fruits. When the color of fruits becomes green, put them in honey. If the sour taste still remains, put them in honey three or four times until they are not sour. Whether there is a lot of copper green or not, it should be evenly dyed. A Method to Make a Drunk Person Sober with Smoked Dried Plums As King Yŏngyang of Chin94 did not sober up after drinking the previous night, he chewed honey-soaked smoked dried plums, and his mind was clear after eating only ten or so. Yuzu Preserved in Honey (Yuja ch’ŏng)95 Sort out ten or more large yellow and spotless yuzus. Put high quality honey in an earthenware pot, sink the yuzus deeply in the pot, and bury deep where there is no sunshine and rain will not get in. Take it out after a year, and if served mixed with boiled water ( paekpit’ang)96 in winter and with ice water in summer, the scent and taste are matchlessly beautiful, and it is also beneficial to people. Chehot’ang Ten ryang (375 grams) of smoked dry plums, eight chŏn (30 grams) of sandalwood, four chŏn (15 grams) of ch’uksa, three chŏn (11.25 grams) of ch’ogwa, and one mal (18 liters) of honey.97



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Fried Snacks (Chunggye)98 If measured from one mal (18 liters) of honeyed fruit,99 one mal and three toe (23.4 liters) of flour, three toe (5.4 liters) of honey and two toe (3.6 liters) of malt, one can make chunggye of the usual portion (ki)100 or a bit less. It will require one ton (3.75 grams) of charcoal and quite a bit of oil remained after cooking. I roughly counted the chunggye [I made] and it was around ninety-eight pieces.101

Volume 4, Pregnancy and First Aid1

According to “Neize pian” of Lizhi (Patterns of the family, Book of rites), in the old days, when a woman became pregnant, she should never sleep in an opposite direction, never sit in a corner, never misstep, never eat cut food that is not straight or correct in shape, never sit on a seat which is not right, never see any sight of a cunning spirit, never hear any obscene sound, and never speak any unrighteous words. At night, [she should] have a blind person recite poetry for her to listen to and only speak in a correct manner. Doing as such, and giving birth to a boy, his appearance is neat and talent more outstanding than others.

Managing Pregnancy In general, women who are pregnant should not wear clothes that are too warm, should not overeat, should not drink too much, should not use medicine unreasonably, never climb to a high or rugged place while carrying heavy things, never work more than they can handle and excessively damage their body, never get overly angry and deplete their energy or fuss about, neither sleep nor lay down for too long, and walk around once in a while. If a pregnant woman gets overly frightened, the baby will have epilepsy (‌癎‌疾). When in the last month of pregnancy, they should not wash their hair or feet, and not go to a privy located in a high place. In the case of a pregnancy for one who is young in age and thus has weak energy or one who is old and thus lacks young blood, the womb can be easily shaken even if they do not move around carelessly, so they should be even more diligent to prevent an unfortunate situation. As for the one who is pregnant at a young age and has hot blood, a medicine of kŭmgwoe tanggwi-san ch’ŏnggiwŏn (金匱當歸散 淸氣元)2 will not bring about any trouble. Monthly, use three or five portions of it [the medicine], and the womb will be strong, and the baby will not have any eczema 136



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on his/her head or face. As for one who is old when pregnant and has a lack of blood and energy, and thus does not provide sufficient nourishment [to the fetus], it is right to use medicines such as kunggwi pojung-t’ang (芎歸補 中湯)3 and ch’ŏn’gŭm pot’ae hwan (千金補胎丸).4 Food Taboos If horse meat is eaten, delivery will exceed the due day and thus it will be a difficult labor. If dog meat is eaten, the baby will not have any sound, if rabbit is eaten, the baby will have a harelip, if fish without scales is eaten, it will be a difficult delivery, if pangge [a type of small crab]5 is eaten, the baby will be delivered sideways (such as an arm coming out first instead of the head), if lamb’s liver is eaten, the baby will have many misfortunes, if chicken and eggs are eaten with sweet rice, the baby will defecate tapeworms, if duck meat and its eggs are eaten together, the baby will be delivered leg first and will suffer from extreme chills, if bird meat and liquor are consumed together, the baby will be lascivious, if terrapin meat is eaten, the baby’s neck will be short like a terrapin, if ginger sprouts are eaten, the baby will be good with rhythm, if adlay is eaten, a miscarriage will result, if malt is eaten, the signs of pregnancy will disappear, if a large catfish is eaten, a syphilitic ulcer (疳瘡) will result, if mountain goat meat is eaten, the baby will suffer from many diseases, if pigweed ( pirim namul) is eaten, the pregnant woman will miscarry the baby, and if mushrooms are eaten, the baby will suffer convulsions and it will be difficult to raise the baby for long. Herbal Medicine Taboos Wolfsbane tuberous root (Aconitum carmichaelii), young wolfsbane root, blister beetles (Meloidae), wild kudzu, mercury, croton (Croton tiglium), achyranthis, adlay, orpiment, bulrush root, musk, shed snake skin, mangch’o (Natrii sulfas), moktanp’i (Moutan Cortex), cinnamon bark, koehwa [a type of locust tree flower], panha (Pinellia ternate), namsŏng (Arisaema amurense), dried stems of Manchurian pipevine (Aristolochia manshuriensis), dried ginger, carapace of terrapin, carapace of turtle, ammonium chloride, dried lacquer, the inside part of a peach pit, Borneol, kwijŏnu (Euonymi Caulis Suberatum), gold leaf, silver leaf, kyuja (Malva verticillata L.), and rhinoceros horn. Method for Stabilizing the Fetus Mix two nyang (75 grams) of ramie root (Boehmeriae Radix) with a half liquor and half water mixture, boil it down until it is thick in a stone pot, and

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drink. Also, mix mulberry tree mistletoe and gelatin made from ox-hide, boil down to thicken, and serve. The pain in the abdomen and back caused by the fetus’s movement and possibility of miscarriage from it will be stabilized. If one doesn’t have a silver or copper pot, boil it in a brass pot since both ramie root and mulberry tree mistletoe tend not to be good with iron. A Method to Find out the Gender of the Fetus When Three or Four Months Pregnant When a pregnant woman walks facing toward the south, if she turns around to her left side when someone calls her, or when her husband calls her going to the privy, the baby is boy. If she turns around to her right, the baby is a girl. A Method to Turn a Female Fetus into a Male Before the Months Are Not Yet Full The husband himself makes an ax handle out of pear tree branch grown in an easterly direction on a chang day (張日),6 and places it under the bed of the pregnant woman facing the blade up and so others cannot see it. Then the fetus will turn into a male. If one wants to know [try this on a brood of chicken eggs] and truly the chicks will all be males.7 If a pregnant woman hangs a sack with a piece of unghwang8 on [her] clothes, the yang energy will rise and she will deliver a noble baby boy. If a pregnant woman puts a day lily—the nickname of which is “mustbe-male-grass” (宜男草)—on the left side of her hair and decorates with this flower, she will deliver a baby boy. If wearing a bowstring on the waist for one hundred days, the fetus will change from female to male even numerous times. Cut off some of the hair, fingernails, and toenails of the husband, and place them in sachets here and there under the bedding of the pregnant woman, and the baby will instantly turn into a boy. If two strings of rooster’s long tail feathers are placed under the bed secretly, the baby will instantly change into a boy. Another Method A rooster with an entirely red body, even to the tail, is called a red chicken (tan’gye). It is a perfection of yang energy, as it show the fire color of pyŏngjŏng (丙丁)9 in the southern direction. The head is the center of the fire, so do not cut it off and instead hang the fowl to kill it. Dig a hole and bury the feath-



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ers, feet. and intestines in the ground so wild animals will not eat them. Boil the whole chicken including the head over a low and steady heat so as the broth will be thick. The pregnant woman should eat all of this without sharing with others. After eating it, gather all the bones and bury them in the ground again, and then the fetus will turn into a boy. A white rooster without any other [colored] feathers also has strong yang energy as it is a metallic/white color of kyŏngsin (庚辛).10 So this can be substituted if a red rooster is not available. This method will not work if the pregnancy is past three months since the sex of the child is already decided. Yet Another Method Before three months of pregnancy have passed and without letting others know, dress in one’s husband’s hat and clothes, go to the well of the house alone at the third watch,11 walk around the well in the left direction three times, and implore “man is yang and woman is yin” (namwiyangio, yŏwiŭmira) three times, bend the body to make a reflection of herself in the well, and return [to the house] without looking back. She will then definitely have a baby boy. According to Changhwa pangmul chi (張華 博物誌 Treatise on broad matters by Changhwa),12 Chin Sŏng had ten daughters consecutively before finally gaining a baby boy by having his wife follow this method. In general, when an embryo becomes a fetus, it is said to be divided into left and right. It is not likely that female embryo would become male embryo, but I write this here since it is recorded in medical books and there were cases that people had experienced it at that time. However, I am afraid that the womb could be easily shaken if a pregnant woman becomes frightened after walking outside in the middle of the night unless she is quite plucky, and this could make one guilty for a hundred cycles [if one were to lose a baby]. Taboo of the T’aesal (胎殺)13 When pregnant, avoid any place where t’aesal plays around. Even if a neighbor is heating up iron to mend [knives], pregnant women should make certain to avoid such a place. If the pregnant woman is assaulted with a knife, the shape of the baby will be damaged without fail, if assaulted with mud, the orifices will be stopped up, if beaten with a stick, the color will be black and blue, and if tied up with rope, the baby will be warped. Although the fetus might not be miscarried, as the baby’s form will wane, the face color will be blue, and in general the baby will be born damaged, broken, without a proper face or body, and he/she could die early. The portent from these experiences is as clear as turning over one’s hand, so one should be aware and cautious.

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Places Where T’aesal Stays Each Month In the first [lunar] month, it stays on the bed in the room. In the second month, it stays at the window and around the hinged door.14 In the third month, it stays at the doors and the main wood floored area. In the fourth month, it stays in the kitchen. In the fifth month, it stays in the body and the bed [i.e., where one sleeps].15 In the sixth month, it stays on the bed and in the storeroom In the seventh month, it stays by the mortar and millstone. In the eighth month, it stays in the privy and in the hinged back doors. In the ninth month, it stays at the door and in the rooms. In the tenth month, it stays in the rooms and on the bed. In the eleventh month, it stays at the brazier and in the kitchen. In the twelfth month, it stays on the bed and in the rooms. Days of the T’aesal (of Harm the Fetus)16 On kapki (甲己) days it resides at the door. On ŭlgyŏng (乙庚) days it resides at the mortar and millstone. On pyŏngsin (丙辛) days it resides in the well and in the kitchen. On chŏngim (丁壬) days it resides in the kitchen and in the storeroom.17 On mugye (戊癸) days it resides in the rice storeroom.18 Days When the T’aesal Stays in the Twelve Earthly Branches19 On chach’uk (子丑) days it is at the center of the main wood floored area. On inmyo chinyu (寅卯辰酉) days it stays in the kitchen. On sao (巳午) days it resides at the door. On misin (未申) days it stays under the fence. On sulhae (戌亥) days it is in the room. Where Ghosts Play Every Day in the Room On kyesa (癸巳), kabo (甲午), ŭlmi (乙未), pyŏngsin (丙申), and chŏngyu (丁酉) days the north side of the room.



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On kyemyo (癸卯) day the west side of the room. On kapchin (甲辰), ŭlsa (乙巳), pyŏngo (丙午), and chŏngmi (丁未) days the east side of the room. On six mu days and the six ki days in the center of the room.20 On kyŏngja (庚子), sinch’uk (辛丑) and imin (壬寅) days the south side of the room. The labor will not go well and the fetus will be detached without fail if the bed (寢床) is placed in a room where the ghost plays and if the curtains (帳) are changed and heavy stuff is placed on the bed. So, at the onset of labor do not receive the baby’s head [in such a room]. In the eighth month of pregnancy, write ansan pangwi-do (安産方位圖 a directional map for a safe delivery), ch’oesaengbu (催生符 a talisman to urge birth), and ch’aji-bŏp (借地法 a means to borrow land) 21 in cinnabar, put on the north wall of the delivery room, read ch’aji-bŏp three times at the onset of labor, pierce the ch’oesaengbu with a needle when the baby is about to be delivered, burn it over a lamp so as it does not fly away, mix with warm water, and drink. This method is recorded in the Tongŭi pogam and is known to be indescribably [helpful]. According to the Dachan-pian (達生篇 Understanding the purpose of life),22 women who suffer difficult deliveries are all rich and noble, and thus they are the ones who live comfortably; none are poor and have to work hard for a living. So, delivery is easier when the pregnant woman moves around more, and slower (i.e., more difficult) when the pregnant woman stays about comfortably without moving. When labor begins, let about three trustworthy old and close women into the delivery room and make the room quiet and calm. Do not make the pregnant woman feel troubled by making a fuss coming and going through the front and back doors or making noise. If wild ginseng is to be used, it should be taken after definitely knowing that the baby’s head has reached to the end [of the womb]. Recently there are some cases where unexpected accidents happened due to not following these things correctly. If the delivery is slow and the situation is urgent, use yŏsin tan (‌如神丹).23 Have one walk toward the south, get the first straw sandal that is encountered, remove the nose and ears of the sandal, burn to ashes, and mix in warm liquor and serve. If it is the left side, a baby boy will be delivered, if the right, a baby girl will be delivered; if the toe of the sandal is facing forward the delivery will be easy, if it facing backwards the delivery will be slow and hard, and if the sandal faces downwards it will be a stillbirth. If a cow’s packsaddle is put on the ridge of the roof over the delivery room unbeknownst to the pregnant woman, she will have an easy delivery.

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Other Amazing Methods from Experiences Such as the Placenta Not Coming Out Mix an egg from the homes of three differently surnamed families, one spoonful of water from each of the three houses, and one pinch of salt from each of the three houses. Feed this to the mother and have her vomit. Then the placenta will come right out. This is the most wonderfully efficacious way among the many other methods. If the mother gets thirsty after delivery, have her drink water boiled with dried shelled chestnuts and bellflower root (tŏdŏk).24 Sugar water can be used, but never let her drink cold water, uncooked food, or anything cold. If she suffers from a stomachache and complications, it is efficacious to use liquor and urine. Boil one small bowl of liquor and one small bowl of a child’s urine down to be seven tenths of a small bowl, and feed this to her. When the baby is newly delivered, do not cut off the umbilical cord right away. After the baby cries many times, tie the cord at about the point of one handspan, wrap it with a piece of thin blue silk, cut with one’s teeth, cover old cotton with white silk to make it as thin as a powder puff, make a hole in it, string the umbilical cord into the cotton hole, put it on the baby, and cover. In this way, there will not be any harmful consequences if the umbilical cord gets to dry by the child’s stomach and becomes too tight. Clean the baby’s mouth with licorice root, apply cinnabar powder and pearl powder inside the mouth, but do not use excessively as they are cold in nature. If the blood of umbilical cord is applied to the lips, the lips will become red. According to the Changsu-gyŏng (長壽經 Sutra for longevity)25 written by Tongja (童子), the Ŭiwang (醫王 Ch. Yiwang) Boddhisattva asked Buddha for the reason why most young children live short lives and suffer illness. First, it is because their parents did not [conceive the child] at a right place at a right time.26 Second, it is because their mother bled during her first delivery, dirtied the earth, the spirit of earth could not stay, and the evil spirits became unruly. Third, it is because the little worms or parasites were not cleaned from the navel after her first delivery. Fourth, it is because the dirty blood in the umbilical cord was not cleaned using cotton fluff. Fifth, it is because one harms and kills life while enjoying a feast. Sixth, their mother ate all the live and cold ones vulgarly. Seventh, when the young child had a disease. he was fed with miscellaneous meat. Eighth, it was because the delivery room was exposed to inauspicious things during delivery before the mother and the baby were not yet divided. The mother will die before delivery and the baby will die



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afterwards. What are the inauspicious things? If one sees a dead body, all sort of bizarre misfortunes, and anything dirty to one’s eyes, that is inauspicious [so such a person should avoid the delivery room]. It is said that this inauspicious thing can be avoided by applying the medicinal mixture on the mouth which calms down the newborn’s mind, and is said to enable the newborn to eventually escape from death.27 Although this is in a Buddhist scripture, I write it here since it is beneficial. Place the baby’s head in the direction of wŏldŏk (月德) and throw the umbilical cord to the direction of wŏlgong (月空).28 Since the three evils (三煞)29 are near the wŏldŏk, and it is easy to do things wrong in a hurried situation, one should be extra careful. After delivery, throw out all the dirty bloody residue resultant from the delivery regardless of the distance following the direction of burying the umbilical cord (藏胎方位), but make sure to avoid the direction p’edu (閉肚方).30 When a baby is newly born and does not cry right away and has a blue face with no signs of life, do not act hastily. Rather, wrap the baby with a blanket made from newly harvested cotton exposing the seven channels of perception,31 do not cut off the umbilical cord and let it lengthen, put a fire on the charcoal iron to heat up the cord and to have the warm energy in the abdomen of the baby; [if so done] all the babies will revive. Not knowing of this method, if the umbilical cord is cut frivolously, the baby will die. When the baby’s umbilical cord is cut, urine tends to rise up in case of a baby boy. If the urine gets in the navel when it is not yet closed, an infection could occur in the navel, and if this happens, it is difficult to save the baby.32 Thus, as soon as the umbilical cord is off, put lotus-scent powder (‌芙蓉香) and dust from the window frames on the navel, cover with clean old cotton, and wash after three days. Boil the good and clear water from a rocky spring with a bit of pure gold, best quality silver, jade, pearl, a piece of tiger skull (虎頭骨), and the easterly branch of a peach tree (東桃枝) in a silverware bowl—if not, brassware or copper—and use this mixture for washing the navel. All the capricious spirits will be defeated, and the navel will not become infected. In the early period of after birth, if the mother holding the baby licks the dirty stuff of the baby’s face and head, there will not be any eczema on a baby’s head or face. If baby’s arms are out of the blanket within twenty-one days, the baby will be frequently startled. Squash well-ripened tea in the sixth lunar month, dye cloth with that water, and dress the baby in those clothes; doing so, the baby will overcome evil spirits. Do not bring the baby outside of the delivery room before one hundred

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days have passed unless there are unavoidable circumstances. Do not raise the baby more than thirty centimeters from the ground before twenty-one days have passed. Do not let the breeze from a nanny’s clothes or the wind caused by the passing of the lower parts of anyone else’s clothes near the baby. I have witnessed many cases of infant death due to this on severely cold winter days. One Method for Ensuring Longevity Put the fallen-off umbilical cord on top of a roof tile, make a fire with charcoal placed in the four directions of the tile, and if it catches fire, cover it with an earthenware bowl so as not to let any smoke or scent out. After the fire is out, make a powder out of the cord, sieve with a silk sift, and weigh it with a scale. If the gradation of the scale points out two, add three li (釐) of cinnabar (鏡面朱沙), mix with the boiled-down water of fresh foxglove (生‌地‌黃) and Angelica gigas,33 apply some to the mouth of the baby, and some on the mother’s nipples after removing anything dirty. Then the baby will not suffer any disease for life. If this is done, it is said that one can raise a single baby if giving to birth one, and one can raise ten babies if giving birth to ten. A Method for Burying the Umbilical Cord Three days after delivery, do not cut off the umbilical cord, but wash the cord with liquor one hundred times. Put the fallen off pieces of the cord into a jar after sieving and sift together with an old coin, bind the lid of the jar with oil paper, cover it with a proper-sized dish again, weave a rope out of paper that is one hundred pal34 long, and bind the jar with it. Place the jar to the direction of wŏlgong (月空) and in three months on an auspicious day, bury it somewhere the wŏlgong direction. Auspicious Directions for Hiding the Umbilical Cord of a Safe Delivery 醬胎要索芙蓉峯: The umbilical cord was buried on Mt. Puyong.35 壽高聰明富貴容: The baby will be intelligent, noble and have a long life. 五月宜男三月女: A boy’s [umbilical cord] should be buried after five months and a girl’s after three months. 태봉양수 是完封: It is right to completely bury the umbilical cord.



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Table 2  Auspicious Days and Directions for Burying an Umbilical Cord Direction

ch’ŏndŏk

wŏldok

wŏlgong

saenggi

First and second months (days)

chŏnggon

pyŏnggap

imgyŏng

chach’uk

Third and fourth months (days)

imsin

imgyŏng

pyŏnggap

inmyo

Fifth and sixth months (days)

kŏn’gap

pyŏnggap

imgyŏng

chinsa

Seventh and eighth months (days)

kyesan

imgyŏng

pyŏnggap

omi

Ninth and tenth months (days)

pyŏngŭl

pyŏnggap

imgyŏng

sinyu

Eleventh and twelfth months (days)

son’gyŏng

imgyŏng

pyŏnggap

sulhae

When breastfeeding a newborn baby at first, squeeze out the milk from overnight and then feed the baby. At night, one should be extra careful that the baby’s mouth and nose are not pressed and suffocated by the wet nurse’s (乳母) dirty breasts; have her lie distant. Baby clothes must be made from the clothes that people of seventy to eighty years old wore on their skin, and if not, out of the old clothes of the baby’s own parents. If silk fabrics with golden embroidery are used for newborns, it is not only against what is right in sparing one’s divine blessings, but the baby will surely have an illness. Ten Important Items for Raising Babies First, is to keep the baby’s back warm. Second, keep the baby’s stomach warm. Third, keep the baby’s feet hot. Fourth, keep the baby’s head cold. Fifth, do not to show any bizarre thing to the baby. Sixth, keep the baby’s chest cool. Seventh, always keep the baby’s stomach and spleen warm. Eighth, do not breastfeed right after the baby stops crying. Ninth, do not use medicine that contains mercury and cinnabar (輕粉 朱砂) recklessly. Tenth, do not bathe the baby frequently. Make sure a draft from outside does not reach the baby’s head, do not put too-thick blankets on the baby, and put extra effort in turning the lying baby frequently and timely so the baby’s head does not become askew and results in an uneven shape of the back of the skull, or to prevent the two ears from being folded.

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A Method for Telling a Child’s Saju to [Avoid] the Bad Star (Salsŏng)36: The Evil Spirit That Will Lead the Baby to Death within One Hundred Days (paegilgwan) Babies born in in, sin, sa, and hae months should avoid the hours of chin, sul, ch’uk, and mi. Babies born in chin, sul, ch’uk, and mi months should avoid the hours of cha, o, myo, and yu. Babies born in cha, o, myo, and yu months should avoid the hours of in, sin, sa, and hae. For one hundred days after birth, babies should not go outside of the main gate. Bad Spirits That Will Drive the Baby to Fall from a Bridge (i.e., a High Place) to Death During the three months of spring, the hours of hae and cha. During the three months of summer, the hours of myo and mi. During the three months of autumn, the hours of in and sul. During the three months of winter, the hours of ch’uk and chin Bad Spirits to Reverse and Kill During the three months of spring, the hours of myo, ch’uk, kap, and ul. During the three months of summer, the hours of o, chin, im, and kye. During the three months of autumn, the hour of mi. During the three months of winter, the hour of cha. The Bad Spirits That Lead to Seeing King Yama37 For the three months of spring, avoid the hours of ch’uk and mi. For the three months of summer, avoid the hours of sa and hae. For the three months of autumn, avoid the hours of cha and sul. For the three months of winter, avoid the hours of in and myo. The Bad Spirits That Make the Baby Cry at Night38 The hour of mi is the time for the babies born in cha, o, myo, and yu. The hour of in is the time for the babies born in in, sin, sa, and hae. The hour of yu is the time for babies born in chin, sul, ch’uk, and mi.39



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Do not encounter horses in spring and chickens in summer, And the kŭn in fall and the winter gates.40 If the baby sees these, it will not be able to sleep and cry night after night. A Song for Seeing a Baby’s Physiognomy If the baby’s voice is like a goose, He/she will be well off with riches and glorious honors. I borrowed the above [lines] from the various books.41 In general, all things change, even very minor ones. As iron is conceived in spring, it has a flowing nature and will eventually be tangled, although it is firm and speedy. As trees are conceived in autumn, they have dignity and uprightness although they are rough and overgrown. Alone, humans are formed from an egg, and affected by seven passions of joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, and lust for ten months inside their mother’s womb. It can be said that the patterns of a rhinoceros’s horn turn into the shape of the thing it sees; even on a bull’s horn, patterns appear in the shape that the mother has seen and affected. For women to be pregnant is to receive the nature of the father and to return it back to the father. It is one of the Three Obediences (三從之道), and thus is important and great.42 All the things of the world are in general of the heaven’s doing and thus there is nothing that humans can do, but I gathered these and hope that the people are sedulous when receiving the provisions of nature.

First Aid The Nature of Medicines in the Five Tastes (五味) In general, all things in the world have the nature of meeting and parting. When a tiger blows, it gets windy, and when a dragon calls, it gets cloudy. Magnets grab iron needles, amber picks up thatch, paint/lacquer gets scattered by crabs, hemp is sprouted by lacquer, laurel is tenderized by green onions, and trees whither due to the laurels. All the beasts with fur or wings come from the yang and belong to yin, and all the marine animals come from the yin and belong to yang. As copper carbonate (空靑) models after trees, it has the color of blue and fundamentally stays in the liver. Cinnabar (丹砂) models after fire, and

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thus its color is red and fundamentally lies in the heart. Mica (雲母) models after metal and thus its color is white and fundamentally it is based in the lungs. Orpiment (雄黃) models after the earth and thus its color is yellow and it is based in the spleen. Magnetite (磁石) models after water and thus its color is black and it is based in the kidneys.43 Things to Avoid When Taking Medicine In general, when taking medicine, all raw vegetables should be avoided. When taking ch’angch’ul or paekch’ul (蒼秫/白秫),44 peaches, plums, small birds with short tail feathers, clams, purple scallions, and garlic should be avoided. When taking panha (半夏)45 and iris, sugar, lamb, and Korean apricots should be avoided. When taking raw and steamed foxglove, garlic, green onion, and radishes should be avoided. When taking hasuo (何首烏),46 green onion, garlic, radish, and scale-less fish should be avoided. When taking croton seeds, pork and cold water should be avoided. When taking barberry root and balloon flower root, pork should be avoided. Do the same when taking hohwangnyŏn (胡黃蓮).47 When taking wild ginger (細辛 Asari Herba Cum Radix) or sangsan (常‌山 Orixae Radix), all types of raw vegetables should be avoided. When taking peony root skin, purple scallions should be avoided. When taking pokeweed root, dog meat should be avoided. When taking cinnabar, fresh blood should be avoided. When taking pongnyŏng (茯苓 Poria cocos [Schw.] Wolf), prior merit (‌前功) will be lost if sour or salty things are eaten. Licorice root is ineffective if taken with Korean cabbage. When taking tortoiseshell, all varieties of mushrooms should be avoided. When taking ch’ŏnmundong [root] (天門冬),48 carp should be avoided. If carp was consumed by mistake, duckweed will neutralize it. When using mercury chloride or mercury, any type of blood should be avoided, and do the same when using gold or silver. When using actinolite (陽起石 yanggisŏk), lamb meat should be avoided. When using usŭl (牛膝),49 beef should be avoided. When using Solomon’s seal root (黃精 Polygonatum), Korean apricots should be avoided. When using odu root tuber (烏頭)50 or the ch’ŏnung non-tuber root (‌天‌雄),51 soy bean soup (鼓汁) should be avoided.



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When using cinnamon or cinnamon tree branches, raw green onion should be avoided. When using maengmundong (麥門冬),52 fish should be avoided. When using silver magnolia bark, beans and red beans should be avoided. When using ch’angi (蒼耳),53 pork and rice-washing water should be avoided. When using dried lacquer tree sap (乾漆), fatty things should be avoided. When using matrimony vine fruits, human or cow milk is extremely incompatible. When using mastodon fossil (龍骨), fish should be avoided. When using musk (麝香), garlic should be avoided. When using lotus flower, foxglove root should be avoided. When using any medicines that contain horn or deer horn, one should avoid using salt as it is extremely incompatible. Ox-hide is the extreme opposite to bellflower root (桔梗)54 and lily turf tuber (maengmundong). Yŏro (藜蘆 Veratrum maxamowiczii) is the opposite of wildcat meat. When using pork fat, smoked dried plums should be avoided. When using apricot pits, millet should be avoided. As milk is contrary to sour things and fish, if taken together, they get clotted in the stomach. Clams should not be eaten with vinegar. As green onion and chives are contrary to honey, people can die from eating them together. Nepta herb (荊芥 Schizonepeta tenuifolia var. japonica) and catfish are extremely contrary to each other, and it is said that it would kill people if taken together. Good Days for Getting a Doctor Kiyu (己酉), pyŏngjin (丙辰), imsul (壬戌), ch’ŏnŭi-il (天宜日), che (除), p’a (‌破), and kaeil (開日) days. Days to Avoid Doctors Kŏn (建), p’yŏng (平), su (收), manil (滿日), hyŏn (弦), mang (望), hoe (晦), sak (‌朔), and miil (未日) days. As sinmi (辛未) day is the day that Bian Que died, no doctor or medicine should be used on this day.55

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Sleeping in a cold room alone, if one is encroached upon by a ghost and then makes a strange noise without answering although his/her name is called out, this is called kwiap, night terror by a ghost. The person will die unless saved in a hurry. However, do not go near the person and wake up him/her up suddenly, but slowly call out the person’s name. Make sure not to have the lamp lit too close to them either. If the lamp was lit, leave it, and if the lamp was out, do not light it. If the person does not wake up for a long time, spray water on his/her face, bite their big toes hard, blow air in the ears through a brush handle, or blow panha powder56 or dried honey locust fruit powder into their nostrils. If those powders cannot be found quickly, use the dust on a roof crossbeam. Blow it into the left nostril for a male and into the right for a female using a thin and sharp brush handle, and shake the person out of sleep quietly. Poison from Noodles Feed boiled matrimony vine fruits, radish juice, or apricot pits. Poison from Tofu If one eats too much tofu and the stomach is bloated and stifled, have the person drink a lot of newly drawn water. Also, radish juice, apricot pit juice, and fermented shrimp juice (seu chŏt) are good, but if warm liquor is consumed, he/she will die instantly. If one eats too much and is about to die, give water that a dirty hair tie (tanggi) or a collar (tongjŏng) has been soaked in, and the symptoms will disappear right away. Pork Poisoning Use boiled water of tangerine peels, the juice of black hulled red-beans, boil down fruit skin of the prickly ash (chop’i namu),57 or the juice of garden balsam seeds, stems, and root together. The symptoms will go away if one is thoroughly drunk after drinking good liquor. Also, it will disappear instantly if a mixture of ground raw taro (芋) with water is consumed. Beef Poisoning It will be neutralized if two to three toe (3.6–5.4 liters) of thickly decocted licorice root is consumed. Also give one small bowl of mother’s milk as well as three ton (11.25 grams) of yellow thuja bark powder (ch’ŭkpaek namu)58 bark powder mixed with water. If the symptoms significantly become worse,



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take red morning glory seed powder (黑丑 Pharbitis nil Chois.) with ginger tea, and one will greatly excrete and get better. Beef Liver Poisoning If one eats raw beef liver and suddenly cannot stand the throat pain, it is because there are little pieces of liver in the throat momentarily blocking the throat (if one examines inside the mouth and throat). If acupuncture needles are quickly applied here and there and some blood is let out, it will be instantly taken care of. Horse Meat Poisoning It is good to give chives, liquor mixed with burned dog droppings, and a lot of good liquor. People can easily die from horse liver poison. Feed with water mixed with the dirt off the head as well as the mixture of water with three to seven droppings of a male rat. Liquor is good with horse meat. As Duke Mu of Qin (秦穆公 659–621 BCE) gave liquor to the thieves who stole his horse, the thieves repaid his kindness. Dog Meat Poisoning Give water boiled with the root of tti (Imperatae rhizoma). Also remove the skin of apricot pits, grind, decoct, and take without any residue. This will cause the [patient] to defecate blood before recovering. Lamb Meat Poisoning Give boiled down licorice root juice. Poisoning from Animals or Birds That Died Naturally If the condition does not improve after taking three chŏn (錢)59 of yellow thuja bark powder mixed with water, try it again. After that, take one ton (3.75 grams) of dirt from the head mixed with hot water and the boiled juice of black-hulled red beans and the juice of the Korean indigo plant (藍‌汁 Persicaria tinctoria). Poisoning from All Winged Animals For poisoning from chicken or duck, warm up sweet-rice washing water or millet washing water and drink. For poisoning from pheasant, take rhinoceros’s horn powder mixed with water or the powder itself.

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Poisoning from Wild Bird Flesh For poisoning from wild bird flesh, take the ashes from the bones of a wildcat (sak kwaengi)60 mixed with water, or black-hulled red bean boiled water if there is no wildcat. Poison from All Kinds of Fish Give the juice from wax gourds, thickly boiled down tangerine peels, ashes of sharkskin mixed with water, bean boiled water, and juice from beefsteak plant leaves (ch’ajogi, Perilla frutescens). Poisoning from Blowfish As it is the most poisonous among the many fish, if poisoned, one cannot avoid death. Give human dung water, a lot of sesame seed oil, and alum powder mixed with boiling water. Also, give the juice of curly dock (sorujaengi, Rumex crispus) pressed by pounding, three ton (11.25 grams) of sophora flower61 powder mixed with freshly drawn water, and give fermented mysidacea (konjaengi chŏt),62 salt, and juice from the Korean indigo plant altogether. Poisoning from Crab Crabs have poison before the first frost hits. Raw lotus root juice, wax gourd juice, garlic juice, and black-hulled red bean juice are good for crab poisoning. Also give the boiled liquid of beefsteak plant leaves and rhubarb (taehwang). If one suffers from indigestion after eating pheasant meat, put ten checker sized stones from the riverbank into a fire and then remove and put them in five small bowls of water when the stones are red hot. The symptoms will disappear if one takes it seven times. If one suffers from indigestion after eating fish for long time, burn dog dung, put in liquor overnight and take it ten times; also take boiled water parsley (minari). Poisoning from Vegetables Give one ton (3.75 grams) of burned black chicken droppings mixed with water and take a lot of oil. Decocted arrowroot (ch’ik/kalgŭn, Pueraria lobata) and licorice root, human milk, and urine of a boy twelve years or younger are also good.



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Poisoning from All Types of Mushrooms Mushrooms are all extremely poisonous if they glow at night, are not cooked, and if a human shadow does not reflect on the water after boiling the mushrooms. If one eats the wrong mushroom and is poisoned, drink red clay water right away, and water mixed with human dung and head dirt as well. Also, stab a live goose or duck to get fresh warm blood and drink, boil licorice root water and drink when cold, and take a lot of juice from the Korean indigo plant and sesame seed oil. If vomiting and diarrhea do not stop, make powder out of new leaves of tea plants and mix with newly drawn water, and drink. It is wonderfully efficacious. As the maple mushroom (Fomers fomentarius) is extremely poisonous, if one mistakenly eats it, he/she will die laughing. With these symptoms, red clay water is the best, human dung water is the second best, and all other medicines are not very effective. Poisoning from Bitter Gourd If one is poisoned by a bitter gourd badly, vomiting and diarrhea do not end, and one can easily die from it. It will be better with the juice of sorghum grain ground by a millstone. Poisoning from Seaweed, Kelp, and Dried Laver It will be instantly better with warm vinegar. Poisoning from Greens63 Drink thickly boiled down cinnamon bark, drink one ton (3.75 grams) of pork bone ash mixed with water, drink one ton of cucumber stalk powder mixed with warm water, and vomit. Then it will be better. Poisoning from Peaches Make a powder out of dried peaches hanging on trees over the winter, mix with water, and drink. When the Stomach Is Stuffed and Swollen after Overeating Fruits or Cucumbers Make a powder out of the yellow and thin part of cinnamon bark, make little balls as big as mung beans using cooked rice, and take them with once-boiled water.

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Poisoning by Charcoal Fumes Radish juice is good for this, as is being exposed to the wind. Burns Apply pear and soybean paste. The pain instantly goes away if honey is applied. Wash with liquor, apply salt, apply cape jasmine seed (Gardenia jasminoides) powder mixed with egg yolk, or charcoal powder thickly mixed with oil. From my personal experience, apply dough made out of the burned hairs found on mussels with black yŏt and oil; this is greatly efficacious. Burns from Boiling Oil Apply a mixture of glauberite (寒水石)64 powder with oil, and burned yŏt is also good for burns from boiling oil. Knife Cuts When a cut from a knife does not stop bleeding, it will not get infected only if the blood is thoroughly washed with water. Also, it is good to apply dust from a ceiling crossbeam and put flat spiders65 on the wound. When the Wind is Knocked out after a Fall If someone falls, has trouble breathing, and does not gain consciousness, let the person lie down comfortably, cover their nose and mouth with a hand for about thirty minutes (食頃),66 and open. Feed urine from a child and ginger juice mixed with sesame oil. Mix three to five small medicine balls67 with a child’s urine and liquor, warm it up, and feed. Also, if the person sneezes after blowing the powder from panha (Pinellia ternata) or dried honeylocust fruit powder (Gleditschia japonica sinensis var. koraiensis) into their nostrils, he/she will awaken. If there is a bone injury, feed raw foxglove root juice mixed with warm liquor, apply [to the wounded area] pounded foxglove root day and night ten times and also apply finely pounded green onion root (the white part) mixed with honey. If hands or feet are broken, steam boiled water mixed with one spoonful of potassium powder, and wash the injured area with it as well. The pain will go away. Dry-roast mung bean powder on a roof tile until the color becomes red, mix with warm liquor and vinegar to make a paste, and apply thickly to the injured area. The injured area should be



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unwrapped occasionally in the meantime to prevent it from becoming too stiff. Methods to Heal Various Bites Human Bites It will heal right away if the burnt ash of tortoise shell mixed with oil is applied. Donkey or Mule Bites It is good to apply the person’s own dung to the spot of a donkey or mule bite. Horse Bites For horse bites, pound ingmoch’o,68 mix with vinegar, dry roast, and apply to the wound. Also, roast mugwort69 and mix the ash with urine, and apply. Dog Bites From spring to early summer, many dogs go mad. The dogs with their tails down and not lifting up, mouths open and drooling, and with blue tongues are mad dogs. If bitten by such dogs, one can only narrowly escape death. Quickly use acupuncture to let the blood out, wash the wound with the boiled urine of a child, quickly kill the dog and put the liver of the dog on the wound, and apply finely chewed apricot pits. Remove the legs and wings of seven tiger beetles,70 make powder out of them, mix with warm liquor, and have the afflicted person drink it. The poison will come out through the urine. Put cold water in a jar, pour the urine of the sick person into the center, and leave it for half a day. The murky stuff will coagulate and will form the shape of a dog. This indicates that the noxious constituent is out. If the shape of dog is not seen, feed until the person heals. The dog shape will form within seven attempts at this. After seven days, add one tiger beetle a day to make ten tiger beetles on the tenth day. If there are four red hairs on the sick person’s head, those should be removed for the cure to be efficacious. If the poison is not detoxified and leaves a wound for long, although the wound [eventually] heals, within three months the person will throw up saliva through the mouth and make dog sounds, when the poison of the mad dog reaches the boundary of the heart. Make powder out of a tiger’s skull, molars and shin bone, mix with water, and have the person drink this. Also feed black-hulled red bean juice. Apply acupuncture and let it remain unhealed within three months. The person who is bitten by a dog and damaged should not eat any dog meat or silkworm pupas for the rest of their life and should never take anything near toxicant or liquor for three years.

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Pig Bites Wash the wound with the water gathered from the house or roof and apply pine resin. Rat Bites Burn the hair of a cat, mix a bit of musk using one’s saliva, and apply. Apply cat’s dung and chewed ginger inside a cat’s mouth. The cat will then drool; apply the saliva to the wound. Snake Bites For snake poison, orpiment is the best. Finely grind orpiment and apply it to the wound, and it will soon be healed. Mix the orpiment powder with lettuce juice and apply it to the wound. The pain will disappear if the toxin [from the bite] comes out from the wound. Also, it will heal if potassium is melted over a fire and applied on the wound. Give the juice of cocklebur (tokkomari) mixed with warm liquor and apply the juice from a single bulb of garlic and the earwax of pig. Spider Bites Lamb’s milk detoxifies the poison of spider bites. Be thoroughly drunk with very good liquor, drink one bowl of the juice of a Korean indigo plant mixed with one ton (3.75 grams) of orpiment as well as one ton of musk, and apply it on the wound. Then millet-sized bugs will come out by themselves. Bites by a Flat Spider (Uroctea lesserti) People can easily die from the poisonous bite of a flat spider. Apply lye, potassium powder, and orpiment paste mixed with vinegar. Centipede Bites For the poison from centipede bites, put a large spider on the wound and the spider will suck up the poison and die. Afterwards, if that spider is put into water, it will be revived. Repeat this many times. Also, apply silky fowl (ogolgye) blood or droppings on the wound, and apply water to make it moist when dried. Apply the juice of a single bulb garlic and the juice of a straw shoe snail (chip’sin talp’aengi). Bee Stings Chew fresh grass and apply to the sting and also rub with taro stem. Paste mint leaves or wax gourd leaves [as a poultice] and apply vinegar or pear juice. Also apply earthworm waste.



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Bites from All Types of Poisonous Insects Put beefsteak plant leaves in oil and apply to the bite. When Insects Enter the Inner Ear Put chive juice, green onion juice, or sesame oil inside of the ear, and put chicken comb blood as well while warm, and the insect will come out. If the insect does not come out, apply ginger juice to the nose of a cat and the cat will urinate. Then put the urine into the inner ear and tap on a bronze bowl near the ear or make a noise using two knives; this will cause the insect to come out. When Various Insects Are Swallowed When a Centipede Is Swallowed This is a very urgent situation, so quickly eat raw pork, drink oil, and vomit right away. Detoxify by taking orpiment powder mixed with water. When a Leech Is Swallowed When a leech is swallowed, boil a little lump of dried soil from the middle of the field together with three to four ricefish (Oryzias latipes), pork, and oil. Peel ten crotons, pound them, mix with the soil, and make round balls the size of mung beans. Swallow the balls with cold water; one will then have diarrhea and the leach will come out. If honey is eaten, it will turn into water.71 When a Needle Is Swallowed Boil black beans together with chives and eat, and it [the needle] will come out in one’s feces. When Various Bones Are Stuck in the Throat Swallow about half of a bowstring and then pull it out. Then the bone will come out with the string. When a Fish Bone Is Stuck in the Throat Pound peach seeds or a peach tree root and eat it, but make sure it does not touch the teeth since the teeth will fall out if touched by it. Take the juice of

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a day lily root, stuff the nose with a large clove of garlic, boil plantain lily in vinegar and drink it, and draw a bowl of water that flows to east, write the character for dragon (龍) on the water with your finger, and drink this while sitting towards an easterly direction. Take ground ivory mixed with water. Hang a dog upside down, get its saliva and take it, and all types of bones will become water. When a Chicken Bone Is Stuck in the Throat Clean a hemp root (Dioscorea polystachya) thoroughly, pound it well, make little balls about the size of a Korean cherry, mix with chicken soup (takt’ang), and eat it. The bone will soon come out. When a Thorn Is Stuck in the Throat Mix the gallbladder of carp or ch’ŏnjŭngŏ and take it.72 It will soon be healed. When a Thorn from a Rice Plant or a Chestnut Gets in the Eye Wash the eye with the midsection of a cicada larva by bending it, [and the thorn] will then come out, sticking into the cicada larva. If the juice of the myoga ginger plant (白蘘荷 Zingiber mioga) is put into the eye, the thorn will come out right away. When a Mote or Sand Gets in the Eye Grind a good ink stick, put the ink on a new writing brush, apply it to the eye, and it [the particle] will come out right away. If it does not come out, put the ink in the eye again, close the eyes and lie down for a while, open the eyes, and the speck will stick to the pupil of the eye. Then clean it out with newly harvested cotton. Also, if sweet flag (石菖蒲 Acorus gramineus) is pounded and stuffed into the left nostril for stuff in the right eye and the right nostril for stuff in the left eye, it is mysteriously efficacious. When a Bamboo Splinter Will Not Come Out It will get better if a cicada larva is pounded and applied. It will come out by itself if burned lamb droppings are mixed with pork grease and applied. It will come out if raw chestnuts are chewed and then applied, or pine resin that has naturally come out of the tree is applied. Also, apply the dirt from a human head. If a piece of iron has become embedded in the skin, apply the



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ash from burning three or four smoked-dried plums mixed with vinegar. Also, pound apricot pits from an apricot with two pits [in a single fruit] and apply. When a Fish Bone Is Stuck in the Flesh The bone will melt and come out if osuyu73 is chewed and applied. Also, it will be tender and come out if ivory (sanga) powder is thickly applied. Sudden Appearance of Boils (疔愈) It is efficacious to use the ash of cocklebur stems and leaves mixed with vinegar, pounded pigweed (swoebirŭm, Portulaca oleracea) mixed with dirt from the head, and crushed flies to the mixture and apply. Also, if the juice of crushed chrysanthemum leaves is taken and the rest of the crushed leaves are applied on the skin [it is efficacious]. A Cure for Boils from Experience It is best to cauterize boils with moxa even if they just break out on the skin. It is called p’ungjŏngi if one’s hand is all of a sudden swollen, tight, asleep and heavy without reason. If one does not realize this and leaves it as it is, the whole hand will be afflicted and swollen. Thus, get a bird and place directly [on the wound].74 On spots that are extremely painful, place a slice of garlic after making a hole and cauterize with mugwort moxa frequently for many days. When the spot seems soft, prick with an acupuncture needle. Then yellowish liquid will come out and the skin will adhere to the flesh. Cauterize the spot again with mugwort moxa again many times, and in four to five days it will be all cured. Beginning on the eighth day of the third lunar month, my hand was healed and became a normal hand again on the twelfth day, which was so marvelous that I even wrote about it in my diary. On the first day of the second lunar month in chŏngmi year,75 one girl from Nagan of fourteen years of age76 bled heavily without ceasing all day long. They were at a loss as to what to do as various kinds of medicine did not work. She stopped bleeding after taking three bowls of a child’s urine, mixed with ginger juice, and finely pounded paekt’osaeng.77 There are cases where a spoon will suddenly go down the throat when a person is eating. If this happens, even the strongest person would not be able to pull it out, and if the spoon goes all the way down the throat, the person will die. This happens because metal energy is dangerous to the

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wood energy arising from the liver and gallbladder [like a metal axe will damage a tree].78 The spoon will come out if the spoon handle is heated with a fire as fire overcomes metal.79 As accidents can occur without expectations, I record my experiences here. Poisoning from Apricot Pits If there are two pits in a single apricot, they are extremely poisonous. If it is eaten by mistake and the situation is urgent as if someone’s throat is closed up and they are about to die, drink two to three toe (5.4 liters) of clear water right away, and then take the clear water gathered from red clay soil (地‌漿) mixed with black-hulled red bean juice and black soy sauce, and chew three jujubes. In general, when taking either liquid medicine or dried-ball medicines that contain cinnabar, it should be warmed up in a double boiler. Never put those medicines directly on a fire as the medicine becomes too strong. If one desires to know the reason for this, set fire to a paper stained with cinnabar, cover it with a bowl, and open and look after the fire is extinguished. The soot in the bowl is all mercury. When Injured with a Knife or Ax Apply juice from white mulberry bark (桑白皮)80 and then apply silkworm cocoons to the wound. Then it will be healed within a few days. When a Wound from a Blade Is Severe Quickly mix egg whites with lime powder, bake over a fire, make a powder of it, and apply to the wound. This will stop the bleeding. If the one wounded feels dizzy and light-headed, have them take the urine of a young boy. If all of a sudden one’s throat and the lower chest are itchy and stuffy, suffers from indigestion, and thus one vomits but is unable to excrete at all, cannot stop laughing, sometime sadly cries without reason, sometimes trembles, grinds the teeth, ki is blocked and results in lockjaw, this is roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) infestation without fail. In this case, people get flustered and can easily misuse medicine. If the proper medicine is not used, it is difficult to save the life. Add three ton (11.25 grams) of chinaberry tree root (Melia azedarach) to anhoeŭm (安蛔陰)81 right away and give to the patient. When the person becomes calm, again boil two ton (7.5 grams) of dried noctule bat (Nyctalus maximus aviator) droppings with five p’un (1.875 grams) of roasted alum, and feed to him/her.



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A Method for Cleaning the Eyes Boil immaculately clean water, filter it through silk cloth, let it settle to be clear, and wash the eyes with it. Then all the specks will come out. (From my experience.) Pick mulberry leaves at the hour of iptong (立冬) on the day of the onset of winter (立冬), thread twelve bundles of ten leaves each and hang them in a breezy and shady place. On the washing day of every month, minding one’s manners, boil one bundle of the leaves in an earthenware or ceramic pot (since mulberry leaves avoid metal) until it is eight hop (1.44 liters). Wash the eyes with this, and all types of eye diseases will be cured and the eyesight will not be lost for life. Days for Washing the Eyes On the fifth day of the first month. On the first day of the second month. On the fifth day of the third month. On the eighth day of the fourth month. On the fifth day of the fifth month. On the seventh day of the sixth month. On the seventh day of the seventh month. On the eighth day of the eighth month. On the tenth day of the tenth month.82 On the tenth day of eleventh month. On the first day of the twelfth month. Boil the ten leaves of one bundle and use. If medicine is boiled with mulberry, it is efficacious. If snake is boiled with mulberry, feet will appear [on the snake].83 If mulberry tree ash water is used to wash the eyes, impurities will come out. The Avalokitésvara Secret of Eye-Washing (觀音洗眼訣)84 Dearest Avalokitésvara, please save me. Give me the greatest comfort, guide me to the greatest. Terminate my foolishness and darkness, terminate all the barriers, and erase all my sins. Let my eyes come out of the darkness and see the lights of the world. Today I recite this gātha, as a penitent for the sins of my eyes. Please widely spread immaculate brightness, And allow me to see even the most delicate forms of the world.85

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Always at dawn on clear days, holding a bowl of clear water, chant the above lines seven or forty-nine times while facing the water, and then wash the eyes with it. For aged, musky eyes (瞖瞙) or all the symptoms from sties, there will not be any instance that is not cured. Medicine of the Five Phases (五行) Skewer twenty-one old copper coins with a maple tree branch,86 but put salt in between each coin. Apply red clay, put it in a charcoal fire, take it out when it is red hot, shake all the mud off, soak the coins in good water that is covered later. After a night, when all the mud stuck on the coins has sunk and a light green [sheen] floats on top of the water, pour out the water on top, heat it to be warm, and wash the eyes with it. It is effective on very severe eye disease and even for itching, redness and painful pterygim (努肉攀睛). The Firefly Light Medicine of the Fairy (神仙螢火丹) According to the Sinsŏn kamŭm-p’yŏn [神仙感應篇 Divine revelations of the fairy],87 in the Han dynasty as the Governor of Wuwei, Liu Zinan (武威太守 劉子南) learned the recipe from Daoist Priest Yingong (道士尹公) and wore the firefly light pill (螢火丹) on his body, and his sword and spear were not damaged on the battlefield, and he was not hurt even if he fell off his horse.88 Make powder out of one nyang (37.5 grams) each of firefly abdomens (‌螢火), winged burning bush (鬼箭羽 Euonymus alatus [Thunb.] Sieb.), bindii (蒺藜 Tribulus terrestris L.), two nyang each of realgar (雄黃) and oripiment (雌黃), one nyang of Saiga antelope horn (羚羊角), two nyang of burned alum (礬石), and one and one-half nyang of iron rod after burning (the part where the iron rod inserts into the wooden handle), mix with egg yolk and pounded rooster comb, and make round balls the size of apricot pits. Make red sacks in triangular shapes, put five balls of the medicine in each sack, and wear it on the left arm or at the waist. It prevents infectious diseases, and no ghost, tiger, various poisons from poisonous snakes, or thieves can attack the person. According to a Daoist recipe, if a crab is put in lacquer and eaten when it changes into water, then the person will live long. According to the Bencao, the taste of crab is salty, its nature cold and poisonous, but it is the main medicine to eliminate the bad ki (邪氣) that causes diseases, pain from gathered heat (熱結) in the chest, and is used for a crooked mouth, furuncles on the face, bleeding from childbirth, inflammation of the skin caused by lacquer poison, to strengthen the bones and sinews, and to provide the energy to the body. Also, if a yellow crab is



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applied to an old abscess on one’s back, it heals. In addition, when bones and sinews are broken, boil the medulla of the crab and yellow part on its back for a moment, and put it on the injured area, then they adhere right away. Sometimes if a slave hangs his/herself and dies, try digging deeply at the spot below the servant before undoing the rope.89 Then there will be something that looks like a bone or rock. Such a thing will not happen again in that house only if it is dug up and thrown into water or fire to get rid of. If too much time passes and thus the rock piece cannot be found as it goes deeply in the ground, calamity and misfortune will continue. According to the Bencao, it [the object unburied] is called human spirit (人魄) and if a person in a daze takes this, he/she will be clear minded. There is a case that the person might be alive when there is a little bit of warmth in between the thymus, if a lot of air is blown into both ears using a writing brush cover and fed chicken comb blood. It is written in Chibong yusŏl (Topical discourses of Chibong) that if someone is suffering from an affliction of the throat and it is suddenly blocked, burn butterflies on a gourd flower and blow it into the throat using bamboo tube; this is said to be efficacious. When the people walk through a heavy fog, it is said that poisonous energy (毒氣) will not reach the five vital organs if one chews grilled unpeeled ginger whole and drinks rice wine (makkŏlli). Once there were three people walking through a thick fog, of which one became ill, another died, and the third was unharmed. The one who got ill ate a meal, the one who died had an empty stomach, and the one who was unharmed drank rice wine before walking. Once there was a noted doctor who later tried to make medicine his career in the Shu Kingdom (蜀). On the street, he saw a person carrying logs on his back, sweating and trying to take a bath in the streamlet water. The noted doctor thought that he would die without fail and followed to save him. The woodcutter went to a store, bought garlic, sliced it thin, and mixed with hot noodle soup and ate it until sweat poured off him. The doctor who saw this said that if even a woodcutter was so good at using medicine, it would be needless to wonder about the wealthy people, and eventually returned home. King Xiaozong (孝宗 r. 1162–1189) of Song China came down with dysentery and none of the royal physician’s medicines worked. By chance one doctor from a small clinic had his finger on the King’s pulse and said that this was cold dysentery caused by eating too much crab and told him to finely pound newly sprouted lotus root joints, mix it with hot water, and take. He took it as told a few times and recovered right away. Thus, the King gave him a government post and presented a golden tribute to him.

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King Huizong (徽宗 r. 1100–1126) ate too much ice and suffered from a severe stomachache. The royal physician gave him ijungt’ang90 decocted with water melted from ice and the King recovered quickly. Thus, it is called ijungt’ang from boiled ice. According to Chuch’ang yasŏl (Stories told by Chuch’ang)91 there was one who fell ill after giving birth and was practically dead. A doctor from the Yuk family saw her and said that it was a condition resultant from childbirth (hyŏlmin 血悶).92 He boiled scores of safflowers in a large kiln, removed the residue, had the ill person lie down in a warm place to let her energy warm, and poured the boiled liquid into her mouth continuously. The ill person was revived in half a day, because safflower enables the blood to circulate. Yang Yunchang (陽運長)93 once said that eyes tend to avoid medicine directly entering, so it would be best to leave as it is for eye afflictions. For toothaches, it is right to be troublesome, so it should not be left as is like eye disease. For curing eye disease, one should do as in governing the people, and for curing toothache, one should do as when controlling the military. People ought to be governed as the Third Minister of the Board of Personnel (吏曹參議) and the military should be governed as a wildcat is handled. Su Shi94 wrote that when spring rain comes, collect the rainwater in a wide container; use the rainwater in the center which is sweet, soft, and indescribable for its beauty. If it is used for tea water, the color of tea is beautiful, and if this water is used to boil down medicine, the medicine is beneficial. Second to this is freshly drawn water. As the heaven turns into the earth with nine and two, and as the earth becomes water with six and two, it is cold, sweet, and very beneficial to people.95 Tanjangch’o (斷腸草)96 looks like a type of floating watermoss leaf (塊葉),97 and the leaves fall by themselves if people approach close to it. If the leaves fall on the water and if someone drinks that water, she/he will die of bleeding from the seven channels of perception (七竅). When this happens, finely pound an egg quickly that a hen was brooding, mix with sesame oil, and feed it to the victim. The person will vomit all the poisonous water and will live. If it takes too long to vomit, the person cannot be saved. All poisonous plants can be detoxified with this method. (Bencao gangmu) Pain from Tooth Decay Toast and warm the beak of the woodpecker with red head feathers on the crown of its head and bite it with the decayed teeth. Then it is said that the pain goes away. There was a person who enjoyed raw fish to excess and was suddenly taken ill; the person felt dizzy seeing things as if there was a foggy mist



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always blocking his/her eyes. The symptoms worsened and there was no medicine to cure this. One doctor who examined his/her pulse said that these symptoms must be due to fish scales sticking to the liver as he/she ate a lot of fish. The person took one warm bowl of good vinegar and the symptoms disappeared right away. (Migong pigŭp)98 According to the Bencao, there was a person who suffered from a mysterious disease. He bowed his head, sometimes laughed and sometimes cried like a half-wit, looked like a drunken person and also looked like a mad person. None of the doctors could understand where the symptoms came from and none of their medicines worked either. One doctor carefully examined the patient and said that it was because the food he ate had rat’s saliva and the poison had gone deeply into the body. He said to feed the person a cat’s saliva and it is said that the symptoms were soon improved. If the Root of a Severe Boil Is Deep and Will Not Come out Spray a lot of red rust from an old piece of cast iron on the area where the root of the boil is and put a strong magnet on the spot. The root will come out by the power of the magnet. When Urination Is Difficult Boil radish seeds and drink; boil down plantain seeds [and take] and it is especially efficacious. According to a poem about plantains, it says “let’s dig up the plantain seeds,” in reference to the very plantain seeds. Upset Stomach after Eating Beef This will get better soon if the person drinks a boiled-down octopus head cooked over a steady low heat. Also finely pound three chŏn (11.25 grams) of blue or red morning glory seeds, and mix with either the boiled liquid of unripened p’ilbal fruit (蓽茇 Piper longum linne) or ginger tea. The person will have diarrhea, but will soon be better. When There Are Aches in the Body It is good for aches if pokeweed (Phytolacca insularia Nakai) roots that come from plants with red flowers are pounded, mixed with vinegar, warmed up, and applied. However, these [pokeweed roots] should not be in food or should not be held in a bowl that is used for food. It is written in the Bencao that if someone eats this by mistake, she/he will be mad, make noise like a

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dog, bleed, and die. The recipe to use pokeweed roots that come from plants with white flowers is in the Daojia shu (道家書 Daoist treatises)99 and is said that Daoist hermits dig these up and take them. When There Are Aches in the Body100 It is mysteriously effective if the person puts the inside part of split red whole peppers on the sole of his/her foot, wears socks, and sleeps. Put them on the left sole if the ache is on the right side of the body, and right if it is on the left side. It might work in a day. There will not be any case where this does not work even after a few days. When Severe Boils Begin If pigweed (swoebirŭm, Portulaca oleracea) is applied, it will be reduced. This is because there is mercury between the stems and the leaves [of pigweed]. Out of fifty kŭn (30 kilograms) of pigweed, ten nyang (375 grams) of mercury is found. Spider oil on the dog days of summer (三伏) is mysteriously efficacious. To make spider oil, put one toe (1.8 liters) of sesame oil in a bottle, catch one large spider on the first dog day, put it in the bottle, and close the mouth tight. On the second dog day, catch two large spiders again, put them in the same bottle, and close tightly. On the third dog day, catch three large spiders, put them in the bottle, and bury it in a place with the lid tightened where there will be no rain. From the following year, this oil can be used [as a remedy] before a severe boil has yet to start festering. Apply the oil on the boil, and the poisonous part disappears, and it is very effective. Mosquito Bites It is okay to rub salt on the bite right away, but if it gets infected, apply chagŭmjŏng (紫金錠),101 and pound and apply the stems and leaves of white garden balsam, and it is effective. When a Whitlow Begins Boil a bottle used to hold perilla oil, put the finger into the mouth of the bottle, steam it for long time, catch a bird and remove its intestines but leave the feathers, and wrap the finger with it, and it is mysteriously efficacious. It is said that Sun Simiao (孫思邈)102 could not become a Daoist sage because he killed and used a lot of birds, animals, insects, and fish in his medicine



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book of Qian jin fang (千金方 Formulas worth one thousand gold pieces). This method ended up warning him. After the boil on the finger festers and grows to a head, boil bean pods in water until thick and put the finger in it. It wonderfully draws out the pus. When a boil on the finger begins, it is said that the boil dies down if red pepper paste is applied and [the finger] is bound to enclose. Also, it does not fester if from time to time the finger is put in and heated in boiled soy sauce. Malaria (瘧疾) On the day of a solar eclipse and while facing the sun, repeatedly write the Chinese character for sun (日) with cinnabar; next, burn the characters and eat as many as the number of seizures one has suffered. Also cut out all the white paper of the prior year’s book calendar, burn all the letters without missing even single letter, mix with water, and drink. It is said that people can defeat the disease if they eat the entire year of suns, moons, and stars.103 Dysentery (痢疾) It heals if three blooms of rose mallow are boiled and taken; do this three times. White flowers should be eaten for dysentery with diarrhea that becomes white with mucus and red flowers should be used for a bloody flux. When Intending to Deliver a Baby Boy It is written in the Bencao that one will be pregnant and deliver a baby boy if the peach and apricot flowers are picked on the chŏnghae day (丁亥) of the second month, dried in the shade, mixed with water on the muja day (戊子), and taken three times per day for a week. Difficult Delivery If it rains at the o hour (11 a.m.–1 p.m.) on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, write the Chinese character for dragon (龍) largely with cinnabar and keep it. It is wonderfully effective if the character is burned and eaten when there is a difficulty in delivery. However, it is not so effective if it does not rain in the following year. (壽養叢書 Collected works of Suyang) 104 If a person who suffers from eye disease washes the eye with a red silk cloth or pomegranate floral leaf at the o hour on the fifth day of the fifth month and throws it away on the road, it [the ailment] will move to the

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person who picks up the cloth or floral leaf. When a child suffers from eye disease and has a blue eye, it is wonderfully effective if this method is used. The Bencao tells of a person who saw a young boy in the mountains who put the dew from the Korean nut pine leaves (Pinus koraiensis) in a red pouch to carry it. He asked for the reason and the boy answered that it was medicine to brighten the eyes for Chi Songzi (赤松子).105 As the eyes were washed with this dew, it was sure enough mysteriously effective for brightening the eyesight. Treating Sore Skin and Scars Finely grind litharge (密陀僧),106 mix with a thick pomade made of beeswax and sesame oil, and apply on afflicted skin. It makes the skin where it is sunken to grow and where is raised to flatten out. Lost Voice/Hoarseness In sour vinegar, crack a raw egg, warm it up, and drink. Also boil the dirt from a rat hole and a key, and drink it too. It will be better. Grinding the Teeth While Sleeping For those who grind their teeth a great deal while sleeping, it is said that the person will not grind their teeth anymore if a speck of dust from under the bedding of the person is secretly put in the person’s mouth while he/ she is sleeping. Small Boils A good cure is to burn facial hair, mix with oil and apply to the boils; Emperor Taizong of Tang (唐太宗 r. 626–649) cut his facial hair and gave it to Li Shiji (李世績 594–669),107 and Emperor Renzong of Song (宋仁宗 r. 1022–1063) cut his hair and gave it to Lu Yijian (呂夷簡).108 Mix hawk’s [eye] pupil with human milk and put this in the eyes for three days; one will then see the center of the blue heavens. If the juice from a crow’s [eye] pupil is dropped into the eyes, it is said that person will see ghosts. [Cure] for a Thirty-Year-Old Deaf If the bile of a rat is put in the ears three times, it will sound like a thunderstorm and the deafness will be completely healed. According to the Bencao,



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as rats belong to trigram of kankwae (艮卦)109 and as the vital force is in the gallbladder, it heals deafness. The eyes of rats easily brighten up the eyesight and the bones easily make the teeth come out. A rat’s liver consists of seven pieces. In between the sections of the liver, there is a gallbladder the size of a bean and red in color. It is said that this exists only before the third of the month. Vinous-Throated Parrotbill (巧婦鳥 Sinosuthora webbian)110 If a woman swallows the egg of a parrotbill, her talent becomes extraordinary. Its nest is like a small pocket and if one burns it and exposes the hands to the scent, it is said that one will becomes dexterous. (The Bencao) If a urine from a man is dropped into the ears, deafness from an illness will be cured. According to Imha p’ilgi (林下筆記 Random jottings by Imha),111 it is commonly said that if one is not good at learning, it is because the person does not have any ink in their heart. A young man in Pukche, who did not know the letter of ㄱ even while looking at a sickle,112 drank a mal (18 liters) of ink water and could then easily read old books, and a scholar from Song China drank three mal (54 liters) of ink water and easily became a disciple of Su Shi’s poetic style. Also, Wang Bo (王勃 650–676)113 of Tang China was not originally good at composition and all of a sudden remembered the ink water. He ground good ink stone and drank several toe (1 toe is 1.8 liters) of ink water. After this, he put a blanket over his face, slept a bit, and woke up to write without having to correct a single character. He called the blanket the “pocket of good fortune” (福囊). According to Suyang ch’ongsŏ (Collected works of Suyang), if a child does not walk for long time, have the child walk along the wall before sunrise on the morning of the first day of the first month. It is said that soon the child will walk in no time. If a child does not talk for long time, it is said that he/she will easily talk if fed the flesh of a black-naped oriole (kkoekkori, Oriolus chinensis). When a child loses their baby teeth before the age of seven and the new teeth do not come out right away, cut off the phallus of a rat, apply to the gums, and the new teeth will appear right away. However, the teeth that result from this method are not firm and could easily fall out. So, it is only right to use this method when there is a worry that the teeth will not come out at all. When smallpox is severe and the symptoms are not going away, it is effective if one applies samsŭnghŭkko.114 After suffering from sore skin on the head or eyebrows and the skin

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becomes shiny and no hair grows, hair will regrow if the mother licks the skin often with her tongue. Jaundice (黃疸) It is mysteriously effective if the baby is washed with the mother’s bath water. Recently a child of high-ranking official was bit on the penis by a dog and nearly reached the state of death. A monk said to pound castor beans and apply to the penis. It grew right away and the boy did not become a sick person, but he was unusually short in height when grown. Erysipelas (胎丹)115 It is strangely efficacious if pumpkin is baked and applied, and the aborted fetus of a rabbit is boiled with oil and applied. Words for Treating Anxiety According to Sodae ch’ongsŏ (昭代叢書 Collected writings of Sodae)116 Shu Qi (叔齊)117 of the Yin Kingdom in China contracted a disease and various medicines were not efficacious. One person said there was a monk who had amazingly cured the same affliction with a talisman and medicine. So he asked the monk to see him. The monk saw him and said his disease was in his mind and thus it was not a case in which he could be cured with medicines and a talisman, so he wrote out a medical prescription. The general idea of the monk’s prescription is that it is most important when a person’s mind dies, and when a person’s body dies it is second. How do people’s minds die? In many cases, it certainly starts from sadness and agitation. Kamja118 said that in a wise person’s case, this affliction can be cured, but in the instance of a foolish person this condition is originally not curable. In general, if this condition reaches to the extreme, there is possibly a medicine that can cure one disease with one type of medicine and sometimes two to three kinds of illnesses can be cured with one type of medicine. With this illness there are serious cases as well as not-so-serious ones, and thus there are illness which can be easily cured and those that are very difficult to cure. Physicians treat this illness using military strategy (兵法), which is a way to defeat the illness without fighting, by making the cunning energy go away by itself. This disease cannot be cured if it is deeply rooted. If the root of this disease is from coveting food, desiring fame and wealth, desiring to win, anger, desiring houses or clothes, desiring money or wealth, or desiring to love someone, it is not a serious case and easy to cure. However, if someone is talented but cannot find a place to



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use the talent, has great wishes, and cannot accomplish even one of them, or if one stops trying to recover and thus the seven passions (七情)119 are already damaged and ŭigong120 shaken due to severe mistreatment (from the world), the illness is deeply rooted and even if there are one hundred Bian Ques (‌扁‌鵲), it would be difficult to cure. If worry goes through one side, it is called thought (思). When thought remains and one realizes that it dwells within him but he cannot easily overcome it, it is called dread (懼), which is the original disease. The dread dwells in the heart and when one illness occurs alone, or when two or three occur together while not finding out what the cause is, the person will die without fail. Thus, according to Mencius (‌孟‌子), to control one’s mind, it is good to have very little greed, which implies a person who does not have any illness in their mind. The one who does not have illness in their mind is not greedy, and the one who is ill in their mind always seeks carelessly. If they are to set the mind at ease by sometimes being alone and sitting properly, sometimes sitting with the Four Friends (四友),121 and reading books, this will keep a firm basis and allow time to be spent in a leisurely way by resolving the resentment and the cluttered mind; thus one can easily cure the disease and all of the symptoms will disappear. It is said to use medicine after searching for the [source of the] problem.122 Medicines That Should Avoid Copper and Iron Mulberry mistletoe (Loranthus parasiticus) avoids iron but not copper. Rehmannia root (chihwang; Rehmannia glutinosa) and knotweed root (Fallopia multiflora) avoid both copper and iron, and water figwort (hyŏnsam; Scrophularia buergeriana) damages the eyes and throat if used closely with copper or iron. Ch’ŏn’gŭn (Rubia akane Nakai)123 avoids iron and lead. Iris, nut grass (Cyperus rotundus), quince, pomegranate, eucommia bark (tuch’ung; Eucommia ulmoides Oliv.), Anemarrhena root (chimo; Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge), cork tree bark (hwangbaek; Phellodendron wilsonii Hayata et Kanehira), ch’ŏnmundong (Asparagus cochinchinensis), dried honeysuckle stems and leaves, nutmeg tree ( yuktugu), gentian (ch’oryongdam; Gentiana jamesii Hemsl.), siho (Bupleurum euphorbioides Nakai), kolswaebo (Drynaria fortunei [Kunze] J. Sm.), unripe, dried peaches (Prunus persica [L.] Batsch), red wolfiporia (chŏkpongnyŏng; Poria cocos [Schw.]), and ramie root (Boehmeriae Radix) all avoid iron. Medicines That Should Avoid Fire Rhinoceros horn, the stems and leaves of mulberry mistletoe, the areca nut ( pinnang; Areca catechu), sahamch’o (Potentilla kleiniana), dried clove flower

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buds (chŏnghyang; Eugenia caryophyllata), cinnabar and all ingredients with scents become less good if used with fire energy (火氣). An Overview of How Things Interact A magnet draws an iron needle, Amber gathers around mustard grass, Spring wind faces the autumn rain, There will be a lot of rabbits if the moon is bright on the day of Harvest Moon Festival (秋夕), There will be many tigers if it rains on the day of the winter solstice, A comet will be seen if a whale dies, There will be plentiful fish if it is clear and warm at the onset of winter, If a sack is made out of crane feathers and worn, one can cross a river, There is a stone (礖石 whetstone) found in crane nests that allows one to avoid fire, Snakes swallow toads, If musk gets into lacquer and is mixed, it will become water, A lamp wick will easily make frankincense thin, If boiling water is put in a bottle, stopped up, and if it is put into well water, it will turn to ice if the bottle was extremely hot, If a peacock’s tail feathers run into a camphor tree (Dryobalarops aromatic), they gather in admiration, If straw rope is made with rice grass and hung up, flies will stick to it, If duckweed ( pup’yŏng ch’o; Spirodela polyrhiza) is burned, mosquitoes will disappear, Musk gets rid of fleas, If cranes eat abalones, they die, On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, if many toads are caught during the day and hung up, burn the ones which escape the bonds and get away, and expose the hands to the smoke and scent; if the person then touches the rope that tied up a person, the rope will come untied by itself, The fine hair of a pine tree kills rice weevils, If saliva is applied to a butterfly’s wings, it will fly high in the sky, If a horse eats chicken droppings, it will become sick from having bones in its eyes, Spring smoke is blue and winter smoke is black, Squids become less fleshy after Soman (小滿),124 Silkworms also make less silk after Soman,



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Green plums grow big after Soman, Hollyhocks grow as well after Soman, If pine tree roots become old, they will become pongnyŏng (Poria cocos [Schw.] Wolf), If one eats too many gingko nuts, they will become drunk, If walnuts are chewed with coins, the coins will break, If food is eaten on the day of a solar or lunar eclipse, the teeth will be damaged, If crabs are steamed with persimmons, they do not turn red, If a terrapin is coated with honey, dried, and boiled, the color will turn blue, If the teeth are sour after eating sour food, it will be better if one chews a walnut, If barley rots, it will turn to butterflies, and in case of wine, it emits even more fragrance. Saliva casts off mercury, Lotus root disperses clotted blood, And sulfur gathers mercury. If two dragon flies are buried under the outside door of kitchen facing the west on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and not fed for three days, they are said to turn into blue pearls. Also, it is mentioned to bury them in the middle [of a wall]. If lotus root and stems are put in rat holes, the rats disappear, and old tea leaves can be burnt to get rid of flies. Make a small hole in an egg so as to remove all the yolk and white, gather a lot of dew and put it in the emptied egg shell, seal it with oil paper, and dry it during the day; it will then float in the air as high as three to four chang (9 to 12 meters). If cow dung water is used to paint on a duck or chicken eggshell, the blue color stains deeply in the egg when they are hard boiled. The fire made from turtle oil will melt iron. Dirt under the fingernails can be cleanly washed away with the water boiled with white apricot flowers and the dried fruits of the honey locust tree. For [repairing] thin fingernails of those who play the kayagŭm or kŏmun’go,125 expose them to the scent of dried silkworms burning, and they will be thicker. A runny nose will stop if one breathes the scent of burning longan seeds (Dimocarpus longan). Pile up a lot of artemisia (ssuk; Artemisia princeps) and burn after three years; the resin that flows out will be lead.

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For hair that has turned yellow, it will turn black again if the water boiled with odu (Aconitum racemulosum var. austrokoreense), mint and green vitriol (Iron [II] sulfate) is applied. Oily hands can be washed with salt. If one has garlicy breath after eating garlic, eat ginger and jujubes [to take away the scent]. A duck egg will turn red if boiled with tangerine root. If beeswax and fruits are chewed together, the beeswax changes its form. If the eggplant vine ash is put in wine overnight, it will turn into water. If radish stems and ginkgo are chewed together, it will not be bitter. Boil hempseed oil to remove all the moisture until there is no scent left and let it get cold so one would not burn their hand even if stirring it with a bare hand. However, if water is added to it, fire will flare up. If vermilion is used to write on bowl coated with black lacquer, and salt is applied, then all will turn into a red liquid that flows down. Knives do not rust if coated with oil. If pija (Torreya nucifera S. et Z.) seeds and potatoes are eaten together, the shells become as soft as paper. Put forty-nine broad beans in yin-yang water,126 bury them in the ground to the west of the house at osi hour (11 a.m.–1 p.m.) on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and put a cat on top of them. In seven days it turns into a cat’s eye stone (myojŏng 描睛). Sutra of the Heart (感應經) There will be insects in piled-up grain and bed bugs ( pindae) in rotted grass, Tigers know days of collision and demolition, and swallows know the direction of mugi (戊己).127 Owls avoid the names of stars and magpies avoid the yearly star (太歲).128 Why does charcoal become heavier and iron become lighter? Around the winter and summer solstices, weigh out charcoal and iron and put each on a scale so it is balanced. On the winter solstice day when yang energy (‌陽氣) is about, the charcoal goes up and the iron goes down, and when yin energy (陰氣) is around on the summer solstice, the iron goes up and the charcoal goes down; from this we can understand the logic [of the things of the world]. Wind can be known though piled-up ash and rain can be known by weighing charcoal. Gather elm tree ash and put it deep inside of the house. The ash will fly



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out if the wind rises in the sky. Also, weigh dirt and charcoal, put the same weight on each end [of a scale], and place it in the house. The charcoal will be heavier if rain comes and lighter if it will be fair. Horses will not bite people if the horse’s lips were washed with dried silkworm powder. Horses will not eat grain if the skin of a wolf or dhole129 is placed on the trough. A rat pelt will work the same. Peal walnut tree branches that have grown towards the east and south, write the character of 卷 (property title), and circle the lower part of the chicken coop with these. Then the chicken will not cease crying all night. Write the character 契 (contract) on a roof tile, put it on the wall, and throw it towards an owl when it cries. They will not cry anymore. Do not buy servants or animals with the money from selling a house, and do not use the money from selling cows or horses for a son’s marriage.130 When cows and horses pass by a stable, it is easy to sell them if a stable hand ties up their tail and writes the letter 十 (ten). When desiring to sell clothes, they sell easier at the market if the clothes are taken around a well three times. After burning the menstrual laundry of a married woman, make ash out of it and put a little bit of it near the threshold; when the woman comes, she will not leave easily and stay. If a large mirror is hung upside down on a tall bamboo tree, the whole neighborhood will be reflected. If a basin filled with water is placed right under the mirror, all of your neighbors can be seen coming in and out. If a runaway’s clothes are wrapped around the center of a well, the runaway will return of his/her own will; if the seam on the back of a slave’s clothes is broad-stitched to the width of one cha and six ch’i (about 48 cm) out of thread made from hemp that was used to wrap an earthenware steamer, the slave will not think about running away. According to the Bencao, if a runaway’s hair is placed or hung on a spinning wheel/mill, he will not know where to go and thus return. Also, write the runaway’s name, put it on a crossbeam upside down, and hang their shoes in the privy after burning mugwort moxa three times, and he will return of his own will before long. If the ash from burning quince is mixed with alum, hulls, and rice, and thrown into water, fish eat it and their eyes will be reversed. If old tobacco leaf powder is mixed with cooked rice and fed to birds, the birds cannot fly and will fall on their heads on the ground. If tangerine tree sees a corpse, it will bear a lot of fruit, If a pomegranate tree gains people’s bones, it will grow more leaves. If one wears the round bone on a turtle’s left side, their descendants will be wise.

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If dog’s liver is mixed with good mud, and applied on the kitchen, the wife and concubine will be dutiful and obedient. If a toad is fed with menstrual laundry and buried in the ground after digging a hole only one and a half ch’a (45 cm) deep in front of the privy, then the wife will cease being jealous. If the wife’s hair is buried in the ground in front of the kitchen, the husband and wife will live saccharinely; if someone else’s hair is buried in the ground in front of the kitchen, people will not become angry and always smile. Mutual Reponses of the Birds and Beasts Dragons do not hear with their ears but through their horns, and respond to Mars (火星)131 among the twenty-eight celestial palaces (二十八宿) of the zodiac.132 Cows hear with their noses, do not have any upper teeth, and respond to the Cow star (牛星).133 Snakes hear with their eyes and do not have any feet. Although snakes do not have feet, if burned with mulberry tree branches, it is said that feet will appear. Snakes respond to the Winged star (翼星).134 Roe deer do not have pupils in their eyes and respond to Mercury (‌水‌星).135 Pigs do not have tendons and respond to the House star (室星).136 Rabbits have cleft lips and do not have a spleen or stomach; they respond to the Room star (房星).137 Birds also do not have a spleen or stomach. A male bird’s tail has nine feathers and a female’s tail has twelve feathers. Crabs do not have intestines. According to the Bencao, as the outside shell is hard and as they walk sideways, they are called sideways-walkingupright-scholar (橫行介士). Another nickname for crabs is the intestineless noble son (無腸公子), as the meat is soft and the inside is empty. After spawning, they dry out and die naturally. Sometimes there is small crab inside of crabs, which is called haeno (蟹奴). It is similar to the oyster crabs that live in shellfish but is poisonous and should be not eaten. Shellfish do not have blood. The name of the little crabs living inside them is the oyster crab (kigŏch’ung; Pagurus spp. 寄居蟲). When the shellfish are hungry and open their shells, the little crabs come out, eat, and go back in. Then the shellfish become full. It is thus called a stepchild (螟蛉) and eaten by a forgetful one. Rats do not have gallbladders, but it will appear right before the third day of every month. Rats respond to the Empty star (虛星).138



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As rats have four front claws and five rear claws, divinations (卦) should be made taking the cha hour139 as a starting point and the strokes can be decided. Turtles breathe through their ears. The Bencao states that when turtles hear metallic sounds, they will lie face down; when they are bitten by a mosquito, they will die; when oil is dropped into their eyes, they cannot sink in water; and if simmered with aged mulberry wood, they easily become soft. Although this is recorded as such, they should not be eaten or harmed. Geese breathe through their anuses. Peahens bear eggs with the sound of thunder. The Bencao states that peahens bear eggs only by encountering the shadow of a peacock. In the Qinjing (禽經 Classic on birds)140 it is said that a peahen and peacock climb a tree, cry for love, and mate when a snake comes near. Cranes bear eggs by stepping on the traces of each other. According to the Bencao and Qinjing, it is said that fairy cranes (仙鶴) do not lay eggs but give birth to chicks; regular cranes (凡鶴) cry on winds blowing up-anddown (上下風) and step on the traces [of each other]. However, when seeing the cranes that were raised, they are not any different from the other birds, and thus this is misrepresented. Magpies bear eggs crying on the wind blowing up-and-down. Fish lay eggs by thinking of each other. According to “Dong shan jing” (東山經 Classic of the eastern mountain),141 fish eggs are called to. After the eggs are laid, the male fish pushes their own stomach to cover the eggs with white urine. Terrapins bear eggs by looking at each other. The Bencao states that as terrapins are born on land and live in the water, they do not have ears and hear with the eyes. Also, they are all females and there are no males. Paired with a snake, when incubating eggs for hatching, they follow the shadow float in the center of the stream. Terrapins are said to die if bitten by a mosquito. Crows bear eggs by looking at the sunshine and respond to the Finish star (畢星).142 Rabbits become impregnated by swallowing moonlight and give birth through the mouth. According to the Qinjing, the sound of the nan bird (‌鸞)143 is ŭng-ŭng, the phoenix (鳳) kae-kae, the female phoenix ch’u-ch’u, the pheasant yu-yu, the chicken i-i, the nightingale yŏng-yŏng, the crow a-a, magpie chak-chak, the crested ibis ho-ho, and the pigeon min-min. According to the supplement of the Bowuzhi (續博物誌 Record of diverse matters), chim cho (鴆鳥 poisonous birds of China) know if there is a snake under a big rock. The snake can be caught as the rock will roll if a conjurer (術士) walks on top of it as a cow slowly trots.

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If woodpeckers write talismans on rotten trees with their beaks, the worms in the tree come out of their own accord; if people are to fill the hole where the eggs are laid, they are said to easily open the hole with a talisman. The Youyang zazu (酉陽雜俎 Miscellaneous morsels from Youyang)144 states that magpies make the entrance of their nests face the T’aeŭl star (‌太‌乙‌星)145 and the opposite side is towards Jupiter (太歲). There is always an odd look to the treetop where the nest is located so they can easily return. As cranes left a longevity stone [in the pond],146 they raise fish in the pond. Swallows do not make nests on mu or ki days,147 and thus the mud used to build the nest is firm and holds cold stones; they lay large eggs. They respond to the Danger star (危星).148 According to old sayings, there are ways to tell male birds from female ones. For birds such as magpies, crows, or cranes, those of which have wings on their left side that cover a part of the right side are male and those of which have wings on the right side that cover a part of the left side are female. If this does not seem believable, burn some feathers from each side and put them in water. The feathers of the male will float and those of the female will sink. The Bencao states that if people eat croton, their health will be damaged, if rats eat croton, they will gain weight, if bears eat salt, they will die, and if rats eat salt, they will become nimble. As salt is related to the water in northerly directions due to its salty taste and as bears are related to fire, [bears die from eating salt], a bear’s fire is extinguished just like water extinguishes fire. the rats, however, they are related to the water in northerly directions as rats are symbolized as cha (子) which is water in Twelve Earthly Branches (十二支). The trees and grass become thick if eaten by cows but wither away if eaten by sheep, as cows are earthy (土) animals and thus easily raise all things, and as sheep are metal (金) animals and metal is usually used to kill and punish. Sheep will die if they eat rhododendron (躑躅).149 As people have the whole of the Five Phases, there is nothing that people cannot eat. As birds and animals have at least one Element of the Five, those that peck at and eat grains do not eat meat, and those that eat meat do not eat rice grains. According to Youyang zazu, those that eat grass are strong but stupid, and those that eat meat are brave but fierce. As many birds roost in trees, the shape of feathers is similar to that of leaves; as many animals live on mountains, the texture of their fur is similar to the grass; and as fish live in water, their scales look like the waves. All creatures form the shape of what they see and sense. According to Shou jing (獸經 Classic of the animals),150 as tigers have



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bones in their chests that resemble the character ŭl (乙), their nickname is “ŭl-shaped bones” (乙骨). It is less than two ch’i (6 cm) long and makes a noise when moving. It stays below the ribs before the fifteenth day of the month and moves to the upper flank after the full moon, which is similar to an elephant’s gallbladder that moves around for the four seasons. As this bone causes people to have dignity if worn on one’s side, there is a line in a poem by Su Shi that mentions gaining a tiger’s 乙 bone. The Bencao states that tigers shoot out light with one eye and see objects with the other eye and draw lines on the ground with even or odd numbers to tell where game is. Tigers respond to the Turtle star (觜聖).151 Things That Transform According to Changhwa pangmul chi (Treatise on broad matters by Chang­ hwa), pheasants become abalones, birds become shellfish, and tadpoles become frogs. Flies come from piled-up ashes, fireflies come from rotted grass, and bees come from spiders. The bees that come out through the skin on the back of a cow from the beehive in the cow’s stomach are called cow bees (牛蜂).152 Cicada larvae come out of rotted straw, go into the ground, and become cicadas. Centipedes come from rotted snakes. Mosquito larvae (written as water scorpions) become mosquitos. Dust becomes fleas. Amaranth ( pirŭm) forms out of the energy of earthworms. Lice comes from the energy of people and are dark in nature. So, they always crawl with their heads facing to the north. Three Things That Cannot Be Seen People cannot see centipedes, dragons cannot see stones, and fish cannot see water. Also, snakes cannot see soil. Seven Intoxications Tigers become drunk with dogs, cats become drunk with mint (Mentha arvensis), chickens become drunk from centipedes, pigeons become drunk with mulberry, snakes become drunk from suyu (Evoidia daniellii) fruit, bats become drunk from vinegar, and bamboo becomes drunk on Tano day (the fifth of the fifth lunar month).

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Miscellaneous Writings (雜著) A Method to Disappear Make a powder out of a white dog’s gallbladder, dried t’ongch’o (­Tetrapanax papyriferus) stems, and the inside yellowish part of a cinnamon tree, mix, make small globules, and take. Also, on the last day of the eighth lunar month, stand facing the north and drink three eggs of silky fowls unbeknownst to others, then you can disappear without a trace. (The Bencao) A Method to Find Things Mix one toe (1.8 liters) of natural water, from a place where no sun or moon light reaches, with yellowtail eyes and tian san qi (三七對 Panax pseudoginseng),153 and apply to the face. Then one can see ghosts and find things. A Method for Opening a Chained Door and Releasing Binds At osi hour (11 a.m.–1 p.m.) on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, catch many toads, tie them up, and hang them up. Apply the blood of the first toad to get loose by itself on the hands and expose the scent [to the lock] after burning it. Then a locked door will open, and bound things will be released with just a touch. (萬法歸宗 Wan fa gui zong)154 A Method for Catching Birds Make a bird with wood from a tree that was hit by lightning, throw it to a place where birds gather and strike the shadows [of the birds]; then many birds will fall. A Method for Being Strong Put two pieces of dried ch’ŏnung root (Aconitum carmichaeli Debx) in a rooster’s intestines, pound, and eat it uncooked. One’s power will double. A Method to Drive off Sleepiness Facing the south and during the day, pound five p’un (1.88 grams) of mahwang (Ephedra equisetina Bge.) powder, mix with water, and take a little bit of it three times during the day. Then sleepiness will disappear. If



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intending to sleep, eat sweet rice porridge as well as curled mallow porridge. Then one will be back to normal. This came from the method of heating up the brazier and keeping the fire. (墨子要錄 Important records by Mozi)155 A Method to Pray for Rain On days that begin with either kap or ŭl, make a Blue Dragon (蒼龍)156 one chang (3.03 meters), eight ch’ŏk (242.2 cm) tall and set up in the center; surround the Blue Dragon with seven small dragons (小龍) four cha (121.2 cm) tall, placed eight cha (242.2 cm) apart, all facing to the east. Have eight children admonish themselves for three days, then, dressed in blue clothing have them dance three times daily. After that, burn a rooster and pig tail, bury them at the North Gate and pray in the center of the marketplace. (Sibiljong pisŏ)157 If the soot from under an iron pot (sot) is scraped off and put in a bowl, one can strike flint into the soot and the sparks will look like stars falling from the sky. If a person eats the flesh of a swallow and crosses rivers or broad streams, that person will be caught and eaten by a kyo dragon (蛟龍).158 A Method for Making the Body Fragrant Boil the ears and leaves of mohyang (Hierochloe odorata), add the scent of lingling incense (零陵香),159 and take a bath after drinking it. One will be fragrant and not have any bad smell even if they were to get really hot and sweat. A Method to Make the Hair Long, Black, and Shiny In a bottle holding two toe (3.6 liters) of oil, add one toe (1.8 liters) of mulberries, hang it under the eaves where no sunlight will touch it, and apply it to the hair after three months. The hair will be black as if it is lacquered. If one washes their hair with boiled green sesame leaves and green walnut shells, their hair will be long and black. When Hair Will Not Grow Put three cha (90.9 cm) of jujube tree roots laid out to an easterly direction on a steamer and steam. Apply the resin that comes out from the ends of the steaming roots to the head and hair will then grow. Also, dry the leaves of the Korean arbor vitae (側柏 Thuja orientalis), make powder out of it, mix

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with oil, and apply; then hair will grow. Put sheep’s dung in the stomach of a carp and put in a clay jar, put the jar in a fire, mix the insides with oil, and apply to the head. The hair will grow within a few days and be shiny and black. If bear oil is applied, hair will grow long and thickly. A Method to Make the Face Shiny When the face gets rough and chapped in winter, put three eggs in liquor, close tightly so as not to lose any air, leave it for twenty-eight days, and apply to the face. It will not only prevent the skin from being chapped, but also make the face shiny as jade. If one’s face or hands are chapped and bleeding, apply pig’s feet oil mixed with locust tree flowers. It will heal. A Method to Not Feel Cold Make powder out of equal amounts of ch’ŏnmundong root (Asparagus cochinchinensis) and paek pongnyŏng (Poria cocos [Schw.] Wolf), and mix two ton (7.5 grams) of it with liquor. Then one will not be cold even if wearing thin clothes on a very cold day. One can easily endure the cold with one spoon of honey, and the hands and feet will not feel cold if horse teeth (馬‌牙) are burned and applied on them. The feet will not feel cold if tobacco leaves are used to wrap them in three to four layers. According to the Okkam,160 if one drinks liquor mixed with burned chicken feather powder, he/she will accomplish all the thoughts and wishes he/she had in mind. If one speaks the two characters of 儀方 (ŭi pang) and climbs up a mountain, he/she will not face any tigers or see snakes in the forest. A Record for Enlightening the Darkness (發蒙記) Sweet jujube fruits prevent people from being deluded, and a day lily will eliminate worries. The Self-Sounding Pagoda Tree161 When the zelkova trees are about to bloom, carry a large wrapping cloth, pluck every single flower so as not to lose even one, put them in many storage containers (hap), and keep an eye on them overnight without even sleeping a moment. Then there will be a low, metallic sound from among the containers. Discard all the flowers from the containers that did not make any noise and redistribute the flowers from the container which made sound



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into the other containers; again, carefully listen overnight without sleeping, and again redistribute the flowers from the container that emitted sounds into the rest of containers after discarding the flowers in them. Repeat every night until there are but a few flowers. Put only one flower in each container in the end and swallow the very flower that made the noise at night. Then that person will have special powers, and thus there will be nothing that he/ she does not know of the heavens and the human world. As crows always know of this tree and thus pick and eat the flowers, it is said that crows see supernatural spirits and know of the future. Each year, every zelkova tree will have one of these special flowers (self-sounding pagoda tree blossoms) when the tree blooms. When the flowers have bloomed, they will be all eaten by the crows. So pluck them when they are just about to bloom. The special flower will fall to the ground so make sure not to miss even one flower when plucking and gathering them. (太乙通讀 Taiyi tongdu)162 According to Suyang ch’ongsŏ (Collected works of Suyang), catch a spider with a red abdomen on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, dry it in the shade under the roof for one hundred days, make powder out of it, and apply it on the feet. Then one can easily walk on water. The sixteenth day of the fourth lunar month is a day for old men to pull out their white hairs. On that day, pull out the white hairs and put honey on the hairs and apply, then the black hair will come out again. (懾生願覽 Sŏpsaeng wŏnnok)163 It would not be worth reading works [of genres] such as mullyu sanggam (物類相感) or miscellanies (雜著) if one was to believe everything written in them, as the contents are quite false and unbelievable. However, as there is some needed information in the book, I have selectively recorded them here. A Way to Cure the Diseases of the Six Domestic Animals If any domestic animal such as a cow, horse, pig, sheep, chicken, or dog has a broken shinbone, it will adhere right away if raw copper powder is fed. If dogs eat lots of sesame seeds and black sesame seeds, their fur will be soft and black, they will be so good at hunting as to catch tigers and leopards easily, and they will live as long as thirty years old. A Way to Heal Injured Birds In many cases, when birds have broken wings or legs, chew sesame seeds, pound, paste it on the wound, and tie it up. It will heal soon. (Kaekchwa sinmun)164 On the body of male rats, there are patterns that look like they have

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been stamped on. These are nine pieces of red chŏnja-style165 writing similar to talismans or reversed letters used to repel the smallpox deity (痘神).166 After midnight around the rat hour (子時) in the eleventh month or twelfth month, the fifth day of the fifth month, the seventh day of the seventh month or on the first day of the first month, facing to the north and toward the direction of the rat (子位), cut the letters off the skin and dry in the shade. Put the dried pieces that look like an engraved talisman in a blue sack, and wear it on the right side of the arm for men and the left for women. Then there will be none who will not greet you and things will be accomplished as you wish. (Amgungjong sinsŏ)167 A Method for Getting Rid of Snakes and Bugs If there is a goose about, there will be no snakes. If sheep horn is burned, snakes will go far away. If ch’ogyŏlmyŏng (Cassia obtusifolia L.) is planted at the four corners of the fence, snakes cannot come near. Write four characters of dragon (龍) with ink ground with water that flowed backwards and put them on the four walls, and write many characters of tea (茶) with red cinnabar at the osi hour (11 a.m.–1 p.m.) of the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and put them on the wall. Then snakes and centipedes will disappear. On ch’ŏngmyŏng day (淸明)168 mix the soil from the direction of the dog (狗位) with water boiled with dog tail, and stop up every hole in the house. Then there will be no snakes or rats. Snakes should not be killed on a snake (巳) day or in a snake year. If intending to stop swallows from building nests on the house, write the character 戊 of the sexagenary cycle and put it on the wall, or write the two characters for phoenix (鳳凰) with cinnabar ink. Then they will not build nests. Also, if two to three stems of ssuk (Artemisia princeps) growing near the ocean are put in a swallow’s nest, they will not return. However, if swallows build a nest on a crossbeam or on a place facing the gate of the house, do not get rid of it as these are considered auspicious. A Method for Getting Rid of Rats According to the method of Daoists (仙方), pour the blood of a black dog on a crab and burn it for three days. Then all the rats will gather to it. The rats hidden will not gnaw the books or clothes and even moths will disappear if they are summoned and a rite is performed on the night of the last day of the last month. If a phallus of a large rat is cut off and the rat is released, it will be better than a cat to bite and kill all the rats in the house.



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Rats will disappear if their holes are stopped up with lotus stems. Stick a bunch of thorny burdock in the rat holes and the rats will get injured and die instantly. So this thorny plant is called a rat stick. If there is a memorial rite in the last month of a year, there will not be any rats forever if the burnt ash of a rat tail is buried in the ground to the north. If the rat holes are stopped on the first dragon day (辰) of the first month, kyŏngin day (庚寅), imjin day (壬辰) of any month and puktan days,169 then rats will not make holes anymore. A Method for Getting Rid of Mosquitoes Write characters for wind (風) and between (間) and put them between the windows and on the wall, and there will then be no more mosquitoes. Also, they will disappear if duckweed dried in shade is burned with kanghwal (Notopterygium forbesii Boiss) root powder on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Also on the fifth day of the fifth month, catch a large frog, put a piece of good ink stone in its mouth, bind it with scarlet-colored thread, dig a hole five ch’i (15.15 cm) in the ground, and bury it; in two days dig up the frog, draw a bottle gourd on an outside wall with the same ink stone, and blow clean water on it. In three days all the mosquitoes will stick inside of the bottle gourd on the wall. If a dried eel is burned, all the mosquitoes will turn into water. A Method for Getting Rid of Fleas Dry iris, duckweed, and green onion, make one toe (1.8 liters) of powder out of each, scatter half a bowl of each below the bedding from time to time. Fleas will die the next day. If thinly sliced dried iris is placed under the straw mat, there will be no fleas. If shepherd’s purse flowers that are plucked on the third day of the third lunar month are put under the bedding, there will be no fleas. Also on the ch’ŏngmyŏng day (淸明) or the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, burn jujube on a hot iron, scatter under the bedding, and there will be no fleas. A Method for Getting Rid of Bedbugs Write the incantation “Changsamhyŏn170 bought quinces, did not pay for them, and has been gone for thirty years” (長三賢賣了 木瓜 不還錢 一去三十 年) on a piece of paper and adhere it to the wall, and the bedbugs will suddenly disappear. If centipedes and spiders are burned with pheasant feathers, they also disappear. If the smoke of burning duckweed, orpiment, and

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quince leaves are spread about, they will also disappear. Hang a five or six cha (151–182 cm) long large kudzu root sideways on the edge of the house. If it looks like a snake in shape, all fleas will disappear. A Method to Rid Clothing of Lice Put two to three ton (7.5–11.25 grams) of mercury with one ton (3.75 grams) of dried arrowroot powder on one’s palm and mix with saliva. Put this in cotton, twist and make string, wear on the waist, and lice will disappear. Also, burn one nyang (37.5 grams) each of paekpugŭn (Stemona japonica) and kanghwal (Notopterygium forbesii Boiss) and use the smoke to cover the clothes, and the lice will all fall out. If fresh ginkgo nut juice is mixed when starching clothes, lice will also disappear. Make a powder out of bindii (蒺藜 Tribulus terrestris L.) and paekpugŭn, apply it to the head, and all the head lice will fall out. If either mercury or kyŏngbun (Hydrargyrum chloratum) is mixed with saliva and applied to the head, then all the head lice will die. If kanghwal is mixed with oil and applied to the head, lice will die as well. A Method for Getting Rid of Flies At o hour (11 a.m.–1 p.m.) of the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, while looking at the sun, write the character for white (白) on some paper and put them at the four corner poles upside down. Flies will disappear. If dishes are washed with the melted water from snow that fell on napil day171 and used to hold food, there will also be no flies. On the eighth day of the last lunar month, hang pork fat above the privy. There will then be no flies anywhere in the house. If one swallows seven lumps of salt in a substance when the sun is about to rise on the first day of the first lunar month, there will be no flies in the food for that summer. A Method to Get Rid of Cockroaches If a piece of a horseshoe is placed where there is an infestation of cockroaches, they will disappear. If a white horseshoe is burned, they [the roaches] all become water. Pound ginkgo leaves to make a juice, mix raw bean powder in it, and apply to the cracks in the walls and kitchen. They will all disappear. A Method to Get Rid of All Types of Bugs in the Kitchen When a rooster cries on the second day of the third lunar month or two days before a ch’ŏngmyŏng day,172 wash the cooking caldrons and kitchen



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utensils with old water from scorched rice. This mysteriously gets rid of various bugs. A Method for Ridding the Well of Bugs Put a squid bone in the center of the well water so it sinks, and all types of bugs will die. If a centipede sees a large snake, it will surely follow it. The snake moves away until it gets weak and tired, turns around and faces the centipede with its mouth open. The centipede will go inside of the snake right away and peck away. The snake will coil and die a little later due to this. The centipede turns into many, pierces holes through the snake and those many will come out. Snails easily control centipedes. When a centipede sees a snail, it freezes and cannot move. The snail then slowly climbs over the centipede’s back, causing all the centipede’s legs to fall off. According to the Zhouli (周禮 Rites of Zhou),173 if old withered chrysanthemums are put in a pond where frogs croak, there will be no more frog sounds.174 Questions and Answers of Nuiheng (牛亨) Nuiheng asked, “Are plants and trees alive?” One answered, “Yes, they are.” Nuiheng asked, “Do they know anything?” One answered, “No, they do not.” Nuiheng then asked, “Then how can we say they are alive?” He then answered, saying, “There are things that are alive and know things, and things that are alive and do not know anything. Also, there are things that are not alive and know things, and that are alive that forgot what they knew. The ones that are alive and do not know anything are bugs, and the ones that are alive but forgot what they knew are plants and trees. The ones that are not alive and know things are ghosts, and the ones that are not alive and do not know anything are water and land.” Cranes They are worthy of being called hyŏn hak (玄鶴, a dark-colored old crane),175 as they change into green after one thousand years and again turn black after another one thousand years. Wild Geese Small geese are called an (雁), and large geese are called hong (鴻). They have four virtues: one is integrity (信) as they go no further than Namhyŏngyang176

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when leaving from the north when cold and return to Northern Goose Gate (北雁門) when leaving from the south when hot. Another is decorum (禮) as they follow orders when flying, and the goose in the front cries out and those following reply. Also they have fidelity (節) as they do not find new partners if they lose their partners. The other is wisdom (知) as one goose stands watch while the others sleep in a flock at night and in daytime they hold reeds in their beaks to avoid stringed arrows. Thus, geese are used for gifts to show thanks and respect. Monkeys If a monkey is five hundred years old, it turns into a spirit. In the mountain where the monkeys cry, there is a lot of bracken. It is said that ten thousand stems of bracken are grown in one cry. Monkeys respond to the Tail star (‌尾星).177 Magpies As the nature of magpies is numinous, they inform of good tidings and thus are called happy birds (喜鵲, i.e., magpies). As they do not like dirty or muddied places, they are also called dry birds (乾鵲, i.e., dry magpies). In Buddhist scriptures they are called ch’un and in novels they are heavenly fairies. Male birds cannot see the hidden tree that holds a magpie nest. If people see these, they will gain riches and honors. As the birds build the entrance of the nest either high or low opposed to Jupiter (太歲) and facing to the T’aeŭl star,178 these can be used to predict the highs or lows of the wind. Swallows Swallows are called heavenly women, crow clothes, or hawk birds. According to the Shijing (詩經 Book of poetry), it is written, “Swallows fly and fly/Having their feathers alongside the land”; people in Qi China called them swallow birds (鳦鳥). They are called hawk birds because if a hawk eats a swallow, it will die. Also as the swallows are able to petition for rain by raising the waves, they are called wave raisers. Mandarin Ducks These are a type of waterfowl. The female and male birds will not leave each other. They are called partner birds as one bird misses the other and will die if its mate is caught and taken away.



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Crows They are called filial crows (孝鴉) or black crows (玄鴉). Only two months after they hatch, they begin to feed their parents; Bai Juyi179 said they are the Zengzi (曾參) of birds.180 These birds were used to predict good or ill luck. People of the north liked crows but disliked magpies and people of the south vice versa. Crows with white heads are considered to be bad omens. Birds They are also called beautiful guests as they always make their nests in people’s house like a guest. According to the Shijing, “Who would say birds do not have nests? How come they are at my home?” Chickens They are also called pheasants of Shu (蜀雉).181 It is written in the Lizhi (Book of rites) that chickens are called golden pheasants (翰音) and their red colors are beautiful and dappled with a lovely sheen. A person from the Kingdom of Shu presented a chicken to King Cheng of Zhou China. They respond to the Myo star (昴星).182 Nightingales They are also called crying pigeons and to the east of the river p’ogokcho (‌布‌穀‌鳥, birds bringing abundance). According to Canggeng chuan (倉庚‌傳 The tale of Canggeng), Empress De (郄) of the Emperor Wu of Liang (‌梁武 ‌ 帝 r. 502–549) was very jealous. This was said to be lessened if she ate nightingale meat, so he had her eat this and her jealousy was reduced by one-half. Pigs They are called the ch’amgun (參軍 military participant) and also called simply si (豕 pig). It is written as ch’e (彘 pig) in the Lizhi, and fat ones are called ton (豚 pig). East of the river they are also called kyŏn (豣 pig). These are all aliases. The sow that brings forth many piglets is called a breeding pig. Dogs They are called yellow-ear dogs, and also called kaenghŏn (羹獻).183 If they have long muzzles, they are good at hunting, and if the muzzle is short,

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they are good watch dogs. If they are fatty, they are tasty, so when coyotes (豺) see them, they will drag them away; if a tiger eats dog, it will be drunk. They will die if hit by gac vines (Momordica cochinchinensis). They respond to the Ru star (婁星).184 Sheep They are called yŏmsu ch’amgun (髥鬚 參軍 military participants with sideburns) and also written as yumo (soft hair, nickname for a lamb) in the Lizhi. According to the Yijing (易經 Book of changes), a ram hits a fence with its head, and it cannot move forward or backwards (as its horns are stuck). This is because rams like to hit fences with their horns. They respond to the Changing star (兌星).185 Rabbits They have cleft lips. They have nine holes in their bodies which are the vital force of bright moon. There are no male rabbits, so they swallow moonlight and bring out babies through their mouths. The male rabbits are kakpaksak186 according to the Music Bureau (古樂府), which does not make any sense. Roe Deer They have molars but cannot cut. They are called kyunjang (麕麞 roe deer+ roe deer) and are also called changsŭp187 as they like to butt people when they see them. Musk deer are similar to roe deer but smaller. When musk fills their navels, the deer will suddenly suffer and remove the musk by itself. This is raw musk and considered the highest quality musk. Deer People in Ch’ŏngju call deer roe deer. The hair of deer will turn snow white after a thousand years, which are then called Daoist fairy deer.188 They respond to the Comet star (長星). Fireflies They are called names such as night-lighter, sky light, shiny light, will o’ the wisp, red bird, glow-in-the-dark, night candle, or red beauty. They come from rotted grass and eat mosquitoes.



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Crickets They are called the autumn singer. They appear in early fall and sing a lot when the weather is colder. People in Jinan China called them lazy women. They were also called vigorous crickets, which are the ch’okchik (‌促‌織 crickets) of today. Bats They are called Daoist rats or winged rats. When they are five hundred years old, their color becomes white, legs are like cannons, and they hang with their heads down as their brains are heavy. Thus, they were also called hanging upside down bat. It is said that one will become a Daoist saint if he eats these. It is said that a man from Tang China ate a bat and was suddenly weakened to death.189 Jumping Spiders They look like spiders, have a gray color, and can be made into sugung (守‌宮 palace protection).190 Butterflies They are called field butterflies, and also wind butterflies. White ones with blue backs are called the navy-blue flags by those east of the river. Ones the size of bats are called phoenix-chariots (鳳車) and ones with a dangling blue color are called great chariots. Tiger Moths (飛蝶) They are called fire flowers as they like to strike the lamps, and thus are also called yearning for light. Earthworms They are called milsŏn (蜜蟺 honey earthworms) and also koktan (曲蟺 curved worms). As they like to chant long on the ground, they are called singing women by those east of the river; also they are called crying stepping stones (鳴砌).

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Snails The shells look like a conch. They come out and hang on their shells when hot, so people in the field call them round houses (圓舍). The small houses of people are called snail houses, and a young boy’s hair knot is made into the look of a snail. Praying Mantises They can easily roll the soil to make it round like a bullet without any pointy angles. Zhuang Zhou (莊子)191 said that wisdom stays in the round that rolls, so it is also called nonghwan (弄丸).192 Cicadas Nuiheng asked why cicadas are called a woman of Qi (齊) China. He was told that an empress of Qi China died from anger, turned into cicada, and cried in a tree in the garden. Thus, the emperor was so regretful, he called it a woman of Qi.

Ants Nuijeng asked why ants are called black foals (玄駒). It was answered that long ago a person from Hanoi (河內) saw thousands of people and horses, which looked like millet and came and went from morning until late in the evening. His wife burned them all and the people became mosquitoes and the horses became ants. Thus, mosquitoes are called millet people (黍民) and ants are called black foals. Nuijeng asked why people give peonies when parting from others. A young boy answered that people give peonies when saying goodbye as they are also called kari (可離 right-leaving). They also call on each other and give a munmu (文無) which is also a name for Korean angelica root (當歸 must return).193 When trying to forget about worries, people send tan’gŭk (丹棘 red milkwort) as this is also named mangu cho (忘憂草 the grass of forgetting worries). When trying to vent one’s rage, people send ch’ŏngdang (靑堂) as this is also nicknamed haphwan hwa (合歡花 the flower of being happy together), to share happiness and forget the rage. (古今注 Gujinzhu)194 It is said in Chu (楚 704–202 BCE), pick a soma flower which is a sinmaya and give it to a passerby.195



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House Insects According to Changhwa pangmul chi (Treatise on broad matters by Changhwa), there are bugs in the doors of the house, which are extremely thin but very noisy, and not seen easily with the naked eye. They are called house insects (‌閨蟲). They are half the size of sesame seeds, look like shrimp, have two horns on their heads and make sounds from their heads. Maeng Kangjo (孟康兆)196 composed a poem and compared them with hobgoblins and fierce ghosts. Nuijeng said that he heard that Spirts of the Five Colors (靈五色) know of fortunes and misfortunes, and why is it so? He was told that the Turtle Spirt (靈龜) knows of life, death, fortune and misfortune by facing yin and yang. When it becomes a thousand years old, it will fly to the top of a lotus pond and fulfill the five colors. Two bones on its forehead will arise like horns. It knows people’s language and flies [anywhere] in seconds. One person from the South brought a turtle and used it as a support for a table leg. That person died after twenty-some years, so the table was moved and the turtle was alive and moving about. The mystery of the Way is like this.197 Nicknames of Terrapins The people east of the river [who are] Habaek chongsa (河伯從事 a watergod follower), called terrapins the blue-clothed fish. It is also called the female servant fish, young boy fish, soil father, and the water-god envoy. Peacocks Peacocks love their own tails, so they sit on the nests only after they have prepared a place to put their tails. If their tails get wet from the rain, they cannot easily fly as the tails become heavy and thus people can catch them. Catch them unaware as the luster disappears when the peacocks see their own tails. Pheasants They are also called golden chickens. They love their own feathers, reflect their image on the water and dance, and drown. They also dance when reflected in a mirror. Whales The large ones are as long as a thousand li (400 km), and small ones are as long as tens of kil (30 m). They bring forth their young, as many as tens of

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thousands, around the fifth or sixth lunar month near the beach and take them to the sea around the seventh of eighth lunar month.198 The sound of their waves is like thunder and spouting water is like rain. None of the sea creatures dare to approach. Their left eye is a lustrous moon gem (明月珠). The Goods of the Eight Provinces of the Eastern Country199 According to Chibong yusŏl (Topical discourses of Chibong), persimmons in Kŏch’ang, jujubes in Poŭn, chestnuts in Miryang, watermelons in Ch’ungju, pine nuts in Hoeyang, and pears in Anbyŏn are famous. It is written that the jujubes of An County and the northern chestnuts are the same [i.e., famous]. The famous goods of today’s eight provinces are as follows: Porcelain, refined chestnut yŏt of Kwangju Ungŏ (葦魚 Coilia nasus) of Haengju200 Water persimmons, small crabs (Helice tridens tridens) of Ansan Patterned floor mats (花紋席), wild chickens201of Kyodong Raw chestnuts of Yangju Crabs of P’aju Oysters, various pickled fish (交浸醢) of Namyang Yellow corvina of Yŏnp’yŏng The pine forests, Korean melons (ch’amoe) of Namyang Croaker without whiskers, fine-scaled yellow corvina of Kanghwa Tanggwi, ŏmp’a (scallions grown in an underground cellar)202 of Sangnyŏng Yakkwa of Suwŏn203 Roasted chicken of Chinwi Straw hats (草笠), juicy kebabs, chestnut yŏt, red bean sweets ( p’at tanja), vegetable dumplings ( p’yŏnsu)204 of Songdo Tallow (beef oil) candles of Kongju Early ripened persimmons of Sinch’ang Orpiment of P’yŏngt’aek Sŏkkpakchi, ramie fabric of Hansan205 Jujubes of Poŭn Ramie fabric, tobacco of Chinan Salt of Tangjin The [something] Uljin206 Skewered foods (famous pheasant kebabs) of Chŏngsŏn Honey from rock crevices in Anhyŏp Gromwell (chich’i) of Ch’ŏngp’ung Komch’wi (Ligularia fischeri) of Yŏngch’un



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Pine mushrooms of Ch’ŏlwŏn Steamed foxglove (Rehmannia glutinosa) of Hwangju207 Injŏlmi, sikhye, lotus root preserved in honey of Yŏnan208 Upside-down blooming Korean plum blossoms of Chŏngsŏn Scorched red bean water of Ŭmjuk Talcum, dog of Ch’ungju Tobacco of Ch’ŏnan Smokey Quartz (烏水晶 Morion) of Kosŏng Goldenrain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) fruits of Hongju Grass-patterned inkstone, obsidian of Namp’o Rice, barnyard millet, and early-ripening rice209 of Myŏnch’ŏn Ginseng of Kanggye Planks of Samch’ŏk Mulberries of Kangnŭng Thuaja flowers, pine nut flowers, red crossbills210 of Hoeyang Peaches, red sandalwood scent, and paulownia trees of Ullŭng-do Wooden vessels, leaf mustard (kat) kimch’i of Inje Cucumber kimch’i of Yongin Pollack of Kansŏng Patternless rush mats of Paech’ŏn Metal goods from Chaeryŏng Wild pears of Sin’gye Cranes of P’yŏngsan Silk, tobacco, and jade from Sŏngch’ŏn Embroidered insignias (hyungbae)211 and officials’ horsehair hats212 of Anju Apples and Korean melons of Kangsŏ White porridge of Pakch’ŏn Winter flathead gray mullet (Mugil cephalus) of the Taedong River Cherries, patterned rush mats of Ŭisŏng Small plates (hwagakki), sojŏp, and bamboo sap liquor (chungnyŏkko)213 of Chŏnju Dishes inlaid with mother-of-pearl, broad-brimmed horsehair hats (kat), irons, wooden clogs, brass dishes of T’ongyŏng Red marble from Mt. Ongmae in Chwasuyŏng Paper made in Namwŏn Fans made in Namp’yŏng Bamboo, young-leaf green tea (chaksŏl ch’a), belts, seedless pears of Nŭngju Hazelnuts, pipe stems of Kŭmhwa Apples of Kimje

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Hawthorn trees of Changnim White dishes embossed with 壽 (long life) and 福 (fortune), red gromwells of Ch’unch’ŏn Pomegranate flowers, ch’ŏn’gung (Ligusticum wallichii Franchet) of Kŭmsŏng Salted tiny shrimps, herring, superior quality ink sticks of Haeju Gold scented pears, honey pears, pear-ginger liquor of Pongsan Sweet red liquor (kanhongno) of P’yŏngyang214 Best quality gold from Chasan Colored ink stone from Kwaksan Agate, tobacco pipes from Pusan Jute from Yŏngch’ŏn Cotton of P’algŭm-do Water agate, five-colored crystals of Wŏlsŏng Brassware made in Tongnae Seedless persimmons (kojongsi) of Koryŏng Unskewered dried persimmons from P’unggi Bows made in Kŏje Red pepper paste made in Hamyang Sand-crab jerky of Yŏngyang Ripe persimmons of Yugok Deer antlers, wild raspberry wine (chibunja; Rubus coreanus), oats, wild grapes (san p’odo), Korean wild grapes (mŏru, Vitis coignetiae), Siberian gooseberries (미후도 Actinidia chinensis Planch.) of Kapsan Sable and rodent furs from Samsu215 Wig decorations, weasel tail hair, dragon field brushes (龍田篳)216 of Onsŏng High-grade paper (高精紙) of Hoeryŏng River cod of Myŏngch’ŏn Sesame seeds from Hŭich’ŏn Oil-treated raincoats, yŏt from Ŭiju P’ijŏk chestnuts of Hamjong217 Watermelons from Naju White paper (雪花紙) of P’yŏnggang Bamboo boxes and bamboo shoots from Tamyang Dog, ginger of Yangp’yŏng Sweetfish of Wangsant’an Octopus from Iwŏn Large yakkwa of Yŏnghung Hawks from Paengnyŏng-do



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Fine cotton cloth weaved with thin thread from Mun’gyŏng Coral branches, Japanese pearls, muhoe-mok (無灰木),218 mandarin oranges, tangerines, horses, benzoin (安息香), and the broadbrimmed hats from Cheju Straw bags, fine hemp cloth219 from Chongsŏng Belts made in Miryang The dried abalone dish (kambok) of Ulsan Tobacco from Yujŏm Brassware made in Tŏkp’yŏng Rouge ( yŏnji), mountain blueberries, omija (Schisandra chinensis) from Hamhŭng Small and large clams of Poryŏng The best grade high quality silver from Tanch’ŏn Pearls of Hunyung Koptol (Agalmatolite) caldrons, cockles from Sŏngjin Red crabs, sand crabs of Hongwŏn Large oysters, sea cucumbers from Munch’ŏn Salted or dried Salmon and trout eggs from Kowŏn Roasted [pig?] feet of Changagwŏn Green grapes from Yŏnghoe Scented honey, field tobacco from Samdŭng Hemp cloth, cut tobacco from Koksan Tobacco, jade from Sŏngch’ŏn Dog from Ch’ungju Tobacco from Ch’ŏnan Tobacco from Chinan Ginseng, wild honey, cut tobacco from Hongch’ŏn Kŭmgangch’o tobacco (金剛草) from Kwangju The sanhoch’un (珊瑚春), yaksanch’un (藥山春) of Yŏsan220 Sweet persimmons of Hwasun Ginseng from Tongbok White watermelons of Kwasan Fans made by Kim Hoeok, fans made by Pak Siyong of Okkwa Thick-stemmed bamboo of Posŏng Deer antlers from Musan Deer antlers from Yŏngp’ung Ttang chinni nŭnghyŏ of Choryŏng221 Tallow candles made in Kongju Sŏlyamok of Ch’ŏngju222 Songpy’ŏn made in Tongsŏlryŏng Red pepper bean paste, book paper made in Sunch’ang

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Paper made at Mannyŏn Temple, sanghwaji (shiny and strong paper) made in Hwasun The paper made at Chongsim Temple, watermelons of Kwangju Flooring paper made at Kwanŭm Temple, sedge (Cyperus) mats of Okkwa White powder on dried persimmon (sisŏl) of Imsil Satgat (bamboo hats) made with fine bamboo in Tamyang Iron caldrons made in Koesan Potatoes, sweet potatoes grown in Kangjin The piebald stones, camellia oil of Haenam The men’s headbands (網巾) made in Sŏksŏng The men’s skullcaps (宕巾) made in Chŏngju Brassware, chard of Ansŏng Tanwŏl radishes of Ch’ungju Horse liver stone (馬肝石) for making inkstone from Andong Ch’ŏngyŏm-sŏk of P’yŏngch’ang223 Walnuts from Chirye Ch’ŏngmyŏng-ju liquor made in Ch’ungju224 Yellow gold from Okch’ŏn Otter pelts from Tanyang Green (ch’ŏngokch’ae) and red (chaokch’ae) wild herbs from Muju Liquor from Sakchu Beef backside stew from Chŏnju Korean melon pickles of Chech’ŏn Carp from Sunch’ŏn Tobacco from Tongbok Hemp roots, watermelons from Kwangju Ch’on’gwan from Changhowŏn (長湖院) in Ch’ungju225 Ch’unp’o hemp cloth, mosquito tents of Changsŏng Cotton grown in Sindang-ri, sŏllang-tang (beef bone soup) in front of the Ŭigŭmbu (義禁府 Correctional tribune) of Ch’ungju Manmado and magok papers of Chŏnju Tobacco pipes made in Tongnae and Pusan Bamboo pipestems made in Samhyang in Naju Black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigro) pipestems from Yŏnggwang Short-tailed dogs of Wŏlsŏng Silk made in Yŏngdong and Hoeyang Silk made in Myŏngch’ŏn and Tŏkch’ŏn Ramie fabric made in Koksan, Kwangju and Chinan Apples from Kwangju



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Yŏnmijŏn Korean melons of Kongju Men’s headband strings from Taegu Ink stone rock, brushes, weasel tail hair from Chungch’ŏn and Chongsŏng Pine smoke ink sticks made in Kwangju, Kongju and Hwanggan The cow sized horses of Naep’o The liquor made from mineral well water of Ch’ŏngju

Methods from My Own Experiences Toothaches It will be immediately effective if wild walnut and aleurone powder are applied, and tobacco mixed with tangerine peels is taken by smoking it. Put sahamch’o (Potentilla kleiniana)226 in a pipe and smoke for this symptom as well. For Fishbones Stuck in the Throat (There Is Another Method for This Below) The bone will go down instantly if one eats injŏlmi. Tie a good deal of lamb wool with a thread, swallow it to where the bone is and wait for a while. The wool will wind around the bone of its own accord. Pull out the thread and the bone will come out with the thread. As lambswool tends to wind about things naturally, if spread out in water and tied with a thread, they wind up again. They wind up around the fish bone in the same way. Indigestion from Eating Seaweed Boil paulownia tree leaves in water and drink. Drinking honey will work for this as well. Indigestion from Red Bean Porridge Boil down a goodly amount of ginkgo and take it. Indigestion from Eating Yakpap227 Boil down bracken and take it.

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Amberjack (Seriola Quinqueradiata) Poisoning Boil beefsteak plant leaves and take. General Indigestion Boil down five ton (18.75 grams) of ginger and three ton (11.25 grams) of dried tangerine peels and drink it. Add seedless sansa (Crataegus pinnatifida) fruit for indigestion from eating meat, add sin’gok228 and malt after eating grain, add ch’ogwa (Lanxangia tsaoko) after eating fruits, and add peppergrass seeds (chŏngyŏkcha; Lepidium micranthum) when experiencing indigestion after drinking water. Sudden Stomachaches Boil down five ton (18.75 grams) of ginger and three ton (11.25 grams) of foxglove (nine times steamed and nine times dried), and drink. For Even the Most Severe Colds Boil good liquor until a blue-flamed fire appears and drink it sufficiently within three days. It is even better if ginger is added. Even the one who cannot drink liquor will not get drunk from this. This will cause one to sweat to resolve the cold and comfort the inside of the body instantly. Malaria and Dysentery Boil three ton (11.25 grams) of sin’gok and take it on an empty stomach and do not eat anything all day. There is no case that will not be cured. Malaria Add three ton (11.25 grams) of siho (Bupleurum euphorbioides Nakai) to ­Yangwi-t’ang;229 take two packs on days with no symptoms, and take one pack on days when malarial symptoms occur on an empty stomach. It is then wonderfully efficacious. Steam five or six Korean apricots when cooking rice, make forty-nine pellet medicines, boil Korean apricot tea before sunrise, and take seven pills with the tea seven times on a day when malarial symptoms occur. This is also very efficacious.



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For Fish-Bones Stuck in the Throat It is said that the most effective way is to eat yŏt. Indigestion after Eating Tofu It is said that radish juice is good for indigestion from eating tofu and tobacco water works instantly as well. The final washing water for grain is also good. When Children Have Pokhak230 Pierce a hole in an egg, pound and squeeze kudzu root, put a spoonful of it into the egg, close it tight, steam it when cooking rice, and peel and feed it on the day the symptoms occur. It is wonderfully efficacious. If it does not work on the first day, do once more. Indigestion from Eating Meat Boil down an octopus and drink the decocted liquid. It is the most effective. Pear and hawthorn fruit [are good as well]. When the Eyes Are Ulcerated and Teary It is cured instantly if rubbed with alum. When Unable to Move from Tam231 Bake alum, make powder out of it, mix with an egg white, and take this while lying down. One will recover. This is conveyed by a woman from Chŏksŏng; I copied this from Sŏmja-jŏn232 which has much to read. For Moldy Summer Clothing The mold will disappear with ginkgo and garlic juice. Mold Stains These will disappear if washed in the water where balloon flower root (toraji) has been soaked.

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For Mold from Wetness This disappears with radish juice. Clothing with Yellow Stains These disappear if washed after rubbing with ginger juice. For Fine Clothing Stained with Honey Spread the clothes in a grass thicket and bees will suck up only the honey and the clothes will be clean. Oil-Stained Clothing Wash with boiled urine. When the Tofu Beans Go Bad and Will Not Congeal Put kudzu root in the bottom of a caldron [filled with water], when it is boiling, pour the tofu beans on top of it and boil again. The bad taste will disappear, and they will congeal well. Clothing Stained with Liquor or Vinegar Sauce These can be cleaned if rubbed with lotus root. Clothing (or Things in General) Stained with Fly Specks Wash it with water boiled with rushes. When boiling rotten meat, mix one ch’i (3 cm) long rice straws here and there, and boil together. The bad taste will be soaked up by the grass. When roasting meat, lightly spread the powder from either sesame or eggplant flowers on top of the meat; this prevents the oil from dripping from the meat. It is good to roast skewers using this method. When Children Have Convulsions Burn buckwheat straw, put the burning straw into water to make lye, filter it with a sieve, hold the child to your front as if holding a new born baby,



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and wash the back of the child down to their heels with the lye. It is said to be instantly efficacious. Although it is said as such, considering the ways of things (大經大法), one should use this method only after taking care of indigestion symptoms. When hot, the flies in the privy can easily become severe. It is said that there will be no flies if it is cleaned all the time from the first to third dog days (伏). I tried this, and it really worked wonders. It is an experience of the kihae year.233 Taehan kwangmu samnyŏn kihae siwŏl (大韓光武三年 己亥 十月1899, tenth lunar month).234 A Method for Making Chŏnyak235 Two chŏn (7.5 grams) four p’un (1.5 grams) of cinnamon Four chŏn (15 grams) of dried ginger Two chŏn (7.5 grams) of smoked dry plum powder One chŏn (3.75 grams) and five p’un (1.88 grams) of dried clove buds One chŏn (3.75 grams) of black pepper Two sung (3.6 liters) and five hop (0.9 liter) of beef gelatin Two sung (3.6 liters) of honey One third [of the amount] of thick jujube juice, Cows feet should be used when boiling down to prevent it from having a bad fat smell. If the cow skin is used to boil down, it smells bad. Thus, the chŏnyak at the palace is usually smelly. Chŏnyak Palace Clinic (內局) One tu (18 liters) of fine quality honey One tu (18 liters) and three sung (5.4 liters) of beef gelatin Six chŏn (22.5 grams) of at least five- to six-year-old cinnamon tree bark powder One [not clear] and four chŏn (15 grams) of dried ginger powder Five chŏn (18.75 grams) of black pepper powder Three chŏn (11.25 grams) of dried clove buds Eight hop (1.44 liters) of jujube fruit flesh

End of Volume 4, Pregnancy and First Aid of The Encyclopedia of Women’s Daily Lives The following was added below the end of the first volume. Even after a boil on the tip of a finger comes to a head, if it does not heal

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as the pus does not come out, wash it with mulberry lye and a paste made with white rice and melted yŏt. A Method to Catch Tongbŏp236 When there is a calamity caused by the earth gods (地神), put water in a bottle, drive a piece of peach tree branch that stretched to the east into it, put it near the center caldron of the kitchen hearth. A woman should enter the kitchen with a pestle, stand and pound it in front of the Kitchen God (chowang), stomping her right foot three times and left foot three times saying tongbŏpiya three times. It will work instantly. On the sixth day of the third lunar month of a kabo year,237 a supervisor of a tenant farm in Poryŏng said that one Mr. Lee from Udujŏng Village taught him this method and said it to be effective. When a Tooth Hurts238 Dry mock strawberry leaves and vines, and smoke with a new bamboo pipe-stem. The pain will be better with one pipe and clearly disappear with two pipes. Another method is also said to be effective. On a thin pine tree branch, wind flat spider web, immerse it in oil, boil, and bite it three times. I wrote this after hearing it during a gathering of thirty women from P’yŏnggang on the tenth day of the seventh lunar month in the ŭlsa year.239 Since I was a bit older than ten, I have also suffered from toothaches but none of the various medicines were effective. After breaking off the weak tooth, I prepared many bamboo sticks, boiled them in oil, and then seared my weak tooth with the hot sticks one by one. I did not feel so much pain even if the gums were burnt and have not suffered that severely for the past fifty years since. It seems like there is no better medicine than this. Burn chicken bones regardless of the amount, grind them extra fine to make as much as one small bowl. Add two small bowls of vinegar and boil down together until it turns like a plaster; then make round balls of this about the size of mung beans and take twenty of them at once on an empty stomach in the spring.240

Appendix 1 Units of Weight and Measure with Metric Equivalent

Units of Length P’un (1/10 ch’i) Ch’i (1/10 cha) Cha Kan (6 cha)

0.3 cm 3 cm 30 cm 1.8 meters

Units of Volume Hop (1/10 toe) Toe Mal (10 toe) Sŏm (10 mal)

0.18 liter 1.8 liters 18 liters 180 liters

Units of Weight P’un (1/10 ton) Ton (1/10 nyang) Nyang (10 ton) Kŭn (16 nyang) Kwan (100 nyang/6.25 kun)

0.375 grams 3.75 grams 37.5 grams 600 grams 3,750 grams

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Appendix 2 The Sexagenary Cycle

The sexagenary cycle is based on a combination of two sets of Chinese characters, the Ten Heavenly Stems (天干 ch’ŏn’gan) and the Twelve Earthly Branches (地支 chiji). The first set of characters were used for the ten days of the week, and the second set were for the twelve months/moons of the year. When used in combination these result in a cycle of sixty years (that is, six repeats of the stems and five repeats of the branches). The cycle repeats in the same order. Initially this cycle was used for recording days from the time of the Shang dynasty (商 ca., the second millennium BCE) and used for years by the middle of the third century BCE.1 The components of the sexagenary cycle also have other associations that can be linked to East Asian cosmology, such as the Five Phases. The Heavenly Stems have the following color associations (listed along with the Phase they are associated with): Kap, ŭl Mu, ki Im, kye Pyŏng, chŏng Kyŏng, sin

blue-green (靑); wood (木) yellow (黃); earth (土) black (黑); water (水) red (赤); fire (火) white (白); metal (金)

Likewise, the Earthly Branches are paired with the animals of the Asian zodiac: Cha Ch’uk In Myo Chin Sa O Mi Sin

rat (子) ox (牛) tiger (虎) rabbit (兎) dragon (龍) snake (巳) horse (馬) sheep (羊) monkey (申) 207

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Appendix 2

Yu chicken (癸) Sul dog (戌) Hae pig (亥) Thus the combination signifies a particular year within the sixty-year cycle, such as 1933 (kyeyu 癸酉, year of the Black Chicken), 1959 (kihae 己亥, year of the Yellow Pig), 1969 (kiyu 己酉, year of the Yellow Chicken), and 2007 (chŏnghae 丁亥, year of the Red Pig).2 As such, when Lady Yi refers to a particular year in The Encyclopedia, we can determine which year it might be based upon the cycle during her lifetime. Following is the complete sexagenary cycle. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.

Kapcha 甲子 Blue Rat Ŭlch’uk 乙丑 Blue Ox Pyŏngin 丙寅 Red Tiger Chŏngmyo 丁卯 Red Hare Mujin 戊辰 Yellow Dragon Kisa 己巳 Yellow Snake Kyŏngo 庚午 White Horse Sinmi 辛未 White Sheep Imsin 壬申 Black Monkey Kyeyu 癸酉 Black Chicken Kapsul 甲戌 Blue Dog Ŭrhae 乙亥 Blue Pig Pyŏngja 丙子 Red Rat Chŏngch’uk 丁丑 Red Ox Muin 戊寅 Yellow Tiger Kimyo 己卯 Yellow Hare Kyŏngjin 庚辰 White Dragon Sinsa 辛巳 White Snake Imo 壬午 Black Horse Kyemi 癸未 Black Sheep Kapsin 甲申 Blue Monkey Ŭryu 乙酉 Blue Chicken Pyŏngsul 丙戌 Red Dog Chŏnghae 丁亥 Red Pig Muja 戊子 Yellow Rat Kich’uk 己丑 Yellow Ox Kyŏngin 庚寅 White Tiger Sinmyo 辛卯 White Hare Imjin 壬辰 Black Dragon



Appendix 2

30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60.

209

Kyesa 癸巳 Black Snake Kabo 甲午 Blue Horse Ŭlmi 乙未 Blue Sheep Pyŏngsin 丙申 Red Monkey Chŏngyu 丁酉 Red Chicken Musul 戊戌 Yellow Dog Kihae 己亥 Yellow Pig Kyŏngja 庚子 White Rat Sinch’uk 辛丑 White Ox Imin 壬寅 Black Tiger Kyemyo 癸卯 Black Hare Kapchin 甲辰 Blue Dragon Ŭlsa 乙巳 Blue Snake Pyŏngo 丙午 Red Horse Chŏngmi 丁未 Red Sheep Musin 戊申 Yellow Monkey Kiyu 己酉 Yellow Chicken Kyŏngsul 庚戌 White Dog Sinhae 辛亥 White Pig Imja 壬子 Black Rat Kyech’uk 癸丑 Black Ox Kabin 甲寅 Blue Tiger Ŭlmyo 乙卯 Blue Hare Pyŏngjin 丙辰 Red Dragon Chŏngsa 丁巳 Red Snake Muo 戊午 Yellow Horse Kimi 己未 Yellow Sheep Kyŏngsin 庚申 White Monkey Sinyu 辛酉 White Chicken Imsul 壬戌 Black Dog Kyehae 癸亥 Black Pig

The Twelve Earthly Branches were also used to indicate the hours of the day as follows:

23:00–00:59 01:00–02:59 03:00–04:59 05:00- 06:59 07:00–08:59 09:00–10:59

Hour of the Rat 子時 Hour of the Ox 丑時 Hour of the Tiger 寅時 Hour of the Rabbit 卯時 Hour of the Dragon 辰時 Hour of the Snake 巳時

Third watch Fourth watch Fifth watch

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Appendix 2

11:00–12:59 13:00–14:59 15:00–16:59 17:00–18:59 19:00–20:59 21:00–22:59

Hour of the Horse 午時 Hour of the Sheep 未時 Hour of the Monkey 申時 Hour of the Chicken 酉時 Hour of the Dog 戌時 Hour of the Pig 亥時

First watch Second watch

The five watches refer to the time after sunset and before sunrise, thus the hours of the night.

Appendix 3 Twenty-Four Divisions of the Year

The twenty-four divisions of the year (二十四 節氣 isipsa chŏlgi), generally known as chŏlgi, have been used since before the third century BCE in China to mark the passing of the months. The twelve months have both midpoints (中氣 chunggi) and junctures (節氣 chŏlgi), and these are the twenty-four divisions.1 The Gregorian dates can vary year to year by one day to either side of the dates listed on the table. Table A-1  Divisions of the Year Name

Ipch’un 立春 Usu 雨水 Kyŏngch’ip 驚蟄 Ch’unbun 春分 Chŏngmyŏng 淸明 Kogu 穀雨 Ipha 立夏 Soman 小滿 Manjong 芒種 Haji 夏至 Sosŏ 小暑 Taesŏ 大暑 Ipch’u 立秋 Ch’ŏsŏ 處暑 Paengno 白露 Ch’ubun 秋分 Hallo 寒露 Sanggang 霜降 Iptong 立冬 Sosŏl 小雪 Taesŏl 大雪 Tongji 冬至 Sohan 小寒 Taehan 大寒

Gregorian date (+/– 1)

February 2 February 19 March 5 March 21 April 5 April 20 May 6 May 21 June 6 June 21 July 7 July 23 August 8 August 23 September 8 September 23 October 8 October 23 November 7 November 22 December 7 December 22 January 6 January 20

Meaning

Onset of spring Rainy and wet Hibernating insects awaken Spring equinox Bright and clear Grain rain Onset of summer Small ripening Grains swell Summer solstice Small heat Great heat Onset of autumn End of heat White dew Autumn equinox Cold dew Frost fall Onset of winter Small snow Great snow Winter solstice Small cold Great cold

Ecliptic longitude

315° 330° 345°   0°  15°  30°  45°  60°  75°  90° 105° 120° 135° 150° 165° 180° 195° 210° 225° 240° 255° 270° 285° 300°

211

Glossary

Actinolite (陽起石) Agyoju/agyo (阿膠珠 Asini Gelatinum) Alum (白礬) Amaurosis (淸盲) Amomum xanthoides (縮砂) Amur catfish (메기 Parasilurus asotus) Anemarrhena (知母 Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge) Anhoeŭm (安蛔陰) Aralia (두릅 Aralia elata) Areca (檳榔 Areca catechu) Arrowroot (칡/갈근 Pueraria lobata) Artemisia (쑥 Artemisia princeps) Asian honeysuckle (使君子 Quisqualis indica Linne) Bad ki (邪氣) Bai Jiyu (白居易 772–846) Baojian (寶鑑 Precious mirror) Baopuzi (抱朴子 [Book of the] Master who embraces simplicity) Bed bugs (빈대 Cimex lectularius) Bee-bee tree (쉬나무 Tetradium daniellii) Bellflower root (도라지 Platycodon grandiflorus) Bencao gangmu (本草綱目 Compendium of materia medica) Benzoin (安息香) Bian Que (扁鵲 d. 310 BCE) Bindii (蒺藜 Tribulus terrestris L.) Black bamboo (烏竹 Phyllostachys nigro) Black-naped oriole (꾀꼬리 Oriolus chinensis) Blister beetles (반묘 Meloidae) Bo Yi (伯夷) Boils (疔愈)

Borneo camphor tree (龍腦 Borneolum syntheticum) Bowuzhi (博物志 Records of diverse matters) Bracken (고사리 Pteridium) Camphor tree (龍腦香 Dryobalarops aromatic) Canggeng chuan (倉庚傳 The tale of Canggeng) Cape jasmine (치자 나무 Gardenia jasminoides) Ch’ae Chegong (蔡濟恭 1720–1779) Chaesal (災煞) Chagŭmjŏng (紫金錠) Ch’ajogi (차조기 Perilla frutescens) Chang Cho (張潮) Changhwa pangmul chi (張華 博物 誌 Treatise on broad matters by Changhwa) Ch’angi (蒼耳 Xanthium strumarium) Changsu-gyŏng (長壽經 Sutra for longevity) Chasan ŏbo (玆山魚譜 Register of Hŭksan fish) Chen Jiru (陳繼儒 1558–1639) Chep’ung (臍風) Chep’ung ch’anggu chung (臍風瘡口症) Chesa (祭祀) Chesŏk kut (帝釋 굿 Rite to the Chesŏk deities) Chi Songzi (赤松子) Chibong yusŏl (芝峰類說 Topical discourses by Chibong) Chich’i (지치 Lithospermum) Chie (지에)

213

214

Glossary

Chihwang (지황 Rehmannia glutinosa) Chijŏl t’ong (肢節痛) Chillyŏ (蒺藜) Ch’ilmŏrit-dang (칠머릿당 Song of Ch’ilmŏrit shrine) Chinese catnip (형개 Schizonepeta tenuifolia) Ch’ogwa (초과 Lanxangia tsaoko) Ch’ogyŏlmyŏng (草決明 Cassia obtusifolia L.) Chŏng Yagyong (丁若鏞 1762–1836) Chŏng Yakchŏn (丁若銓 1758–1816) Ch’ŏn’gŭm pot’ae hwan (千金補胎丸) Ch’ŏn’gŭn (茜根 Rubia akane Nakai) Ch’ŏn’gung (川芎 Ligusticum wallichii Franchet) Ch’ŏnmundong (天門冬 Asparagus cochinchinensis) Ch’ŏnung (天雄 Aconitum carmichaeli Debx) Chŏnyak (煎藥) Chu Saeng-jŏn (周生傳 The tale of Master Chu) Chuang Tzu (莊子 365–290 BCE) Ch’uksa (축사 Amomi fructus) Chŭngbo sallim kyŏngje (增補山林經濟 Expanded farm management) Cinnabar (鏡面朱沙) Circulating libraries (貰冊) Clove (丁香 Eugenia caryophyllata) Conjurer (術士) Convulsions (風病) Cork tree (黃柏 Phellodendron wilsonii Hayata et Kanehira) Correctional tribune (義禁府) Croaker (민어 Nibea imbricata) Croton (巴豆 Croton tiglium) Crucian carp (붕어 Carassius carassius) Cui Bao (崔豹) Curly dock (소루쟁이 Rumex crispus) Dachan-pian (達生篇 Understanding the purpose of life) Daojia shu (道家書 Daoist treatises)

Day lily (원추리 Hemerocallis) Dhole (이리 Cuon alpinus) Director of the Royal House Administration (判敦寧府事) Duan Chengshi (段成式 d. 863) Duckweed (浮萍草 Spirodela polyrhiza) Dysentery (痢疾) Earth gods (地神) East Sea (東海) Elecampane (三奈 木香 Inula helenium) Epilepsy (癎疾) Erysipelas (胎丹) Eucommia bark (杜沖 Eucommia ulmoides Oliv.) Evidential research (實學) Firefly (螢火 Lampyridae) Five Phases (五行) Five-taste berry (五味子 Schisandra chinensis) Five Tastes (五味) Five vital organs and six viscera (五臟 六腑) Flat spider (납거미 Uroctea lesserti) Flathead gray mullet (숭어 Mugil cephalus) Floating watermoss leaf (塊葉 Salvinia natans) Four Friends (四友) Four Pillars (四柱) Foxglove (地黃 Rehmannia glutinosa) Gac (木鼈 Momordica cochinchinensis) Ge Hong (葛洪 283–343) Gentian (草龍膽 Gentiana jamesii Hemsl.) Glauberite (寒水石) Golden Mandarin fish (궐어 Siniperca scherzeri) Goldenrain tree (모감주 Koelreuteria paniculata) Gong Tingxian (龚廷贤 fl. 1577–1593) Gongji zhu (觥記注 Notes of grand records) Gonorrhea (淋疾)

Gu Yanwu (顧炎武 1613–1682) Gujinzhu (古今注 Notes to things old and new) Hach’o (下焦) Haedong nongsŏ (海東農書 Farming in the Eastern Country [i.e., Korea]) Han (恨) Hangari (항아리) Han’gŭl (한글) Hanjungnok (閑中錄 Record of sorrowful days) Hanmun (漢文) Harvest Moon Festival (秋夕) Hasuo (何首烏 Fallopia multiflora) Hemp root (山藥/마 Dioscorea polystachya) Hŏ Chun (許浚 1539–1615) Hohwangnyŏn (胡黃蓮 Picrorhiza scrophulariiflora) Honeylocust (쥐엄 나무 Gleditschia japonica sinensis var. koraiensis) Honeylocust tree fruit (早莢) Hong Mansŏn (洪萬選 1643–1715) Hong Taeyong (洪大容 1731–1783) Hua Tuo (華陀 ca. 140–208) Huan Xuan (桓玄 369–404) Hwanggŭm (黃芩 Scutellariae Radix) Hwan’gi (환기 Astragali Radix) Hyangbumi (香附米 Cyperi Rhizoma) Hyŏlmin (血悶) Hyŏnsam (현삼 Scrophularia buergeriana) Ijungt’ang (理中湯) Im Yunjidang (任允摯堂 1721–1793) Imha p’ilgi (林下筆記 Random jottings by Imha) Imwŏn simnyuk chi (林圓十六志 Sixteen treatises written in retirement) Ingmoch’o (益母草 Leonuri Herba) Insam (人蔘 Ginseng Radix) Jaundice (黃疸) Jingyi-lu (淸異錄 Record of the clear and strange) Jupiter (太歲)

Glossary

215

Kaiyuan daozang (開元道藏) Kamgukhwa (甘菊花 Chrysanthemum indicum) Kamjŏ po (甘藷譜 Observations on the sweet potato) Kamsong (甘松 Nardostachys chinensis) Kang Chŏngildang (姜靜一堂 1722–1832) Kang P’illi (姜必履 1713–?) Kanghwal (羌活 Notopterygium forbesii Boiss) Karam mun’go pon (가람文庫本) Kayagŭm (伽倻琴) Ki kong (氣孔) Kidney stones (石淋) Kimjang (김장) King Yŏngjo (英祖 r. 1724–1776) Kisaeng (妓生) Knotweed (하수오 Fallopia multiflora) Kolswaebo (骨碎補 Drynaria fortunei [Kunze] J. Sm.) Komch’wi (곰취 Ligularia fischeri) Kŏmun’go (거문고) Konbŏm (壼範 Rules for women) Kŏn’gang (乾薑 Zingiberis Rhizoma Siccus) K’ongjwi P’atchwi-jŏn (콩쥐팥쥐전 The tale of K’ongjwi and P’atchwi) Konjaengi (곤쟁이 Mysidacea) Kŏpsal (劫煞) Koptol (곱돌 Agalmatolite) Korean angelica root (當歸 tanggwi) Korean crow-tit (巧婦鳥 Paradoxorins webbianus) Korean herring (준치 Ilisha elongate) Korean indigo plant (藍汁 Persicaria tinctoria) Korean melons (참외 Cucumis melo L. var. makuw) Korean nut pine (잣나무 Pinus koraiensis) Korean peppercorn (川椒 Zanthoxylum piperitum)

216

Glossary

Kuhwang ch’waryo (救荒撮要 Concise reference for famine relief) Kŭmgwoe tanggwi-san ch’ŏnggiwŏn (金櫃 當歸散 淸氣元) Kumquat (감자 Citrus japonica) Kunggwi pojung-t’ang (芎歸補中湯) Kwanghae-gun (光海君 r. 1608–1623) Kwijŏnu (鬼箭羽 Euonymi Caulis Suberatum) Kyech’uk ilgi (癸丑日記 Record of the kyech’uk year [1613]) Kyŏngbun (輕粉 Hydrargyrum chloratum) Kyubang novels (閨房小說) Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ (閨閤叢書 Encyclopedia of women’s daily lives) Kyuja (규자 Malva verticillata L.) Kyul (귤 Citrus unshiu) Lady Chang of Andong (安東張氏 1598–1680) Lady Cho of Namp’yŏng (南平曺氏 1574–1645) Lady Hong of Hyegyŏng Palace (惠慶 宮洪氏) Li Bai (李白 701–762) Li Shiji (李世績 594–669) Licorice (甘草 Glycyrrhiza uralensis) Lienu Zhuan (烈女 傳 Biographies of virtuous women) Lily turf (麥門冬 Liriope muscari) Lineage novels (家門小說) Litharge (密陀僧) Liu Yuxi (劉禹錫 772–842) Lize congshu (笠澤叢書 Collectaneum by Lize) Lizhi (禮記 Book of rites) Longan (龍眼 Dimocarpus longan) Lu Guimeng (陸龜蒙 d. ca. 881) Lu Xiujing (陸修靜 406–477) Lu Yijian (呂夷簡) Lushi Chunqiu (呂氏春秋 Mr. Lu’s spring and autumn annals) Ma Yuan (馬援 14 CE–49 BCE)

Maehwa (梅花 Prunus mume) Mahwang (麻黃 Ephedra equisetina Bge.) Makkŏlli (막걸리) Malaria (瘧疾) Malt (누룩 nuruk) Manbo chŏnsŏ (萬寶全書 Collection of ten thousand treasures) Manchurian pipevine (通草 Aristolochia manshuriensis) Mangch’o (芒硝 Natrii sulfas) Maoshi (毛詩 Mao’s book of odes) Maple mushroom (당풍버섯 Fomers fomentarius) Mastodon fossil (龍骨) Meigong mijiwen (眉公祕笈文 Strange treasure by Meigong) Meju (메주) Military strategy (兵法) Millet (피 Echinochloa frumentacea) Mint (薄荷 Mentha arvensis) Mohyang (茅香 Hierochloe odorata) Mokhyang (木香 Aucklandiae Radix) Moktanp’i (牧丹皮 Moutan Cortex) Morning glory (黑丑 Pharbitis nil Chois.) Mŏru (머루 Vitis coignetiae) Mother brew (술밑) Mt. Puyong (芙蓉峯) Mozi (墨子 470–391 BCE) Mozi yaolu (墨子要錄 Important records by Mozi) Muga (巫歌) Mulberry mistletoe (뽕나무겨우살이 Loranthus parasiticus) Mulmyŏng ko (物名考 Treatise on the names of things) Munhyangni (聞香梨 Pyrus ussuriensis var. seoulensis) Music Bureau (古樂府) Muu (무우 Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. sativus) Myoga ginger plant (白蘘荷 Zingiber mioga) Myojŏng (描睛)

Mysidacea (곤쟁이) Naehun (內訓 Instructions for the inner quarters) Nam Kuman (南九萬1629–1711) Namsŏng (南星 Arisaema amurense) Nepta herb (荊芥 Schizonepeta tenuifolia var. japonica) Noctule bat (五靈脂/산박쥐 Nyctalus maximus aviator) Northern snakehead (갈물치 Channa argus) Nut grass (香附子 Cyperus rotundus) Nutmeg (肉頭蔲) Odu (烏頭 Aconitum racemulosum var. a ustrokoreense) Oju yŏnmun changjŏn san’go (五洲衍文 長箋散稿 Random expatiations of Oju) Ŏnmun chi (諺文志 Treatise on the vulgar script) Orpiment (雄黃) Osuyu (吳茱萸 Tetradium ruticarpum) Oyster crab (寄居蟲 Pagurus spp.) Pacific cod (대구 Gadus macrocephalus) Paekch’ul (白朮 Atractylodis Rhizoma Alba) Paekpugŭn (白蔀根 Stemona japonica) Pagoda tree (自鳴槐 Styphnolobium japonicum) Pak Chega (朴齊家 1750–1805?) Pak Chiwŏn (朴趾源 1737–1805) Pak Sedang (朴世堂 1629–1703) Pak-ssi-jŏn (朴氏傳 The tale of Lady Pak) Palsy (風痰) Pangge (蟛蜞 Helice tridens tridens) Panha (半夏 Pinellia ternate) Paper mulberry tree (닥 나무 Broussonetia kazinoki) Pari kongju (바리公主 The abandoned princess) Pearl granules (眞珠 Margarita) Peppergrass (정역 Lepidium micranthum)

Glossary

217

Pheasant (꿩 Phasianus colchicus) Pigweed (쇠비름 Portulaca oleracea) Pija (榧子 Torreya nucifera S. et Z.) P’ilbal (蓽茇 Piper longum linne) Pimaja (蓖麻子 Ricini semen) Pine mushrooms (송이 Tricholoma matsutake) Pirŭm (비름 Amaranthus) Poisonous energy (毒氣) Pokeweed (商陸 Phytolacca insularia Nakai) Pokhak (腹瘧) Pokpunja (복분자 Rubus coreanus) Pongnyŏng (茯苓 Poria cocos [Schw.] Wolf/Wolfiporia extensa) Pot namu (봇나무 Prunus serrulata var. spontanea) Pterygim (努肉攀睛) Puffer fish (복어 Tetraodontidae) Punyŏ p’ilchi (婦女必知 Indispensable knowledge for womenfolk) P’yogo mushrooms (표고 Lentinus edodes) Pyŏkchŏk (癖積) Pyŏngja ilgi (丙子日記 Diary of the pyŏngja year [1636]) Qian jin fang (千金方 Formulas worth one thousand gold pieces) Qidan guo zhi (契丹國志 Records of the Khitan kingdom) Qingyilu (淸異錄 Records of the unworldly and the strange) Qinjing (禽經 Classic on birds) Quail (메추라기 Coturnix coturnix japonica) Queen Mother Inmok (仁穆大妃 1584–1632) Queen Sohye (昭惠王后 1437–1504) Quince (모과 Pseudocydonia sinensis) Ramie root (저근 Boehmeriae Radix) Ray-finned herring (밴댕이 Harengula zunasi) Realgar (石雄黃) Red crossbill (잣새 Loxia curvirostra)

218

Glossary

Red halloysite (赤石脂) Red wolfiporia (적봉령 Poria cocos [Schw.]) Reed fish (웅어 Coilia nasus) Rhododendron (躑躅 Rhododendron) Ricefish (송사리 Oryzias latipes) Rock ear lichen (석이 Umbilicaria esculenta) Roundworm (회충 Ascaris lumbricoides) Royal clinic (內醫院) Sable (貂 Martes zibellina) Saekkyŏng (穡經 Manual for farming) Sahamch’o (蛇含草/가락지나물 Potentilla kleiniana) Sahyang (麝香) Saiga antelope (羚羊角 Saiga tatarica) Saju (四柱) Salgu (살구 Prunus armeniaca var. ansu) Sallim kyŏngje (山林經濟 Farm management) Salsŏng (殺星) Sandalwood (백단향 Santalum album) Sangch’i (상치 Lactuca scariola var. sativa) Sangsan (常山 Orixae Radix) Sansa (山楂 Crataegus pinnatifida) Seabass (농어 Lateolabrax japonicas) Sesal (歲煞) Seven apertures (七竅) Seven holes of perception (七竅) Seven passions (七情) Shan hai jing (山海經 The classic of the seas and mountains) Shijing (詩經 Book of poetry) Shu Qi (叔齊) Shuo fu (設郛 Environs of fiction) Shou jing (獸經 Classic of the animals) Siberian gooseberries (미후도 Actinidia chinensis Planch.) Siho (柴胡 Bupleurum euphorbioides Nakai) Sin’gok (神曲) Sinsŏn kamŭm-p’yŏn (神仙感應篇 Divine revelations of the fairy)

Slave (奴婢) Smallpox deity (痘神) Smoky quartz (烏水晶 Morion) Sŏ Hosu (徐浩修 1736–1799) Sŏ Yubon (徐有本 1762–1822) Sŏ Yugu (徐有榘 1764–1845) Sodae ch’ongsŏ (昭代叢書 Collected writings of Sodae) Sogaljŭng (消渴症) Soktan (續斷 Dipsaci Radix) Solomon’s seal root (黃精 Polygonatum) Sŏngho sasŏl (星湖僿說 Insignificant explanations by Sŏngho) Sophora (회회나무Styphnolobium japonicum) Sparrow (참새 Passer montanus) Su Shi (蘇軾 1037–1101) Suiyuan shidan (隨園食單 Recipies by Suiyuan) Sukchihwang (熟地黃 Rehmanniae Radix Preparat) Sukhyang-jŏn (淑香傳 The tale of Sukhyang) Sul kaemi (술 개미) Sun Simiao (孫思邈 581–682) Sŭnggŏmch’o (승검초 Angelica gigas) Suyang ch’ongsŏ (壽養叢書 Collected works of Suyang) Suyu (茱萸 Evoidia daniellii) Sweet flag (石菖蒲 Acorus gramineus) Sweetfish (운구어 Plecoglossus altivelis) Syphilitic ulcer (疳瘡) T’aegyo sin’gi (胎敎新記 New guidelines for prenatal care) T’aesal (胎殺) T’aeŭl star (太乙星) Taiping Guangji (太平廣記 Extensive records of the Taiping era) Talsaeng-p’yŏn (澾生扁 Compilation of Master Tal) Tanggwi (當歸 Angelicae Gigantis Radix) Tanjangch’o (斷腸草 Gelsemium elegans) Tano (端午) Taro (토란 Colocasia esculenta)

Ten Heavenly Stems (天干) Three Obediences (三從之道) Thuja (側柏 Platycladus orientalis) Tian san qi (三七對 Panax pseudoginseng) Tianjin fang (千金方 Prescriptions worth one thousand gold pieces) Tiger beetles (가뢰 Meloidae) T’ongch’o (Tetrapanax papyriferus) Tongguk munhŏn pigo (東國文獻 備考 Reference compilation of documents on the Eastern [i.e., Korea] Country) Tongguk yŏji sŭngnam (東國輿地 勝覽 Augmented survey of the geography of the Eastern [i.e., Korea] Country) Tongja-gyŏng (童子經 Sutra of the child) Tongp’ung (動風) Tongŭi pogam (東醫寶鑑 Exemplar of Eastern [i.e., Korean] medicine) Tree frogs (하마 Hyla japonica) Trifoliate orange (탱자 나무 Poncirus trifoliate) Trout (송어 Oncorhynchus masou) Tti (띠 Imperatae rhizoma) Tuch’ung (杜沖 Eucommiae Cortex) Twelve Earthly Branches (十二支) Twenty-four divisions of the year (二十四 節氣) Ŭiiin (薏苡仁 Semen Coicis) Ŭisan mundap (醫山問答 Dialogue on Mt. Ŭisan [Ch. Yishan]) Umbrella sedge (왕골 Cyperus exaltatus) Ŭmdok (音讀) Ŭmsik timibang (음식디미방 Recipes for tasty food) Ungŏ (葦魚 Coilia nasus) Unyŏng-jŏn (雲英傳 The tale of Unyŏng) Ursa Major (七星) Usŭl (牛膝 Achyranthes japonica) Verification of names and evidential studies (名物考證學) Vinous-throated parrotbill (巧婦鳥 Sinosuthora webbian)

Glossary

219

Waegwan (倭館) Wakan Sansai Zue (和漢三才 圖‌會 Illustrated Sino-Japanese encyclopedia) Wan bing hui chun (萬病回春 Recovery from ten thousand illnesses) Wang Bo (王勃 650–676) Water lily (감인 Euryale ferox) Water parsley (미나리 Oenanthe stolonifera) Water shield (순 Brasenia schreberi) Wen Xuan (文選 Selections of refined literature) White artemisia (흰쑥Artemisia siebersiana) White mulberry (뽕나무 Morus alba) Wild ginger (細辛 Asari Herba Cum Radix) Wildcat (삵 괭이 Felis bengalensis) Winged burning bush (鬼箭羽 Euonymus alatus [Thunb.] Sieb.) Winter melon (동과/동아Benincasa hispida) Wolfsbane tuberous root (烏頭 Aconitum carmichaelii) Xi Shi (西施) Xiaoxue (小學 Elementary learning) Yaje (夜啼) Yakch’ŏn-jip (藥泉集 Miscellany by Yakch’ŏn) Yama (閻羅大王) Yang Wanli (楊萬里 1124–1206) Yangban (兩班) Yangsheng shu (養生書 Writings of Master Yang) Yangwi-t’ang (養胃湯) Yellow corvina (조기 Larimichthys polyactis) Yi Ch’angjŏng (李昌庭 1573–1625) Yi Ch’angsu (李昌壽 b. 1710) Yi Ik (李瀷 1681–1763) Yi Kyugyŏng (李圭景 1788-?) Yi Sajudang (李師朱堂 1739–1821) Yi Sugwang (李睟光 1563–1628)

220

Glossary

Yi Yuwŏn (李裕元 1814–1888) Yijing (易經 Book of changes) Yin energy (陰氣) Yi-ssi Pinghŏgak (憑虛閣 李氏) Yŏlgyŏl (熱結) Yŏnji (연지) Yŏro (藜蘆 Veratrum maxamowiczii) Yŏsin tan (如神丹) Youyang zazu (酉陽雜俎 Miscellaneous morsels from Youyang)

Yu Chungnim (柳重臨 n.d.) Yu Hŭi (柳僖 1773–1837) Yuan Mei (袁枚 1716–1797) Zengzi (505–435 BCE) Zhang Dan (張丹 b. 1619) Zhang Hua (張華 232–300) Zhongyong (中庸 Doctrine of the mean) Zhouli (周禮 Rites of Zhou) Zhuang Zhou (莊子)

Notes

Translators’ Introduction 1. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 327. 2. One such example is Brian K. Harvey, Daily Life in Ancient Rome: A Sourcebook (London: Focus, 2016). 3. There are literally dozens of titles that now focus on aspects of history that received sparse coverage in past times. One example is the series published by Ch’ŏngnyŏnsa that includes a volume on the Three Kingdoms period, two volumes on the Koryŏ dynasty, four volumes on Chosŏn, two volumes on lives of women, and a volume on life at the royal palaces. 4. For funerary practices there are many volumes such as Yi Ŭnbong, Han’guk in ŭi chugŭm kwan [Korean’s view of death] (Seoul: Sŏul taehakkyo ch’ulp’anbu, 2004); for cuisine a great number of works such as Yi Hyoji, Han’guk ŭi ŭmsik munhwa [Food culture of Korea] (Seoul: Sin’gwang ch’ulp’ansa, 2006). There are certainly too many to list here, but these studies are now available for nearly every facet of life in premodern Korea and range from academic volumes to those for the general reader. 5. There are many works that now focus on women of various social-status groups in Chosŏn and earlier. One of the first and most comprehensive was Ch’oe Sukkyŏng and Ha Hyŏn’gang, Han’guk yŏsŏng sa: Kodae Chosŏn sidae [A history of Korean women: From ancient times through the Chosŏn period] (Seoul: Ihwa yŏja taehakkyo ch’ulp’anbu 1993), which provided a comprehensive history of women throughout Korean history. 6. For a partial translation in English, see Kil Cha and Michael J. Pettid, “Diary of the Kyech’uk Year,” in Premodern Korean Literary Prose: An Anthology, ed. Michael J. Pettid, Gregory N. Evon, and Chan E. Park (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), 214–231. 7. For an English translation, see JaHyun Kim Haboush, The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996). 8. Certainly there were other important writings in this vein by women in Chosŏn: Lady Chang of Andong (安東 張氏 1598–1680) compiled the cookbook Ŭmsik timibang (Recipes for tasty food). Lady Yun of Haep’yŏng (海平 尹氏 no dates) compiled a guidebook for proper womanly decorum, Kyubŏm (閨範 Rules for the women’s quarters), and there are Confucian philosophical writings such as those authored by Im Yunjidang (任允摯堂 1721–1793). Yet none of these writings approach the vast scope of the work presently under examination in this study.

221

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Notes to Pages 5–9

9. Benjamin A. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China (Los Angeles: UCLA Asian Pacific Monograph Series, 2001), 4. 10. Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991), 62. 11. Chŏng Hyŏngmin and Kim Yŏngsik. Chosŏn hugi kisuldo [Techincal drawing in late Chosŏn] (Seoul: Sŏul taehakkyo ch’ulp’anbu, 2007), 52. 12. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology, 194. 13. Kyung Moon Hwang, A History of Korea (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 101. 14. Koryŏ taehakkyo Han’guksa yŏn’guso, ed. Han’guksa [Korean history] (Seoul: Saemunsa, 2018), 319–320. 15. James B. Palais, Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyŏngwŏn and the Late Chosŏn Dynasty (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996), 9. 16. Soyoung Suh cites an instance where the text was criticized as being “too complicated” and “not concisely arranged.” Both are actually pretty fair criticisms when one reads through the text. See, Suh, Naming the Local: Medicine, Language, and Identity in Korea since the Fifteenth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2017), 3. 17. Kim Ho, Hŏ Chun ŭi Tongŭi pogam yŏn’gu [A study of Hŏ Chun’s Tongŭi pogam] (Seoul: Iljisa, 2003), 251–252. 18. Michael J. Pettid, “Science, Food and Health in Chosŏn Korea,” in The Routledge History of Food, ed. Carol Helstosky (London: Routledge, 2015), 62. 19. Ro Sang-ho, “Chosŏn hugi tongmul-e taehan chisik kwa kirok: Hanbando sŏsik sigyungok (식육목, Carnivora) ŭi sarye rŭl chunsimŭro” [The knowledge and records on animals in the late Chosŏn period: The case of Carnivora on the Korean peninsula], Han’gukhak yŏn’gu 60 (2017): 6–7. 20. Ibid., 13–14. 21. Chŏng Myŏnghyŏn and Kim Chŏnggi, eds. and annotations, Imwŏn kyŏngje chi, polliji [Ways of developing the country and comforting the people, treatise on benefitting the people] (Seoul: Sowadang, 2008), 7. 22. For a study on Lady Chang, see Lee SoonGu, “The Exemplar Wife: The Life of Lady Chang of Andong in Historical Context,” in Women and Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea: New Perspectives, ed. Youngmin Kim and Michael J. Pettid (Albany: SUNY Press, 2011). 23. Yi Sugyŏng and Hong Sunsŏk, eds. T’aegyo sin’gi [New guidelines for prenatal care] (Seoul: Han’guk munhwasa, 2011), 13. 24. Ibid., 13. It is also worth noting that these two works are considered to have heavily contributed to the spread of knowledge among womenfolk in the late Chosŏn. See Yi Hyesun, Chosŏnjo hugi yŏsŏng chisŏngsa [Female intellectual history in the late Chosŏn dynasty] (Seoul: Ihwa yŏja taehakkyo ch’ulp’anbu, 2008), 150–151. 25. Janet Yoon-sun Lee makes this same point and concludes that Lady Yi writing this work “involved a resolute will and voluntary sacrifice.” See Lee, “The



Notes to Pages 10–15

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Matrix of Gender, Knowledge, and Writing in the Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ,” Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies 17 (October 2017): 215. 26. Yi Hyesun, Chosŏnjo hugi yŏsŏng chisŏngsa, 192–193. 27. Pu Kilman, Chosŏn sidae panggak-pon ch’ulp’an yŏn’gu [A study of panggakpon publishing in the Chosŏn dynasty], (Seoul: Sŏul ch’ulp’an midia, 2003), 130. 28. See Youngmin Kim, “Neo-Confucianism as a Free-floating Resource: Im Yunjidang and Kang Chŏngildang as Two Female Neo-Confucian Philosophers in Late Chosŏn” in Women and Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea: New Perspectives, ed. Youngmin Kim and Michael J. Pettid (Albany: SUNY Press, 2011), 77. 29. Chŏng Haeŭn, “Han’gŭl-lo ssŭn ch’oech’o ŭi paekkwasajŏn” [The first encyclopedia written in han’gŭl], in Sirhak, Chosŏn ŭi rŭnesangsŭ-rŭl yŏlta [Sirhak, opening the renaissance in Chosŏn], ed. Chŏng Sŏnghŭi et al. (Seoul: Sau, 2018), 180. 30. Quoted in Chŏng Haeŭn, “Pongŏn ch’eje ŭi tongyo wa yŏsŏng ŭi sŏngjang” [Tremors in the structure of feudal society and the growth of women], in Uri yŏsŏng ŭi yŏksa [The history of Korean women], ed. Han’guk yŏsŏng yŏn’guso (Seoul: Ch’ŏng­ nyŏnsa, 1999), 231–232. 31. See Michael J. Pettid, introduction and annotations, Unyŏng-jŏn: A Love Affair at the Royal Place of Chosŏn Korea, trans. Kil Cha and Michael J. Pettid (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 2009). 32. Unyŏng is a place woman (宮女) and thus in the service of the royal family. As such, she was not free to pursue a sexual relationship. 33. Unyŏng-jŏn, 39. 34. Chinsa (進士) was the title for those who had passed the preliminary state examination (進士科). 35. Unyŏng-jŏn, 45. 36. Cho Tongil cites possible connections to both legends and historical events in the creation of both novels. See, Han’guk muhak t’ongsa [A complete history of Korean literature] (Seoul: Chisik sanŏpsa, 1991), 3: 499. 37. Ksenia Chizhova, “The Pledge at the Banquet of Moon-Gazing Pavilion,” in Premodern Korean Literary Prose: An Anthology, ed. Michael J. Pettid, Gregory N. Evon, and Chan E. Park (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), 124. 38. For more on the Naehun, see John Duncan, “The Naehun and the Politics of Gender in Fifteenth-Century Korea,” in Creative Women of Korea: The Fifteenth through the Twentieth Centuries, ed. Young-Key Kim-Renaud (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2004). 39. For more on works written by males for women, see Michael J. Pettid, “Confucian Educational Works for Upper Status Women in Chosŏn Korea,” in Women and Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea: New Perspectives, ed. Youngmin Kim and Michael J. Pettid (Albany: SUNY Press, 2011), 59–62. 40. Hŏ Wŏn’gi, “Konbŏm-e nat’anan yŏsŏng toksŏ ŭi yangsang kwa ŭimi” [Structure and meaning of texts for women appearing in Konbŏm], in Han’guk kojŏn yŏsŏng munhak yŏn’gu 6 (Seoul: Wŏrin, 2003), 233–234. 41. Youngmin Kim, “Neo-Confucianism as a Free-Floating Resource,” 75. 42. Pam Morris, Literature and Feminism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), 64.

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Notes to Pages 15–19

43. Here and elsewhere, I use the term “shamanism” as an appellation for the body of folk practices that included those conducted by shamans and also those that were simply long-standing observations followed by many, if not the vast majority of the population, in late Chosŏn. I do this with the understanding that to the people of that time period, many of these practices would be quite simply a part of age-old traditions that had always been present in their lives. 44. The function of shamanic rituals within Chosŏn society and how this coexisted with an outwardly hostile Confucian governing system is very well explained in Boudewijn Walraven, “Popular Religion in a Confucianized Society,” in Culture and the State in Late Chosŏn Korea, ed. JaHyun Kim Haboush and Martina Deuchler (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999). 45. Recorded in Akiba Takashi and Akamatsu Chijō, Chōsen fuzoku no kenkyū [A study of Chosŏn shamanism] (Tokyo: Osaka Yagō Shoten, 1937), 1, 3–60. 46. For more on the social functions of Pari kongju, see Michael J. Pettid, “Late Chosŏn Society as Reflected in a Shamanistic Narrative: An Analysis of the Pari kongju muga.” Korean Studies 24 (2000): 113–141. 47. Recorded in Kim T’aegon, Han’guk muga chip 3 [Collection of Korean shaman songs, 3] (Seoul: Chimmundang, 1992), 269–281. 48. Recorded in Hyŏn Yongjun, Chejudo musok charyo sajŏn [Encyclopedia of the shamanic materials of Cheju island] (Seoul: Sin’gu munhwasa, 1980), 597–598. 49. Chosŏnjo hugi yŏsŏng chisŏngsa, 186. 50. That is, present-day Seoul. 51. Yi Minsu, ed., Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ [Encyclopedia of women’s daily lives] (Seoul: Kirinwŏn, 1988), 15; Tonga ilbo 31-01-1939, 2. 52. Pak Okchu, “Pinghŏgak Yi-ssi ŭi Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ-e taehan munhŏnhakjŏk yŏn’gu” [A philological study of Lady Yi’s Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ]. In Han’guk kojŏn yŏsŏng munhak yŏn’gu 1 [Korean classical women’s literature research, 1], ed. Han’guk kojŏn yŏsŏng munhak-hoe (Seoul: Wŏrin, 2000), 275. 53. Yi Minsu, ed., Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ 16. 54. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 1. 55. Ibid., 2. 56. For more, see Michael J. Pettid, “Science, Food and Health in Chosŏn Korea,” 76. 57. Sŏ Yubon, Chwaso sanin munjip 1. Quoted in Pak Okchu, “Pinghŏgak Yi-ssi ŭi Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ-e taehan munhŏnhakjŏk yŏn’gu,” 279. 58. Quoted in Pak Okchu, “Pinghŏgak Yi-ssi ŭi Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ-e taehan munhŏnhakjŏk yŏn’gu,” 280. 59. Janet Yoon-sun Lee shows that Lady Yi omitted parts of the works that she used to compile her volume. See Lee, “The Matrix of Gender, Knowledge, and Writing in the Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ,” 220–221. 60. Pak Okchu, “Pinghŏgak Yi-ssi ŭi Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ-e taehan munhŏnhakjŏk yŏn’gu,” 278. 61. Yi Minsu, ed., Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 13. 62.  Chŏng Yangwan, ed. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ (P’aju: Pojinjae 1975), 1–7. An



Notes to Pages 19–25

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interesting aside brought to my attention by a reviewer of this volume is that Chŏng, a highly important scholar of premodern Korean literary studies, is a descendent of the Taegu Sŏ family; in particular, her father’s mother was a descendent of Lady Yi’s husband, Sŏ Yubon. 63. Ibid., 5. 64. See Otani Morishige “Chosŏn hugi sech’aek chaenon” [Review of rental library manuscripts of the Late Chosŏn Dynasty], in Sech’aek kososŏl yŏn’gu [A study of rental library novels], Yi Yunsŏk, Otani Morishige, and Chŏng Myŏnggi, eds. (Seoul: Hyean, 2003); Pu Kilman, Chosŏn sidae panggak-pon ch’ulp’an yŏn’gu [A study of panggak-pon publishing in the Chosŏn dynasty], (Seoul: Sŏul ch’ulp’an midia, 2003); and Michael Kim “Literary Production, Circulating Libraries and Private Publishing: The Popular Reception of Vernacular Fiction Texts in the Late Chosŏn Dynasty,” Journal of Korean Studies 9 (Fall 2004): 1–31. 65. Pu Kilman, Chosŏn sidae panggak-pon ch’ulp’an yŏn’gu, 197, 200. 66. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 52. 67. The proper transliteration of this (醬) depends on location within a word. In the initial position or while standing alone it should be chang; within a word it is -jang such as in the second character in words such as kanjang (soy sauce) or toenjang (soy bean paste). In this volume we have rendered it as chang. 68.  For more, see Michael J. Pettid, Korean Cuisine: An Illustrated History (London: Reaktion Books, 2008), 42–43. 69. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 75. 70. Ibid., 79. 71. Ibid., 83. 72. Ibid., 94. The text refers to mu ki t’o saek (戊己土色). Mu is the fifth celestial stem and ki ( gi) is the sixth of the ten celestial stems. T’o is earth and saek is color. T’o refers to Earth, one of the Five Phases, the color yellow, and the stomach. So yellow benfits the stomach. 73. Pak Okchu, “Pinghŏgak Yi-ssi ŭi Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ-e taehan munhŏnhakjŏk yŏn’gu,” 277. 74. Soyoung Suh writes, “In terms of motivation, language, content, and interpretative framework, Hŏ Chun’s work indeed seems the culmination of the indigenization of medicine in early seventeenth-century Korea.” See Suh, Naming the Local, 2. Kim Ho furthers this idea, calling the work “the representative medical work of the Chosŏn dynasty.” See Kim Ho, Hŏ Chun ŭi Tongŭi pogam yŏn’gu, 13. 75. Yi Hyesun, Chosŏnjo hugi yŏsŏng chisŏngsa, 229–230. 76. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 352. 77. For more on son-preference in Chosŏn, see Michael J. Pettid, “Late-Chosŏn Society as Reflected in a Shamanistic Narrative, 118–120. 78. Samgyŏng (三更) is from 11 p.m. until 1 a.m. 79. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 354–355. 80. While there is no means of actually knowing with certainty what the mortality rate for infants was, given the great lengths taken to ensure live births among the royals, it seems this was a matter of the utmost concern. For more on

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Notes to Pages 25–34

this, see Kim Jiyoung, “Fertility and Childbirth among Royal Women in Nineteenth Century Korea,” in Asia Pacific Perspectives (Fall/Winter 2013–2014): 84–108. 81. Yangban refers to the two orders of the government officials, the civil and the military. 82. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 359–360. 83. Mt. Puyong (芙蓉峯 1432 m) is located in Northern P’yŏngan Province. It was thought that by burying an umbilical cord in an auspicious place, the child would gain benefit. This also might have another meaning as puyong (芙蓉) also indicates a lotus. 84. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 362. 85. Ibid., 365. 86. Ibid. 87. The following is based on Pettid, “Science, Food, and Health in Chosŏn Korea,” 62–63. 88. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 383–384. 89. Ibid., 385. 90. The Four Friends of a scholar are the writing brush, paper, ink, and inkstone. 91. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 395. 92. Ibid., 398. 93. Ibid. 94. Ibid., 401. 95. Ibid., 402. 96. Ibid., 408. 97. Ibid., 412. 98. Ibid., 414. 99. Ibid., 415. 100. Ibid., 414. 101. Ibid., 434. 102. Lee SoonGu, “The Exemplar Wife: The Life of Lady Chang of Andong in Historical Context,” 35. 103. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 76. Han can be roughly translated as a lingering resentment or bitterness or events, one’s status in life, or even historical events that occurred before one was born. 104. Ibid., 97. 105. Ibid., 355. 106. Ibid. 107. The year, month, day, and hour of one’s birth. 108. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 376. 109. Ibid., 371. 110. Ibid., 390. 111. Hanbando chasaeng singmul yŏngŏ irŭm mongnokchip [English names for Korean native plants], ed. Korean National Arboretum (Seoul: 2015). 112. See Su Yang Jeong et al., “Quantitative analysis of marker compounds in Angelica gigas, Angelica sinensis, and Angelica acutiloba by HPLC/DAD,”



Notes to Pages 34–43

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Chem Pharm Bull (Tokyo) 2015;63 (7):504–11. doi: 10.1248/cpb.c15–00081. Epub May 1, 2015. 113. The compiler was Yi Yuwŏn (李裕元 1814–1888); since Lady Yi compiled The Encyclopedia from 1809 for a period of about ten years, it is highly unlikely that she would have had access to the work cited here, as the date generally cited for the publication of the work is 1871.

Translation: Volume 1, Liquor and Food, Part 1 1. Four of the Five Phases. 2. The entire section below is rather difficult to conceptualize as there is no commentary on some of the various terms. Thus, we have left it as is. 3. Changhe (Changhap) gate is the gate to Tiananmen Palace in Beijing. Literally, Changhe means the “gate to heaven.” 4. Lady Yi actually uses the term “Kyŏngsyŏng,” which is an old name for Seoul. 5. This is a mythical bird in Chinese lore and said to be a type of phoenix that was as bright as the sun. Yuanyang (元陽) is a county in southeastern Yunnan Province. 6. Yakpap is steamed glutinous rice mixed with jujubes, chestnuts, sesame oil, honey, and soy sauce. 7. Sail (社日) was held twice yearly on the fifth mu (戊) day after ip’ch’un (entering spring) and on the fifth mu day after ip’ch’u (entering fall). These rites were given to the earth gods who governed the prosperity of farming. 8. This is a type of phoenix found in Chinese legends and is said to look similar to a chicken with bright red tail feathers mixed with the five colors. 9. The Ullambana is a Buddhist festival for the spirits of the dead that dates to the Koryŏ period. The origins of the festival is described in a sutra entitled Mongnyŏngyŏng (目連經 Mongnyŏn’s sutra). On this day one hundred kinds of grain and five kinds of fruit are served to the people in hopes of gaining merit for their suffering ancestors. On the same day is another rite named Paekchong-nal (百種날) that offers the hundred kinds of grains/seeds to the Buddha along with various folk games. 10. Nabil is the third mi (未) day after the winter solstice when rites were held for the royal ancestors. 11. Napp’al (臘八) is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month when the Buddha is said to have gone to Nirvana. 12. Although the Chinese added by the annotator has “cow” (牛), the text clearly states lamb ( yang ŭi kollo). 13. It is recorded in the Tianjin fang (千金方 Prescriptions worth one thousand gold pieces) that there are eighty-one types of diseases in the five viscera of our bodies, which totals to 405. Out of these, if you delete the one which is death, the number of diseases totals 404. This is a Tang dynasty work of some thirty fascicles compiled by Sun Simiao (孫思邈 581–682).

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Notes to Pages 43–45

14. This work is attributed to the Jin period (晉 265–420) scholar Cui Bao (崔豹). 15. Oson-guk (烏孫國) dates from the time of the Han dynasty to about the fifth century CE. It was located to the north of the Tianshan Mountain Range. 16. One toe is equal to approximately 1.8 liters. 17. Liu Zhang was a member of the Han royal family and lived from 200– 177 BCE. 18. Ch’ŏnch’uk-kuk is an old name for India. Panya is a transliteration of the Sanskrit prajna (wisdom, discernment). 19. Chinnap-kuk is the old name for the Khmer people. 20. An old name for Thailand. 21. Tonson-guk is another name for Ryangsŏ (梁書). 22. These are the Kalinga people. 23. Another name for Siam. 24. A kŭn is a unit of measure equal to approximately 600 grams. 25. Tanhyang is not known, but could indicate either a “red scent” or a “magical medicine’s scent.” 26. Taewan-guk is a kingdom dating from the time of the Han dynasty and located to the west of Han. 27. A sŏk is equal to 180 liters. 28. A country to the West of China. 29. Kyeyang is a country to the south of China. A ri (里) is approximately 393 meters. 30. Xiliang was one of the sixteen dynasties during the Jin (晉) period. 31. Not ascertainable. 32. The empress (1032–1093) of Yingzong (英宗 r. 1063–1067) of Song China. 33. The empress (1016–1079) of Renzong (仁宗 r. 1022–1063) of Song China. 34. The empress (1079–1131) of Huizong (徽宗 r. 1100–1126) of Song China. 35. The royal consort (貴妃) of Zhezong (哲宗 r. 1085–1100) of Song China. 36. The empress (1079–1113) of Zhenzong of Song China. 37. The empress of Zhezong (哲宗 r. 1085–1100) of Song China. 38. No information on this person could be ascertained. 39. A Yuan period work attributed to Song Boren (宋伯仁). 40. The Warring States period in China. 41. Gaoyou is a city in Yangzhou (扬州) China. 42. Sŏgyŏng, or the Western capital, was P’yŏngyang in Koryŏ. 43. Luzhou is a city in Sichuan Province of China. 44. Hangzhou is a city in Zhejiang Province of China. 45. The Guanzhong plain is located in the valley of the Wei River in China. 46. This was a prefecture in imperial China, existing from 589 to 1276; nowadays it is centered on Lishui of Zhejiang China. 47. A historical prefecture between the sixth and twelfth centuries located in today’s Henan and Hebei provinces of China. 48. This was a county in imperial China and located in contemporary Sichuan Province. 49. This city is located in central Anhui Province of China.



Notes to Pages 45–46

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50. Presently a district of Tianjin city in China. 51. Adlay, also known as Job’s Tears, has the scientific name of Coix lacrymajobi, and is native to Southeast Asia. 52. Yunan is a county in Guangdong Province in China. 53. Located in Henan Province in China. 54. Jianzhang was a palace hall in Changan. 55. Mago (麻姑) is the “hemp-maiden,” a Daoist deity associated with elixir of life and a protector of females. 56. Xiyu is a reference to the regions west of Yumen Pass, mostly between the third and eight centuries. 57. A kingdom located in the Eurasian steppes from the second century BCE to the fifth century CE. 58. A historic county in China. 59. Dongting is located in Hunan Province of China. 60. Refers to the ancient indigenous peoples who lived inland in south and southwestern China. 61. A city located in Zhejiang province of China. 62. The text refers to Li Taibai (李太白) a named used for Li Bai, the Tang Chinese poet who lived from 701 to 762 CE. He was known for his love of drink among other things. 63. Su Dongpo is the penname of the famous Song dynasty poet Su Shi (蘇軾 1037–1101). 64. Mt. Luofu (K. Nabu, 羅浮) is an important mountain in Guangdong Province of China noted for its sacred Daoist temples. 65.  This is the penname of Lu Ji (陸機 261–303), a poet of the late Three Kingdoms period in China. 66. Wei Zheng (580–643) was a Tang dynasty statesman and historian. 67. Another name for Li Bai (李白 701–762), a poet of the Tang dynasty. 68. Qingyilu (淸異錄 Records of the unworldly and the strange) is a Chinese work compiled by Tao Gu (陶穀 903–970). 69. This is a Song dynasty work written by Zheng Xie (鄭獬). 70. Zhou (紂 1105–1046 BCE) was the last emperor of the Shang dynasty (商). In his later years he is said to have given himself up to wine and women and abandoned his morals, thus leading to the fall of the dynasty. 71. Ch’ang was a kingdom during the time of the Han dynasty. 72. This is King Wu (武王 543–578). 73. Qin Shi (秦始皇 260–210 BCE) was the unifier of the Warring States and the founder of the Qin dynasty. 74. Emperor Wen (文帝 202–157 BCE) was the fifth emperor of the Han dynasty. 75. Wude (武德) is the era name used for the reign of Gaozu (高祖 r. 618–626), the founder of the Tang dynasty. 76. Wei (魏 403–225 BCE) was one of the seven major states of the Warring States period. One toe is approximately 1.8 liters. 77. The ghosts of the west (西域鬼神) could refer to Buddhist doctrines that describe ghosts (San. preta).

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Notes to Pages 46–58

78. Koryŏ (918–1392) did not overlap with the Tang (618–907); where Sŏnbin and P’aji were located, or if they were actual states, cannot be ascertained; Parhae (698–926) was a kingdom founded by refuges of the Koguryŏ kingdom (高句麗 37 BCE–668 CE). 79. Neither of these kingdoms is known. 80. Chibong yusŏl was compiled by Yi Sugwang (李睟光 1563–1628). 81. Su Dongpo is the Song dynasty poet, Su Shi (1037–1101). 82. Lu Luwang (陸魯望) is the Tang dynasty poet, Lu Guimeng (?–881 陸龜蒙). 83. These open days are the third, ninth, and eleventh days out of the twelve deities of good and bad fortune. In sum the twelve days are 建除滿平定執 破危成收 開閉, kŏn, che, man, p’yŏng, chŏng, chip, p’a, wi, song, su, kae, p’ae. 84. He is said to be the inventor of fermented drinks in some Chinese legends. 85. A legendary figure said to have lived for over 800 years (1900–1066 BCE). 86. This is the flower of the Prunus mume, a tree found throughout East Asia. 87. As some of the terminology for making liquor is a bit complicated, here are the basics for understanding the recipes. Mother brew is sulmit which is a mixture of fermented, cooked rice mixed with yeast. Chie is steamed rice used to make liquor. Combining mother brew and chie gives us the rice-mother brew mixture used in making many liquors. Finally, malt is nuruk that is also added to liquors. 88. A pokcha is a measuring bowl of liquor or oil that has a small ear-shaped handle on one side and a hole on the other that makes it easier to pour out the liquid. 89. This apricot (Prunus armeniaca var. ansu) is known as the salgu in Korean and is different than the Korean plum (Prunus mume). The former is widely spread throughout Asia and is sometimes known as the Siberian apricot. 90. Or even poisonous as in the case of the Japanese rhododendron (Rhododendron schlippenbachii). 91. In both cases, the meaning of this phrase is not clear. 92. Sul kaemi can be literally translated as liquor ants, but it is not really ants, but rather floating grains of rice in the liquor. 93. The origins/authorship of this work is not ascertainable, but it could be an abbreviation for a longer title. 94. P’ungdam (風痰). 95. Hwangt’o (黃土) 96. Liu Ji (劉几) lived during the Song dynasty. 97. Yang Tingxiu was another name for Yang Wanli (楊萬里 1124–1206) a poet of the Jiangxi School and scholar of the Southern Song dynasty. 98. She refers to the ki kong (氣孔) which are the stoma where vital energy can circulate though. 99. Hach’o (下焦) is the abdomen below the navel including the kidneys, bladder, and small and large intestines. 100. In traditional Korean medicine, sogaljŭng (消渴症) is a condition that causes one to drink water compulsively but without urination. 101. Cherries here refers to the fruit of the pot’namu (Prunus serrulata var. spontanea), a type of cherry tree found throughout East Asia.



Notes to Pages 60–62

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102. This is the seed of the Amomum xanthoides (縮砂), a plant found in northeast Asia; the seed, known as sain (砂仁) is a common ingredient in herbal medicines. 103. Ch’oyŏm (秒鹽). 104. Mokchŏk (木賊) is a member of the Equisetaceae family. 105. Palsy here refers to the whole spectrum of diseases associated with the various nervous disorders believed to have been caused by the wind ( p’ungbyŏng 風病) including palsy, epilepsy, and paralysis. 106. This is a sixteenth-century Ming Chinese work. The full title is Bencao gangmu (本草綱目 Compendium of materia medica). 107. Congshu is a generic term for collectanea and could refer to any of a number of collections centering on diet and medicine. 108. Tohwa-sŏk (桃花石). 109. Red Halloysite (赤石脂) is a mineral of silicate salt of the polyhydrate kaolinate group, containing mainly hydrated aluminium silicate. 110. From the camphor tree (龍腦香), an aromatic tree (Dryobalarops aromatic) used in traditional East Asian medicine. 111. Spikenard, known as kamsong (甘松 Nardostachys chinensis) in Korean, is a fragrant plant used in traditional East Asian medicine. 112. Elecampane (Inula helenium; K. Samnae mokhyang 三奈 木香) is a widespread species in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). The root used in traditional East Asian medicine. 113. Hyŏlgal (血竭) is the resin of the draconis plant and used in East Asian medicine. 114. Sahyang (麝香) is a secretion of musk common in roe deer and used for medicine. 115. This work was compiled in Song China and contains accounts of the bizarre from the Tang dynasty through the Five Kingdoms period in China. Pei Du (裵度) was a literary man of the middle Tang period. 116. Camphor is a resin taken from the camphor tree (Dryobalanops aromatica) that is found in southeast Asia. In this case the text writes of yongnoi (龍腦 Borneolum syntheticum), which is the camphor from the Borneo camphor tree. 117. There is no such work extant at present. 118. The seven apertures (七竅) are the eyes, the nostrils, the ears, and the mouth. 119. Chang (-jang) refers to all the fermented soybean seasonings used in Korean cuisine, most notably soy sauce (kanjang), soybean paste (toenjang) and red-pepper paste (koch’ujang). Soy sauce is the base sauce. 120. This seems to refer to the work compiled by Tao Zongyi (陶宗儀 1316–?). 121. Pyŏngin is the third binary term of the sexagenary cycle, chŏngmyo il is the fourth binary term of the sexagenary cycle, chegilsin il literally means “all auspicious gods day,” chŏngwŏl usu il is the second of the twenty-four seasonal divisions in the first lunar month, iptong il is the first day of winter, hwangdo il the good fortune days, and sambok il the three ‘dog’ days of summer. 122. The suhŭn il are first, seventh, eleventh, seventeenth, twenty-third, and

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Notes to Pages 63–70

thirtieth days of the big months and the third, seventh, twelfth, and twenty-sixth of the small months. Yuk sin il refers to any of the six sin (辛) days of the year (辛未, 辛‌巳, 辛卯, 辛丑, 辛亥, and 辛酉). There are about three of these sin days each month. 123. Ch’ŏngmyŏng (淸明) is one of the twenty-four seasonal divisions. 124. This work is no longer extant and only fragments have been transmitted to the present. 125. Meju is fermented soybean malt formed into bricks and dried. It is the basic ingredient for all chang. 126. Chŏgim mul is saltwater that is used for adding to the soy sauce crock when the liquid becomes lessened. 127. Compiled by Hong Mansŏn (洪萬選 1643–1715). 128. Yulmu chuk. 129. The text reads ch’ŏngyuk-chang, but nowadays this is ch’ongguk-chang, or fast-fermented bean paste. 130. Rice cakes steamed on pine needles. 131. Sinmi (辛未) is the eighth binary term of the sexagenary cycle; kyŏngja (‌庚子) is the thirty-seventh binary term of the sexagenary cycle; ŭlmi (乙未) is the thirty-second binary term of the sexagenary cycle; the last four days are not actually the same as mentioned above in brewing wine, so there is an inconsistency here. Che (除) is the New Year’s eve of the lunar calendar; man (滿), song (成), and kae (‌開) days are the third, ninth, and eleventh days out of the twelve deities of good and bad fortune. 132. Muja (戊子) is the twenty-fifth binary term of the sexagenary cycle, kapchin (甲辰) is the forty-first binary term of the sexagenary cycle, and chŏngmi (丁未) is the forty-fourth binary term of the sexagenary cycle. 133. One of the days of the sexagenary cycle that uses the character pyŏng (丙). 134. One of the days of the sexagenary cycle that uses the character chŏng (丁). 135. Wei Guan (衛瓘) was a person of Jin China (1106–376 BCE). 136. The text reads syora, a conch shell, which is written today as sora. See Hong Yunp’yo et al., 17 segi kugŏ sajŏn [Korean language dictionary of the seventeenth century], 2, 1636. 137. Shi Chung (石崇) was a wealthy man of Jin China. 138. No information on this individual (王愷). 139. There are various sizes of pots/crocks used for different purposes. Above, the crocks used for fermenting soy sauce or the different types of chang are much larger than the ones used for cooking rice. 140. These are a type of bean with a white pod, red-colored beans, and a thin shell. 141. This seems like an awful lot of oil. 142. This is “water that falls from the heavens” (天落水). During rainy weather, a container would be placed in the courtyard to capture rainfall. 143. There are various types of porridge as seen above. Chuk is the thickest of these, followed by the thin porridge (ŭii) and then miŭm. 144. Chinja (榛子) is an old word for kaeam, a hazelnut.



Notes to Pages 71–80

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145. Ma Yuan (馬援 14 BCE–49 CE) was an important general of the early Later Han dynasty (25–220 CE). 146. Schisandra chinensis, five-taste berry (五味子). 147. This is the munhyangni (聞香梨 Pyrus ussuriensis var. seoulensis), a type of wild pear that grows on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere in Asia. 148. This is called maejae by Lady Yi, an old word for the Korean plum. 149. A cold herbal and honey drink. There is an entry for this below in the text. 150. The kamgukhwa (甘菊花 Chrysanthemum indicum) is native to southeast Asia and is widely used as both a food/tea and medicine. 151. Kimjang is the time when large amounts of winter kimch’i are made. For more see, Michael J. Pettid, Korean Cuisine, An Illustrated History (London: Reaktion Books, 2008), 49–50. 152. Ilisha elongate. 153. Harengula zunasi. 154. The tonggwa or tonga (Benincasa hispida) is known by various names including the winter melon. 155. Muu (Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. sativus) is also known as the a white or daikon radish. 156. This is codium, a type of seaweed sometimes known as dead man’s fingers. 157. This was probably done with a heavy blanket or thick layer of straw to keep the kimch’i from freezing in the winter. 158. Yongin (龍仁) is located in Kyŏnggi Province of South Korea; Lady Yi writes this as nyongin. 159. Interestingly, the expression of “our country” is not in the modern form of uri nara, a pure Korean expression, but rather in the Sino-Korean version of aguk (我國). 160. Nabak kimch’i is a watery kimch’i, somewhat similar to the tongch’imi described above. 161. Yakch’ŏn-jip is a literary miscellany compiled by Nam Kuman (南九萬 1629–1711). 162. T’aengja namu (Poncirus trifoliate). 163. P’ungbyŏng is a type of nerve disorder believed to be caused by excessive exposure to wind. 164. According to the Sallim kyŏngje, the fish should be half-cooked when adding the green onion and ginger. 165. Korean peppercorn is ch’ŏnch’o (川椒 Zanthoxylum piperitum). 166. Also known as the Chinese herring, the scientific name is Ilisha elongate. Despite the name, the fish is not closely related to either shad or herring. 167. Han is a complex emotion that we find in many Korean literary works; it is often translated as grudge or rancor. 168. This work might be a part of the Wen Xuan (文選 Selections of refined literature) compiled in the early sixth century. However, the content here seems a bit unlike a literary work. 169. The scientific name is Carassius carassius.

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Notes to Pages 80–86

170. This is maegmundong (Liriope muscari). 171. This is a Chinese text that has existed in some form since the fourth century BCE of an unknown authorship. 172. Ch’ŏngŭi, blue clad, refers to low status people in China who wore blue clothing. 173. This is in reference to the Five Phases (五行). 174. An encyclopedic Chinese text compiled around 239 BCE under the patronage of a Qin dynasty official. 175. The scientific name is Larimichthys polyactis and the fish is also known as a yellow croaker or a red-lip croaker. In contemporary Korea, it is largely known as the ch’am chogi. 176. K. Sŏsi. Xi Shi is one of the four renowned beauties of ancient China and is said to have lived towards the end of the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE). Her beauty was so great that when she was to lean over and look into a pond, the fish would forget to swim due to her loveliness. 177. Sungnyung is the broth created by adding a little water to the rice pot after the rice has been removed and boiling. This generally marks the end of a meal and facilitates in cleaning the rice pot. 178. A type of tiny shrimp (mysidacea) that is often fermented and used to season dishes and kimch’i. 179. Mugil cephalus. 180. Lu lived during the Jin dynasty (晋 265–420 CE). 181. Today this is called ssogari in Korean (Siniperca scherzeri). 182. This might be the same book mentioned above (Yang-saeng sŏ) and simply miswritten, or another work entirely. 183. Plecoglossus altivelis 184. Nowadays known as ojingŏ. 185. Chu (楚) was a kingdom of ancient China (740–330 BCE). 186. Nowadays this is called piut chŏt. 187. Whitebait is the collective term for the immature fry of various types of fish. 188. This is the Suzuki (Lateolabrax japonicas). 189. Octopus minor. 190. A type of salmon found in East Asia (Oncorhynchus masou). 191. Kowŏn is an area of Southern Hamgyŏng Province in present day North Korea. 192.  Channa argus is native to Northeast Asia. Subsequently it has been introduced elsewhere such as North America where it is a highly invasive species. 193. This is a collection of short stories and tales of the bizzare compiled by Tao Zongzi (陶宗儀) in the late Yuan and early Ming periods. 194. Ch’olli Kwang is the Senecio scandens, a genus of the daisy family that includes groundsels. These large flowering plants often are poisonous. Sokkyŏlmyŏng is the name of a plant, the coffee weed (Cassia occidentalis or Senna occidentalis) which is a poisonous plant that is used in some medicines. The characters for sŏkyŏlmyŏng mean “rock that rapidly brightens,” so this seems that they are using the plant name



Notes to Pages 86–95

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literally as a nickname for the abalone. Both of these plants are used for eye ailments and to improve vision. 195. This work was compiled by Nam Kuman (南九萬 1629–1711). 196. This does not seem to make sense as written here. Saengch’i is also dialect for sangch’i, a type of lettuce (Lactuca scariola var. sativa). 197. Ulsan is a city in Southern Kyŏngsang Province. 198. Myŏngch’ŏn is in Northern Hamgyŏng Province. 199. Pyŏkchŏk (癖積) is an ailment that can arise from swallowing food wrong. 200. Mencius does mention there being an abundance of fish and turtles; he did so in terms of a king establishing rules that would not allow overfishing and thus deplete the stock. In short, a good king should follow the rules of nature and there will be plenty of food for the people. See Mencius, 1A. 201. Qing dynasty (1644–1911). 202. Coilia nasus. 203. The character hae (蟹), meaning “crab,” consists of the radical ch’ung (虫) indicating “insect” and hae (解) “to discard.” Thus, the crab is an insect that discards shell/skin. 204. A work of the Jin dynasty scholar Ge Hong (葛洪 283–343). 205. These are notes on the traditional scale. 206. 人不言則鬼不知. 207. Evoidia daniellii. 208. The pen name of Yang Wanli (楊萬里 1127–1206), a writer of the late Song dynasty. 209. These are the two holes each of the ears, eyes, and nostrils, and the individual holes of the mouth, urethra, and the anus. 210. It is not clear exactly what this refers to, but perhaps it is the “Jinghu shijing” (京滬食經) that appears in Suiyuan shidan (隨園食單 Recipies by Suiyuan), a book on cooking written by Yuan Mei (袁枚 1716–1797) of Qing China. 211. The text reads 젼쵸 (ch’yŏnch’yŏ), of which the modern equivalent would be 전초 (chŏnch’o) (various grasses, roots, leaves and the like). However, that really does not make sense in this context so we are changing the translation to the latter which is Korean peppercorn (川椒 Zanthoxylum piperitum).

Translation: Volume 1, Liquor and Food, Part 2 1. The text refers to mu ki t’o saek (戊己土色). Mu is the fifth celestial stem and ki ( gi) is the sixth of the ten celestial stems. T’o is earth and saek is color. T’o refers to Earth, one of the Five Phases, the color yellow, and the stomach. So yellow benefits the stomach. 2. The text refers to im kye su saek (壬癸水色). Im is the ninth of the celestial stems, kye (-gye) is the tenth stem, and su is water. Water refers to the color black and represents the kidneys and bladder. Thus, black benefits the kidneys and bladder. 3. The sibijin (十二辰).

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Notes to Pages 95–103

4. Nokhong and the last three of these grasses do not have modern Korean equivalents and thus are not determinable. 5. Specifically, tongp’ung (動風) is an illness caused by excessive wind. In traditional Korean medicine there are six basic causes for illness: wind (風), cold (‌寒), heat(暑), humidity (濕), dryness (燥), and fire/anger (火). 6. Madi is generally used to indicate a joint on bamboo or a tree, but here seems to indicate perhaps the muscle striations seen on the pig’s womb. 7. Lentinus edodes. 8. This is in reference to the Eight Trigrams (八卦) for divination as told in the Zhongyong (中庸 Doctrine of the mean). 9. There is no contemporary reference to this book (Chunyŏng kŏyo). 10. This work is no longer extant. 11. The forty-third binary term of the sexagenary cycle. 12. Winter scallions (ump’a) are grown in an underground cellar during the cold months. 13. This is umbilicaria esculenta, a type of lichen that grows on rocks and is found throughout East Asia. 14. It is unclear which bird this might be. The chat sae (red crossbill; Loxia curvirostra) is not a white bird and at present there does not seem to be a bird known as a chatnamu sae as given in the entry title. 15. Hoeyang (淮陽) is located in Kangwŏn Province. 16. The ogyŏng (五更) is the last watch of the night. 17. This work is attributed to Zhu Danxi (朱丹溪 1281–1358), but was compiled after his death. 18. Chasi (子時) is the first watch of the night, from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. 19. Ch’uksi (丑時) is the watch of the ox, the second of the twelve watches (1– 3 a.m.). 20. The texts cites 赤胸白烏鷄 (chŏkhyung paegogye), which seems to be Gallus gallus vatr domesticus. 21. A Chinese work written by Gong Tingxian (龚廷贤 fl. 1577–1593).  22. Seang ch’ajogi ip (Perilla frutescens var. crispa). 23. This was served at the Waegwan (倭館), the official residences for the Japanese in the southern part of the peninsula. 24. Kŭmjunggam, also known as kumjungt’ang, is a soup made with ingredients such as chicken, beef, lamb, abalone, and sea cucumber among other ingredients. 25. Chawan is the old word for t’aengal or kaemich’wi, the Aster tataricus, a plant used in both Korean cuisine and medicine. However, the flower is not that large, so this really does not make complete sense. 26. The text refers to Yang sheng lun, but seems to refer to the above Yuan dynasty text attributed to Wang Gui. 27. She writes of kogi here, which usually indicates beef. 28. This is now referred to as sŭnggŏmch’o, a perennial plant found throughout East Asia and used in both food and medicine. The common name for this in the West is the dong quai (當歸) and the root is generally what is used although the



Notes to Pages 104–109 237

leaves too can be used. The plant itself has different scientific binomials in Korea (Angelica gigas), China (Angelica Sinensis), and Japan (Angelica acutiloba), although they all refer to this same plant. See Su Yang Jeong et al., “Quantitative analysis of marker compounds in Angelica gigas, Angelica sinensis, and Angelica acutiloba by HPLC/DAD,” Chem Pharm Bull (Tokyo). 2015, 63 (7):504–11. doi: 10.1248/cpb. c15–00081. Epub May 1, 2015. 29. Sŏkchwa, or sŏkcha, is a mesh ladle. Chwaban, now written as chaban, refers to a type of side dish that can be stored for a long time such as salted fish or fried seaweed. 30. Undaria pinnatifida. 31. Jinling is the old name for Nanjing (南京) in China. 32. Pongnyŏng is a subterranean wood fungus with the scientific name of Wolfiporia extensa, a synonym of which is Poria cocos, that has long been used in East Asian medicines. 33. Dioscorea polystachya. 34. Euryale ferox is a type of water lily that is also known as the fruit of the thorn lily. The text refers to kŏmin, but the correct word is kamin. 35. This excerpt is taken from the Yŏngp’yŏng-sa pon (永平寺本, Yŏngp’yŏng Temple version), of the Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ. 36. This is dong quai (當歸) in Chinese, the root of the Angelica gigas plant, and is known as “female ginseng.” 37. Schisandra chinensis, five-taste berry (五味子). 38. Lady Yi uses singamch’o for this plant, but the common name today is sŭnggamch’o. Also, to clarify the types of confections made here, tanja is a class of rice cakes in which one would first steam the dough and then prepare the cake by stuffing or otherwise finishing the steamed rice cake. Kyŏngdan is another type of rice cake in which case the confection is first made and then boiled. Both types of these cakes are round, have stuffing, and are covered with some manner of garnish. 39. Hondon (渾沌) refers to the time at dawn when the sky and earth seem to be one. 40. In this recipe, Lady Yi is using two distinct types of steamers. The first is that used for making chŭngpyŏng (alternatively chŭngp’yŏn), a type of ttŏk made with a goodly amount of yeast. Oftentimes this is made in the warmer months, and a liquor such as makkŏlli is added to the mixture as well. Thus, the texture is springy—like a steamed bread. And the steamer used is larger than that used for other rice cake as well. On the other hand, siru is an earthenware steamer that has holes in the bottom. There is a separate entry for chŭngp’yŏn below. 41. Colocasia esculenta. 42. Rice cakes steamed on a bed of pine needles. 43. Mandu (雙花 in the text) are steamed flour dumplings filled with meat, chopped scallions, tofu, and seasonings. 44. Nuruk is a type of yeast that is commonly used to ferment rice wines. 45. This is Umbilicaria esculenta (石耳, literally, rock ear), a type of lichen that grows on rocks and is sometimes known as “rock tripe.” It is found in Korea, China,

238

Notes to Pages 110–122

and Japan and is used in both food dishes and medicine. The Korean name of sŏgi pŏsŏt includes pŏsŏt that indicates a mushroom, but this is a type of lichen. 46. Sŏyŏ (薯蕷) is a type of hemp. 47. Songgi (松肌) is pine endodermis. 48. Sanghwa (霜花). 49. These are cooked rice/flour balls that are served in cold honey water with pine nuts. 50. Wae (倭) was a term used to refer to the Japanese. 51. Tasikkwa (茶食菓) refers to the confections commonly served with tea in Chosŏn Korea. 52. Liu Yuxi (劉禹錫, 772–842) was a poet and philosopher of Tang China. 53. Pukkumi is a snack made of kneaded glutinous rice, sorghum, or other grains and then fried. It is oftentimes stuffed with a red bean paste, chestnuts, and jujubes. 54. Yŏt is made from steamed glutinous rice, rice, sorghum, wheat, corn, potatoes, or mixed grains and can be either a syrup, taffy, or candy. 55. Komul is a coating for rice cakes and confections made of powered green peas, sesame seeds, red beans, or the like. 56. Chich’i oil is made from a type of gromwell (Lithospermum). 57.  Huan Xuan (桓玄, 369–404) was a Jin dynasty warlord who briefly established his own kingdom of Chu (楚). 58. Makkŏlli is rice wine. 59. Myohwa (描畵) indicates a painting. 60. Chunggye is a type of fried snack that is discussed below at the end of this section. 61. Momil is an old word/dialect for memil. 62. This is rather an ambiguous measure that might equate to a dash or pinch used in cooking. It seems to depend on the cook. 63. Longan (龍眼) is the fruit of the Dimocarpus longan tree, a member of the soapberry family (Sapindaceae) native to southern Asia. The shelled fruit, when opened, reveals a single black seed surrounded by white flesh, similar to an eyeball and thus the term “dragon eye.” 64. Yŏnji is a red dye traditionally used in makeup. Omija is the fruit of the Schisandra chinensis. 65. Rubus coreanus is a species of raspberry native to Korea, China, and Japan. 66. The fruit of the Pseudocydonia sinensis, is a deciduous tree of the family Rosaceae native to East Asia. 67. The text refers to chŏnyak (煎藥), a type of medical decoction made by boiling down various ingredients. 68. Benincasa hispida is a vine fruit native to Southeast Asia. When young, the melons are sweet, but by maturity the melons lose their hairy coating and develop a waxy coating and can be preserved for a long time. 69. Asparagus cochinchinensis (天門冬) is a climbing perennial plant producing stems 1–2 meters long from a tuberous rootstock and is native to Korea, China, and Japan. It is used for both food and medicine.



Notes to Pages 123–133 239

70. Brasenia schreberi is a perennial aquatic plant with floating round leaves. It can be identified by its bright green leaves and small purple flowers that bloom from June through September. 71. Mandarin oranges (Citrus unshiu) are similar to tangerines and were introduced to Korea from China. 72. Kumquats (Citrus japonica) are native to South Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. 73. Nabil is the third dog day (戌日) after the winter solstice (冬至). Snow collected from this day was believed to be the best quality for preserving foods and also medicines. 74. Commonly known as the Chinese lacquer tree (Toxicodendron vernicifluum), this tree is common to Korea, China, and Japan and has been long cultivated for its sap that is used to lacquer wood wares and other objects. The sap contains urushiol, the same oil found in poison ivy and poison oak that causes rashes. 75. These melons, known as ch’amoe, (Cucumis melo L. var. makuw), are primarily found in Korea. They are yellow and white stripped, roughly 15 centimeters long, and weigh about 0.5 kilogram. 76. This work is attributed to Terajima Ryōan, a doctor in Edo Japan, and was published in 1712. 77. These are Tricholoma matsutake and are used for both food and medicine in Korea. 78. Aralia elata is a woody plant native to Korea, China, Japan, and eastern Russia. 79. Pteridium is a type of large, coarse fern in the family Dennstaedtiaceae. Known as kosari in Korea, it is both eaten as food and taken as medicine in Korea. 80. This is often meant in conjunction with sexual vitality for men. 81. Rumex crispus is a perennial flowering plant. 82. Bowuzhi is attributed to Zhang Hua (張華 232–300), a Western Jin dynas­ty (265–316) scholar and poet. 83. Impatiens balsamina. 84. P. frutescens var. crispa is one variety of Perilla frutescens, a perennial plant, found in Korea, China, and Japan. It has purplish-red leaves and is eaten either as a leaf or crushed for oil in Korea. 85. Tetradium daniellii is also known as the swi namu and is found in the central and southern parts of the Korean peninsula. 86. This is Cyperus exaltatus, a type of tall grass that grows through much of Asia. 87. This could be Zi Xiang (子先 1562–1633), who compiled a work on making salt. 88. Ch’ogwa is Lanxangia tsaoko, formally Amomum tsao-ko, a ginger-like plant that grows in high altitudes. 89. Amomi fructus is a seed that is used in traditional medicines in Korea and elsewhere. 90. This is paektanhyang (Santalum album), which is found in Korea, China, and India among other places. 91. This is honey that is boiled down to eliminate moisture.

240

Notes to Pages 134–137

92. Agyo (阿膠) is gelatin made from the hide of various animals. 93. Prunus mume. 94. It is not at all clear who this person might be. There was a King Yŏngyang (嬰陽王 r. 590–618) of the Koguryŏ kingdom (高句麗), but Chin seems to indicate the Chinese Qin (秦 221–206 BCE) dynasty. So, we have simply left this as written in the text. 95. This is a drink as opposed to the yuzu preserved in honey ( yuja chŏnggwa) mentioned above. 96. Paekpit’ang is simply boiled water. 97. This is the entirety of the recipe. 98. This entry was added to the manuscript at a later date and was simply a piece of paper with this recipe. The content is not particularly clear as well, but we have translated it as is. Chunggye is more commonly referred to as chungbaekki, a type of yumilgwa confection made from a mixture of grain flour, honey and sesame oil that is then fried. In general, chunggye are only used for ancestral rites. 99. In general, no honeyed fruit is used in making chunggye. 100. A ki is a vessel in which food is placed, and thus a unit of measure for food. 101. The entirety of this entry does not make much sense, but we have nonethe­ less translated it here.

Translation: Volume 4, Pregnancy and First Aid 1. This section is entitled Ch’ŏngnang kyŏl (靑囊訣 The blue pocket), a title borrowed from the Han dynasty physician Hua Tuo (華陀 ca. 140–208). 2. This is a medicine to prevent miscarriages. It combines one nyang (37.5 grams) each of tanggwi (Angelicae Gigantis Radix), paekchagyak (Paeoniae Radix Alba), paekch’ul (Atractylodis Rhizoma Alba), ch’ŏn’gung (Ligusticum wallichii Franchet), and hwanggŭm (Scutellariae Radix). 3. This medicine is used to prevent miscarriages and vaginal bleeding during pregnancy. It combines one-half nyang (18.75 grams) each of kamch’o (Glycyrrhizae Radix), kŏn’gang (Zingiberis Rhizoma Siccus), mokhyang (Aucklandiae Radix), omija (Schizandrae Fructus), insam (Ginseng Radix), ch’ŏn’gŭm (Ligustici Rhizoma), and agyoju (Asini Gelatinum), with one nyang each of tanggwi (Angelicae Gigantis Radix), tuch’ung (Eucommiae Cortex), paekchagyak (Paeoniae Radix Alba), paekch’ul (Atractylodis Rhizoma Alba) and hwan’gi (Astragali Radix). 4. This is a medicine to nourish the blood for those lacking both blood and vital energy (氣). It combines two nyang (75 grams) of tuch’ung (Eucommiae Cortex) with one nyang each of tanggwi (Angelicae Gigantis Radix), paekch’ul (Atractylodis Rhizoma Alba), soktan (Dipsaci Radix), sukchihwang (Rehmanniae Radix Preparat), agyo (Asini Gelatinum), ingmoch’o (Leonuri Herba), hwanggŭm (Scutellariae Radix), and hyangbumi (Cyperi Rhizoma). 5. Pangge (蟛蜞) is Helice tridens tridens, a species of crab that lives in the mudflats surrounding the Korean peninsula.



Notes to Pages 138–143 241

6. This seems to refer to the fifth constellation (張) of the twenty-eight celestial palaces (二十八宿) of the zodiac. 7. There is a similar method outlined in the Tongŭi pogam. 8.  Unghwang (雄黃) is orpiment, an arsenic sulfide mineral used in the production of arsenic. It is closely related to sŏgunghwang (石雄黃, realgar); orpiment is yellow to orange in color, while realgar is ruby red. The two minerals can also occur together. They were used as both ingredients in medicines and as pigments for paint. 9. Pyŏng and chŏng (-jŏng) are the third and fourth of the ten celestial stems. It also indicates a southern direction and fire as well. 10. Kyŏng and sin are the seventh and eight celestial stems, and equate to metal, white, and west. 11. Samgyŏng (三更) is from 11 p.m. until 1 a.m. 12. This work is no longer extant, and only fragments have been transmitted to the present. 13. T’aesal is an evil spirt that will harm or kill the fetus. 14. This is the door (戶) between the inside of the house and the outside space with wooden floors or the kitchen. 15. According to the Tongŭi pogam, it is where one lies down. 16. These are the ten celestial stems (天干) of the sexagenary cycle. 17. Hŏt’kan is a general storage shed that is most often door-less. 18. Kot’kan is a locked storage room for valuables such as grains like rice. 19. These are the twelve earthly branches of the sexagenary cycle. They are listed below in their order of 子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥, which is one (子) through twelve (亥). 20. These are the six days with the celestial stems of mu (戊) and ki (己) each in the sexagenary cycle. 21. This is recorded in the Tongŭi pogam. 22. Attributed to Chuang Tzu (莊子 365–290 BCE). 23. Yosin tan is a medicine described in the Tongŭi pogam to be used when delivery is slow. It calls for making a paste of three hulled p’adu seeds (巴豆 Croton tiglium) and seven hulled pimaja seeds (蓖麻子 Ricini semen) and mixing this with a small amount of musk (麝香 sahyang). This is then placed on the pregnant woman’s navel in order to hasten an easy delivery. The paste should be washed off as soon as the baby is delivered. 24. This is Codonopsis lanceolate, a flowering plant indigenous to East Asia. 25. Written in 1730. 26. 父母非時行於傍室. 27. While there is no definitive source for this, the medicine seems to contain realgar (雄黃), pearl granules (眞珠 Margarita), and a bright sand and honey mixture. 28. Wŏldŏk and wŏlgyong are deities associated with one’s saju (四柱), the socalled Four Pillars that determine one’s fate and fortune. 29. The three evils are inauspicious directions of kŏpsal, chaesal, and sesal (劫‌煞, 災煞, and 歲煞). 30. This is, literally, the direction of a closed stomach.

242

Notes to Pages 143–148

31. The seven holes of perception (七竅) are the two eyes, two nostrils, two ears (holes), and the mouth. 32. This is chep’ung (臍風), which can result if an infection appears after cutting the umbilical cord. The resultant hole from such an infection can cause death of the infant. This is known as chep’ung ch’anggu chung (臍風瘡口症). 33. Saeng chihwang (Rehmannia glutinosa) is commonly used in Korean medicines. Angelica gigas is mentioned above. Li (釐) is a unit of weight measure, although it is not clear exactly how much. The Tongŭi pogam, in mentioning this method, instructs to use one part of cinnabar per two parts of the umbilical cord powder. 34. Pal is an indiscriminate unit of length that is the span from one outreached hand to the other outreached hand. 35. Mt. Puyong (芙蓉峯 1432 m) is located in Northern P’yŏngan Province. It was thought that by burying an umbilical cord in an auspicious place, the child would gain benefit. This also might have another meaning, as puyong (芙蓉) also indicates a lotus. 36. Saju (四柱) are the four pillars that determine one’s fate. Salsŏng (殺星) is an inauspicious star that determines the fate of humans but can also cause an early death. It no longer applies after the age of twelve. 37. Yama (閻羅大王) is the king of the underworld. 38. This is yaje (夜啼) which is an infliction where the baby cries continuously at night. 39. In the three lines above, it is not clear if the text is referring to year, month, or time. Year seems most probable, but we have left it as is in the translation. 40. The meaning of kŭn is not clear—it could possibly indicate a root, but again, this is not clear. 41. She seems to have used a number of sources here according to her writing: Baojian (寶鑑 Precious mirror), a Yuan dynasty work; Wan bing hui chun (萬病回春 Recovery from ten thousand illnesses) by the Ming dynasty writer Gong Tingxian; Talsaeng-p’yŏn (澾生扁 Compilation of Master Tal) a work of an unknown writer and era; Tongja-gyŏng (童子經 Sutra of the child) also of an unknown writer and epoch; and Manbo chŏnsŏ (萬寶全書 Collection of ten thousand treasures) thought to be of the late Chosŏn period but by an unknown writer. 42. The Three Obediences are that a woman should first follow the opinions of her father, then those of her husband after marriage, and finally those of her son after the death of her husband. 43. These are all relations and associations of the Five Phases (五行). 44. Ch’angch’ul is Atractylis koreana Nakai and paekch’ul is Atractylodis Rhizoma Alba. Both are used in medicines. 45. This is Pinellia ternata, also known as crow dipper. This is used in medicines and is indigenous to Korea, China, and Japan. 46. Fallopia multiflora is a flowering plant in the buckwheat family used in medicines. It is also known as tuber fleece flower. 47. This is Picrorhiza scrophulariiflora. 48. Asparagus cochinchinensis.



Notes to Pages 148–159 243

49. Achyranthes japonica, which is also known as the Oriental chaff flower. 50. Aconitum racemulosum var. austrokoreense 51. Aconitum carmichaeli Debx. 52. Liriope muscari also known as lily turf. 53. Xanthium strumarium, also known as cocklebur. 54. Platycodon grandifloras is commonly known as toraji in Korea. 55. Bian Que (扁鵲 d. 310 BCE) was a famous doctor in China during the Warring States period. 56. Pinellia ternata. 57. Zanthoxylum piperitum, also known as Korean peppercorn (ch’ŏnch’o). 58. Platycladus orientalis. 59. Chŏn was a unit of money used in Chosŏn. As a unit of measure, the amount is unclear. 60. A wildcat or leopard, but not a feral cat. The length, not including tail, is 55–90 cm, with a tail of 25–32 cm. The hind legs are around 13 cm in length, so this animal is larger than the domesticated cat. Its eyes are also considerably larger. 61. Sophora, known in Korean as the hoehoe namu kkot, is a genus of about fortyfive species of small trees and shrubs in the pea family Fabaceae.  62. Mysidacea are shrimp-like crustaceans. 63. In the Tongŭi pogam this is written as Silgwa tok (Poisoning from Fruit), so it seems to have been miswritten here. 64. Glauberite is a monoclinic sodium calcium sulfate mineral used in medicines in East Asia. 65. These are Uroctea lesserti, known as nap kŏmi or pyŏkchŏn (壁錢) in Korea. 66. Lady Yi writes sikkyŏng (食頃), which is the amount of time to eat a bowl of rice. This is about thirty minutes. 67. These are sohaphwan (蘇合丸), small BB-sized balls composed of various herbs/medicines. 68. Leonurus Herba. 69. Artemisia princeps, known as ssuk in Korea. 70. Called karoe in Korean, these beetles are members of the family Meloidae. 71. The text is not particularly clear here, but “it” would seem to refer to the leech. 72. Ch’ŏnjŭngŏ is not clear, but it seems to be a type of fish. 73. This is Tetradium ruticarpum (吳茱萸), a tree native to Korea and parts of China. The fruit is commonly used in medicine. 74. What is meant here is to get a bird, gut it, and then place the hollowed-out body of the bird on the wound. 75. Chŏngmi (丁未) years are part of the sexagenary sixty-year cycle. Some examples are 1739, 1799, and 1859. 76. The text informs that she was born in a kyesa (癸巳) year, which is twentysix years before a chŏngmi year. Thus, her age would have been twenty-seven (since traditional age-reckoning counts the child as a year old at birth). 77. Paekt’osaeng is not ascertainable.

244

Notes to Pages 160–167

78. This is based on the interrelationships of the Five Phases. Metal (金) is able to govern/regulate wood (木). 79. Same as above. Fire (火) can govern/regulate metal (金). 80. Known by various names including the ppong namu, this is the Morus alba. 81. Anhoeŭm is a medicine containing 26.25 grams of dried chestnut (乾栗 kŏnyul), 3.75 grams of alumen (白礬 paekpan), 5.625 grams of Asian honeysuckle (‌使‌君子 sagunja, Quisqualis indica Linne) 3.75 grams of sweet flag (石菖蒲 sŏkch’angp’o, Acorus gramineus), and 26.25 grams of Semen Coicis (薏苡仁 ŭiiin). 82. The ninth month is missing, but probably should be here since there are instructions above to make twelve bundles of leaves. 83. The text reads parŭl pusugo, but the meaning of this is not clear. 84. The Bodhisattva of Mercy. This is also recorded in the Chŭngbo sallim kyŏngje (增補山林經濟 Augmented rural household management). 85. 救苦觀世音, 施我大安樂,賜我大方便, 滅我愚痴暗, 除却諸障礙, 無明諸罪惡, 出我眼室中, 使我視物光, 我今說是偈, 洗懺眼識罪, 普放淨光明, 願覩微妙相. 86. These coins have holes in the center so that they could be strung together and carried. 87. No information is available on this work. 88. This story is recorded in the Taiping Guangji (太平廣記 Extensive records of the Taiping era), a Song dynasty collection of five hundred volumes compiled in 983. 89. Lady Yi refers to nobi (奴婢) in the text. 90. 理中湯 is a medicine commonly prescribed for abdominal pain. 91. There is no record of this work at present. 92. Hyŏlmin is unconsciousness and feeling of pressure on chest due to blood stasis and blood deficiency, usually found in women who have recently given birth. 93. A government official of Song China. 94. The famous poet of Tang China, also known as 蘇東坡 (1037–1101) 95. This is taken from the Zhuyi (易經 Book of changes), but the meaning is not clear. 96. This is Gelsemium elegans, also known as heartbreak grass, and is a poisonous grass found widely in Asia. 97. Salvinia natans, an annual floating aquatic fern. 98. This is perhaps in reference to the Ming dynasty work Meigong mijiwen (‌眉‌公祕笈文 Strange treasure by Meigong), written by Chen Jiru (陳繼儒 1558–1639).  99. This might be a work that was part of the Kaiyuan daozang (開元道藏) a work compiled in the fifth century by Lu Xiujing (陸修靜). See Victor Cunrui Xiong, Historical Dictionary of Medieval China (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), 127. 100. This was added from loose papers found in the first volume of this work and the annotator added it here. 101. This is a medicine with various ingredients used for all manner of bites, scrapes, cuts, and the like. 102. A famous Tang China physician who died in 682. 103. That is, the il wŏl song sin (日月星辰) that are recorded on the calendar.



Notes to Pages 167–176 245

104. This work was written by Yi Ch’angjŏng (李昌庭 1573–1625) in 1620. 105. The mythical god of rain in Chinese tradition. 106. This is lead monoxide or lead (II) oxide. 107. Li was one of the most prominent generals in the early Tang dynasty and led the army that defeated Koguryŏ (高句麗). 108. Lu was a government official under Renzong. 109. This is one of the eight trigrams (卦) used for divination. 110. Known as the pulgŭn mŏri omok nuni, this bird is a species of parrotbill. 111. A literary miscellany compiled by Yi Yuwŏn (李裕元 1814–1888). Seeing how Lady Yi compiled The Encyclopedia from 1809 for a period of about ten years, it is highly unlikely that she would have had access to the work cited here (and Yi Yuwŏn certainly had not compiled his work by the age of five years old either). This entry was most likely added by one of her daughters or daughters-in-law. 112. This is akin to not knowing the letter “a” in the English alphabet. This is the old Korean saying of “Nat nok’o kiyŏkcha-do morŭnda.” 113. Wang is counted as one of the four great poets of early Tang. 114. Unknown: nothing is found on this term. 115. A contagious skin disease for a baby which has occurred before delivery. 116. A Late Chosŏn miscellany compiled by Chang Cho (張潮). 117. Shu Qi and his brother Bo Yi (伯夷) lived during the transition from the Shang to Zhou dynasty. They are known for their upstanding moral virtue and belief in pacification. 118. It is not clear who this is. 119. These are joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, and lust. 120. It is not clear what is referred to here. Ŭigong has a number of meanings such as medical know-how (醫工), an official position in Chosŏn (議功), or an ant hole (蟻孔), but none of these work in this case. 121. The Four Friends of a scholar are the writing brush, paper, ink, and an inkstone. 122. The meaning of the last part of this line is unclear. 123. This (茜根) is also known as kkoktusŏni. 124. This is one of the twenty-four divisions of the year and falls after the onset of summer (立夏) and before mangjung (茫種). 125. These are twelve- and six-stringed zithers respectively. 126. This is achieved by mixing cold and boiling water together. 127. The mugi direction is that of the fifth and sixth celestial stems, and implies the center of all things. 128. This indicates the star of the year based on the sexagenary cycle (干支). 129. The dhole (iri, Cuon alpinus) is also known as the Asiatic wild dog and is indigenous to Central, South, and Southeast Asia. 130. This line is added from the T’abon manuscript. 131. Mars does not actually belong to the twenty-eight celestial palaces of the zodiac.

246

Notes to Pages 176–182

132. To be clear, “zodiac” here does not imply the Western concept of said term, but rather refers to various stars within the four divisions of the sky (north, south, east, and west), each containing twenty-eight stars. 133. The ninth zodiac of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the northern direction. 134. The twenty-seventh zodiac of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the southern direction. 135. Not one of the twenty-eight celestial palaces. 136. The thirteenth of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the northern direction. 137. The fourth zodiac of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the eastern direction. 138. The eleventh of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the north direction. 139. This is the first hour of the traditional twelve divisions of the day. 140. The origins of this work are not able to be ascertained. 141. This is a chapter in Shan hai jing (山海經 Classic of the mountains and sea), a Warring States period work of unknown authorship. 142. The nineteenth of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the western direction. 143. This is a mythical bird in East Asian lore, similar to a chicken, but with long red feathers; when it cries, it does so with the five tones (五音). 144. Written by Duan Chengshi (段成式 d. 863) of Tang China. 145. This star in the northern sky is said to govern uprisings, disasters, and life and death. 146. The changsu-sŏk (長壽石). 147. Both are inauspicious days of the calendar. 148. The twelfth zodiac of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the northern direction. 149. Some varieties of rhododendron are toxic to both animals and people. 150. Written by Zhang Dan (張丹, b. 1619). 151. The thirteenth zodiac of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the southern direction. 152. This is a type of wasp. 153. This plant is commonly used as medicine and belongs to the same scientific genus as ginseng. 154. This is a Qing dynasty book of the Daoist arts/magic. 155. Mozi (墨子 470–391 BCE) was an important philosopher during the early Warring States period in China. The above cited work, Mozi yaolu, is perhaps a reference to the writings of Mozi. 156. One of the “Four Deities” (四神) and charged with the eastern direction. 157. This work is not presently ascertainable. 158. A mythical creature that lives in water, the kyo dragon has a body like a snake, a red breast, and blue scales. 159. This is derived from a plant species in the genus Lysimachia. 160. An unknown work. 161. (自鳴槐). The pagoda tree (Styphnolobium japonicum) is native to East Asia.



Notes to Pages 183–191 247

162. This seems a Chinese work of an unknown period. 163. Unknown. 164. An unknown work. 165. A type of calligraphy featuring block-style letters oftentimes used for ink stamps. 166. This is the goddess of smallpox, also referred to as the hogu pyŏlsŏng (戶‌口 別星). 167. An unknown work. 168. One of the twenty-four traditional divisions of the calendar. 169. The meaning of this is not clear. 170. It is not clear if “Changsamhyŏn” is a person, thing, or insect. 171. This is a day to hold ancestor rites. Before the Chosŏn dynasty this was the third sulil day (戌日) after the winter solstice and thereafter on the third miil day (未日) after the winter solstice. 172. One of the twenty-four divisions of the year, ch’ŏngmyŏng (淸明) falls between ch’unbun (春分) and kog’u (穀雨). 173. This work dates to the second century BCE but was revised and augmented through the Song dynasty. 174. The meaning of the following line, “노국은 수국꽃이니 꽃이 안 핀다,” is not clear. 175. Hyŏn hak has the same pronunciation as 衒學, which indicates a pedant. 176. It is not clear where or what this is. 177.  The sixth zodiac of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the eastern direction. 178. The 太乙星 is a star in the northern sky said to be the abode of yin and yang. Here lives a deity that governs life and death, calamity and war. 179. Bai Jiyu (白居易 772–846) was a famous scholar-statesman of Tang China. 180. Zengzi (505–435 BCE) was a disciple of Confucius and known as one of the Four Sages of Confucianism. He was also known for his great filial piety. 181. Shu was a kingdom in present day Sichuan Province and fell in 316 BCE. 182. The eighteenth zodiac of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the western direction. 183. Boiled dog meat used at rites held at Chongmyo, the Royal Shrine. 184. The sixteenth zodiac of the twenty-eight celestial palaces in the western direction. 185. Given as 兌星 but this is not identifiable. However, 台星 with the same pronunciation refers to the Three Tae Stars (上台, 中台, and 下台). 186. Not clear what this means. 187. The meaning of changsŭp is not clear. 188. The meaning of the sentence “녹재토이 각발어희주의린자.” is not clear and thus deleted. 189. The identity of this man (Chin Chajin) is not ascertainable. 190. Su-gung (protect the palace): Feed jumping spiders cinnabar and have them grow large. Pound them and apply to a woman’s body. This will turn into a

248

Notes to Pages 192–197

red spot and never disappear until she dies, unless she has sexual intercourse with a man. It is thus called su-gung as it can stop women from being promiscuous. 191. A philosopher of the Warring States period (370–287 BCE). 192. Nonghwan is a game that involves throwing a ball. 193. Angelica gigas. 194. This text, translated as “Notes to things old and new,” is an encyclopedic work attributed to the Jin dynasty (晉265–420) scholar Cui Bao (崔豹). It was subsequently supplemented and included in many later works. 195. The meaning of this sentence is not clear. 196. Unknown. 197. The text reads toin, but it is not clear if this is 道人 or some other meaning. 198. Clearly whales do not give birth to calves in such numbers, but this is what is written in the text. 199. The Eastern Country (東國) refers to Chosŏn. 200. A fish in the family Engraulidae (anchovies). 201. Added from the Yŏngp’yŏng-sa version by the annotator. 202. Added from the Yŏngp’yŏng-sa version by the annotator. 203. Yakkwa are confections made from a mixture of kneaded grain flour, honey, and sesame oil that are pressed into various shapes and fried. 204. These are the same dumplings mentioned above as Mr. Pyŏn’s dumplings. This was also added from the Yŏngp’yŏng-sa version of the text. 205. Sŏkpakchi kimch’i is largely sliced cabbage, radish, and cucumber mixed kimch’i. 206. The original manuscript is damaged here, so it is not clear what came from Uljin. 207. Nine times steamed and nine times dried foxglove. 208. Injŏlmi is a type of sweet rice cake coated with powder, and sikhye is a sweet rice punch. 209. The millet ( p’i, Echinochloa frumentacea) and early-ripening rice (oryŏ) were added from the Yŏngp’yŏng-sa version of the text. 210. The red crossbill (chat-sae, Loxia curvirostra) is added from the Yŏngp’yŏngsa version. 211. These are the insignias worn on court robes that would indicate either senior or junior rank and civil or military appointment. 212. Added from the Yŏngp’yŏng-sa version. 213. Hwagakki are thin wooden and bull horn plates. Sojŏp are small dishes. Chungnyŏkko (竹瀝膏) is a type of bamboo-distilled liquor, so a type of soju. 214. A type of distilled liquor made from gromwell root (chich’i) and honey. 215. The text refers to 鼠, a member of the Muroidea superfamily that includes various rodents from all over the world. 216. Not clear what these brushes might be. 217. A type of acorn-sized chestnut that naturally sheds it shell when sundried. It is sweet in taste. 218. It is uncertain which tree this is, but there is a record in the Qidan guo zhi



Notes to Pages 197–207 249

(契丹國志 Records of the Khitan kingdom) that mentions a knife case made of this wood (無灰木刀把) and another in the Bencao refers to pulhoe mok (不灰木). 219. This is pari anbae, or nowadays sep’o, a very fine-textured hemp cloth. 220. These are names of liquors. 221. Not clear what this is (땅진니능혀). 222. Perhaps a type of wood (雪夜木), but not ascertainable. 223. A type of rock evidently. 224. Ch’ŏngmyŏng (淸明) is one of the traditional twenty-four divisions of the calendar and is in the mid-spring. Also made in this place is soyŏŭl, but it is not clear what that is. 225. It is not clear what ch’on’gwan might be. 226. Also called karakchi namul, this plant is a common ingredient in medicines. 227. Yakpap is steamed glutinous rice mixed with jujubes, chestnuts, sesame oil, honey, and soy sauce. 228. Digestive medicine fermented with a mixture of hulled wheat, smashed plums, red beans, Oriental wormwood, and xanthium fruit. 229. A type of medicine taken for various ailments such as coldness, painful stomach or abdomen, diarrhea, and others. 230. Pokhak (腹瘧) is a children’s disease characterized by coldness, weakness of the body, and bruises (in the shape of a terrapin) on their stomachs. 231. This is muscle pain. 232. An unknown book evidently. 233. There were kihae (己亥) years in 1779 when Lady Yi was twenty years and again in 1839 after her death. So, this must be in reference to an event of 1779. 234. This date was certainly added much later after Lady Yi had died. 235. This is a type of medicinal food to be taken on the winter solstice. 236. The annotations state that this was written on a piece of paper, so it must have been added to the manuscript after she had finished the main volumes. Tongbŏp is taken from tongt’inada and means to incur the wrath of the earth gods. 237. Kabo (甲午) years fell in 1774, 1834 and 1894, so this must indicate 1774 when Lady Yi was fifteen years old (if in fact she wrote this). 238. Like the above, this is written on a separate piece of paper outside the manuscript. 239. Ŭlsa (乙巳) years fell in 1785, 1845, and 1905, so this must have been in 1785 when Lady Yi was twenty-six years old. 240. There is no reference to when or for what this last prescription should be used but does not seem to be for a toothache.

Appendix 2: The Sexagenary Cycle 1. Adam Smith, “The Chinese Sexagenary Cycle and the Ritual Origins of the Calendar,” in Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World, ed. John Steele (Oxford: Oxbow, 2011).

250

Notes to Pages 208–211

2. The completion of the sixty-year cycle was an auspicious event in premodern Korea known as hwan’gap (還甲, return to the birth year), and still celebrated by some in contemporary Korea.

Appendix 3: Twenty-Four Divisions of the Year 1. See Keith Pratt and Richard Rutt, Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary (Richmond: Curzon, 1999), 488.

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Pettid, Michael J. “Late Chosŏn Society as Reflected in a Shamanistic Narrative: An Analysis of the Pari kongju muga.” Korean Studies 24 (2000): 113–141. Pettid, Michael J. “Science, Food, and Health in Chosŏn Korea.” In The Routledge History of Food. Edited by Carol Helstosky. London: Routledge, 2015. Pettid, Michael J., Gregory N. Evon, and Chan E. Park, eds. Premodern Korean Literary Prose: An Anthology. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018. Pratt, Keith, and Richard Rutt. Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary. Richmond, UK: Curzon Press, 1999. Pu, Kilman. Chosŏn sidae panggak-pon ch’ulp’an yŏn’gu [A study of panggak-pon publishing in the Chosŏn dynasty]. Seoul: Sŏul ch’ulp’an midia, 2003. Ro, Sang-ho. “Chosŏn hugi tongmul-e taehan chisik kwa kirok: Hanbando sŏsik sigyungmok [식육목 Carnivora] ŭi sarye rŭl chunsimŭro” [The knowledge and records on animals in the late Chosŏn period: The case of Carnivora on the Korean peninsula]. Han’gukhak yŏn’gu 60 (2017): 7–48. Smith, Adam. “The Chinese Sexagenary Cycle and the Ritual Origins of the Calendar.” Pp. 1–37 in Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World. Edited by John Steele. Oxford: Oxbow, 2011. Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1991. Suh, Soyoung. Naming the Local: Medicine, Language, and Identity in Korea since the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2017. Walraven, Boudewijn. “Popular Religion in a Confucianized Society.” Pp. 160–198 in Culture and the State in Late Chosŏn Korea. Edited by JaHyun Kim Haboush and Martina Deuchler. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999. Xiong, Victor Cunrui. Historical Dictionary of Medieval China. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. Yi Chonghyŏn and Chŏng Chini eds. Yakch’o: Nadŭri togam [Medicinal plants: A pictorial field book]. P’aju: Pori, 2016. Yi Hŏnch’ang. Han’guk kyŏngjesa che 3 p’an [The economic history of Korea, 3rd ed.]. Seoul: Pŏbmunsa, 2006. Yi Hyesun. Chosŏnjo hugi yŏsŏng chisŏngsa [Female intellectual history in the late Chosŏn dynasty]. Seoul: Ihwa yŏja taehakkyo ch’ulp’anbu, 2008. Yi Hyoji. Han’guk ŭi ŭmsik munhwa [Food culture of Korea]. Seoul: Sin’gwang ch’ulp’ansa, 2006. Yi Minsu, ed. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ [Encyclopedia of women’s daily lives]. Seoul: Kirinwŏn, 1988. Yi Sugyŏng and Hong Sunsŏk, eds. T’aegyo sin’gi [New guidelines for prenatal care]. Seoul: Han’guk munhwasa, 2011. Yi Ŭnbong. Han’guk in ŭi chugŭm kwan [Korean’s view of death]. Seoul: Sŏul taehakkyo ch’ulp’anbu, 2004. Yun Sukcha, ed. Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ [Encyclopedia of women’s daily lives]. Seoul: Paeksan ch’ulp’ansa, 2014.

Index

abalone, 64, 74, 84, 96, 97, 197, 235n194, 236n24; in kimch’i, 77; recipes, 86, 99, 101 Angelica gigas, 34, 103, 106, 115, 144, 218, 227n112, 237n28, 237n36, 242n33, 248n93 arrowroot, 29, 59, 60, 70, 71, 152, 186, 213 artemisia, 95, 173, 184, 213, 219, 243n69 beef, 39, 40, 70, 77, 88, 194, 198, 236n24, 237n27; in chŏnyak, 203; health benefits, 23; poisoning from, 90–91, 95, 150–151, 165; in preparation of chang, 64, 66; in preparation of kimch’i, 74; recipes, 78, 91–93, 96, 98, 99–100, 101– 103; taboos, 148 Bencao kangmu, 60, 64, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 94, 95, 96, 98, 99, 101, 123, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168, 169, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 213, 231n106, 248n218 boils, 213; cures for, 159, 165, 166, 168 Buddhism, 16, 21, 28, 227n9, 229n77; sutras, 25, 142–143, 188 carp, 40, 198, 214; as medicine, 158, 182; recipes, 78–81; taboos, 22, 90, 96, 101, 148 centipedes, 99, 179, 187; bites, 156; eliminating, 184, 185; if swallowed, 157 chang, 31, 225n67, 231n119, 232n125, 232n129, 232n139; importance of, 22; recipes, 62–67, 90; as seasoning, 92 Chasan ŏbo, 7–8, 213 Chibong yusŏl, 7, 47, 163, 194, 213, 230n80 chicken, 78, 90, 93, 96, 102, 173, 175, 177, 183, 189, 194, 236n24; bones, 158; in chang, 64; and changing gender of a fetus, 138–139; droppings of, 32, 152, 172; as medicine, 157, 163, 182, 204; poison-

ing from, 151; recipes, 83, 97, 99–101; taboos, 80, 101, 137 childbirth, 23, 25, 37, 225n80; best practices, 141–144; problems arising from, 162, 164 ch’ŏnmundong, 122, 148, 171, 214; as medicine, 182 chrysanthemum, 215, 233n150; in food, 101, 112; in liquor, 53, 54; as medicine, 59, 159; in tea, 72 Chŭngbo sallim kyŏngje, 8, 214, 244n84 Confucianism, 6, 7, 10, 24, 26; and Lady Yi, 21; and other worldviews, 25; and scholarship by women, 14 convulsions, 78, 137, 202, 214. See also p’ungbyŏng cookbooks, 20, 31 cows, 98, 141, 173, 176, 177, 178, 183; and bees, 179; medicinal use, 59, 203; milk, 149; selling of, 175 crab, 37, 176, 184, 194, 196, 197, 217, 235n203, 241n5; as medicine, 162–163; poisoning from, 152; properties of, 26, 147; recipes, 87–90, 100, 102, 133, 173; taboos, 87, 89, 90, 129, 137 cranes, 172, 177, 178, 187, 195; supernatural powers of, 172 crows, 177, 178, 189; and squids, 83; supernatural powers of, 183 deer, 40, 42, 72, 176, 190, 196, 197; health benefits, 95; musk of, 231n114; taboos, 43, 149 delivery of a baby, 25; problems during, 141, 142–143, 167, 241n23; safe, 141 dog, 39, 195, 196, 197, 247n183; bites from, 155, 170; health benefits, 23; poisoning from, 151; recipes, 94–95; taboos, 90–91, 101, 137, 148

255

256

Index

duckweed, 41, 61, 148, 214; for eliminating insects, 172, 185 dung: cat, 156; cow, 173; dog, 152; hawk, 22, 59; horse, 67, 128; human, 152, 153, 155; sheep, 182 dysentery, 214; cures for, 32, 163, 167, 200

injŏlmi, 53, 113, 195, 199, 248n208 insam, 215, 240n3. See also ginseng intoxication, 44, 47, 52, 173; and animals, 179, 190; and maintaining health, 58, 150, 156; preventing, 13, 59; and sickness, 58, 200; and sobering up, 58, 60, 134

East Asian Cosmology, 22, 25–26, 207 fetus: avoiding harm to, 25, 32, 37, 137, 138, 139, 140–141, 241n13; determining sex of, 3, 16, 24, 32, 138, 139. See also gender; male child preference Five Phases, 22, 30, 97, 162, 178, 214, 225n72, 227n1, 234n17; interaction of, 26–27, 32, 242n43, 244n78; and the sexagenary cycle, 207 five-taste berry, 214, 233n146, 237n37. See also omija fleas, 29, 179; eliminating, 172, 185, 186 Four Pillars, 32, 214, 241n28, 242n36. See also saju gender: changing of a fetus, 24, 16, 138–139; determining of a fetus, 3, 138. See also fetus; male child preference ghosts, 46, 140, 168, 180, 187, 193, 229n77; expulsion of, 87; night terror by, 150; and pollution, 25; protection from, 27, 141, 162 ginseng, 141, 195, 197, 215, 240n3. See also insam glutinous rice: in chang, 65, 67; in confections, 103–108, 110–111, 113–118; in liquor, 49–57; recipes, 69–70, 100, 227n6, 238n53, 238n54, 249n227; taboos, 101. See also rice han’gŭl, 30, 33, 215 Hanjungnok, 4, 215 herring, 73, 79, 80, 196, 215, 217, 233n166; fermented, 83, 84 Hŏ Chun, 6, 215, 225n74 horses, 162, 172, 183, 198; bites from, 155; dung, 67, 128; as medicine, 182; poisoning from, 151; taboos, 137 Imwŏn simnyuk chi, 8–9, 17, 215 indigestion, 152, 160, 199–200, 201, 203

kimch’i, 37, 195, 233n151, 233n157, 233n160, 234n178, 248n205; recipes for, 73–77, 86 kimjang, 73, 215, 233n151 Korean angelica root, 72, 192, 215. See also tangwi Koryŏ dynasty, 6, 46, 221n3, 227n9, 228n42, 230n78 Kuhwang ch’waryo, 23, 216 Kyech’uk ilgi, 4, 10, 216 Lady Chang, 9, 14, 18, 216, 221n8, 222n22. See also Ŭmsik timibang Lady Yi Pinghŏgak, 8–10, 16; and contents of the Kyuhap ch’ongsŏ, 20–30; life, 17–19, 20; marriage, 8, 18; worldview, 30–33; writing style, 33–34; and Yi ­Sajudang, 9–10 Lady Yi Sajudang, 9, 23, 219. See also T’aegyo sin’gi lamb, 39, 40, 42, 236n24; droppings, 158; as medicine, 95; poisoning from, 90, 95, 151; recipes, 99, 101; taboos, 148; wool, 199 Li Bai (Li Taibai), 45, 46, 216, 229n62, 229n67 lice, 29, 179; eliminating, 186; preventing, 130 Lizhi, 39, 97, 136, 189, 190, 216 magpies, 174, 177, 178, 188, 189 makkŏlli, 27, 58, 95, 109, 116, 163, 216, 237n40, 238n58 malaria, 29, 87, 167, 200, 216 male child preference: changing gender to, 32, 138–139; importance of, 3, 24, 25. See also fetus; gender meju, 63–65, 216, 232n125 Mencius, 28, 86, 171, 235n200 minari, 95, 152; cooking with, 81, 94; in kimch’i, 74, 76. See also water parsley

mosquitoes, 29, 190, 192; eliminating, 29, 172, 185 mother brew, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 216, 230n87 mushrooms, 195, 217; maple, 153, 216; pine, 77, 112, 127; poisoning from, 153; pokryŏng, 105; p’yogo, 78, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103; recipes, 102; taboos, 97, 129, 137, 148 newborn babies, 147; and bad spirits, 146– 147; care of, 143, 145; predicting fate of, 146; taboos, 64 omija, 106, 113, 119, 123, 124. See also fivetaste berry oral literature, 11, 13, 16, 30, 33, 34 oysters, 84, 194, 197; and chang, 65; in kimch’i, 73 Pari kongju, 15–16, 21 pheasant, 80, 177, 185, 194, 217; in kimch’i, 75; poisoning from, 151, 152; recipes, 64, 78, 93, 96, 97–98, 99–100, 101–102, 103; taboos, 80, 101 pigs, 96, 183, 189; bites from, 156; taboos, 98; tails, 181 pomegranates, 126, 171, 175, 196; in kimch’i, 75; in liquor, 43; in tea, 123 pork, 31–32, 39–40, 78; in kimch’i, 75; as medicine, 153, 157, 158; poisoning from, 90–91, 150; recipes, 96–97, 99–103; to rid flies, 186; taboos, 80, 95–96, 98, 148–149 prenatal care, 21, 23, 37, 218; best practices, 24, 136–138; taboos, 137; in the T’aegyo sin’gi, 9; and t’aesal, 139–140; in the Tongŭi pogam, 6 puffer fish, 22, 86, 217; poisoning from, 82; recipes, 81–82 p’ungbyŏng, 78, 231n105, 233n163. See also convulsions Pyŏngja ilgi, 4, 217 rabbit, 172, 176, 177, 190; as medicine, 170; taboos, 24, 43, 137 rats, 29, 176, 177; eliminating, 28, 29, 173, 184–185; and the Five Phases, 178; for magic, 183–184; as medicine, 169

Index

257

red pepper, 196, 197; and koch’ujang, 65, 78, 85, 92, 93, 94, 231n119; leaves, 77; as medicine, 167; as seasoning, 66, 73–74, 83, 101 rice, 22, 37, 39–40, 87, 127, 195, 234n177; in chang, 65–68; in confections, 118–119, 132, 238n54; and the Five Phases, 27, 175, 178; in liquor, 47, 49–57, 230n87; as medicine, 29, 151, 153, 200, 201; recipes, 68–70; in rice cakes, 104–117, 237n38; taboos, 101, 137. See also glutinous rice rock ear lichen, 218, 236n13, 238n45. See also sŏgi saju, 146, 218, 241n28, 242n36. See also Four Pillars Sallim kyŏngje, 8, 65, 67, 79, 88, 95, 133, 218, 233n164, 244n84 sea cucumber, 70, 85–86, 96, 97, 99, 101, 197, 236n24 sexagenary cycle, 184, 207–210; auspicious days, 48; inauspicious days, 48 shamanism, 224n43; incantations, 24; narratives, 12, 15–17, 34; rituals, 224n44 shamans, 30, 37, 224n43 sheep, 95, 178, 183, 190; flesh, 40; horn, 184 Shijing, 48, 188, 189, 218 sirhak, 5, 6, 10 slaves, 28 smallpox deity, 184, 218, 247n166 snakes, 41, 97, 129, 161, 172, 176, 177, 179, 186, 187; bites, 37, 156, 162, 182; taboos, 137, 184 Sŏ Hosu, 8, 218 Sŏ Yugu, 8–9, 17, 218 sŏgi, 98, 101, 103, 238n45; in rice cakes, 109– 110. See also rock ear lichen soju, 52, 55, 57, 68, 114, 248n213 Sŏngho sasŏl, 5, 218 soy sauce, 22, 37, 39, 40, 66–67, 70, 76–77, 80, 103, 231n119; auspicious days for brewing, 62; and fish, 81, 83, 88–89; importance of, 62; inauspicious days for brewing, 62–63; and meat, 92–94, 97–99, 101; and medicinal rice, 69, 227n6, 249n227; as medicine, 160, 167; recipes, 65; and soup, 78; and taboos, 64; and water, 63–64, 232n126

258

Index

soybeans, 64, 231n119; as medicine, 154; and soy sauce, 65; and soybean paste, 66–67 squid, 83, 187 Su Dongpo (Su Shi), 45, 47, 179, 218, 229n63, 230n81 swallows, 174, 178, 184, 188 taboos: food, 22, 24, 137; medicine, 24, 37, 137 T’aegyo sin’gi, 9, 23, 218. See also Lady Yi Sajudang t’aesal, 24–25, 139–140, 218, 241n13 talisman, 16, 29, 141, 170, 178, 184 tangwi, 72, 106, 107, 109, 128, 136, 194. See also Korean angelica root terrapin, 85–86, 173; taboos, 24, 43, 90, 137 Three Obediences, 26, 147, 219, 242n42 tigers, 178–179, 183, 190; and the Five Phases, 26, 147, 172, 174; protection from, 27, 162, 182 tofu, 64, 90, 102, 202, 237n43; indigestion from, 201; poisoning from, 150 Tongŭi pogam, 6–7, 24, 58, 70, 105, 141, 219, 241n7, 241n15, 241n21, 241n23, 242n33, 243n63 toothaches, 58, 164, 199, 204 umbilical cord, 37; caring for, 142–143, 242n32; cutting of, 143; disposal of, 25, 143, 144–145, 226n83, 242n35 Ŭmsik timibang, 9, 14, 31, 219, 221n8. See also Lady Chang

Unyŏng-jŏn, 11–13, 219 urine, 143, 155, 169, 177, 202; cat’s as medicine, 157; child’s as medicine, 59, 142, 152, 154, 159, 160 vinegar, 40, 79, 80, 88, 100–101, 129, 179, 202; auspicious days for brewing, 67; importance of, 62; inauspicious days for brewing, 67; and meat, 93–95, 96; as medicine, 32, 153, 154, 155, 156, 158, 159, 165, 168, 204; recipes, 67–68; taboos, 90–91, 149 water parsley, 95, 152, 219; cooking with, 81, 94, 96, 98, 99, 101; in kimch’i, 74, 76. See also minari wine, 9, 18, 22, 58, 88, 173, 174, 229n70; auspicious days for brewing, 48; brewing problems, 57; in cooking, 68, 71, 78–79, 108–109, 111, 114–116; inauspicious days for brewing, 48; recipes, 47–57, 62; taboos, 58, 90; types, 44–45, 196 yangban, 17, 25, 28, 219, 226n81 yellow corvina, 58, 73, 74, 81, 84, 194, 219 Yi Ik, 5, 7, 219 Yi Sugwang, 7, 220, 230n80 yin and yang, 24, 30, 37, 60, 61, 174, 247n178; cosmology thereof, 22, 26, 32, 147, 174, 193; and gender of a fetus, 138–139; and liquor, 58

About the Translators

Michael J. Pettid is professor of Korean studies at Binghamton University. He has written widely on premodern Korea’s history, literature, and folk customs, most recently Unyŏng-jŏn: A Love Affair at the Royal Palace of Chosŏn Korea (2009) and Korean Cuisine: An Illustrated History (2008). He is coeditor of Premodern Korean Literary Prose: An Anthology (2018), Women and Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea: New Perspectives (2011), and Death Mourning and the Afterlife in Korea: From Ancient to Contemporary Times (2014). Kil Cha is an independent scholar and translator of both academic articles and source texts, including Unyŏng-jŏn: A Love Affair at the Royal Palace of Chosŏn Korea and “Diary of the Kyech’uk Year.”

Korean Classics Library: Historical Materials

Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era edited by Christopher P. Hanscom, Walter K. Lew, and Youngju Ryu

A Chinese Traveler in Medieval Korea: Xu Jing’s Illustrated Account of the Xuanhe Embassy to Koryŏ translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Sem Vermeersch

Seeking Order in a Tumultuous Age: The Writings of Chŏng Tojŏn, a Korean Neo-­ Confucian translated and with an introduction by David M. Robinson

Korea’s Premier Collection of Classical Literature: Selections from Sŏ Kŏjŏng’s ­Tong­munsŏn translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Xin Wei and James B. Lewis

A Korean Scholar’s Rude Awakening in Qing China: Pak Chega’s Discourse on Northern Learning translated and annotated by Byonghyon Choi, Seung B. Kye, and Timothy V. Atkinson

Tales of the Strange by a Korean Confucian Monk: Kŭmo sinhwa by Kim Sisŭp translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Dennis Wuerthner

The Encyclopedia of Daily Life: A Woman’s Guide to Living in Late-Chosŏn Korea translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Michael J. Pettid and Kil Cha

Korean Classics Library: Philosophy and Religion

Salvation through Dissent: Tonghak Heterodoxy and Early Modern Korea George L. Kallander

Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun Kim Iryŏp, translated by Jin Y. Park

A Handbook of Buddhist Zen Practice translated by John Jorgensen

Korea’s Great Buddhist-Confucian Debate: The Treatises of Chŏng Tojŏn (Sambong) and Hamhŏ Tŭkt’ong (Kihwa) translated and with an introduction by A. Charles Muller

A Korean Confucian Way of Life and Thought: The Chasŏngnok (Record of Self-­Reflection) by Yi Hwang (T’oegye) translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Edward Y. J. Chung

Numinous Awareness Is Never Dark: The Korean Buddhist Master Chinul’s Excerpts on Zen Practice translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Robert E. Buswell, Jr.

Doctrine and Practice in Medieval Korean Buddhism: The Collected Works of Ŭich’ŏn translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Richard D. McBride II

The Foresight of Dark Knowing: Chŏng Kam nok and Insurrectionary Prognostication in Pre-Modern Korea translated, annotated, and with an introduction by John Jorgensen

A Place to Live: A New Translation of Yi Chung-hwan’s T’aengniji, the Korean Classic for Choosing Settlements translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Inshil Choe Yoon