Jongokjeon: When Corpse-Love Becomes a Practical Joke
By the early nineteenth century, the corpse-love apparatus had become so thoroughly familiar that an author could invert it completely.
That is precisely what transpires in 《종옥전》(鍾玉傳, Jongokjeon, “The Tale of Jongok”), a short Classical Chinese novel composed by 목태림 (Mok Tae-rim, 睦台林) in 1803.
4.1. The Work at a Glance
| Title | 《종옥전》(鍾玉傳, Jongokjeon) — The Tale of Jongok |
| Author | Mok Tae-rim (목태림, 睦台林) |
| Date | 1803, during King Sunjo’s reign |
| Language | Classical Chinese (hanmun, 漢文) |
| Structure | One volume, five chapters (jangho, 章回) in principal extant versions |
Literary historians classify Jongokjeon within two overlapping generic categories:
- 세태소설 (世態小說, setae soseol) — “novels of worldly manners,” critiquing social customs and elite pretensions
- 훼절소설 (毁節小說, hoejeol soseol) — “novels of ruined chastity,” satirizing moral pretension and sexual hypocrisy
Thematically, it belongs alongside works such as Oyoranjeon (烏有蘭傳) and Baebijangjeon (裵裨將傳), which similarly target the gap between professed virtue and actual conduct among the yangban elite.
4.2. A Scholar Who “Despises Women”
During King Yeongjo’s reign, in Yangju (楊州, near present-day Seoul), a scholar named Kim Seong-jin (金成鎭), also known as Kim Gong (金公), raises his nephew Jongok (鍾玉) as though he were his own son.
Jongok presents himself as almost absurdly virtuous:
- Intellectually brilliant, eloquent, widely admired
- Fanatically devoted to scholarly pursuits
- Ostentatiously indifferent to women and romantic entanglements
When his father announces a prestigious marriage match in the capital, Jongok declines. He professes that he will not marry until he has achieved scholarly eminence and official success.
On the surface, he appears to be a paragon of Confucian self-discipline — a young man who has subordinated desire to cultivation. Kim Gong, however, harbors suspicions that this ostentatious “virtue” may be more theatrical than genuine.
4.3. The Test: Hyangnan the Courtesan
To probe his nephew’s sincerity, Kim Gong enlists Hyangnan (香蘭), a skilled and perceptive courtesan:
- She is instructed to test Jongok’s resolve by attempting to seduce him
- She visits him repeatedly, displaying wit, artistic accomplishment, and warm affection
- Initially, he proves impervious: aloof, unresponsive, impeccably correct
Gradually, however, his stance shifts. Instead of refusing on principle, he begins to rationalize that continued rejection might cause her to “perish from grief.” From this self-flattering compassion — a convenient reframing of capitulation as kindness — he finally yields.
Hyangnan reports everything to Kim Gong. The uncle’s suspicions are confirmed: the young man’s “anti-erotic virtue” is fragile, performative, and profoundly self-deluded.
4.4. Death, “Ghost,” and the Fabricated Double Life
The uncle’s subsequent stratagem proves bolder still.
- He informs Jongok that his father has fallen gravely ill and summons him urgently to the capital.
- En route, a servant intercepts him with ostensibly good news: his father has recovered; he must return to Wonju (原州).
- Upon his return, Jongok learns that Hyangnan has died suddenly of illness.
Distraught with grief, he visits her grave and mourns. That night, she appears in his chamber.
From that point forward:
- Hyangnan visits him every night, exactly as when alive
- They converse, share intimacies, and enjoy each other’s company as before
- Jongok becomes convinced he now possesses a ghost lover, in the purest siaeseolhwa fashion
One evening, Hyangnan calmly explains:
- She has become a spirit-woman (귀녀, gwinyeo)
- Through physical intimacy with her, Jongok himself has transformed into a “living ghost” (혼귀, hon’gwi)
- Ordinary mortals can no longer perceive him clearly
The following day, he walks through the estate. Servants pass without acknowledging him — because, unbeknownst to Jongok, they have been instructed to ignore him — seemingly confirming the supernatural illusion.
Jongok now inhabits what he believes to be a liminal state between life and death, roaming and feasting with Hyangnan in what he imagines is spectral freedom — liberated from social constraint precisely because he considers himself no longer fully of this world.
4.5. The Banquet and the Devastating Reveal
On the Double Ninth Festival (重陽節, Chungyangjol), Kim Gong hosts a grand village banquet.
Hyangnan urges Jongok:
“Let us attend the banquet and sample the delicacies on your uncle’s table.”
Certain that no one can perceive him, Jongok strides into the gathering and boldly consumes dishes set before his uncle — in full view of the entire assembled community.
The guests are horrified — not by a ghost, but by a nephew behaving with outrageous public disrespect. To everyone present, he is entirely visible.
Kim Gong erupts in fury at this breach of propriety. Jongok, stunned by the reaction, searches frantically for Hyangnan.
She has vanished.
In that devastating instant, Jongok realizes he has been deceived. He confesses everything:
- His affair with Hyangnan
- His belief in her death
- The nightly visitations
- His conviction that he had become half-ghost, exempt from mortal perception
At this juncture, Kim Gong summons someone from behind a folding screen.
It is Hyangnan, alive and well.
The “corpse-love” was never supernatural. It was an elaborate staged performance, meticulously orchestrated by uncle and courtesan to strip away Jongok’s carefully constructed self-image and expose the hypocrisy underlying his professed virtue.
In the denouement, Kim Gong laughs, grants them his blessing, and wishes the couple a long and harmonious life together.
The corpse-love scenario dissolves entirely into pure farce — and Jongok’s pretensions dissolve with it.
How Jongokjeon Parodies Siaeseolhwa (and Remembers Geumo Sinhwa)
When we position Geumo Sinhwa and Jongokjeon alongside a typical folk siaeseolhwa, a striking pattern emerges.
5.1. Identical Machinery, Divergent Emotional Registers
The following comparison illuminates the transformation:
| Element | Traditional Siaeseolhwa / Geumo Sinhwa | Jongokjeon |
|---|---|---|
| The beloved’s status | Actually dead; the ghost’s return constitutes an ontological rupture | Merely pretending to be dead; all phenomena are fabricated |
| The supernatural | Authentic intrusion from the realm of the dead | Illusion engineered entirely by living humans |
| The revelation | Produces tragedy: withdrawal, madness, sometimes death | Produces public humiliation and comedic exposure |
| Narrative function | Explores fate, loyalty, desire, and the limits of human happiness | Satirizes male virtue-posturing and self-delusion |
One might conceptualize Jongokjeon as executing a corpse-love script in “mock mode”:
Beloved “dies” → nightly “ghost” visitations → protagonist believes he has become half-dead → public revelation exposes the deception.
Structurally, this sequence is virtually indistinguishable from a classic siaeseolhwa. The crucial divergence lies in purpose and emotional register.
Where Geumo Sinhwa employs the ghost-lover script to explore fate, fidelity, and melancholy love, Jongokjeon redirects it inward to assault:
- Male virtue-posturing — the performance of moral superiority (“I despise women”)
- Narcissistic self-dramatization — Jongok’s eagerness to perceive himself as uniquely liminal, suspended between worlds
- Credulous literalism — the readiness to interpret fabricated phenomena as genuine supernatural experience
The ghost-lover pattern, in Jongokjeon, has ceased to function as a vehicle for metaphysical exploration. It has become a satirical instrument — a tool for social critique rather than an expression of belief.
5.2. From Tragic Ghost Bride to Literary Scalpel
Across these works, we can trace a coherent evolution in the treatment of ghost-love:
| Stage | Representative Texts | Treatment of Ghost-Love |
|---|---|---|
| Early / Folk | Anonymous siaeseolhwa, early historical records | Terrifying and taboo; loving the dead invites madness, curse, or ruin |
| Classical / Romantic | Geumo Sinhwa: Manboksa Jeopogi, Yi Saeng Gyujangjeon | Refined and elegiac; ghosts become dignified figures embodying desire, loss, and tragic fidelity |
| Late / Satirical | Jongokjeon and related setae soseol | Parodic and subversive; fabricated ghost-love deployed to expose hypocrisy and puncture vanity |
At each stage, writers preserve the same structural skeleton:
- A relationship that should not exist according to natural and cosmic law
- A subsequent revelation that fundamentally overturns the protagonist’s understanding of reality
What transforms is the emotional and ideological payload: fear → melancholy → laughter.
Why This Configuration Matters for Understanding Korean Ghost Literature
For readers exploring Korean literature through translation — particularly those encountering it via Kwaidanote — this triangulation of siaeseolhwa, Geumo Sinhwa, and Jongokjeon yields several crucial insights.
6.1. The Supernatural as Versatile Narrative Instrument
Korean writers never treated ghosts as merely “things that go bump in the night” — simple agents of fright.
Ghost lovers could function as:
- Companions in grief and embodiments of devotion (Geumo Sinhwa)
- Mirrors reflecting frustrated desire or idealized, unattainable love
- Or, in later satirical hands, theatrical props in an elaborate ruse (Jongokjeon)
The identical motif serves psychological, philosophical, and satirical purposes depending on the author’s intent and historical moment. This versatility distinguishes Korean supernatural fiction from traditions in which ghosts remain confined to a single affective register.
6.2. Genre Memory and Intertextual Sophistication
By 1803, when Jongokjeon was composed, educated Korean readers possessed extensive familiarity with:
- Fantastical romances such as Geumo Sinhwa
- Buddhist dream allegories such as Guunmong (九雲夢)
- A substantial tradition of siaeseolhwa preserved in anecdotal literature (yadam, 野談)
Jongokjeon depends upon that accumulated genre memory. Its readers were expected to recognize the ghost-lover pattern instantly — and to derive pleasure from witnessing it systematically inverted.
In this sense, Jongokjeon represents an early instance of something recognizably modern: a narrative that winks at its own generic conventions, inviting the audience to share in the ironic pleasure of subverted expectations.
6.3. An Alternative Horror Lineage
For readers accustomed to Western horror — where the trajectory typically runs from Gothic terror through psychological suspense to contemporary body horror — Korea offers a distinctly different genealogy:
- From folk ghost bride (terrifying, taboo, cautionary)
- To philosophical ghost romance (elegiac, psychologically nuanced — Geumo Sinhwa)
- To satirical fake-ghost comedy (socially critical, self-aware — Jongokjeon)
The emotional register shifts dramatically across this trajectory, yet beneath these variations, a persistent question endures:
What transpires when love insists on transgressing a boundary it was never meant to cross — whether that boundary is death, ontological reality, or social propriety?
Conclusion: The Ghost as Mirror, Mask, and Punchline
Examined collectively, siaeseolhwa, Geumo Sinhwa, and Jongokjeon map a remarkably rich spectrum of Korean supernatural storytelling:
| Tradition | The Ghost Lover Functions As… |
|---|---|
| Folk siaeseolhwa | A terrifying intrusion — violation of cosmic order demanding horror or ruin |
| Geumo Sinhwa | A beloved presence — dignified figure who illuminates the fragility of human happiness |
| Jongokjeon | A performance — mask donned to expose the absurdity of a man who imagines himself immune to desire |
The ghost, in other words, is never merely a ghost. She serves simultaneously as:
- A mirror reflecting grief, longing, and the limits of human connection
- A vehicle for philosophical meditation on impermanence and desire
- Or, when circumstances warrant, the sharp edge of a satirical blade
Future Directions
In forthcoming Kwaidanote installments, we will progress from this panoramic survey to sustained close readings:
- A deeply tragic corpse-love tale from Geumo Sinhwa, examined passage by passage
- The fabricated ghost sequence in Jongokjeon, analyzed scene by scene
- Modern reinterpretations that continue to appropriate — and subvert — the same haunted grammar
Throughout these explorations, one fundamental truth will continually resurface:
The boundary between the living and the dead functions less as an impermeable wall than as a narrative instrument — and Korean writers across the centuries have learned to play it like a finely tuned instrument, capable of producing terror, melancholy, or laughter depending entirely on the hand that wields it.