[KS] Sun-imgum

[Sayers, Robert]

Dear Professor Ledyard,

Thank you very much for your kind response to my query.  I think that
you've pretty much nailed it, as the potters also spoke about a King
Yo--although Sun-imgum was the focus of the story.  This really helps
me.

Bob Sayers 

-----Original Message-----
From: Koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws
[mailto:Koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] On Behalf Of Gari Keith
Ledyard
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 11:08 PM
To: Korean Studies Discussion List
Subject: Re: [KS] Sun-imgum

It looks like for the second time in a week an element of Korean
folkways may have a Chinese link.  Robert Sayers asks about Sun Img^um,
or "King Sun." He probably has looked over the lists of Korean kings and
come up empty, and I don't know of any Korean king of that name.  But
there is the Chinese "Emperor" Shun (Korean, Sun--but NOT Seun as Mr.
Sayers writes, at least as that spelling is conventionally used in
Korean romanizations; we're talking about the 7th of the Korean
alphabetic vowel letters, not the 9th).  Shun was the 2nd of the
so-called "Five Emperors" who preceded the classical Chinese dynasties.
They are mythical figures in the true sense, and although the Chinese
give them various dates, the dates are not the significant things about
them.
 	"Emperor" Shun (he would have lived millennia before the
syllable <ti>, K. <che), came to mean "emperor"; for his time the
syllable should properly be translated "god") succeeded the sage emperor
Yao when the latter found his own son unworthy. After many failed
candidates were rejected, Yao heard about Shun, a humble commoner, who
made his living by farming, fishing, and pottery making. He is said in
Sima Qian's <Shiji>, first chapter, to have made his dishes in sets of
ten, but apart from that there seems to be no other ceramic specifics in
the records.  Ceramics do not seem to find mention in the <Shundian>,
the section devoted to Shun in the so-called "Book of Histor."  But
there is sufficient information to corroborate those of Mr. Sayers's
informants who represented Sun img^um as a Chinese king.  Korean
<img^um>, originally <nimg^um>, can refer to any level of monarchical
ruler.
 	His suggestion that information can be found in Mencius also
resonates.  In Mencius (Maengja) Book 2, Part 1, chapter 8, we read (in
Legge's translation, Chinese Classics, vol. 2, pp. 205-206):
 	"The great Shun had a still greater delight in what was good.
He regarded virtue as the common property of himself and others, giving
up his own way to follow that of others, and delighting to learn from
others to practice what was good.  From the time when he plowed and
sowed, exercised the potter's art, and was a fisherman, to the time when
he became emperor, he was continually learning from others..."
 	If this is indeed the explanation for "Sun Img^um," it is very
interesting as an example of lore being transmitted from the
Confucianists of the ruling class to the commoners.  Such interaction
was the social reality in traditional Korea, even though nowadays it is
more common to see such such relationships as oppressive-- a too simple
reduction of the fundamental interconnectedness of traditional Korean
society.

Gari Ledyard


On Fri, 19 Nov 2004, Sayers, Robert wrote:

> Inspired by the discussion of Mangbusok, I thought that I'd put a 
> similar query before the forum.  Does anyone know anything about 
> Sun-imgum, or King Sun (Seun)?  When I was interviewing traditional 
> onggi potters in Cholla-namdo in the 1980s, the latter occasionally 
> referred to a story about an ancient king who, during a period of 
> exile, had to take up pottery-making for a living.  When he went out 
> to the market to sell his jars, his command "tok sara, tok sara" (or 
> onggi
> sara) elicited no takers.  Only when the queen gently suggested that 
> he call out "tok saseyo, tok saseyo" was he able to sell his ware.  My

> informants took away from this story two lessons:  First, that their 
> station in society couldn't be so low if King Sun himself made onggi.
> And, second, that even the king couldn't get away with talking down to

> his subjects.  (I might mention that there are some cynical variations

> on the story; but this is the one I heard most often.)
>
> I thought, perhaps, that this story might have a Chinese antecedent 
> (e.g., Mencius), especially since Sun-imgum was sometimes represented 
> as a Chinese king.  So far, though, I haven't been able to find a 
> connection.  I'm trying to finish a long-term book project on the 
> history of the onggi industry which in some areas has a connection 
> with the history of Catholicism in Korea and in other areas does not.

> This story figures in my discussion of the non-Catholic potter
community.
>
> Thanks in advance for any insights anyone can offer.
>
> Robert H. Sayers
> Arlington, VA
>