[KS] more on the Tancheon myth

[Byeong-uk Yi]

****Googling "동방삭 탄천" yields many sites that mention or give the 
myth, including

1. http://v.daum.net/link/9235519,
<http://v.daum.net/link/9235519>

  2. 
http://koreastory.culturecontent.com/content/view.asp?cp_num=cp0521a10861&filename=cp0521a10861_001_r.hwp&dir=soci&menu=25&page=8 
<http://koreastory.culturecontent.com/content/view.asp?cp_num=cp0521a10861&filename=cp0521a10861_001_r.hwp&dir=soci&menu=25&page=8>

(1) notes that Korea has as many as 6 rivers with the name, and they all 
have the same myth. (2) classifies the myth as a folklore of Korean origin.

Byeong-uk Yi
Department of Philosophy
University of Toronto
http://philosophy.utoronto.ca/people/faculty/byeong-uk-yi

Plurality in Classifier Languages
http://www.kyobobook.co.kr/product/detailViewKor.laf?mallGb=KOR&ejkGb=KOR&barcode=9788957268933
ISBN 978-89-5726-893-3


On 12/4/2011 7:16 AM, koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws wrote:
>
> Part 1.2
>
> Subject:
> [KS] Is the Wikipedia article on the Tancheon "charcoal stream" myth 
> correct?
> From:
> Knigel Holmes <i at knigel.com>
> Date:
> Sun, 4 Dec 2011 14:41:43 +0900
>
> To:
> koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
>
>
> I've been looking for information on the Tancheon river and came
> across this interesting myth:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tancheon#History
>
> After looking around, I've found that other sites reference the
> Wikipedia article which has no citation itself. Do any of you, by any
> chance, have some reference for this, or can you in any way confirm or
> dis-confirm this as Korean folklore? I appreciate all of your help~
>
> Also, if you know of any interesting facts about the Tancheon River, I
> would be grateful for that information as well.
>
> I see this river every day outside of my window and would like to know
> it better.
>
> Kindness,
> Knigel
>
> "The Tancheon's name, is believed to be connected to Dong Bang-sak
> (동방삭, 東方朔), about whom many legends have come down to Korea via China.
> He lived during the time of Chinese emperor Han Wudi (156 BC - 87 BC),
> the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty. Because Dong Bang-sak received
> the love and attention of the emperor for his great wit and his
> ability to make good decisions, he was awarded with a high government
> post. Perhaps, though, more so than these talents, he was most famous
> for the fact that according to legend he had lived more than 3,000
> lifetimes (180,000 years).
>
> It is believed that his long life came from picking and eating peaches
> at the stream of Seo Wong-mo (서왕모, 西王母), the Chinese goddess of
> immortality. For this, he became blessed with unnaturally long life.
> Some say, however, that the fact he lived a 3000 thousand lifetimes
> was an exaggeration caused by the slip of a brushstroke. He may have
> actually only lived 30 lifetimes. At one point, the Chinese characters
> for thirty (三十) may have accidentally come to be read as three
> thousand (三千), by someone adding one extra stroke to the top of ten,
> making it appear as one thousand. Of course, we cannot say for sure.
>
> Nevertheless Dong Bang-sak, with his long life, proved to be an
> irritation to the spiritual world. In the eyes of many spirits from
> the underworld, he had cheated death once too many times. So eager
> were they to catch him, and bring his soul with them to the afterlife,
> that they searched everywhere for him. However, as he was quick of wit
> and a man of immeasurably great wisdom, their efforts were always in
> vain. In fact, on many occasions he would even receive the spirits who
> managed to track him down, as guests in his home. After a short period
> of entertaining them, he was able to send them on their way without
> even so much as a struggle. So skilled was he at persuasion, that in
> no time he had the spirits believing they had mistaken him for someone
> else. They would then go off again searching, never the wiser as to
> this man's true identity.
>
> One spirit, who was determined to be fooled no longer, thought about
> the problem seriously. After deep contemplation, he came up with a
> cunning plan that would surely allow him to capture Dong Bang-sak once
> and for all. As it happened, Dong Bang-sak was one day passing over
> the Tancheon. There, he came upon someone washing clothes in the
> stream water with a piece of charcoal. It was, in fact, the spirit
> disguised as a human. Unable to resist this unusual sight, Dong
> Bang-sak asked, "Why are you using that charcoal to wash your
> clothes?"
>
> The spirit replied, "Because charcoal gets them whiter, of course!"
>
> Upon hearing this Dong Bang-sak burst out into a ferocious laughter
> and said, "Ha! My boy, I have lived 180 millennia, but never have I
> heard of someone making clothes whiter by washing them with charcoal!"
>
> With this slip of the tongue, the illusive Dong Bang-sak had given
> himself away. The spirit at once knew that he had at long last found
> the man whom he had been looking for. He then quickly apprehended Dong
> Bang-sak and took him to the underworld, bringing to a close the life
> of this long lived man of wit and deception. From this, though, we
> have the name for this well-known body of water in Bundang, the
> Tancheon: The Stream of Charcoal. "
>
>
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