The wise and honest minister Sùn-Hyen, shocked on seeing people lying in the street dead of hunger, scolds the king for spending too much on feasts and pleasure. The wicked, ambitious prime minister Ja-Jyo-Mi forges a letter addressed to San-Houni, Sùn-Hyen’s closest friend, apparently written by Sùn-Hyen, criticizing the king harshly, and arranges for it to be found in the street by the police. As a result, Sùn-Hyen and his wife are sent into exile on the island Kang-Syn, San-Houni and his wife are exiled to the island of Ko-Koum-To.

        Sùn-Hyen and his wife arrive on the island Kang-Tjyen. Until now childless, here the wife gives birth to a daughter, named Tcheng-Y, and dies 3 days later. Heartbroken, Sùn-Hyen sheds so many tears that he goes blind. Nothing is said of the following years until Tcheng-Y is 13 and begging food from neighbors. Sùn-Hyen tells her what happened. She goes begging as usual, is late coming home. Her father, anxious, goes out looking for her and falls into a lake. He is rescued by the pupil of a local hermit who tells him that his sight and fortunes will be restored in 3 years (and will become prime minister) if he prays to Tchen-Houang (Heavenly Emperor). If he gives him 300 sacks of rice he will pray in his place. He tells Tcheng-Y about this, and she soon after agrees to sell herself to merchants going across the sea to China who need a young girl to sacrifice to obtain a safe journey. They provide the rice at once. Three months later, they come to fetch her and she has to tell her father. The merchants are so touched by their grief that they give another 100 sacks. After arranging for her father to be cared for, she sets out with the merchants.

        The scene shifts to San-Houni. Obliged to hire transport to the island, he choose the 2 boatmen brothers Sù-Roung and Sù-Yeng. Sù-Yeng is good and Sù-Roung is wicked. Sù-Roung wants San-Houni’s wife Tjeng-Si, so he has San-Houni murdered before her eyes and entrusts Tjeng-Si to an old woman living nearby. She too has seen her husband killed by Sù-Roung. Sù-Yeng urges them to escape now, while his brother (whom he hates) is drunk. They set off, then the old woman takes Tjeng-Si’s shoes and sends her on ahead. She places the shoes on the shore of a lake then drowns herself. Tjeng-Si continues walking until she suddenly gives birth to a boy. A nun finds her, agrees to welcome her in the temple but not the baby, who must be abandoned. Tjeng-Si tatooes the name San-Syeng on the boy’s arm, hides a ring in his clothing, then they leave the baby in the street of a nearby town.

        Sù-Roung wakes up, finds the women have left. Following them, he finds the shoes and deduces that Tjeng-Si has drowned herself. Then they head for the nearby town and find the abandoned baby. Sù-Roung adopts it and brings it up well. At school, other pupils tell him that he is a foundling found by Sù-Roung, who is not his father. San-Syeng finds his name written on his arm and begins to wonder. He sets out on a journey to  complete his education and reaches the town of Tjen-Jou. There he sees a beautiful girl, whose father has died and who lives with her mother, and they begin an extended romantic courtship which leads to their secret physical union. Finally the mother hears something and orders a servant to kill whoever comes out of her daughter’s room. The girls sees her father in a dream who warns her, she tricks the servant and San-Syeng escapes on her father’s horse with her father’s sword. He gives her the ring.

        Wicked prime-minister Ja-Jyo-Mi wishes to be king. When the king dies his son is still only a child. After overcoming the enmity of the governors by fear, Ja-Jyo-Mi sends the child-king into exile on the island of Tchyo-To. San-Syeng hears of his misfortune, wants to help. He dreams of a man who says he is from his family, is called San-Houni, and was killed by Sù-Roung. He encourages him to help the child-king but refuses to tell him about his family. He sets out but finds it impossible to land on Tchyo-To because of the guards.

        Tcheng-Y jumps into the sea and finds herself on the back of a giant turtle. They reach an island where it deposits her in a dark tunnel. There she finds a letter and 2 bottles of tonic, for her body and mind, to give her strength to climb out through the roof, where she finds herself inside a hollow tree in a beautiful garden. It is the place of exile of the boy-king. In despair, he is on his way to hang himself when he sees a beautiful girl in the garden. He decides to wait, they meet, he invites her to his house, where he lives in isolation. They soon celebrate a wedding ceremony and are united. Fearing that he will soon be killed, they set fire to the house and follow the tunnel back to the sea, where Ki-si the young king is again in despair, there being no boat in sight.

        San-Houni again appears to San-Syeng in a dream and tells him to take a boat to the island quickly. There he finds Ki-si and his wife. He decides to wait to confirm who they really are. Meanwhile the general in charge of the prisoner on the island tells Ja-Jo-Mi that he has died in the fire. He and his companions are happy, the population at large is very angry with them. San-Syeng takes the lead in preparing direct opposition and finally is told by Tcheng-Y that Ki-si is the young king, who is needed to justify the revolt. The king is now treated with all the respect due to his rank, the local authorities recognize him and he starts to exercise authority, appointing San-Syeng general. As they reach the capital there is a general uprising, Ja-Jo-Mi is arrested. The king is installed. He reduces the taxes and sends San-Syeng as a secret inspector to check the quality of the local governors.

        The girl with whom San-Syeng had fallen in love, now named as Tjyang-So-Tyjei, after the death of her mother, loses everything in a popular uprising, escapes and dresses as a man for safety. Lost and exhausted, she falls asleep by the bamboo forest where San-Syeng had been born years before. There she is discovered by Tjyeng-Si, San-Syeng’s mother, who is still living in the temple, and goes to the temple with her. Tjyeng-Si recognizes the ring San-Syeng had given to Tjyang-So-Tyjei and asks how she got it. The identities are revealed. The two women set off, reach the town of Saug-Tjyou, where the son of the innkeeper falls for Tjyang-So-Tyjei. Rejected, he takes revenge by having his own jewels hidden in their room then claiming they had stolen them. Arrested, they are taken before the magistrate who falls for Tjyang-So-Tyjei and gives her the choice, marriage or death. They are put in prison.

        San-Syeng finds the house of Tjyang-So-Tyjei empty and burned down. San-Houni appears in a dream, reveals his identity as San-Syeng’s father and tells him what is happening to Tjyang-So-Tyjei, Reaching the town, San-Syeng has himself arrested and put in the prison which is so dark they cannot see each other, though the women wonder on hearing his name. The next morning Tjyang-So-Tyjei sees the horse of her father outside the window, exclamations lead to recognition. The official identity of San-Syeng is proclaimed, the magistrate is arrested, the women released from prison. Mother and son, wife and husband are reunited. He orders a monument for the woman who drowned herself in the lake ; they visit the nun in the temple. Sù-Roung is arrested and San-Syeng identifies himself, and his mother who wants instant revenge for the murder of her husband. Sù-Young, the good brother, says that he will die if his brother dies. When they tell the king and queen what has happened, the queen Tcheng-Y is sad because she has not seen her father for 3 years. The idea comes of a banquet for all the blind men of the kingdom.

        Blind Sùn-Hyen is told he has to go to the capital for the banquet. When he arrives, the palace woman in charge shows disgust at his dirtiness. He makes a very eloquent, wise and poetic reply which is reported to the queen. Then she has all the blind pass before her, Sùn-Hyen is last, she recognizes him, asks if he knows Tcheng-Y, and his eyes open. After hearing her tale, he meets San-Syeng and learns that he is the son of his old friend San-Houni. Sùn-Hyen is made prime-minister. Finally, the king wishes to wage war on the Tjin-Han who defeated his father once, and there is still the question of the punishment for Ja-Jo-Mi and Sù-Roung. Sùn-Hyen asks the king to hold a great banquet for the whole population, saying that they should support whatever is decided, war or peace, punishment or forgiveness. He makes a speech in favor of peace and reconciliation, all agree. Finally he vanishes, perhaps taken up to heaven on a cloud.

T'oung Pao 1895 Vol 6 p 526 - 7

BULLETIN CRITIQUE.

Le Bois sec Refleuri. Roman Coréen, traduit sur le texte original par Hong Tjong-ou (See T'oung-pao, Vol. V, p. 260)   

The Musée Guimet, whose services in the cause of Eastern learning are well known, has recently published a translation into French of a Corean story under the above title, executed by a Corean who spent some time in Paris. This 'cher et respectable lettré', to whom a letter addressed by M. Hyacinthe Loyson, accepting the dedication of this work, is printed with the preface, has since achieved an unenviable notoriety by the murder of his compatriot Kim Ok-kiun at Shanghai. There were no doubt attenuating circumstances. The deed was done from political, not personal, motives and his victim was an unscrupulous conspirator on whose head was the blood of many men. But it was a treacherous assassination nevertheless.

          However, it is with M. Hong as a writer that we are concerned and not as a criminal. Not having access to the original of the work translated, it is impossible to test satisfactorily its accuracy. As a generai rule, Easterns are not very good interpreters of their own literatures for Western readers. But M. Hong may be an exception. Still there are some things in his translation which are apt to excite suspicion. A breeze is described as 'légère comme un baiser'. In another place the phrase 'couvrit sa main de baisers' occurs. And there are other references to what I have always looked upon as a European institution. Kissing is not wholly unknown in the Far East; but I would say, subject to correction, that it is not considered quite a decent subject to talk about, and is almost completely ignored in literature. I feel sure that these references to kissing are not to be found in M. Hong's original. Other examples might be quoted from his pages where we seem to breathe an atmosphère far removed from Corea. This rather spoils the couleur locale, but the generai outlines of the story are doubtless faithfully retained, and many of the incidents are genuinely and unmistakeably Corean.

The sketch of Corean History which is prefixed to this romance is open to more serious criticism. It is a very poor performance. M. Hong really presumes too much on the ignorance of his readers when he says that Corean History is 'totalement inconnue à l'étranger'. This only shows his own ignorance of the works of Ross and Griffis, not to speak of other sources of information. Even the few pages devoted to the subject in the 'Histoire de l'Église de Corée' are better than M. Hong's Essay. Judging from the spelling and other indications, it would appear to hâve been compiled, in part at least, from Japanese sources, and is in several particulars grossly inaccurate. It is not true that Genghis-Khan did not molest Corea, and it is, to say the least, misleading to assert that China acknowledged the independence of Corea. The Treaty with the United States was signed in 1882, and not in 1886. Germany, France, England and Russia have not sent Ministers Plenipotentiary or Chargés d'affaires to Seoul, but only Consuls-General. M. Hong might have verified these points with very little trouble and his carelessness in such matters inclines us to suspect equal inaccuracy in places where we have no means of testing his statements. W. G. Aston.