Preface│Monsters of Joseon: The History of Day, The Stories of Night

Chapter 1: The Monster Grows by Feeding on the People's Words
Monsters that roamed the land of Samcheolli

The War-Destroyed Jine Hotel: O Park (Chungcheong Province)

A Joseon monster story that connects with Hollywood movies│A marten and a toad have a showdown│The humor of calling an insect a bride│Where is Oh Gong-won?

The Fox Who Targeted Jeon Woo-chi: White Fox (Jeolla Province)

Foxes are plentiful, but nine-tailed foxes are rare. │ A star raised by 20th-century popular culture. │ The white fox that played with Goguryeo and Baekje. │ Jeon Woo-chi and the white fox deceive each other.

A lucky letter predicting good and bad harvests: Samguildugwi (Jeolla Province)

One Head, Three Mouths│The Weather Forecast That Confused the Public│Joseon's Version of a Fortune Letter│Capturing the Lives of Joseon's People

A Farmer's Enemy Worse Than Drought and Flood: Steel (Gyeongsang Province)

A monster representing Joseon│Bringing down rain or blazing sun│A Joseon version of a chimera that eats iron│“Where steel passes, autumn is like spring.”

The Star That Paints the South Sea Red: Cheongu-seong (Gyeongsang Province)

A Puppy Flying in the Sky│An Evil Monster Attacks the Earth│The Terror of the Red Sea│Good Guests, Bad Guests, Strange Guests│The Pride of Joseon Astronomy│The Soul of Gidae Seung Becomes a Star

Mermaid Oil: Better Than Whale Oil: Mermaid (Gangwon-do)

The Cool Taste of Our Mermaid Story│Something Human and Something Beastly│A Confessor Who Sheds Pearl Tears│Kangchi Knows the Secret

Chapter 2: Protect the Sanggam Mama
The monsters that shook the palace

The Dragon Lineage Leading to Wang Geon: Yongson (Gyeonggi Province)

The Goryeo version of the Odyssey│The dragon's daughter who resembles Avalokitesvara│Joining forces to catch the old fox│If Wang Geon's grandmother was a pirate

Sejo's warning after becoming a Buddha: Saengsagui (Jeolla Province)

A Soldier's Dream That Shook Joseon│A Four-Dimensional Mystery That Surpasses Interstellar│What Clothes Does the Grim Reaper Wear│An Underworld Guarded by Beasts and Ruled by Civil Servants│"The King Can't Rest Easy Because of Jang Yeong-gi"

The Underground Ghost That Captured King Seongjong's Attention: The Underground Ghost (Seoul)

Joseon's Best Ghost Story│Even Ghosts Are Afraid of Guns and Cannons│No Upper Body, But Lower Body│Bone-Legged Legs│Poltergeist, or Gas Poisoning

The Shadow of King Yeonsangun, Who Trembled King Jungjong: The Su-geop (Seoul)

The emergence of the water monster│Frightened soldiers│The king moves his residence│Queen Jeonghyeon's trauma│Politics that ignores the suffering of the people

A dark aura appears when a race dies: The Night of the Water Monster (Hwanghae Province)

In search of Dangun's shrine│The angry spirits spread an epidemic│Politics are in turmoil and the people are in a state of turmoil

Curse of the Crown Prince: Goblin (Jeolla Province)

Targeting the King's Son│The Two Faces of the Goblin│The Immenseness of Korea, China, and Japan│Reveal Yourself│The Millennium Goblin

The Deer and Bear that Confused King Jeongjo's Heart: Nokjeong and Ungjeong (Gyeongsang Province)

A Life Trapped in Treason│Jiri Mountain Seonwon Village Becomes a Base of Conspiracy│Choi Chi-won Becomes a Immortal, a Deer Becomes Human│Fake News Begins in "Jeonggamnok"│Traces of Ancient Northern Culture

Chapter 3: Borders Can't Stop It
Monsters that crossed the sea

Joseon's Bigfoot is a master of the wall: Ansikaek (Gangwon Province)

Eternal Life: A Blessing or a Curse? │A Different Kind of Original Nature │Not a Monkey, Not a Bigfoot │The Lessons of a Blue-Haired Practitioner

The Land of Giants Across the Sea: Giants (Gangwon-do)

A Collaboration of History and Legend│The Story of Giants from Silla to Joseon│Were the Cyclops of Joseon Dutch?│The Giant Named Disgust

Symbol of Good Fortune, Symbol of Bad Fortune: Golden Toad (Gangwon-do)

The Multi-Ethnic State of Goguryeo and the Toad│The Dark Paradox of the Golden Toad│Sudden Fortune Leads to Death│Handle the Golden Toad with Care

The Deer-Horned Woman Who Ended the War: Lady Nokjok (Pyongyang)

The Deer-footed Lady and Her Nine Sons│A Timeless Symbol of Peace│Traces of the Deer-footed Lady Found in India│Revived after 1,000 Years

Elephants, Zebras, and Bulgasal: Park and Mac (Pyeongan Province)

The immortal monster│A herd of long-nosed beasts│Shooting a tiger to kill it│The troublesome tiger becomes an unkillable animal│The tiger that ate a tiger and a leopard

The Lion Who Made Tigers Tremble: Sanye (Hamgyeong Province)

The Boundary Between Reality and Imagination│Dancing Lions│Crossing the Desert to the Korean Peninsula│The Mountain King Who Made Tigers Tremble

The snake that drank the blood of ten thousand people: Maninsa Temple (Hamgyeong Province)

The Dragon King's Son Becomes an Imoogi│Speaks Humanly and Holds a Bead│Snake Monster Hunting Method│Knowledge of Worshiping Like a Spirit│Explore the Unknown World

References

There lived a monster in Joseon.
This is not an absurd story.
If you look at the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, you will find that stories of monsters that roamed the land of three thousand miles appear continuously.
The record is very specific and catches the eye.
Some monsters shook the hearts of the people, some monsters turned the palace upside down, and some monsters came from far away and reigned as kings of the mountains of Baekdudaegan.
The king, his subjects, and the people were troubled by who had encountered the monster and under what circumstances, why it had appeared, and how to deal with it.
So, when we look at the records of Joseon's monsters, we can naturally see the lifestyles and social conditions of the people at the time, their understanding of the world, and their awareness of the problems.

This book tells the story of Joseon centered around twenty monsters discovered from various historical materials, from the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty to the Yeolha Diary.
Author Kwak Jae-sik, who has been collecting and introducing Korean monsters since 2007, breaks away from the conventional encyclopedic narrative and unfolds monster stories as a new material that encounters Joseon.
It depicts the diverse landscapes of Joseon through stories of familiar monsters such as the 'goblin' and the 'white fox', as well as unfamiliar monsters such as the 'three-mouthed, one-headed ghost' and the 'deer-footed woman'.
The 『Joseon Monster Map』, which shows at a glance where monsters lived in the eight provinces of Joseon, and the illustrations of Gomgome (Kim Jin-young), an illustrator who reinterprets each country's myths in a Korean style, add to the viewing experience.

“Meeting at the scene of life”
Monsters that made the people laugh and cry

This book is divided into three chapters, each with a different theme: 'People and Monsters', 'Kings and Monsters', and 'Monsters from Foreign Countries'.
Many people encountered monsters throughout Joseon.
The meeting at that time was not a simple sighting or encounter.
People believed in the existence of monsters to understand and predict the world, and the stronger the belief, the greater the influence the monsters had on the people's lives.
These interactions were most active over food and shelter.
This is why there are many stories of monsters related to agriculture and fishing.
Representative examples include Samguildugwi, who came down from the sky and predicted the weather in return for receiving a lot of food; Gangcheol (?鐵), who brought drought and floods and was regarded as a disaster; Cheonguseong (天狗星), who dyed the sea red and killed fish; and Mermaid (人魚), who could extract high-quality oil and became a good means of making money.

What's interesting is that the monsters' stories are very three-dimensional.
In addition to the daily routine of making a living, the experiences and feelings we have in life are reflected in the monster story.
For example, the story of steel is based on the desolate emotions created by the Imjin War.
The proverb, “Where steel passes, autumn is like spring,” means that no matter how much effort is put into something, it is helpless when a great disaster strikes, and it conveys the futility of the people who face the destructive situation of war.
In this way, monster stories allow us to look at Joseon from the perspective of its people.
The clue to how ancient people understood their world lies in non-human beings, namely monsters.

“Climbing over the palace wall”
Monsters that disturbed the king's mind

Even though he was king, he was not free from monsters.
For example, King Seongjong had a heated debate with his subjects about how to deal with the ghost 'Jihajiin (the man from below)' who appeared in the homes of Prime Minister Jeong Chang-son and Lee Du, the left-hand official of the Ministry of Taxation.
In addition to this, the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty contain a story about a black aura called "Mulgoe Yahaeng" that enveloped Seoul on the day King Injong closed his eyes, causing the people to be terrified, and a story about a group of people who tried to assassinate Crown Prince Sado by mobilizing goblins, but were caught and incurred King Yeongjo's wrath.
The most notable of these is the 'beast monster' that made King Jungjong worry.
The monster, who is also famous as the subject of the movie "The Monster," suddenly appeared in the middle of the palace in 1511 and 1527, turning the government upside down.
Records show that it looked like a dog and was as big as a horse, and rumors spread widely when Queen Jeonghyeon was afraid and moved her residence.

The author of this book links the appearance of the water monster to King Yeonsangun.
Queen Jeonghyeon raised Yeonsangun as if he were her own child, but at a crucial moment, she participated in driving him out.
He must have harbored complex emotions, a mixture of guilt about the crooked Yeonsangun and the fear that even those with absolute power could be ousted overnight.
The appearance of the water monster may have acted as a trigger for these emotions to explode, making Queen Jeonghyeon tremble in fear.
The author also notes the record that it 'looked like a dog'.
King Yeonsangun kept numerous animals and hunting dogs in the palace, and it is said that some of them lost their owners and ran away to nearby mountains or forests before returning.

Finally, the author makes one more plausible guess.
Records show that a few days before the first appearance of the water demon in 1511, a large fire broke out in houses near the palace.
What if, at this time, the despair of the people was on the back burner and the high-ranking officials, preoccupied with their own struggles for power, saw a stray dog ​​that had entered the palace to escape the fire as a monster?
In this way, monster stories reveal the thoughts and feelings of those in power, while also containing the people's wishes about how and for whom power should be used.

“Monsters have no borders.”
Monsters who came to Joseon from across the sea and desert

No matter how closed a country is, the flow of culture cannot be stopped.
The same goes for monster stories.
If we can uncover how foreign monster stories were transmitted to Korea and how they were transformed and what became popular, it will be of great help in understanding the characteristics and culture of Koreans at the time.
So what kind of foreign monsters came to Joseon?
First of all, we can choose ‘Golden Toad’.
Although it is so familiar as a symbol of wealth that it is usually thought of as a native monster, the golden toad originated from the ancient Chinese tale of 'Chang'e'.
The same goes for ‘Sanye (?猊, lion)’.
The image of the lion in traditional lion dances such as the Bukcheong Lion Dance was influenced by Indian Buddhist literature.

There are also monsters that were introduced to Joseon as a result of national policy rather than natural cultural exchange.
It is the 'Maninsa (萬人蛇)' that is said to have eaten 10,000 people.
This monster was originally famous among the northern immigrant people of Jurchen descent.
However, the story flowed into Joseon through Sejong's northern expansion.
It is said that Maninsa Temple holds the 'Manin Blood Stone', which is made up of the blood of 10,000 people, and it seems to contain the fierce history of the North, where various forces constantly clashed.
In this way, monster stories contain traces of cultural exchange between nations at the time and their historical context.
This clearly shows a different side of Joseon that is not commonly thought of, interacting with its surroundings.