A Fox Woman Tale of Korea by Heinz Insu Fenkl Introduction Korean fox lore, which comes from China

(from sources probably originating in India and overlapping with Sumerian lamia lore), is relatively straightforward compared to the complex body of fox culture that evolved in Japan. The Japanese fox spirit, or kitsune, is remarkably sophisticated, probably due to its resonance with the indigenous Shinto religion, and the fox spirits of Japan can be male or female, malign or benign. In Korea, the demonic fox is called akumiho; they are almost exclusively female, and almost always evil. Korean fox women are generally seductive creatures that entice unwary scholars and travelers with the lure of their sexuality and the illusion of their beauty and riches. They drain the men of their yang (their masculine force) and leave them dissipated or dead (in much the same way as the fairy woman in Keats's poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" leaves her parade of hapless male victims). The Korean kumiho is most often used as a cautionary symbol for the danger of female sexuality. Traditional Korea is a culture dominated by Confucian morality and ethics, but the rule of Confucian culture is built over a tenuous framework woven from animism, shamanism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Its patriarchal structure, which privileges male over female, also masks (and explicitly undermines) the power of women. The best known Korean fox tale is "The Fox Sister," which can be found in my essay, "Fox Wives and Other Dangerous Women." It is a cautionary Confucian story about the dangers of wishing for a female child. She literally destroys the family, and it is up to the disowned brothers to restore the order of patriarchy by killing her. In "The Saltseller and the Fox" (which can be found on my Korean Folktales site) the fox figure is determined to end an entire family line, using her disguise as a female shaman to enter the household. Both of those stories are developed from oral renditions that are relatively well known in the storytelling culture. This particular retelling, "The Tale of Fox's Den," is somewhat different from other Korean fox stories because it presents a more fully developed literary sensibility. Although it claims to be a historical tale explaining the origin of a place name, it is understood to be a legend in its own right. What makes it unusual is its style, which suggests it was written, at some point, with a conscious understanding of Confucian literary conventions. The use of symbolically loaded names resonates strongly with the Korean tradition, during the 17th and 18th Centuries, of imitating earlier Chinese literary genres in this case the T'ang Dynasty "strange tales" (most popular in the 9th Century). Since I happened to be emulating that form myself in my own short story, "How Master Madman Came to Ch'ing Feng Temple" (which is also a Buddhist story based on a sutra), I translated and retold "The Tale of Fox's Den" partially to learn that narrative form. The symbolism in the names is especially elegant in "The Tale of Fox's Den." The father's surname, Song, suggests "eulogy" and "corpse" (songjang). If one were to shorten the vowel sound, his name would mean "saint" or "sage." The daughter's name, Panya, is unusual, and so it would attract attention to itself, thereby revealing an underlying Buddhist theme. Literally, panyameans "midnight" or "the middle of the night." It could also be read as "half wild," but it happens to coincide with the Korean term for the Buddhist Prajnaparamita sutra, whose shortened form, The Heart Sutra, concludes with the line: "Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone entirely beyond, awakened, ah!" The sutra begins with the lines "Form is nothing but emptiness and emptiness is nothing but form," and teaches one how to transcend the world of illusion. The young protagonist of the tale embodies such ability, though perhaps not in the way a Buddhist would imagine. The name of the village, Yosu, with a short initial vowel, would be a "female prisoner" or the tiredness or loneliness following a journey. With a long initial vowel, Yosu sounds like yosul, which means "magic" or "witchcraft." The Korean word for fox also happens to be yowu The Tale of the Fox's Den translated and retold by Heinz Insu Fenkl In the village of Yosu, there lived a man named Song, whose daughter was a great beauty. Her name was Panya, and she was known far and wide for her willowy grace and elegance. All men adored her, and she was the object of much desire. It was only natural that Song should receive offers for her hand in marriage, but Panya was so dear to him that he refused all suitors, hundreds of them, telling them that he would not permit her to marry until her sixteenth birthday.

But when Panya reached her sixteenth year, a great misfortune befell her family. Day after day the suitors came to Song's house, and one after the other they knocked upon his door and were admitted. But none came out alive, and it was said that any man who entered Song's house desiring Panya was destined to come out a corpse. Soon the villagers said Song's house must be haunted by demons, or that he had offended the spirits of his ancestors by neglecting to make proper offerings to them. Song and his daughter despaired, for if a man braved the rumors in order to woo Panya, he was quickly discouraged by well meaning friends. And yet, the more people talked of the curse on Song's house, the more suitors came to challenge that curse, believing themselves to be better than the others. One after the other, young men appeared at Song's door to ask for the hand of his daughter, never to be seen again. Late one evening in a dismal November, a tall youth knocked at the gate, calling in a thunderous voice for someone to let him in. Song himself opened the gate, receiving the young man at the entrance to the guest room. They bowed to one another. The youth introduced himself, saying he had come from Sungju to put an end to the mystery. Song regarded the young man. His broad shoulders bespoke strength, his mouth resolution, and the brightness of his eyes a keen intellect. "I greatly appreciate your coming," Song said politely. "People once flocked to this house like moths to a flame, but now the mere mention of this place and they shudder in fear. As you can see, my house is an empty ruin. All my servants have run away and deserted me. What could you possibly do for me now?" He could not hide the dejection in his voice. The young man was silent for a moment, and then he asked, rather bluntly, "Will you give me your daughter if I solve this problem?" Song did not hesitate. "Of course," he replied. "You may have not only my daughter, but the whole of my property." So the young man agreed to stay the night in Song's haunted house. It was already dark, and he was tired from his journey, but he found that he was too anxious to sleep. Time dragged on in the darkness as he lay in bed, his hand on his sword, muttering to himself to keep his courage up. "Come, you damned spirits, come and I'll cut you down." But nothing appeared, and finally, late in the night, he grew weary and fell into a deep sleep. He dreamed that he was walking up a steep mountain pass. And suddenly, a palatial house loomed before him, ringed with crystal stone. A faint, mysterious music permeated the air, drawing at him with its sweet tone, and he followed it into a lush and fragrant garden. A bridal bed had been laid out in one corner of the garden, with a quilt and pillow of pure silk. He lay down in the soft bed, luxuriating in its comfort, and quickly fell asleep. A dense fog formed in the perfumed air, slowly obscuring everything behind a veil of white. The young man suddenly awoke, startled, peering into the fog. For a moment he could not tell if he were still dreaming. But then a beautiful young woman appeared in the mist. As she approached, he saw that her attire was exotic and regal, of the filmiest refined silk. She moved with elegance and grace like a fairy descended from the Heavenly Kingdom, and as she sat at his side, he saw her eyes gleaming like crescent moons and her lips glistening like cherries. Her skin was so smooth and pale that he could not help reaching out to touch her. "Your humble maid is here to serve you, my Lord," she whispered. The young man sat up, fully awake, and yet he pretended confusion, as if he had only just noticed her. "Where am I?" he asked. Instead of answering him, the woman led him to a table set for drinking and poured him a cup of chrysanthemum wine. She was an expert in the courtesan's arts. With her soft hands, white as ivory, she poured him cup after cup and he drank until he was happily intoxicated and aroused. Now she drew herself closer, stimulating him with the fragrance of her body, and when she finally embraced him, he nearly lost himself to the pleasures of the moment. But in the back of his mind, the young man remembered his promise to solve the mystery. With what shreds of reason remained in his mind, he knew that many a youth must have met his end in precisely this way, succumbing to this woman's charms. He forced himself to remain lucid. Though he was still drunk, his senses slowly returned, and he watched her ministrations upon his body. She caressed him expertly, her hands moving sinuously over him until he was nearly mad with pleasure. He could not endure it any longer, and so, with a

supreme act of will, he grabbed the collar of her gown and tore it from her body. She moaned and shivered. He leaped upon her trembling form, searching for her lips in the dark, but when he felt her wet mouth and the inhuman pleasures of her kiss, his eyes grew wide in horror. "You snake!" he cried. And before she could draw back, he sucked her tongue deep into his mouth and bit down with all his strength. When he spat out the bloody stump, her magic failed her and she died, though the tongue continued to writhe hideously on the floor. Now, with his wits about him, he regarded the dead body. He kicked it, and LO! it changed into a six tailed fox. The young man collapsed onto the silk bed and lost consciousness. When he awoke there was a girl kneeling before him looked just like the woman he had killed. "Demon!" he cried, leaping to his feet and drawing his sword. "How can you still be alive?" The girl bowed her head and wept. "Please forgive me," she said. "Please hear me out. I am a fox in human form. One winter, while I was sick and moaning in pain, Master Song found me in a field. He took pity on me and brought me to this house and he took care of me until I was well again. I wanted to repay him for his kindness, and so I stayed here to be his servant. It was not long before we fell in love. Our hearts were full of passion, but my tongue was so poisonous that I would not let him kiss me not even once. I know he thought it strange, but I dared not, because I loved him so much. It was only a matter of time before Lady Song became jealous. One day she caught us together. She burst into my chamber in a fury and dragged me by the hair out into the back courtyard. She hanged me from the willow tree, and when she saw my dead body dangling from the branch, she fainted. She grew ill and died." The young man felt a mixture of horror and pity for the fox. The mist still lingered in the room, and now it grew thicker and thicker, obscuring her features until they grew vague. He realized he was listening to her with his eyes closed. She continued, "I thought I would avenge myself on Lady Song when I was incarnated again as a fox. She had a daughter Panya and I resolved to kill her. So that is what I did, and I have hidden my true form under the guise of Song's dead daughter. That is my confession. I beg of you, Sir, have mercy on me and let me live." "I realize now that you were cruelly murdered," said the young man. "And because of that, I feel sympathy for you. But you yourself have murdered an innocent girl as well as a great number of brave youths for whom you bore no grudge. Your punishment must be death." "Have mercy and let me live," she begged again. But the young man's mind was clear, and he did not waver. He had just bound her with a rope when her father thundered into the room. "What have you done to my daughter!" he shouted. "Untie her at once!" The young man tore off what remained of the girl's dress. Song could not believe his eyes fox. He collapsed. it was not his daughter at all, but an old she

The young man carried the fox's corpse up into the mountains, where he placed it in a cave. He blocked the entrance with a large rock. "Cunning fox," he said, "let this be your resting place." And he walked away. Since that time, the villagers have called this place Fox's Den.