Score One for the Dancing Girl, and Other Selections from the Kimun ch'onghwa: A Story Collection from Nineteenth-century Korea ed. by Ross King and Si Nae Park (review)

This book is the first published volume of the James Scarth Gale Library of Korean Literature series from University of Toronto Press. James Scarth Gale was a Canadian missionary to Korea from 1888 to 1927 who was known as a scholar, translator and interpreter of Korean culture, history, and literature around the turn of the century. However, as Ross King claims, his work has been under-researched (xxxvii). According to King, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto possesses a substantial archive of Gale's personal papers, publications, and manuscripts (xxxviii), some of which are to be published as a series. The current work under review is the edited volume of Gale's translation of selected stories from the Kimun ch'onghwa (Compendium of records of hearsay).

The Kimun ch'onghwa is a collection of yadam (unofficial histories) believed to have been compiled in the late Chosŏn period. There is speculation that the compiler of this work was Yi Hŭip'yŏng (1772–1839), who also compiled the Kyesŏ chamnok (Miscellaneous records of Kyesŏ). This is because a substantial portion of the stories in the Kimun ch'onghwa overlaps with the Kyesŏ chamnok, but there is no distinctive evidence that may lead one to conclude that Yi was the compiler. Thus, the compiler of the book remains unknown.

The title, which can be literally translated as a "comprehensive collection of stories (ch'onghwa) written and heard" (kimun), indicates the inclusion of "hearsay" (i.e sources not officially approved), corresponding in this case to recorded tales from about thirty various yadam collections such as ŏu yadam (ŏu's Unofficial Histories), Tongya hwijip (Anthology of Eastern unofficial histories), Ch'ŏnggu yadam (Unofficial histories of the Green Hills) and Kyesŏ chamnok. Most of the stories are anecdotes pertaining to prominent Chosŏn figures written in literary Sinitic (Hanmun). The Chosŏn ruling class preferred reading and writing in literary Sinitic, a practice exclusive to male elites with few exceptions. In this regard, it is not an exaggeration to conclude that this kind of yadam collection was a work by male elites, about male elites, and for male elites. This was the reason why at the turn of the century intellectuals and scholars disregarded yadam collections composed in literary Sinitic.

Korean literature composed in literary Sinitic (Hanmunhak) stakes a significant position in Korean literary history. It provides ample references for understanding Korean culture, history and society. Nonetheless, intellectuals and scholars disregarded it amid waves of modernization and westernization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the name of nationalism and colonialism, Hanmunhak was considered a relic of past times and an obsolete custom. In this respect, it is interesting and encouraging to see that a foreign missionary paid special attention to Hanmunhak. Furthermore, he did not simply read such works to indulge himself but translated many of them into English, thus expanding the readership of Korean literature to include foreigners. His translation of The Cloud Dream of the Nine (Kuunmong) by Kim Manjung is widely used in classrooms even now.

There are many different versions of the Kimun ch'onghwa, but Gale used the four-volume Yonsei University version consisting of 637 stories. Among these stories, he selected 117 to translate. Score One for the Dancing Girl consists of these 117 translated stories with two introductions by the editors, Ross King and Si Nae Park. The original literary Sinitic texts are added with Korean pronunciation of each sinogram along with annotations by Donguk Kim who translated the Kimun ch'onghwa into Korean. As King notes, appending the original literary Sinitic is very useful when one compares Gale's translation with...