The Hungbu and Nolbu tale type: a Korean double contrastive narrative structure

Folklore, April, 2002 by James Huntley Grayson

"The Story of Hungbu and Nolbu", Tale Type 457 in Choi In-hak's A Type Index of Korean Folk Tales (1979), is composed of two parallel and balanced narrative acts, each composed of two scenes. In the first scene of the first act, the poor but virtuous younger brother comes to the aid of a swallow which had been attacked by a snake. In the second scene, we learn that the grateful swallow returns the favour by giving the poor younger brother seeds which produce gourds containing riches that make him a very wealthy man. In the first scene of the second act, the evil and greedy older brother demands to know how his younger brother came to be so rich so quickly. Upon learning the reasons for his wealth, the older brother then proceeds to break the leg of a young swallow and then tries to heal the injury. In the second scene of this act, we learn that the swallow brings to the older brother some seeds which grow into several large gourds. When opening them up, the older brother receives just punishment for his evil actions.

Analysing the narrative of the tale, its structural pattern may be stated in this form:

Act 1--The Younger Brother

Scene 1--The Good Actions of the Younger Brother

Scene 2--The Younger Brother's Reward

Act 2--The Older Brother

Scene 1--The Evil Actions of the Older Brother

Scene 2--The Punishment of the Older Brother

The narrative of "The Story of Hungbu and Nolbu is thus a perfectly balanced doublet, a narrative of the reward given to the good and the punishment which is meted out to the bad. To apply the ideas of William R. Bascom, this tale exemplifies three of the four functions which he discerned for folk narrative, namely, amusement, the validation of culture, and the maintenance of conformity to social and cultural norms (Bascom 1954, 342-6). By showing how the kind actions of the younger brother are rewarded, the tale affirms the cultural norms of social assistance whilst the punishment meted out to the elder brother who sought to obtain riches without having performed a meritorious act illustrates how seriously the violations of cultural norms are treated. To this serious element is added, however, a further element of amusement and entertainment when we learn that the elder brother is faced with bankruptcy when the debt collectors arrive and that he nearly drowns in "dirty" (i.e. polluted waste) water. However, the simple, overt meaning of this tale cannot be understood apart from the context of the highly Confucianised society of traditional Korea.

From the fifteenth century onward, the ruling elite of Korea worked to turn the nation into the most thoroughly Confucianised society in East Asia, a model Confucian culture (Grayson 1989, 128-41). Tales such as "The Story of Hungbu and Nolbu" are not simply stories about good and evil. They reflect certain Confucian values which have become embedded in Korean society. This point becomes clearer when we observe the "subtext" of the tale's narrative. To understand this "subtext," we have to understand the nature of the relationship between the elder and younger brother. One of the core concepts taught by Confucius (551-479 B.C.) was the Wu-lun or the Five Relationships, the key universal social relationships in which all people participate. One of these five key relationships is that between elder and younger brothers. According to the Confucian socio-moral schema, the elder brother is in a morally superior relationship to his younger sibling, just as the ruler of a nation is superior to those over whom he exercises authority, and as a father is superior to the other members of his family. This superiority of ruler, father, and elder brother in Confucian thought, however, implies that these figures are in a position of immense moral responsibility with regard to a nation's people, their family, and their younger siblings. In the Confucian view, the elder brother is meant to enable his younger brothers and sisters to cultivate their virtue by providing a moral example for them. [2]