Skip to content
Chang To-ryong, a MythSource painting
Korean

Chang To-ryong

01Identity

Chang To-ryong in Korean tradition

Chang To-ryong is a beggar in this tale from Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies. The magician Chon U-chi bows whenever he meets him, though the people around them do not understand why. An official gives Chang food and welcomes him to celebrations at his home. After Chang's apparent death, the official encounters him again in a palace hidden among the mountains. Chang explains that his life on earth was an exile, and that his return home has brought them together once more. The official's kindness is remembered across that divide, before he is sent back to the world he knows.

SourceKorean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 2)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 3)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 4)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 5)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 6)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 7)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 8)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 9)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 10)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 11)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 12)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 13)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 14)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 15)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story Of Chang To-ryong (EPUB text block 16)

Top questions

The quick answers

02The myths

The myths of Chang To-ryong

1 myth, with sources recorded for each.

Chang To-ryong Repays a Kindness

Chang begged in the streets of Seoul and slept beside other people's gates. The magician Chon U-chi bowed whenever he met him. When people asked why, Chon called Chang the greatest of three spirit-men. Those who heard him paid little attention, thinking Chon strange. An official whose house stood beside the street asked Chang about his circumstances. Chang said that he had lost his family and had no home or trade. The official gave him food and drink, and afterwards invited him to celebrations. When he later saw Chang's body being carried out of the city, he returned home and wept.

More than twenty years passed. Travelling near Chi-i Mountain, the official lost his way and followed a narrow path among the rocks. A richly dressed stranger greeted him and invited him to rest. He followed the stranger into a palace, where the host asked him to look closely. The host was Chang, although his appearance had changed. Chang prepared a feast and explained that he had been sent to earth for a fault. His apparent death had ended that exile. He remembered the official's kindness and grief, and had arranged their meeting to thank him.

The guest spent the night in a pavilion lit through windows of jade and precious stones. After another feast the next morning, Chang told him that he could not remain. A servant guided him back to the ordinary world. The official marked the entrance with a stake, but when he returned the following year, he found only peaks and ravines. He never discovered the palace again. He later died peacefully at ninety, remembering that Chang's face and clothing had never aged during his years in Seoul.

Chang To-ryong Repays a Kindness, a MythSource painting of the scene