Ta-hong / Flower-bud in Korean tradition
Ta-hong, whose name the tale glosses as Flower-bud, met the young Sim Heui-su at a Seoul banquet. They promised to meet again after his examination success and public celebration. She waited in an elderly couple's household, and they married after their promised reunion and his parents' consent. The account follows her later death and the warnings she brought Sim in dreams.
SourceKorean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 15)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 16)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 17)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 18)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 19)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 20)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 21)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 22)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 23)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 24)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 25)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 26)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 27)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 28)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 29)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 30)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 31)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 32)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 33)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 34)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 35)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 36)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 42)· Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies (Im Bang / James S. Gale, 1913): The Story (EPUB text block 43)
The quick answers
Who is Ta-hong / Flower-bud?
Ta-hong / Flower-bud is a Korean hero.
The names Ta-hong / Flower-bud answers to
Flower-bud
The myths of Ta-hong / Flower-bud
1 myth, with sources recorded for each.
Ta-hong and Sim Heui-su Reunite
In Sim Heui-su's account, he was about sixteen when he first saw Ta-hong at a Seoul banquet. She danced among the women there, and he remembered her after returning home. About ten days later, she recognised him in the street, took his hand, and told him that she too had hoped to meet him again. They spoke privately at her aunt's home and pledged themselves to one another. Ta-hong proposed that they wait: Sim was to continue studying and return after he had won the examination and completed the three days of public celebration. She said that she would find a safe place to wait.
Sim returned to his studies while his parents arranged a marriage for him. He accepted because he did not feel able to refuse them, but he felt no joy in the match. Five years after his farewell to Ta-hong, he won the examination. The promised days passed without a meeting. On the evening of the third day, his father sent him to call on an older minister. The host reunited him with Ta-hong and explained that she had entered his household seeking a safe place to stay while she waited for Sim's success. She had served the old man and his wife. He said that the name of concubine had been a protective fiction, not a marriage between them. He sent Ta-hong home with Sim, and Sim's parents consented to their marriage.
Ta-hong became Sim's wife. Some time later, while they lived in Keumsan, she told him that her life was nearing its end and asked him to spend a quiet time with her. She fell ill a few days later and died soon afterward. As she died, she asked to be buried beside Sim when his time came. He carried out her wish and buried her in the family ground. After her death, she appeared to him before serious events and warned him accurately. Years later, she told him in a dream that his own departure was near. Sim said that he wept as he saw her again, and he died the following day.
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Source details
- Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies. Im Bang and Yi Ryuk; translated by James S. Gale. 1913 text, Project Gutenberg eBook 51002. Source edition
The mythology summaries and identity fields on this page are grounded in the sources listed above. The appearance table records candidates separately; only confirmed connections are presented as modern retellings in Overview.