Original Author: LEE Gyu-bo (1168~1241)
Lee is a poet who represents all poets of the Koryeo dynasty. He advocated distinctive writing rooted in history and reality, and opened a new literary path with writings that lived up to his advocacy.

Re-writing Author: CHO Ho-Sang
Cho began his career as a writer after publishing a poem for the Historical Literature Movement in 1989. His children’s books include Yeonorang and Seonyeo, Kids, Let’s Go Back in History, Stories of Wit and Humor, Wild Animal Rescue Unit, and Mulpure Mulpure Mulpure). He was given the 3rd Jeon Tae-il Literary Award and received the Ragazzi Award at the 2004 Bologna Children’s Book Fair, becoming internationally recognized.

Illustrator: CHO Hye-ran
Cho studied art at Hongik University. She has written and illustrated for Sparrow, and illustrated for many books, including Samulnori, Dung Storm, and Stream Water. She is currently serializing Grandma, Where Are You Going? in the children’s magazine, Gaeddong’s Playground.

About the Work
This book is a version of Dongmyeongwangpyeon, an epic poem on the establishment of the Goguryeo Kingdom, by Lee Gyu-bo, a Goryeo-era man from 800 years ago, rewritten so that even young readers can understand it. It contains the story of Jumong as told by Goguryeo people, just like what can be found in Gwanggaetowangreungbimun (Epitaph of King Gwanggaeto’s Tomb). In addition, it not only contains many historic records passed down from that time, including records from the Old Three Kingdoms History, whichno longer exists, but it even contains an abundance of legends that the people of the time knew. Cho Ho-sang has faithfully reproduced everything down to the inner meanings of these contents, without leaving out or editing any parts.
Haemosu rides a carriage, pulled by a dragon, down from the heavens and confronts the underwater people, turning successively into an otter, hawk, and coyote. Habaek contends with Haemosu and transforms into a carp, pheasant, and deer, to try and elude him. Yuhwa uses a pigeon to send barley seeds to Jumong and people who have come down from the heavens build the Goguryeo palace. In the end, Jumong becomes King Dongmyeong and rides a golden dragon sent from the heavens to return to the sky and the hometown of his father, Haemosu.
The diversity of the characters also transcends the standards of short stories that have been passed down to the present day. There is a variety of characters, including Gangryeokbuchu that ensnared Yuhwa with iron netting; Jaesa, Mugol, and Mukgeo that help Jumong along; Songyang, who matches his skill against Jumong for the fate of the land; Bubunno, who steals the drums and bugles of the Biryu Nation; the white deer that turns Biryu Nation into a sea of water with a single cry; and Jumong’s son, Yuri, who solves the riddle made by his father, "Pine tree atop the stone with seven ridges and seven valleys," and finds Jumong. Each character has a full story to go along with them.
 

Original Author: LEE Ok (1760~1815)
Lee was a literary man at the end of the Joseon period. He began his writing from early on and was recognized for his talents by many people. However, after being scolded by King Jeongjo, he underwent many hardships and had no choice but to give up on his aspiring dreams. Later, he returned to Namyang, Gyeonggi Province, and spent the rest of his life farming and writing.

About the Work
This book is a collection of twelve of Lee Ok’s Chinese short stories that have been translated into Korean so young readers can read them. Lee Ok rejected orthodox literature that was based on the words of saints and Confucian scriptures, and instead used the simple lives, emotions, and sensitivities of normal people as topics and wrote freely. This was a new style of the times that captivated many late Joseon writers, including Lee Ok. But King Jeongjo, the ruler at the time, did not appreciate these kinds of writings. The king began a large-scale censorship of ideologies, claiming to deliver the literary world from degradation. Many literary men, including Park Ji-won, Park Je-ga, Lee Deok-mu, Nam Gong-cheol, Kim Jo-sun, and Shim Sang-gyu were caught by this act, and of the students from Sunggyungwan, Lee Ok was declared to be the one who was the most seditious and delinquent, and he was forced to write a "reflection on his mistakes." The orders for writing this "reflection letter"were very detailed and cruel. But Lee Ok never gave in. He resisted it by sneaking in literary styles that were the cause of all the troubles into his reflection letter, and was eventually expelled from school, lost his rights to take the civil service exams, and even received restrictions on his civil rights. He fell into a life of poverty as he underwent such hardships. His friends, concerned that they, too, might end up in a bad situation if they stayed near a man hated by the king, cut all ties, making Lee very lonely and forlorn. Later, he was pardoned and reinstated, but Lee’s aspiring dreams had already disappeared. The fate of his manuscripts was also as unfortunate as Lee Ok’s life. Kim Ryeo (1766~822 ?), one of Lee’s friends who stayed by his side until the very end, kept the manuscripts that Lee had not been able to organize under a door in his home, barely preserving it, and the entire collection was finally published 185 years after Lee Ok’s death.
The twelve enjoyable and moving stories here, containing the personal history of its author, are works that represent Lee Ok’s literary world.
 

Original Author: HUH Nan-Sol-Hun (1563~1589)
Huh was a female writer who lived in the Joseon period. Although she lived in an era when females did not have any special titles, she left many of her own pen names along with her works, including Choheui, a nickname she had since she was young, Gyeongbeon, a pseudonym she used when she became an adult, and the pen name that more actively revealed her true self, Nan-Sol-Hun. HUH Nan-Sol-Hun experienced the restrictions of the era and personal misfortunes, creating a unique literary world in the process. Later on, her collection of poems were even spread throughout China and Japan and read by many.

About the Work
This book contains translations of 27 poems by HUH Nan-Sol-Hun, as well as the explanations and thoughts of the author, making the life and literature of a poet into a single story. Not only HUH Nan-Sol-Hun’s poems, previously difficult to read because of the complicated Chinese characters, become easy for even young readers to understand, but the contents and organization allow for readers to also look into the poet’s life and thoughts.
HUH Nan-Sol-Hun was the daughter of a distinguished man during the reign of King Seonjo, HUH Yeop, the younger sister of HUH Seong and HUH Bong, and the older sister of HUH Gyun. She received the highest level of education in a family of prose writers, along with her male siblings. Her collection of poems has been published in China and Japan, and she left titles including her name, Choheui, her pseudonym, Gyeongbeon, and her pen name, Nan-Sol-Hun.
However, HUH Nan-Sol-Hun was an unhappy mother who lost two of her children and an ill-fated poet who burned all of the manuscripts that she had been writing all her life, in the face of death. Having been born in an era when women did not possess any sort of power, she believed herself to be a female spirit who was exiled to this world. There were many conflicts between her and her mother-in-law and husband, and she was greatly criticized by Joseon men. Because of all this, HUH Nan-Sol-Hun is seen by many as the most pitiable person in Korean literary history. Her life and dreams, as well as her feelings of resentment and sadness, especially can be felt when reading the poems she sent to her older brothers, the poems she made remembering her old friends, the poems singing of love, and the poems mourning for her lost children.
 

Original Author: PARK Ji-won (1737~1805)
Park was the descendent of the Bannam Park family and is regarded as the finest prose writer of the Joseon era. His grandfather, Park Pil-gyun, was a core figure of Noron who held many important official positions, while his third cousin Park Myeong-won was the son-in-law to King Yeongjo.

Re-writing Author: PARK Sang-ryul
Park was born in Jindo, Jeonnam, in 1958, and graduated from Chonnam national University. His books include Crow School, Prewritten Vacation Diary, The Dog Dish Table and the Poet, Spring Breeze, Boiling Time for Rice, You Are Twenty, No, Nineteen Western Age, and Research for Myself. He studied Chinese literature at home and made a complete translation of the Samgukji series (ten books in all).

Huh Seng Story
This short novel was originally one of the stories in Okgapyahwa, a section of Yeolhailgi. Park Ji-won first thought of the story for Huh Seng when he was twenty and depressed,while preparing for the civil service exams, and finally turned it into a novel in his forties, after having travelled to foreign countries. Huh Seng, who did not care about official rank and focused on his own studies, threw money that he didn’t need, even large amounts, into the sea, and created an ideal village by influencing a gang of thieves, he was probably the kind of learned man that Park Ji-won always dreamed of becoming. There is a wide range of characters that appear in this novel, including a scholar with a dream, a wealthy man who became rich through financial businesses, a commoner who became a thief, and the associates of the king. All of the events occur in a variety of places, from Seoul to Janggi, Japan (thought to be Nagasaki). Thanks to its interesting cast of characters that catch young readers’interest and the fun storyline, it had many adaptations from early on.

Kwang-Moon the Beggar
The original title of this novel is Gwangmunjajeon. It is written in Banggyeokgakwejeon, the eighth book of the Yeonam Collection. The main character, Gwangmun, is the typical man who has set foot for the first time in the city, not having become hardened in the world. He strides through all of Seoul like it is his home and easily makes friends with all kinds of people, including prostitutes, prodigals, thugs, aristocrats, and government officials. Numerous friends and readers have gathered around this genuine and thrilling piece of writing about a man who transcends power, wealth, and strength with character and open arms, moving other peoples’hearts. You may even get to see a portrait of Park Ji-won himself, the man who even baffled the most powerful man in the world at that time, Kim Jeongjo. Furthermore, the place known as Seoul contains the historicity of human geography, as well as vivid images of the era that can be seen through the characters that appear in this story. The depictions of the characters, which match the background of the story very well, have the power to awaken “interest in story-reading and joy in sentences.” In other words, this story contains all of the requisites for being a classic worthy of recommending to children.
 

Original Author: PARK Ji-won (1737~1805)
Park was the descendent of the Bannam Park family and is regarded as the finest prose writer of the Joseon era. His grandfather, Park Pil-gyun, was a core figure of Noron who held many important official positions, while his third cousin Park Myeong-won was the son-in-law to King Yeongjo.

Re-writing Author: PARK Sang-ryul
Park was born in Jindo, Jeonnam, in 1958, and graduated from Chonnam national University. His books include Crow School, Prewritten Vacation Diary, The Dog Dish Table and the Poet, Spring Breeze, Boiling Time for Rice, You Are Twenty, No, Nineteen Western Age, and Research for Myself. He studied Chinese literature at home and made a complete translation of the Samgukji series (ten books in all).

A Nobleman Story
One of the nine stories that Park Ji-won wrote when he was still very young. Park Ji-won, after realizing that his ideals as a scholar did not flow in accordance with the world, wandered aimlessly and eventually gave up his official position, focusing even further on his writing. Yangbanjeon uses humor and jests to especially poke fun at the contradictory nature of the aristocrats at the time.

The Tiger Scolds
One of the stories recorded in the Yeolha Diary. The scholar and main character of this story, Bukgwak, is actually a phony scholar, and the virtuous woman, Donglija, is also a fake. But everyone, including the king, admires these two. The scenes of an entire world playing into the hands of a fakes only covered by a single coat, and the attitude of the fakes who continue to act haughty even after being humiliated, are very novel ideas when read nowadays.

The Magic Show
All sorts of clowns and entertainers gather and boast of their talents nearby Yeolha, the summer resort of Emperor Gojong of the Ching Dynasty, in hopes of being selected to entertain for the king’s birthday party. Thanks to that, Park Ji-won gets to watch performances of twenty different kinds of magic tricks -all of which many Koreans at the time were not easily able to see- and writes Seeing Magic Tricks. The 18th century magic tricks in this book are performances that combine magic, acrobatics, skits, and puppet shows that even go so far as to crush the technology employed in magic performances today.
 

Original Author: Cho Wi-han (1567~1649)
Cho was born in an aristocratic family and learned traditional Chinese literature. His pen name was So Ong?he was also known as Hyeon Gok. During the Japanese Invasion in 1592, he fought alongside Kim Deok-ryeong and experienced Lee Gwal’s War, the Jeongmyo War, and the Byeongja War (Manchu war in 1636). He held many government positions after passing the civil service examination. He has an anthology, Hyeongokjip.

Illustrator: KIM Eun-ok
Kim studied traditional Buddhist paintings and temple architecture art at the Buddhist art department of Dongguk University. She participated in the paintings of Shingye Temple in Mt. Geumgang, Borim Temple in Jeonnam, Bogwang Temple and Wonhyo Temple in Seoul, and Yeonghwa Temple in Busan. She continues to use her background in traditional techniques to discover new artistic shapes and ways of expression.

About the Work
The disturbances of the Imjin year(1592) continue on into the conflicts between Hugeum and Joseon, and Hugeum and the Ming Dynasty. Many Koreans became prisoners, and were dragged to Japan and sold to China. It was commonplace to see people act as messengers in the Ming army and then escape over the border to survive. There were also many people who died unjustly or never returned home when Hugeum waged war with the Ming.
The footsteps of Choi Cheok and Ok Yeong fully contain this history. Under the looting and butchery of the Japanese who came in through Namwon, Choi Cheok, Ok Yeong, and their son, Mong Seok, must part ways, never knowing if the others are alive. Choi Cheok, who lost his family, enters the service of the Chinese army and goes to Zhe Jiang, on the northern side of China. Later, he goes all the way to Vietnam and reunites with Ok Yeong, bearing their second child, Mong Seon, back in China. However, Choi Cheok becomes drafted by the Chinese army when the Yoyang battle occurs, and reunites with his son, Mong Seok, who was drafted into the Korean army. Ok Yeong becomes a captive of Gonishi Yukinaga’s fleet and is taken to Nagoya, where she is taught how to navigate a ship and travels from Nagoya to Okinawa to Vietnam. Meanwhile, Jin Wi-gyeong, an officer in the Chinese army who is their in-law, becomes a deserter and straggles behind, wandering Korea. Jin Wi-gyeong’s daughter, Hong Do, dedicates herself to finding her father and follows her mother-in-law, Ok Yeong, and herhusband, Mong Seon, to sail the rough seas and reach Namwon, on Korean soil. This is how the members of the family that was separated in 1597 all return to their homeland in 1620, 24 years later, and reunite.
Examining their journey, we see that Choi Cheok traveled from Namwon to Zhe Jiang, then to Xiamen, Vietnam, and finally to Lyayoyang. Ok Yeong travels from Namwon to Nagoya, then to Okinawa, Xiamen, Vietnam, and finally to Zhe Jiang. The hardships of these ordinary people who suddenly became swept up in the whirlwind of war did not end quickly. However, they never gave up hope that they would find their family and homeland once again.