In the Goryeo period there was a song titled “Yeseonggang (예성강) River.” Yeseonggang is the river in Hwanghae-do Province, the area now in North Korea. The river’s downstream area was home to an international port where merchants from as far as Arabia frequented for trade. One day, a Chinese merchant by the name of Ha Dugang saw a beautiful Goryeo woman at the port and fell in love with her. But the woman was already married. Undeterred by her marital status, the Chinese merchant sought out her husband and invited him to a game of go, known as baduk (바둑) in Korea. At first, the merchant, pretending to be unskilled at the game, lost out to the husband. Unaware of the merchant’s scheme, the husband kept betting more money and ultimately even his wife. Now that the merchant had the ignorant husband just where he wanted, he played his best game to win the woman. The husband, who belatedly regretted his foolish greed, sang a song as he parted from his wife, which became the first verse of the song “Yeseonggang River.” The second verse was about how the wife returned to Goryeo after much hardship. The lyrics were lost a long time ago, so there’s no way of knowing how the song went, but the song’s background imparts a very important lesson of not betting anything important on a game of baduk.

Music 1: A passage from Chunhyangga/ Gayageum byeongchang by Ji Sung-ja

That was a passage from the pansori Chunhyangga performed by Ji Sung-ja with a gayageum accompaniment. In the passage, the main male character Lee Mong-ryong describes the room of his lover Chunhyang. The room had paintings on all four walls. One of the paintings was that of four elderly hermits, who hid in the mountain to escape the oppression of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and played go all day long. They all sported silvery hair and beards, resembling heavenly beings in appearance. Distancing themselves from the chaotic secular world and spending time playing go was what Confucian scholars of the old days considered an ideal life, so it was commonplace for Chinese or Korean scholars to hang up the paintings of these four gentlemen. There is another traditional brain game besides go and that game is janggi (장기), commonly known as Chinese chess. While baduk was the game of choice for noblemen or scholars, janggi was considered a folksy game popular among commoners. In summer, old men in cool ramie clothes were often seen gathered under a shady elm tree to play rounds of janggi. This was a common scene in rural communities around Korea in the old days. Sometimes, their grandchildren would come over to watch the janggi games, hoping for a portion of the winnings so that they could buy some sweets. The Gyeonggi provincial song titled “Janggi Taryeong (장기타령)” has the last verse describing a janggi game. Here’s Choi Eun-ho singing “Janggi Taryeong.”

Music 2: Janggi Taryeong/ Sung by Choi Eun-ho

In the old days, people thought of baduk as a pastime of heavenly beings. Confucius said it was better to play go or janggi rather than to stay idle. But spending a lot of time playing these games was deemed a vice for government officials who should be hard at work. An official named Jeong Geuk-in (정극인) in the early Joseon period even proposed a punishment of 70 lashes for those who play baduk or janggi. The call for such a harsh punishment indicates that there were a lot of people indulging in these pastimes. There used to be a game called golpae (골패), which isn’t played anymore. Golpae was played with 32 wooden squares. Each flat piece, measuring two centimeters by two centimeters, had holes indicating a number. The game was so complex that manuals or lesson books including tips on how to play golpae were readily available. This made golpae a difficult game for commers to play, so it was enjoyed mostly among noblemen or gisaengs. “Golpae Taryeong” is a folk song that describes all sorts of people playing golpae. The song even includes a humorous depiction of a golpae gambler whose life was ruined because he was addicted to the game. Let’s wrap up this week’s Sounds of Korea with Sung Chang-sun and Jeon Jeong-min singing “Golpae Taryeong.”

Music 3: Golpae Taryeong/ Sung by Sung Chang-sun and Jeon Jeong-min