The difference between gambling and playing a game can be found in the purpose. It is a game if you play to socialize with your friends, but it turns into gambling if you play to win money. People often play a Korean traditional card game called go-stop when family members gather for holidays. Koreans’ games of choice in the olden days used to be sasiraengi사시랭이 or tujeon투전. The game of sasiraengi is played with coins. Each coin has a number from one to ten, and players guess the number by the hints hidden in a song. The rules of the game became lost over time, but the song has survived to this day. Here is Ssing Ssing with “Sasiraengi Song.” 

Sasiraengi Song / Sung by Ssing Ssing

Ssing Ssing’s version is a modern rearrangement of the Gangwon-do folksong. The game more widely enjoyed than sasiraengi was tujeon, which was played with numbered cards instead of coins. A pack of tujeon cards numbered from 25 to as many as 80. This game was enjoyed across all social classes and ages. Tujeon was almost a necessity at funerals, where the deceased person’s family members must stay awake for several days. This game was portrayed often in old paintings and even gave rise to some tujeon-related words that are still used today. The term “ddaeng땡” refers to a good hand, two cards of the same number, and when you have two cards of number ten, it is called “jangddaeng장땡,” a very good hand. Also, the term “tazza타짜, popularized by a movie of the same name, meaning a hoodwinker or a high roller, was derived from the word ‘taja타자,” referring to a skilled gambler. A scholar by the name of Won In-son원인손, who served as the second vice-premier under King Yeongjo영조 in the late Joseon period, was supposedly a great gambler in his younger days. The young man’s gambling habit must have worried his father, who tried to convince him to quit the habit. One day, the older man showed 80 tujeon cards before telling him to match them up. The father intended to reprimand the son and force him to stop gambling. But the young Won In-son got all the cards right without making a single mistake, convincing his father that playing cards must be a talent granted by the gods. The elder Won never stopped his son from playing tujeon ever again. A song called “Tujeonpuri투전풀이” is sung while playing tujeon, and today we’ll listen to a modern arrangement of the song sung by fusion musician Yegyul. 

Tujeonpuri / Sung by Yegyul

“Jangtaryeong” is a song about village markets typically sung by traveling merchants. Since they travel far and wide to sell their goods, traveling vendors know the characteristics of each market. Marketplaces also attract beggars or gakseori각설이. These paupers don’t beg for free food. Instead, they pay for their food by singing a song and cheering up the generous people. The song is titled “Gakseori Taryeong각설이타령,” or a beggar song. Nowadays, there are not that many five-day markets anymore, thus resulting in fewer traveling merchants singing “Jangtaryeong” or beggars “Gakseori Taryeong.” Over time, these two songs have merged into “Jangtaryeong” of today. There used to be several numerical references in “Jangtaryeong” which is said to have come from the game of tujeon. Here are a few lines from the song.

Here’s a card of one, a morning star shining bright on a January night.

Here’s a card of two, a river divided into two drawing white gulls. 

Here’s a card of three, a pair of swallows come flying on the third day of March.

“Jangtaryeong” features not only numbers but also descriptions of each season. Today’s version of “Jangtaryeong” will be sung by Kim Yong-woo.

Jangtaryeong / Sung by Kim Yong-woo