Novel
The Nine Cloud Dream
구운몽
Kim Man-jung · 1687
Synopsis
On Lotus Peak, in China, the young monk Seongjin, a disciple of the master Yukgwan, carries a message to the dragon king; on his way back, he lingers with eight fairies and begins to dream of the pleasures of the world. His master condemns him to be reborn among men. The only son of a father who has disappeared, he becomes Yang So-yu, leaves for the examination in the capital, shines, commands armies, leads embassies and gathers around him eight women, in whom the fairies live again. Honours and loves follow one another under the Tang dynasty.
Context
The Korean library of translation dates the novel to 1687 and reports that its author wrote it in exile to console his mother, who had been left alone; it was composed during the second banishment. The text has come down to us in Korean and in classical Chinese, and the Asian Review of Books reports that scholars believe it was first written in Chinese. Publishers Weekly sees in it at once a marvellous tale, a religious lesson and a tribute to classical Chinese literature. A first English translation appeared in 1922; that by Heinz Insu Fenkl came out from Penguin Classics in 2019.
Who it is for
A sweeping novel with eight heroines and a Chinese setting; two French versions, in 2004 and, from the English, in 2013.
Prizes and reception
The Korean entry for the English version regards it as one of the finest fictions of the country; translated into Russian as early as 1961.
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