The Manifold Voice of the People: The Song of the Faithful Chunhyang

Trans­lated from French

The ti­tle must be taken lit­er­al­ly: The Song of Chun­hyang (Chunhyangga)¹Re­jected forms:
Le Dit de Chun­hyang (The Tale of Chun­hyang).
Ch’un-hyang ka.
Choon Hyang Ga.
Čchunhjangga. is, first and fore­most, a song. To grasp its essence, close your eyes and imag­ine a bare stage, oc­cu­pied by a singer with a fan and a drum­mer. This duo alone suf­fices to em­body pansori, that au­then­ti­cally Ko­rean art form which Serge Ka­gan­ski sit­u­ates “at the cross­roads of the­ater, op­era, per­for­mance, gospel, and the two-man-show.” The drum re­sounds and the raspy voice takes flight, punc­tu­ated by the fan that opens and snaps shut with a crisp click that sets the rhythm. Car­ried away, the au­di­ence re­sponds in unison, like “a Bap­tist choir,” in an in­tense com­mu­nion verg­ing on trance.

Born thus upon the stage, this lyri­cal song be­came nar­ra­tive and trav­eled, borne by oral tra­di­tion. Over the cen­turies, a myr­iad of anony­mous au­thors en­riched it, in­cor­po­rat­ing other tales of royal in­spec­tors and for­bid­den loves. From this liv­ing mat­ter even­tu­ally set­tled, layer upon lay­er, fixed texts, au­thor­i­ta­tive lit­er­ary edi­tions, the most fa­mous of which are The Tale of Chun­hyang (Chunhyangjeon)²Re­jected forms:
His­toire de Tchoun Hyang (Tale of Tchoun Hyang).
His­toire de Tchy­oun hyang (Tale of Tchy­oun hyang).
His­toire de Tchun-hyang (Tale of Tchun-hyang).
Tchoun-Hyang-Djun.
Tchy­oun hyang tjyen.
Tchun-Hyang Chòn.
Tchun-hyang djŏn.
Ch’unhyangdyŏn.
Ch’unhyangjŏn.
Choon Hyang Jun.
Choon-hyang-chon.
Choon Hyang Jon.
Chun-hyang-jon.
Ch’un-hyang Chŏn.
Chun-hyang-chun.
Chun-chyang-chun.
Czhun-hi­ang dzon.
Čchunhjangdžŏn., or gyeongpan edi­tion, and The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang (Yeol­nyeo Chun­hyang Su­je­olga)³Re­jected forms:
L’His­toire de la con­stance de Chun­hyang, femme fidèle (The Story of the Con­stancy of Chun­hyang, Faith­ful Woman).
Yol-nyo Ch’un-hyang Su-jeol Ga.
Yeol­nye Chun­hyang Su­je­olga.
Yeollyeo-Chunhyang-Sujeolga., or wanpan edi­tion.

The Springtime Idyll

The plot tells of the love be­tween Chun­hyang (“Fra­grant Spring”), daugh­ter of a for­mer cour­te­san, and Mong-ry­ong (“­Dragon Dream”)⁴In some sources, rather than by his given name Mong-ry­ong, the hero is des­ig­nated by the ap­pel­la­tion Yi Do­ryeong. This form com­bines his fam­ily name Yi and the re­spect­ful ti­tle doryeong given to the un­mar­ried son of a no­ble­man. In re­al­i­ty, it sim­ply means “y­oung Mas­ter Yi, young Yi.”
Re­jected forms:
Ye Toh Ryung.
I-Toreng.
Ri To ryeng.
Lee Do­ry­ong., son of a no­ble gov­er­nor. In Nam­won, in Je­olla Province, just as the flow­ers be­gin to bloom, the young scholar aban­dons his fa­ther’s li­brary to stroll in the open air. There, he catches sight of Chun­hyang swing­ing on a swing. This first en­counter is painted with the del­i­cacy of the finest prints:

“She grasped the rope with her del­i­cate hands, stepped onto the board, and took flight. […] The leaves of the trees ac­com­pa­nied her back and forth. The red of her skirt made a joy­ful splash against the sur­round­ing green­ery. […] Seen from the front, she was the swal­low div­ing to catch mid-flight a peach blos­som petal drift­ing to­ward the ground. From be­hind, she seemed a mul­ti­col­ored but­ter­fly fly­ing off in search of its mate.”

Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang), trans. from Ko­rean by Choi Mikyung and Jean-Noël Jut­tet, Cadeil­han: Zul­ma, 1999; repr. Paris; Veules-les-Ros­es: Zul­ma, “Z/a” se­ries, 2025.

Love, sud­den and im­me­di­ate, drives the young no­ble­man to defy con­ven­tion. He goes to her home by night. Once across the thresh­old of her cham­ber, this daugh­ter of the peo­ple proves her­self no less ed­u­cated and re­fined than he: the eye wan­ders over po­ems in her hand hung above her writ­ing table, over cal­ligra­phies, paint­ings. It is in this set­ting that the lovers ex­change their vows, seal­ing a union they still keep se­cret, sep­a­rated as they are by birth and for­tune.

The Trial of Constancy

In the mean­time, Mong-ry­ong’s fa­ther is re­called to Hanyang (Seoul); the young man must fol­low him to com­plete his stud­ies and sit for the man­darin ex­am­i­na­tions. He leaves be­hind a de­voted and faith­ful wife who, a new Pene­lope await­ing her Odysseus’s re­turn, swears to honor a “vow a thou­sand times more pre­cious than gold, a thou­sand times more beau­ti­ful than jade.”

The drama un­folds with the ar­rival of a suc­ces­sor to the gov­er­nor­ship, Byun Hak-do, a lust­ful and bru­tal man. Hav­ing heard of Chun­hyang’s beau­ty, he de­mands that she en­ter his ser­vice. The roll call of the kisaengs pos­sesses a Ra­belaisian earth­i­ness, where evoca­tive names pa­rade by, such as Miss “Mys­te­ri­ous Mis­t,” “Apri­cot Blos­som,” or “River Fairy.” Only Chun­hyang is ab­sent. Dragged be­fore the tyrant, she dares to stand up to him, ar­gu­ing that a vir­tu­ous woman can­not serve two hus­bands, even if she be of low ex­trac­tion:

“Do virtue and fi­delity have any­thing to do with so­cial rank?”

Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang), trans. from Ko­rean by Choi Mikyung and Jean-Noël Jut­tet, Cadeil­han: Zul­ma, 1999; repr. Paris; Veules-les-Ros­es: Zul­ma, “Z/a” se­ries, 2025.

For this in­so­lence, she suf­fers tor­ture. Each lash of the whip that falls upon her be­comes the oc­ca­sion for a song of re­sis­tance, a painful litany in which she reaf­firms her loy­al­ty. “Even if I am killed ten thou­sand times,” she pro­claims, “the love that dwells in my heart, the love that binds the six thou­sand joints of my body, that love will not change.”

I shall say noth­ing of the de­noue­ment, ex­cept that it is a happy one.

The Triumph of Hearts over the Rigors of Arbitrary Power

The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang em­braces the en­tire so­cial scale of the An­cien Régime, from the high­est for Mong-ry­ong to the low­est for Chun­hyang. Its suc­cess lies in the fact that “it dared to speak aloud of love in this land where young hearts suf­fo­cated un­der au­thor­ity” and where mar­riage, a mat­ter of rea­son, was han­dled coldly with­out their hav­ing any say. This in­ti­mate claim is cou­pled with a po­lit­i­cal de­nun­ci­a­tion of the abuses and cor­rup­tion that pre­vailed among the rulers.

I con­fess that the nar­ra­tive some­times suf­fers from the var­i­ous ad­di­tions it has in­spired; the Bul­letin cri­tique du livre en français (Crit­i­cal Bul­letin of French Books) notes “some in­con­sis­ten­cies, clumsy jus­ti­fi­ca­tions, […] naivety and sen­ti­men­tal­ity.” Yet, like a seashell that cap­tures the mur­mur of the ocean, it pre­serves, be­neath all this, “a whis­per and some­thing like a vast, muf­fled hum: the great in­fi­nite and man­i­fold voice” of the po­ets of the peo­ple singing all around⁵To quote Hip­polyte Taine and his mag­is­te­rial Philoso­phie de l’art (Phi­los­o­phy of Art).. Their vi­brant souls, their good and pure feel­ings have car­ried this work through the cen­turies; they en­liven it still to­day, dur­ing the great Nam­won fes­ti­val, where the finest myeongchang (mas­ter singers) com­pete. Lee Mee-Jeong re­ports that some of them prac­tice with such ar­dor “in or­der to give their voice the per­fec­tion of ex­pres­sive­ness that they even spit blood.” Far from vain, their sac­ri­fice is greeted by the au­di­ence, who rise to ap­plaud, tears in their eyes. And “these tears of con­tem­po­rary spec­ta­tors are as mov­ing as the tribu­la­tions and re­unions of the fic­tional lovers.”

Further Reading

About Le Chant de la fidèle Chunhyang (The Song of the Faithful Chunhyang)

Quotations

“국가에 대경사로 태평과를 보이실 제 서책을 품에 품고 장중에 들어가 좌우를 둘러보니 억조창생 허다 선비 일시에 숙배한다. 어악풍류 소리에 앵무새가 춤을 춘다. 대제학 탁출하여 어제를 내리시니 도승지 모셔 내어 홍장 위에 걸어놓으니 글제에 하였으되, ”춘당춘색고금동“이라 두렷이 걸었거늘”

열녀 춘향 수절가 (Yeol­nyeo Chun­hyang Su­je­olga) on Wik­isource 한국어, [on­line], ac­cessed Sep­tem­ber 25, 2022.

“A spe­cial civil ser­vice ex­am­i­na­tion was to be held on the oc­ca­sion of some cel­e­bra­tion, and he de­cided to present him­self. When, his Chi­nese books un­der his arm, he ar­rived within the acad­emy grounds, he saw on all sides an im­mense crowd of com­mon peo­ple and schol­ars. All made a deep bow when His Majesty the King ap­peared. Par­rots flut­tered to the rhythm of ex­quis­ite aerial mu­sic. His Majesty in­vited the dean of the Acad­emy of Belles-Let­tres to pro­pose a sub­ject, and the first sec­re­tary copied it onto a ban­ner which he dis­played be­fore the eyes of the can­di­dates. They were to com­pose on: ”At the Pavil­ion of Spring,⁶Or rather “the Pond of Spring” (Chundang, 春塘) and the vast es­planade over­look­ing it, where the ex­am­i­na­tions were held in the cap­i­tal. the color of spring is the same to­day as of old.“”

Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang), trans. from Ko­rean by Choi Mikyung and Jean-Noël Jut­tet, Cadeil­han: Zul­ma, 1999; repr. Paris; Veules-les-Ros­es: Zul­ma, “Z/a” se­ries, 2025.

“One day, at last, he learned that the King of Ko­rea had set the ex­am­i­na­tions for the day af­ter next.”

Print­emps par­fumé : ro­man (Fra­grant Spring: A Novel), trans. from Ko­rean by J.-H. Ros­ny, with the col­lab. of Hong Chong-u, Paris: E. Den­tu, “Petite col­lec­tion Guil­laume” se­ries, 1892; repr. un­der the ti­tle Le Print­emps par­fumé ; suivi du Bois sec re­fleuri (Fra­grant Spring; fol­lowed by The With­ered Tree Blooms Again), ed. Ben­jamin Joinau (pref. An­thony de Taizé [An Son­jae]), Paris: L’Ate­lier des Cahiers, “Seon­bi” se­ries, 2017.

“A day came when he had but a sin­gle trial left to un­der­go.”

“L’Amour de I-Toreng et de la jolie Tchun-Hyang : ro­man” (“The Love of I-Toreng and the Lovely Tchun-Hyang: A Nov­el­”), in­di­rect trans. from French by Anony­mous, based on that of J.-H. Ros­ny, La Re­vue des re­vues, vol. 14, 1895, pp. 60–68, 144–150, 233–238, and 327–332.

Downloads

Audio Recordings

• Par­tial read­ing of Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang) by Yun Yen­nie, in the trans­la­tion by Choi Mikyung and Jean-Noël Jut­tet. (KBS WORLD Ra­dio).
• Yun Yen­nie on Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang). (KBS WORLD Ra­dio).

Printed Works

• Ex­cerpt from Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang) in the trans­la­tion by Choi Mikyung and Jean-Noël Jut­tet (2025). (Édi­tions Zul­ma).
• Trans­la­tion of Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang) by J.-H. Ros­ny, with the col­lab­o­ra­tion of Hong Chong-u (1892). (Y­oto Yotov).
• Trans­la­tion of Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang) by J.-H. Ros­ny, with the col­lab­o­ra­tion of Hong Chong-u (1892), copy. (Google Book­s).
• Trans­la­tion of Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang) by J.-H. Ros­ny, with the col­lab­o­ra­tion of Hong Chong-u (1892), copy 2. (Google Book­s).
• Trans­la­tion of Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang) by J.-H. Ros­ny, with the col­lab­o­ra­tion of Hong Chong-u (elec­tronic ed.). (Wik­isource).
• Trans­la­tion of Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang) by J.-H. Ros­ny, with the col­lab­o­ra­tion of Hong Chong-u (elec­tronic ed. bis). (한국문학 디지털도서관).
• In­di­rect trans­la­tion of Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang) by Anony­mous, based on that of J.-H. Rosny (1895). (Google Book­s).
• In­di­rect trans­la­tion of Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang) by Anony­mous, based on that of J.-H. Rosny (1895), copy. (Google Book­s).
• In­di­rect trans­la­tion of Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang (The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang) by Anony­mous, based on that of J.-H. Rosny (1895), copy 2. (Google Book­s).

Bibliography

• Cam­bon, Pier­re, M’Ghari, Younès, and Mau­rus, Patrick, Dic­tio­n­naire his­torique et cul­turel des Corée(s) (His­tor­i­cal and Cul­tural Dic­tio­nary of the Ko­reas), Paris: El­lipses, 2024.
• Cas­ta-Rosaz, Fa­bi­en­ne, “Amours mythiques : Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang” (“Myth­i­cal Loves: The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang”), La Vie, June 17, 1999. (Édi­tions Zul­ma).
• “Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang” (“The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang”), Bul­letin cri­tique du livre en français (Crit­i­cal Bul­letin of French Books), no. 611–612, Au­gust–Septem­ber 1999, en­try no. 180634. (Édi­tions Zul­ma).
• Courant, Mau­rice, Bib­li­ogra­phie coréenne : tableau lit­téraire de la Corée, con­tenant la nomen­cla­ture des ou­vrages pub­liés dans ce pays jusqu’en 1890 (Ko­rean Bib­li­og­ra­phy: A Lit­er­ary Sur­vey of Ko­rea, Con­tain­ing the List of Works Pub­lished in That Coun­try up to 1890), vol. I, Paris: E. Ler­oux, “Pub­li­ca­tions de l’É­cole des langues ori­en­tales vi­vantes. 3^e série” se­ries, 1894. (Bib­lio­thèque na­tionale de France (B­n­F)).
• Ka­gan­ski, Serge, “S­plen­deurs et mis­ères d’une cour­tisane : Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang” (“A Har­lot High and Low: The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang”), Les In­rock­upt­ibles, No­vem­ber 21, 2000. (Édi­tions Zul­ma).
• Larcher, Jérôme, “Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang d’Im Kwon-taek : tragédie mu­si­cale” (“Im Kwon-taek’s The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang: A Mu­si­cal Tragedy”), Cahiers du cinéma, no. 551, No­vem­ber 2000, pp. 83–85.
• Lee, Mee-Jeong, Le Pan­sori : un art lyrique coréen (Pan­sori: A Ko­rean Lyric Art), with the col­lab. of Frédéric Veil­lon, Paris: Maison­neuve & Larose, 2002.
• Li, Long Tsi, “Lit­téra­ture coréen­ne” (“Ko­rean Lit­er­a­ture”) in His­toire des lit­téra­tures. I, Lit­téra­tures an­ci­en­nes, ori­en­tales et orales (His­tory of Lit­er­a­tures. I, An­cient, Ori­en­tal, and Oral Lit­er­a­tures), ed. Ray­mond Que­neau, Paris: Gal­li­mard, “En­cy­clopédie de la Pléi­ade” se­ries, 1955, pp. 1305–1317.
• Rose, Sean James, “Une lé­gende coréenne : Le Chant de la fidèle Chun­hyang” (“A Ko­rean Leg­end: The Song of the Faith­ful Chun­hyang”), Lire, June 1999. (Édi­tions Zul­ma).