They First Saw a Mirror: A Korean Folktale as a Form of Social Criticism

摘要

The tale 'A Husband and Wife See Their Own Reflection', found in the third-century Buddhist work the Tsa p'i-yu ching, can be shown to be the source of a tale tradition in which by the seventeenth century the original function of the tale had altered significantly, while at the same time retaining the essential characteristics of the narrative of the second-century story. In the tale in the Tsa p'i-yu ching, by looking into a wine pitcher a newly married couple are deceived into thinking that their spouse has been unfaithful. A series of other characters are similarly deceived into thinking that a figure with some unspecified ulterior motive lurks in the wine pitcher until a Buddhist adept reveals that all is an illusion. The commentary following the tale clearly shows that this tale is intended to illustrate the Buddhist teaching about the illusionary nature of all 'existence'. Thus, this tale possesses two of Bascom's four functions, the function of amusement or escape through fantasy, and the function of the education of the listeners (in the teachings of Buddhism). The structure of the narrative follows a simple pattern of obtaining the reflective object, the discovery of the image, and a series of disputes followed by the revelation of the actual state of affairs by a learned religious figure.