Every country has its own collection of folklore that tells us a lot about the history and culture of that country. Moreover, it is always interesting to see how the folklore reflects the present social dynamics and the way people from that culture think. Therefore, I asked Sun about some of the Korean folklore and myth that almost everyone knows about.
The first one is called "The Fox Sister" and it goes as follows. A man had three sons and no daughter, so he prayed for a daughter even if she was a fox. Consequently the wife gave birth to a daughter but when the girl was six, one of theirs cows died every night. The father asked the oldest son to keep watch to find out what happened to the cows. The boy reported that the daughter killed the cows by pulling out its liver and eating it. The father got upset and threw the boy out of the house. The second son told the same thing and the father threw him out as well. But the third son said that the cows died from seeing the moon so he was spared. The older brothers became Buddhist monks and later they found the sister living alone. She said that the rest of the family had died and asked them to stay. Later that night one of the brothers woke up and saw that the sister was eating the liver of the other brother. She told him that she needed only one more liver to become human. So he fled and threw a white bottle behind him which became a thicket of thorns but it did not stop the fox sister. He threw a blue bottle and it became a river but she swam ashore. Lastly he threw a red bottle which became fire and she was burned until she was no more than a mosquito.
This tale is based on a popular East Asian myth of a nine-tailed fox demon called "kumiho" in Korean. According to legend, a fox that lives a thousand years turns into a kumiho, a shape-shifter who traditionally appears in the form of a woman. The myth is similar to the Western lore of werewolves and vampires and the kumiho myth is adapted to the story. However, kumihos are mostly portrayed as women.
There several cultural implications of the myth. In Korea, fox is a word to describe a woman who is a siren. Kumihos are always portrayed as beautiful women in Korean shows and tales. It seems like it is a folkloric way to warn men not to fall for the tricks of women who will seduce men and eat their livers or hearts. It is just another example of how female sexuality is portrayed as dangerous in folklore.
However, one change that has been seen in recent adaptations of kumiho in film and tv is that besides demonic kumihos there are good ones who chooses a moral path by not harming humans. This is very similar to the vampires tales where the vampire refuses to drink human blood.
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