Potatoes

 Potatoes

Before coming to the slums outside Chilseongmun Gate, which were the source of all the world's tragedies and dramas—fighting, adultery, murder, theft, begging, and imprisonment—Boknyeo's husband had been a peasant (the second tier of Joseon* social class system, with scholars being the highest, followed by farmers, artisans, and merchants). 
Boknyeo had originally been a girl raised strictly in an honest, if poor, farming family. It's been said that this strict discipline is usually lower in the farming class than in the scholar class, but for some unknown reason, a certain discipline, a bit more intelligent and stricter than other peasants, remained in her family. Growing up among them, Boknyeo, like other girls, was accustomed to bathing naked in the stream in the summer and wandering the village in her trousers. Yet, deep within her, she harbored a vague, if somewhat unsettling, yearning for her own dignity.

At the age of fifteen, she was sold to a widower in the village for eighty won and married. Her husband (perhaps her elderly husband? ) was twenty years older than her. In his father's time, his father was a skilled farmer, owning several plots of land. However, as he inherited his father's fortune, he began to sell one plot after, and the eighty won he spent on Boknyeo was the last of the money. He was extremely lazy. When the village elders arranged for him to borrow a field, he simply sowed the seeds, then neglecting to till or weed. In the fall, he would harvest whatever he could and declare, "This year is a bad year," and eat it all by himself, without paying the proper portion to the landowners. As a result, he couldn't continue farming a single field for two years in row. Over the years, he lost all trust among the villagers, to the point where he could no longer borrow a field at all.

After Boknyeo married him, three or four years passed by one way or another thanks to her father. However, as her father was proud that his standing was on the fringe of scholars class, he gradually began to hate his son-in-law. Eventually her husband even lost the trust of his in-laws.

After discussing various options, Boknyeo and her husband settled on a day job within Pyongyang Castle. However, even day labor was not an option for him, because he was too lazy. All day long, with a load carrier on his back, at the Yeongwangjeong pavilion, he just gazed out at the Daedong River. Being a day laborer wasn't a suitable job for him again. After working three or four months, they fortunately were able to find a place to live in the servant's quarters.

However, they were soon kicked out of that house too. Boknyeo diligently attended to the household affairs, but there was nothing she could do about her husband's laziness. Every day, she harassed him with a sharp eye, but his lazy ways were unbearable.

"Please clean up the rice sacks."

"I'm getting sleepy. You clean it up."

"I should clean it up?"

"You are twenty years old now. You should be able to do that much!"

"Really?! I'd rather die."

"What the hell? You bitch."

This sort of fighting continued, and finally they were kicked out of that house.

Where would they go now? They were forced into the slums outside Chilseongmun Gate, with no other choice.

The area outside Chilseongmun Gate was a village, and everyone there lived as beggars. Their sidelines included theft, prostitution (even among themselves), and all the other terrible and filthy sins of the world.

Boknyeo also became a beggar.

*Joseon: The old name of Korea

But who would feed a nineteen-year-old woman, who's in the prime of her life?

"Why are you begging? You're so young."

Every time she heard such things, she would make excuses, like her husband was dying from an illness or something else. But such excuses failed to win sympathy of the hard-hearted citizens of Pyongyang.

They were the poorest even among those outside Chilseongmun Gate. Those with good earnings were the people who returned home with one won and seventy or eighty jeon** in cash, even though their entire earnings were made up of five ri*** coins. 

In extreme cases, some who went out at night to earn money and returned with four hundred won the same night started a business selling cigarettes with that money.

Boknyeo was nineteen years old. She had quite a cute face. She could have earned fifty or sixty jeon a day by following the example of the village women, visiting the homes of wealthy people. But having grown up in a scholar's household, she couldn't do that. They still lived in poverty. Starvation was common.

**jeon: the old currency of Joseon. One hundred jeon equals to 1won

***ri: Smaller coins

The pine grove at Gijamyo**** was teeming with pine caterpillars. At that time, the city of Pyongyang hired women from the slums outside Chilseongmun Gate as laborers to catch the pine caterpillars to offer them a job opportunity as a benefit.

All the slum women applied, but only about fifty were chosen. Boknyeo was one of them.

Boknyeo diligently hunted pine caterpillars. She climbed up a ladder to a pine tree, picked up pine caterpillars with tongs, and trapped them into chemical-filled containers without a break. Her container soon filled up with caterpillars. A wage of thirty-two jeon per day came into her hands.

However, over the course of five or six days, she noticed a strange phenomenon. Among the young women of the slums, a dozen of them never caught caterpillars, and instead just chatted, laughed, and played around down on the ground. Furthermore, these slum women were paid eight jeon more for their idle labor than the hard-working ones. Although there was only one supervisor, he not only didn't stop their play, but sometimes even joined in the fun.

One day, it was lunchtime. Boknyeo came down from the tree, ate lunch, and was about to climb back up, when the foreman came looking for her.

"Bokne, Bokne (calling in the north provincial dialect tone), you."

"What's wrong?"

She put down the medicine bottle and tongs and turned around.

"Come  over here."

She approached the foreman without saying a word.

"Hey, you... um... haven't you been back there?"

"What's going on back there?"

"Well, you'd see..."

"...?"

"Come on, mister!"

The foreman turned and shouted to the gathered workers.

"Hey! You should go, too!"

“Nope. Those two will be having fun. Why would I go?”

Boknyeo’s face turned bright red and she turned to the foreman.

“Let’s go.” said the foreman as he went to the other side. Boknyeo followed him with her head down. “Good for you, Bokne.”

A shout was heard from behind. Boknyeo's bowed face grew even redder. From that day on, Boknyeo became one of those 'laborers who didn't do any work but received a lot of compensation.'

****Gijamyo: the memorial tomb for the Chinese St. Gija 

Boknyeo's morals, or her outlook on life changed from then on.

She had never even considered having a relationship with another man. She thought it was not something humans do, but something done only by beasts. Or perhaps she thought it would lead to her death.

But where else could such a strange thing happen? Seeing that even she, a human being, had done it, it wasn't something a human being couldn't do. Plus, she was getting paid more for nothing, a tense but pleasant experience, and it was more decent than begging...

It was ultimately a good thing, like the Japanese saying "three perfect beats". Perhaps this was the secret to life. Moreover, after this experience, for the first time, she felt as if she had become a truly respectable human being.

From then on, she began to put some powder on her face.

A year passed.
Her secret to life was progressing more smoothly. She and her household were no longer so poor.
Her husband, lying on the floor, grinned thinking that they were ultimately blessed. 
Boknyeo's face became even more beautiful.

"Hello, mister, how much did you make today?"
Boknyeo would ask if anyone seemed to have made a lot of money.

"I didn't make much today."
"How much?"
"Just thirteen or fourteen nyang*****."
"That's a lot, so lend me a few nyang."
"Today, I..."
He would try to say something, and Boknyeo would immediately run over and cling to his arm.

"Once I've got you, you'll have to lend me some."
"I'm always in trouble whenever I meet you. Okay, I will give you some. But in return, okay? You get it, right?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. Hahahahaha!"
"If you don't know, I won't give it to you."
"Well, I understand, of course."
She had changed that much.

It was autumn.

In autumn, the women of the slums outside Chilseongmun Gate would go out at night with baskets to steal potatoes (or sweet potatoes) and cabbages from the Chinese vegetable fields outside Chilseongmun Gate. Boknyeo was also a good potato thief.

One night, she had stolen a basketful of potatoes. As she was about to leave,

a dark shadow stood behind her and grabbed her tightly. It was Mr. Wang, the Chinese tenant farmer who tended the field. Boknyeo remained speechless, staring down at her feet.

“Come to my house.”

Mr. Wang said.

“Come to your house? Oh, well, do you think I'm scared?”

Boknyeo quickly turned around wrapping her bottom with her skirt, putting her nose up in the air, and followed Mr. Wang, shaking her basket.

About an hour later, she left Mr. Wang’s house. As she was about to turn from the furrow onto the road, someone suddenly called out from behind her.

"Isn't it Bokne?"

Boknyeo turned around. There, her neighbor's wife was groping her way from the dark field, carrying a basket.

"It was you? You were there, too?"

"Then, you, also?"

"Whose house were you in?"

"Me? At Nook's house. How about you?"

"I was at Wang's house... How much did you get?"

"That pathetic miser Nook, three heads of cabbage..."

"I got three won," Boknyeo replied proudly.

About ten minutes later, she and her husband, having placed the three won in front of them, were laughing as they talked about Mr. Wang.

From then on, the Chinese Wang visited Boknyeo's place often.

If Mr. Wang sat there for a while without a word, Boknyeo's husband noticed and went outside.

Whenever Wang left their house, the two celebrated their earnings, placing one or two won in front of them.

Boknyeo gradually stopped trying to charm the village beggars.

When Wang was too busy to come, Boknyeo would even go to his house on her own.

Boknyeo and her husband were now one of the richest families in the slum.

That winter passed, and spring arrived.

At that time, Mr. Wang bought a girl as his wife for a hundred won.

"Huh!" Boknyeo could only snort.

"Boknyeo, she must be jealous."

When the village women said this, Boknyeo snorted with a laugh.

"Am I jealous?" She always forcefully denied it. But there was nothing she could do about the dark shadow that grew in her heart.

"You bastard, Wang, you'll just have to wait and see."

The day to bring home Mr. Wang's bride drew near. Mr. Wang cut his long hair, which he had always been proud of. At the same time, rumors spread that it was the bride's idea.

"Huh!" Boknyeo, again, just snorted.

Finally, the day came. The bride, adorned with seven treasures and riding in a four-man palanquin, arrived at Mr. Wang's house, nestled in the vegetable field outside Chilseongmun Gate. Deep into the night, Chinese people gathered at Wang's house, playing strange instruments and singing strange melodies, making a lot of noise. Boknyeo stood hidden in a corner of the house, listening to the conversation inside with a murderous glint in her eyes.

The Chinese guests left the home around 2 a.m. Watching them leave, Boknyeo entered Wang's house. Her face was white with powder.

The bride and groom looked at her in surprise. Glaring at them with angry eyes, she walked over to Wang, grabbed his arm, and held onto it. A strange laugh escaped her lips.

"Come on, let's go to my home."

Wang remained silent. His eyes darted aimlessly. Boknyeo shook him once more.

"Come on, hurry."

"I have something to do tonight, so I can't go."

"Nonsense. In the middle of the night?"

"Still, I have work..." The strange smile that had been lingering on Boknyeo's lips suddenly vanished.

"This pathetic thing?!."

She lifted her foot and kicked the bride's head, which was adorned with a veil.

"Come on, let's go, let's go."

Wang trembled. He shook off Boknyeo's hands.

Boknyeo fell. But soon she got back up. When she did, she held a blade-flashing sickle in her hand.

"You bastard Chinese. Die, die!... You hit me! You bastard, oh my, you're killing me!"

She cried out loudly and swung the sickle. Standing alone in a remote field outside Chilseongmun Gate, Wang's house erupted in a frenzy. But the action soon died down. The sickle in Boknyeo's hand had already in Wang's hand, and Boknyeo had collapsed there, blood pouring from her neck.

Three days had passed, yet Boknyeo's body hadn't been taken to the grave. Wang visited Boknyeo's husband several times. Boknyeo's husband also occasionally visited Wang. They both engaged in some sort of negotiation.

Three days passed.

During the night, Boknyeo's body was moved from Wang's house to her husband's.

Three people sat around the body: Boknyeo's husband, Mr. Wang, and an herbal medicine doctor. Wang silently took out his money pouch and gave three ten-won bills to Boknyeo's husband. The doctor also received two ten-won bills.

The next day, the herbal doctor diagnosed Boknyeo as having died of a cerebral hemorrhage, and they took her to the cemetery.

Source: Joseon Literature 4 (January 1925)