The Jewel of the Fox´s Tongue
A long time ago there was a school with one hundred students who would fall asleep in school from time to time when they studied to long. One night, the youngest boy couldn´t sleep. He heard a voice counting the shoes outside their room, and then saw a beautiful girl entering the room. He was afraid, so he hid behind a curtain. The girl went to each sleeping boy and kissed them. After the kiss they would stop breathing. When she finished, she counted the dead bodies and realized there were only 99 boys. She counted the shoes again and became very sad. “There are 100 pairs of shoes, but I kissed only 99 boys, so I can´t go to heaven.” The girl left and the little boy realized that she was a ghost or a fox [Korean figure for an evil ghost, s.w.]. He followed her into the woods, but the girl suddenly disappeared and the boy had no idea where she went. Then, the girl stood right in front of him, caught him with her strong arms and tried to kiss him. The boy knew that her kiss would kill him, so he tried to call for help. The girl stopped him by producing a jewel from her mouth and forcing it into his mouth. The boy started to become weak and realized that the fox was taking away his life energy using the jewel. In the moment of his death he remembered an old legend about the power of a jewel from the fox. The legend stated that if a person swallowed the jewel and looked at the same moment to the earth and then to heaven, they would obtain the wisdom of both heaven and earth. He swallowed the jewel and looked at the earth. The fox became angry and held the boy tighter. Because of his weakness he couldn´t look to heaven, but the earth gave him more energy and he started screaming. Some people near by heard his voice and came to help him. The fox became nervous and disappeared. The boy explained everything to his rescuers and later to his parents, but nobody believed him. However the little boy knew what really happened and since that time all humans have the wisdom of earth but not the wisdom of heaven.
If the wisdom of earth isn´t enough for you, try to look up once in a while and you will see more. When you are living in a different culture, you should walk through the streets with open eyes and you will discover so much more than you can find in travel guides. Maybe we need longer to get to the wisdom of heaven, but we still have our own inner wisdom, which we can try to improve single day no matter if we are 8 or 80.
By Sandra Wyrwal
Sandra from Freiberg, Germany completed her M.A. degree in literature and psychology from the TU Chemnitz, Germany, in 2003. In Korea since 2004 is she lecturer for German language and literature at the Chonbuk National University in Jeonju. Email: sawy@chonbuk.ac.kr
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