The iconic story of scholar Han Seok Bong and his mum
‘Would you rather be a teacher or a policeman?’ That was a question in our English class today. An IT engineer said he would rather be a policeman. Why? Because these days he’s been trying to help his son at home with his school work and it’s been ‘difficult’.
There were nods of understanding around the boardroom. Most of the members of the class have a young family and are bracing themselves for the day their children start asking for help with English homework too!
This conversation about the trials and tribulations of home-schooling reminded me of the famous Korean story about Han Seok Bong (1543-1605) a renowned scholar and calligrapher. Actually, it’s really his mum who is the star of this tale which illustrates the Confucian ideal of ‘good wife and wise mother’ in the Joseon period.
The calligraphy of Han Seok Bong
Before we get to the story, here’s a page from Han Seok Bong’s book of calligraphy. It’s part of the Chinese poem ‘Thousand Character Classic‘ which was made to teach children their first 1,000 Chinese characters. Each character is only used once.
(fun fact: the name of the Chinese character is written in hangul underneath each one. But at that time, hangul was written from right to left– not left to right as it is today. So we have to read it backwards!)
Anyway, there are variations of the story but it goes something like this.
The story of Han Seok Bong and his mum
Han Seok Bong’s mother wasn’t rich but she knew that education was important. So she sent him to a temple to study. Meanwhile she sold rice cakes to make a living.
She told him that he had to stay there for ten years. But he soon felt homesick and decided to come home!
It was late at night when he arrived, but his mother was still up cutting rice cake.
However, he didn’t get the warm welcome he was hoping for. In fact his mother demanded to know WHY he had come back so soon. He tried to persuade her that he had worked so hard that his three years of intensive study and calligraphy practice had been enough.
But his mum was having none of it.
In the end, she gave him a challenge. If he could write Chinese characters very well in the dark, then he could stay at home. If not, he’d have to go back to the temple.
So they blew out the candle and he started to write. While he was writing with his brush, his mother continued to cut rice cake.
Of course Han Seok Bong couldn’t write the Chinese characters very well when he couldn’t see what he was doing. On the other hand, his mum had cut her rice cake into perfectly even slices. She’d obviously had years of practice.
So Han Seok Bong had to go back to the temple. But this time he had learned his lesson. He realised that it takes time and a strong work ethic to become a master in any discipline. And now he was determined to do his best.
Sure enough, thanks to his mother’s lesson he later became one of the most famous calligraphers in Joseon. Here’s another page of his work:
An iconic story
I realised how famous this story is in Korea when Han Seok Bong’s name cropped up in a book I was reading called ‘Change Your Handwriting and Change Your Life!‘ (my translation)
According to the author, if you practise handwriting for 20 minutes a day you can create positive changes in all areas of your life.
And since my hangul looks like it was written by a five-year-old and my English handwriting isn’t much better, I’ve come to the conclusion that this must be what is holding me back. And so I take up your challenge, Sir.
(I’ll let you know how it goes.)
Anyway, I mention this book because Han Seok Bong’s name appears in the title of the first chapter:
Why did Han Seok Bong write calligraphy in a dark room?
So I made a cup of tea and settled down to discover some more details about Han Seok Bong and his studies in the dark room.
But I was disappointed. Because I couldn’t find any reference to the story of Han Seok Bong or his mum in this chapter at all.
I read about the development of Chinese characters and calligraphy in East Asia. And how Confucius said it was possible to distinguish between a noble, cultivated person and a commoner simply by looking at their writing.
But there’s nothing about the temple or the rice cake or anything. The author doesn’t even mention Han Seok Bong’s name – apart from in the chapter title!
So I was confused.
And then I realised that the writer had simply assumed that the reader is Korean and therefore will ALREADY KNOW the story.
Once I realised this, I could see that the point of the chapter was to explain WHY having calligraphy skills is so important. It wasn’t about Han Seok Bong’s personal philosophy on how to hone one’s calligraphy skills!
While children learn this story at school, the only reason I had heard of it was because my calligraphy teacher told it to me. Otherwise I think I’d still be searching through the book desperate to learn about this mysterious Han Seok Bong who practised his calligraphy in the dark.
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A friend of mine told me that her young niece was having a hard time going back to virtual school and all the typing involved; then I realized that tons of kids like her are writting less and less each day…suddenly handwritting will be a thing of the past. Han Seok mom’s was right.. I’ll keep practicing my handwritting a couple of minutes per day 😉.
School life must have changed a lot, especially this year.