KOREAN LITERATURE CORNER - Aug 2025
By Josh Kim
This month’s myth is a short one, though funny and odd and begs some questions about greed - 빨간 부채 파란 부채
In my research, I found a few different versions, but this one was my favorite.
Book cover illustration by Kang Narae
The Myth of The Red and Blue Fan
Once there was a woodcutter who wandered the forests often for his work. One day in the forest, he came across an odd sight: two fans (부채) laid next to each other; one blue and one red.
Hot from his work, the woodcutter picked up and fanned himself with the red fan - and he found that his nose grew longer. He was startled. He waved the fan more, and his nose grew even longer. He put down the red fan and took and waved the blue fan. The opposite happened - his nose shrunk until it was its normal size and he stopped waving.
The man ran home with the fans and showed his wife. He waved the red fan at her; her nose grew and she screamed. He quickly fanned her with the blue one, and her nose returned to normal.
Money was never easy for the woodcutter, but now, with these fans, an idea brewed…
On a very hot day, the woodcutter visited the wealthiest man in the village. The wealthy man was outside and sweating with closed eyes. “Would you like me to fan you sir?” the woodcutter asked the wealthy man. The wealthy man said yes. The woodcutter fanned him with the red fan, and the wealthy man’s nose grew long. Before the wealthy man could open his eyes, the woodcutter left with his fan.
Soon after, word spread of the wealthy man’s “incurable disease”. He offered a huge reward for anyone that could help him. The woodcutter returned and fanned him with the blue fan until his nose returned to normal. The wealthy man paid the woodcutter handsomely, and with the reward, the woodcutter moved into a life of luxury with his wife.
But in his new wealth, the woodcutter grew bored…
Illustration by Kang Narae from Aram Books
So one day he fanned his own nose again with the red fan. It grew and grew. He did not stop. He kept fanning and fanning, and his nose grew into the sky and beyond. It grew so long that it pierced the floor of heaven. Angry at the weird disturbance, the king of heaven ordered his angels to tie the nose to a tree.
The woodcutter felt a sudden pain way up at his nose tip. He fanned himself with the blue fan but found that, instead of his nose coming back to him, he was moving up into the sky. In the clouds, he cried for help and wriggled so hard that his nose came loose from heaven’s tree, and he fell to earth, never to be seen again.
