An annotated translation of Manboksa chop o ki by Kim Sisup

Kim Sisup (1435 1493) was a Confucian literatus, Buddhist monk and Taoist philosopher in the beginning of the Korean Choson dynasty (1392 1910). He was also politically active and wrote within various genres; poetry, travelogues and treatises on subjects such as philosophy, politics, religion and economy. In addition, he wrote within what we could classify as a more fictional genre, chuánqí. The collection Kumo Sinhwa consists of five chuánqí. In Korean history and literature history, Kim Sisup is now presented as an important writer and thinker of the early Choson dynasty. His collection Kumo Sinhwa written in Literary Chinese has been translated into modern Korean several times. Its various topics, such as the female personages, ideological elements, and comparative relation to the Chinese collection Jian deng Xinhuà by Qú Yòu, have undergone research. Also in Asia and Eastern parts of Europe has Kŭmo Sinhwa been translated and been object for research. In the Western world (Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand) however, Kim Sisup and his work Kumo Sinhwa are not well known. Very little of Kim Sisup s work has been translated into Western languages, and works in Western languages concerning him or his work are scarce. As my master thesis I therefore wished to present a work on Kim Sisup and his collection, and a natural way of doing it was through translating a section of Kumo Sinhwa into English. As the text to be translated (source text, ST) was not decided, I formulated three criteria - not previously translated into a Western language, containing various topics for future research as well as female personages (female ghosts) - in order to select ST. Among the five chuánqí in the collection, Manboksa chop'o ki - a love story between the student Yang and a ghost - fulfilled all three criteria. I discussed my translation methods through presenting the concrete problems I encountered through the translation process, such as annotated versus non-annotated translation, emphasis on source language (SL) versus target language (TL) and structural problems. I also provided examples from my translation to illustrate these problems and how I solved them. In order to place ST in a context and provide a fuller understanding of the text, background information to the source text was presented. The information consisted of a historical background where I concentrated on society, politics and religion, language and literature, and gender relations. An introduction of the author and the text itself concerning genre and structure was also presented. As I wished to contribute to the arena of further research on Kim and his Kŭmo Sinhwa through this first translation of Manboksa chop'o ki into a Western language, I suggested several topics for future research; a discussion of the writer Kim Sisup and the male protagonist in ST concerning autobiographical traits, a discussion of whether the active and strong female personages in ST are a representation of Kim Sisup s criticism of the female ideals in Confucianism or merely a reflection of Kim s wish to create an amusing and fantastic literary experience, an identification of the Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist elements, a deeper structural analysis of the text, to mention but a few