[Yun Se-pyong was a man of Seoul who lived to the age of over
ninety. When he was young he loved archery, and went as military
attaché to the capital of the Mings (Nanking). There he met a prophet
who taught him the Whang-jong Kyong, or Sacred Book of the Taoists,
and thus he learned their laws and practised their teachings. His
life was written by Yi So-kwang.]
[Chon U-chi was a magician of Songdo who lived about 1550, and was
associated in his life with Shin Kwang-hu. At the latter's residence
one day when a friend called, Kwang-hu asked Chon to show them one
of his special feats. A little later they brought in a table of rice
for each of the party, and Chon took a mouthful of his, and then blew
it out toward the courtyard, when the rice changed into beautiful
butterflies that flew gaily away.
Chang O-sa used to tell a story of his father, who said that one day
Chon came to call upon him at his house and asked for a book entitled
The Tu-si, which he gave to him. "I had no idea," said the father,
"that he was dead and that it was his ghost. I gave him the book,
though I did not learn till afterwards that he had been dead for a
long time."
The History of Famous Men says, "He was a man who understood heretical
magic, and other dangerous teachings by which he deceived the
people. He was arrested for this and locked up in prison in Sin-chon,
Whang-hai Province, and there he died. His burial was ordered by the
prison authorities, and later, when his relatives came to exhume his
remains, they found that the coffin was empty."
This and the story of Im Bang do not agree as to his death, and I am
not able to judge between them.--J. S. G.]
[The transformation of men into beasts, bugs and creeping things
comes from Buddhism; one seldom finds it in Taoism.]