By Bernard Rowan
Have you seen a Korean magpie or ggach'i lately? This beautiful if loud bird found throughout Korea stands as a national symbol. Let's discuss the magpie and its meanings.
Korean folklore subscribes positive qualities to magpies. Magpies may be symbols of bad luck in European cultures, but they represent good luck and good news in Korean culture. There is a famous Joseon vase of the magpie with a tiger smoking a pipe, another famous animal in Korea. Seeing the magpie in the morning means you will have good results that day. We need to seek that energy!
I think we often find what we look for, the good and the bad, but the magpie stands as a medium or intermediary. We need help and support to find the good. We help others too. As a medium, it's good the magpie has a loud and distinctive call or voice. People don't hear well or correctly through the bad noise. It's as if the ggach'i wants to share good news. We need good news, right? We must seek the magpie when she or he doesn't come to us.
A Google site devoted to Korean folktales shares the serious story of "The Magpie and the Bell." In this story, several magpies save a young gentleman from death by a snake. The young scholar had killed the snake's mate, as it was trying to kill a magpie's young chicks. Three magpies ring a temple bell and die doing so to save him. This story shows a supernatural quality of magpies. They can act to protect humans.
Shamans get a bad rap these days. Magpies also stand as a symbol mediating good energy from beyond to the human realm. These days, we should think more of magpies.
One can put side by side magpies and crows. Crows show or bring bad luck or bad news. Crows and ravens do seem ominous compared with magpies. I've also never seen a magpie savage another bird. I have seen that behavior from crows.
Sometimes nature looks terrible. Magpies stand for the good in nature it seems, as they show us the idea that life is a cup half-full, whereas other qualities of nature reveal the opposite. We should think of crows and magpies as cousins. Quite the brood!
The late scholar of Korean folk tales, Zong In-sob, writes about the magpie in his collection, Folk Tales from Korea. He tells one story of a pheasant, dove, magpie, and rat. The three birds need food and ask the rat. The rat's wife marks the pheasant and dove permanently because they misstep. The pheasant and dove try to talk tough and put down the rat, but the magpie is polite. The story shows magpies working with the rejected or outcast and having charm. We do need to charm the good from life at times, and we must see the value in all. That's what the magpie may say to us.
In this way, I return to the story of the smoking tiger. The tiger and magpie tale values charm. A tiger in the forest stuck in a puddle began to starve after three days of no food. A woodcutter comes along, and the tiger tries to kill him for dinner. The woodcutter asks an ox and a pine tree to intercede, but they take the tiger's side. The woodcutter then spots a magpie and asks for his help. The magpie asks the tiger and woodcutter to reenact what happened. This gives the man a chance to escape.
While this story gives the tiger a more familiar man-eating image, I like the positive uses of charm the magpie represents.
Machiavelli says the fox can outdo the lion in certain circumstances of prudence. When we haven't the power of lions or tigers, look to the magpie!
I've seen many magpies in my travels to Korea. I've found and heard them in garden spaces and walkways of neighborhoods and apartment complexes. I especially find it beautiful to hear and see them near ponds and quiet places at palaces like Gyeongbok Palace and Changdeok Palace. These calm points with treasures old and new open Korean civilization in wonder and variety. I've never met a tiger in these places, but I smile to remember the magpie sightings.
The magpie reminds us every day that any day can be good or bad. Countless individuals, nature, and others show the magpie or not. The magpie and its siblings and cousins stand for some of the faces of the yin and yang (um and yang in Korean). Looking for a magpie? I hope so – wherever one finds the self.
Bernard Rowan is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University, where he has served for 23 years. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com
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Korean folklore subscribes positive qualities to magpies. Magpies may be symbols of bad luck in European cultures, but they represent good luck and good news in Korean culture. There is a famous Joseon vase of the magpie with a tiger smoking a pipe, another famous animal in Korea. Seeing the magpie in the morning means you will have good results that day. We need to seek that energy!
I think we often find what we look for, the good and the bad, but the magpie stands as a medium or intermediary. We need help and support to find the good. We help others too. As a medium, it's good the magpie has a loud and distinctive call or voice. People don't hear well or correctly through the bad noise. It's as if the ggach'i wants to share good news. We need good news, right? We must seek the magpie when she or he doesn't come to us.
A Google site devoted to Korean folktales shares the serious story of "The Magpie and the Bell." In this story, several magpies save a young gentleman from death by a snake. The young scholar had killed the snake's mate, as it was trying to kill a magpie's young chicks. Three magpies ring a temple bell and die doing so to save him. This story shows a supernatural quality of magpies. They can act to protect humans.
Shamans get a bad rap these days. Magpies also stand as a symbol mediating good energy from beyond to the human realm. These days, we should think more of magpies.
One can put side by side magpies and crows. Crows show or bring bad luck or bad news. Crows and ravens do seem ominous compared with magpies. I've also never seen a magpie savage another bird. I have seen that behavior from crows.
Sometimes nature looks terrible. Magpies stand for the good in nature it seems, as they show us the idea that life is a cup half-full, whereas other qualities of nature reveal the opposite. We should think of crows and magpies as cousins. Quite the brood!
The late scholar of Korean folk tales, Zong In-sob, writes about the magpie in his collection, Folk Tales from Korea. He tells one story of a pheasant, dove, magpie, and rat. The three birds need food and ask the rat. The rat's wife marks the pheasant and dove permanently because they misstep. The pheasant and dove try to talk tough and put down the rat, but the magpie is polite. The story shows magpies working with the rejected or outcast and having charm. We do need to charm the good from life at times, and we must see the value in all. That's what the magpie may say to us.
In this way, I return to the story of the smoking tiger. The tiger and magpie tale values charm. A tiger in the forest stuck in a puddle began to starve after three days of no food. A woodcutter comes along, and the tiger tries to kill him for dinner. The woodcutter asks an ox and a pine tree to intercede, but they take the tiger's side. The woodcutter then spots a magpie and asks for his help. The magpie asks the tiger and woodcutter to reenact what happened. This gives the man a chance to escape.
While this story gives the tiger a more familiar man-eating image, I like the positive uses of charm the magpie represents.
Machiavelli says the fox can outdo the lion in certain circumstances of prudence. When we haven't the power of lions or tigers, look to the magpie!
I've seen many magpies in my travels to Korea. I've found and heard them in garden spaces and walkways of neighborhoods and apartment complexes. I especially find it beautiful to hear and see them near ponds and quiet places at palaces like Gyeongbok Palace and Changdeok Palace. These calm points with treasures old and new open Korean civilization in wonder and variety. I've never met a tiger in these places, but I smile to remember the magpie sightings.
The magpie reminds us every day that any day can be good or bad. Countless individuals, nature, and others show the magpie or not. The magpie and its siblings and cousins stand for some of the faces of the yin and yang (um and yang in Korean). Looking for a magpie? I hope so – wherever one finds the self.
Bernard Rowan is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University, where he has served for 23 years. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com
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