Abstract

The collection Kumo Shinhwa by the noted Korean Confucian Kim Sisup (1435-1493) is a landmark in Korean literature and a masterpiece in the treasure of East Asian chuanqi tales (i.e., tales of the extraordinary written in classical Chinese). Through analyzing Kumo Shinhwa, this paper preliminarily discusses Kim's outlook on life as well as his world outlook. Examined from a “reader-response” perspective, commentaries of various generations of readers from different temporal and spatial conditions reveal various readings of the collection. Together with the other marginal commentaries on other East Asian collections of tales of the extraordinary, the commentaries of Kumo Șhinhwa show how the notion of qi of the chuangi genre has been perceived in East Asian literary contexts.