A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Yi Chang and companions investigate a long-deserted Seoul house with a locked upper room. Inside are a tablet chair, a stringless harp, worn shoes and scraps of wood. At night they hear music and many unintelligible voices, as though a feast were taking place. A sword thrust through the partition is answered by a blue blade from the other side.

In a further report about the house, occupants remove and burn its furnishings. A servant suddenly dies before the fire finishes, and the frightened investigators restore the remaining things and leave. The account connects the haunting with the room and its contents without definitively identifying each object as a transformed spirit. No visible anatomy is given for the musicians.

Unseen nocturnal musicians who repel intrudersTale-specific identity
01

Origins & earliest records

Korea; tale-specific historical narrative

02

Records & interpretation

Complete story and attribution read in the 1913 English witness; no independent confirmation of supernatural events.

In the literature

“an old harp without any strings”
Im Bang · Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies
Tale36, Haunted Houses, printed p.177 (Gutenberg marker189) · James S. Gale

The empty locked loft contains apparently inert objects before nocturnal music begins.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies

    Im Bang; translated by James S. Gale · 1913

    Tale 36, “Haunted Houses, first Ink Town account and later burning attempt”, printed pp. 177–181 (Gutenberg page labels 189–193). English translation date, not the date of the narrated event.

  2. 02

    Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies — Haunted Houses

    Im Bang · 1913

    London:J.M.Dent/NewYork:E.P.Dutton1913, actual title page. Gale preface distinguishes Im Bang old manuscript, thirteen Yi Ryuk stories from1911 reprint, and three anonymous selections. Complete selected chapter/signature read; no Korean manuscript collation. Printed pagination checked in retained1913 PDF OCR; Gutenberg body markers are printed+12, physical PDFpages printed+16. No new page-pixel claim. Gale death1937 confirmed by UniversityToronto archival finding aid.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies

Im Bang; James S. Gale translation, London Dent/New York Dutton, 1913. Tale 36, “Haunted Houses, first Ink Town account and later burning attempt”, pp. 189–193

Complete story and author signature read from cached Gutenberg51002 HTML. Translator’s bracketed introductions and author notes distinguished from narrative. No illustration claimed.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies

London:J.M.Dent/NewYork:E.P.Dutton1913, actual title page. Gale preface distinguishes Im Bang old manuscript, thirteen Yi Ryuk stories from1911 reprint, and three anonymous selections. Complete selected chapter/signature read; no Korean manuscript collation. Printed pagination checked in retained1913 PDF OCR; Gutenberg body markers are printed+12, physical PDFpages printed+16. No new page-pixel claim. Gale death1937 confirmed by UniversityToronto archival finding aid.

  1. Yi Chang reports testing a vacant Ink Town house with brothers Hugh and Haw and relatives. A locked loft contains a tablet chair, stringless harp, worn shoes and wood. At night music and many unintelligible reveling voices sound; when a sword breaks the partition, a blue blade answers from the other side. The group leaves. A later homeless graduate burns the objects but stops when a servant dies, restores them and departs; another visitor leaves after a blue-skirted woman descends.

    Tale36, Haunted Houses, printed pp.177–178 and180–181, Ink Town accounts within fully read chapter

Same-loft connection in the later burning report is itself qualified as said-to-be. Audible multitude, blade and later woman are not merged into one named person. The separate South Kettle Town old-woman report remains incidental context.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical primary narrative translationTale 36, “Haunted Houses, first Ink Town account and later burning attempt”, printed pp. 177–181 (Gutenberg page labels 189–193) — Im Bang, Gale translationResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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