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

Overview

A visitor to the magistrate of Ko-song refuses skate soup and explains his family’s abstention. His nearly hundred-year-old father developed a burning fever and insisted on being carried to the river. He sent his children away, undressed and entered the water. When they returned, his body was already becoming a skate.

The father completes the change, moves joyfully in the water, looks back toward the children and swims out to sea. They find a tooth and fingernails by the bank and bury those remains. Thereafter the family refuses to eat skate. The tale centres on kinship and food abstention after transformation; it does not call the transformed father an aggressive monster.

Human-to-fish transformationTale-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

“His body was already half metamorphosed into a skate.”
Im Bang · Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies
Tale14, The Old Man Who Became a Fish, printed p.68 (Gutenberg markers 80) · James S. Gale

The children find their feverish father changing in the river.

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 14, “The Old Man Who Became a Fish”, printed pp. 66–68 (Gutenberg page labels 78–80). English translation date, not the date of the narrated event.

  2. 02

    Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies — The Old Man Who Became a Fish

    Im Bang · 1913

    London:J.M.Dent/NewYork:E.P.Dutton1913, title page explicitly dated. Gale preface says Im Bang material came from an old manuscript obtained a year earlier; other Yi Ryuk/anonymous material is separate. Every selected chapter closes Im Bang. English text, preface and selected writer notes read, no independent Korean manuscript collation. University of Toronto Gale archival finding aid confirms1913 publication/death1937: https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/downloads/james-scarth-gale-papers.pdf . Pagination corrected2026-10-05: PG51002 body markers exceed printed1913 pages by12; physical pages in retained Korea176 PDF equal printed+16. Exact quotation page independently checked in retained scan OCR; page pixels not newly reviewed here.

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 14, “The Old Man Who Became a Fish”, pp. 78–80

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, title page explicitly dated. Gale preface says Im Bang material came from an old manuscript obtained a year earlier; other Yi Ryuk/anonymous material is separate. Every selected chapter closes Im Bang. English text, preface and selected writer notes read, no independent Korean manuscript collation. University of Toronto Gale archival finding aid confirms1913 publication/death1937: https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/downloads/james-scarth-gale-papers.pdf . Pagination corrected2026-10-05: PG51002 body markers exceed printed1913 pages by12; physical pages in retained Korea176 PDF equal printed+16. Exact quotation page independently checked in retained scan OCR; page pixels not newly reviewed here.

  1. A magistrate’s guest refuses skate soup and explains his family’s abstention. His nearly hundred-year-old father suffered burning fever, demanded transport to the river and asked his children to leave him alone. Returning, they find him undressed in the water, becoming a skate and then a large flatfish. He swims joyfully, looks back and goes to sea. They bury the remaining tooth and nails and thereafter abstain from skate.

    Tale14, The Old Man Who Became a Fish, printed pp.66–68 (Gutenberg markers 78–80), full framed narrative

The unnamed guest reports his father’s transformation within the tale; no independent medical/history verification or precise modern fish species. Dietary abstention is family-specific, not a universal Korean prohibition.

References

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

  1. Historical primary narrative translationTale 14, “The Old Man Who Became a Fish”, printed pp. 66–68 (Gutenberg page labels 78–80) — 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.

FT·1359 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑