A tiger and a bear feature prominently in the founding myth of Kojosŏn, the Korean Peninsula’s first recorded kingdom. Sympathetic turtles form a bridge on their backs to help a prince flee for his safety in the founding myth of the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryŏ. And yet, given the obvious importance of animals to premodern Korean societies, it is surprising how much remains to be written on the different dimensions of such human-animal encounters.
George Kallander’s insightful new work, a formidable contribution to the young but growing fields of Korean animal studies and environmental history, uses these stories and others to shed light on a fascinating but overlooked aspect of premodern Korean history—the royal hunt. In another mythic animal tale related by Kallander, Yi Sŏnggye, the founder of the Chosŏn dynasty, was washing himself in a mountain stream during a hunt when he discovered two wild sable and skillfully...
