The Story of Sim Cheong or The Tale of Shim Ch'ŏng () is a Korean classical novel about a filial daughter named Sim Cheong. Simcheongga, the pansori version, performed by a single narrator, is believed to be the older version of the story, with the novel having been adapted from its script. Some examples of the story, though nominally referred to as novels, are practically the same as the pansori libretti, and are thus referred to as "pansori novels".
Woodblock-printed editions, written entirely in Hangul, were issued in the early 20th century. These books, printed in Jeonju (referred to as "Wanpan bon" editions), fall in the "pansori novel" category. The Seoul woodblock editions (called "Gyeongpan bon" editions) assume the more conventional literary style of the novel.
Summary
Sim Cheong-jeon is a story about the titular Sim Cheong, who throws herself into the Indang Sea as a sacrifice so that her blind father can regain his eyesight. This selfless act of filial piety causes her to be resurrected and become an empress, and her father's blindness is cured.
Literary forms and versions
Genres
The Tale of Sim Cheong () refers to the classical novel (or pansori novel) form of the legend, while the "Simcheongga (Song of Sim Cheong)" () refers to p'ansori performed version.
There is also the form performed by the mudang shamanesses at the gut ritual, and the recited text may be referred to as the "Shamanic Song of Sim Cheong" ().
Texts
There are handwritten, woodblock print, and metal-type print editions of Sim Cheong-jeon. And despite the aforementioned convention that the pansori works be distinguished as Sim Cheong ga ("Song") and not be referred to as Sim Cheong jeun ("Story"), The Complete Collection of Sim Cheong jeon (1997) edited by Kim Jinyoung, Kim Hyun Ju, et al. (1997) include p'ansori recordings and libretti also, and amassing 83 variant texts in the compilation.
The woodblock editions are largely divided into three groups: the “Hannam edition” version and the “Songdong edition” version in close-to-prose form, and the “Jeonju edition” version set down in verse.
The Hannam Seolim (, 1917) edition and Songdong () editions were both printed in Seoul, and are collectively known as the Seoul editions version (). The Jeonju () edition, named after the city, is also called the Wanpan () version after Wansan, the archaic name for the city. These Seoul woodblock editions date to pre-1920, while the Wanpan woodblock editions were issued from 1905 to 1916.
Although referred to as novels, many of these (especially Wanpan editions) were virtually theatrical scripts in their style of writing, in fact, they are not much different from the p'ansori libretti. And they are referred to as "p'ansori novels" or "pansori-based novels" for that reason (Cf. §Pansori novel below). More like conventional novels, and written in the "literary style" () are the Seoul editions.
Although the woodblock-printed texts are entirely in hangul, there are handwritten transcriptions which supply information on the equivalent Chinese characters.
Content-wise, the major differences among the three versions are: 1) the appearance of a celestial being who comes down to earth (Hannam edition version), 2) the appearance of Bbaengdeok's mother (Songdong edition version), and 3) the appearance of Lady Jang (Jeonju edition version). Generally, the Hannam edition is considered to be the earliest version of Sim Cheong-jeon, followed by the Songdong edition and the Jeonju edition. Sometimes the different editions of Sim Cheong-jeon are grouped by whether the writing style shows characteristics of pansori or written fiction; by the different spellings of the name of Sim Cheong's father; and by the differences in the section featuring Lady Jang. Most handwritten editions of Sim Cheong-jeonare considered to be the Jeonju edition version.
Plot
A summary of the tale, common to both the Wanpan/Jeonju and Seoul editions, are as follows:
Long ago, northern Korea's Hwangju County had a district named Dohhwa-dong (), literally "Peach Blossom Village"), where lived a destitute family descended from the yangban class. The daughter Sim Cheong () had Blind Man Sim, full name Sim Hakgyu () as father, raising the girl alone after the death of the mother, Lady Gwak ().