Ghost hunting in Joseon

The ruined splendor of Gyeongbok Palace when Joseon no longer existed Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff

In 1894, a newspaper in the United States published an article about a ghost hunt in Jemulpo (modern Incheon) purportedly written by an American naval officer. It was "an adventure that befell him just before the declaration of war between China and Japan" on Aug. 1, 1894, and the tale ended with a tragedy.

It was definitely a tale and the tragedy at the end was the realization that I had wasted not only my time in reading it but also in transcribing it. The writer had obviously not been to Korea and had spun his tale using names he had gleaned from his regional newspapers. It is a shame he did not bother to do a little more research before he started writing because there was a lot of material available.

Some of the earliest Western residents in Seoul lived in homes that were reportedly haunted. When the American Legation site ― now housing the ambassador's residence ― was purchased in the early 1880s, it was (if we are to believe Rose Foote, the wife of the first ambassador) not uncommon to dig up the bones of a victim of Korea's Machiavellian politics.

Paul George von Mollendorff, the German adviser to the Korean government, lived in a haunted house. The house had once belonged to Min Gyeom-ho, a Korean official who, through his greed, helped instigate the Imo Revolt of 1882 ― for his role he was butchered at the feet of Heungson Daewongun. The house, after being looted, remained vacant as people in the neighborhood reported seeing a "ghost-appearance" prowling its defiled grounds. King Gojong was somewhat hesitant in providing von Mollendorff with the house; he feared the German would learn of the "ominous gossip" and be offended. According to Mollendorff's biographer, the German merely laughed at the rumors ― the only complaints he had with the house were the low ceilings which inconvenienced his tall Western guests.

Horace Allen, the first missionary doctor to reside in Korea, also lived in a haunted house. He viewed the rumors of its haunting as a positive thing ― it lowered his purchase price. Not only was his house haunted, but so, too, was the hospital he established in 1885.

Gyeongbok Palace about a century ago Robert Neff Collection

According to Allen, after saving the life of a "prominent native prince" (Min Yong-ik), he asked for and received permission for "the use of a building in which to see these people. This, the first modern hospital for the Koreans was named by the ruler [Chejungwon]. Or house of civilized virtue." Allen's translation was somewhat off ― according to his biographer, the proper translation was Royal Hospital.

The house had once belonged to Hong Yeong-sik and in the final hours of the failed Gapsin Coup in December 1884:

"[The] Mins had turned the house into an execution chamber and had soaked the walls and floors with the blood of Hong relatives and friends. [Joseon] noblemen would not have cared to dwell in a structure that had seen such wholesale slaughter; but Allen did not mind. The house was large and well situated, and cures would soon wipe out recollections of the building's gruesome past."

Allen's conviction that soap, prayer and healing could erase the dark stain of the house's past wasn't shared by all.

In August 1885, the Korean monarch provided Allen with five young female assistants. In his diary Allen wrote: "We have five young dancing girls in the hospital who belong to the 'Dancing Girl' order, but they have been given the names of female medical students and are to lead pure lives and become nurses."

His description of them in his diary is rather benign, but in his earlier correspondence to his superior he wrote:

"You know a certain number of these prostitutes are given to each official Yamen. They are all owned by the govt. and are a very expensive luxury if bought. Perhaps they are sent to learn [medicine]. I mean to insist upon this interpretation."

Others would later soften Allen's harsh description to "mistresses and concubines."

Changdeok Palace where Machiavellian politics reigned Robert Neff Collection

The student nurses seemed to enjoy working with Allen and visiting his wife, but they did not like living in the hospital complex. They claimed that at night they were visited by the ghost of Hong Yeong-sik. One can easily imagine Allen's sneer of disbelief when he heard their complaints. "The visits [however] grew [more] frequent, and were found to be from a living personage of high rank." In some accounts, Allen suggested that he had them withdrawn at his own request whereas in others he claimed Yuan Shih-kai (the Chinese minister resident) disturbed Allen's policy of purity by taking the girls back to their previous profession.

According to one of Allen's guests, the girls were so "badly treated [by Yuan that] they had written imploring letters begging to be taken back." But Allen didn't take them back. According to professor Oak Sung-deok, "Dr. Allen used 'uinyo' (government medical/dancing girls) as nurses, yet soon displaced them with male assistants."

Several missionaries had encounters with haunted houses. In 1895, a Korean family reported their house was full of evil spirits:

"They could not sleep for the strange sights and sounds. Sometimes it seemed as if sand were dashed against their windows, and again as if water were being poured from one dish into another. Night after night they had searched for the cause of these disturbances, with no other result than to find the cup-boards and dishes moving about the house in a mysterious way, and large earthen jars placed inside others which had such narrow necks that none but supernatural power could have gotten them in, and no one could get them out."

As one can already imagine, the missionary claimed that peace returned to the residence once the family gave up their beliefs in "devil-worshipping and sacrifices" and began to study Christianity.

According to George Heber Jones, a missionary, ghosts and demons were everywhere in Korea. "They touch the Korean at every point in life, making his well-being depend on a continual series of acts of propitiation, and they avenge every omission with merciless severity, keeping him under this yoke of bondage from birth to death."

The Palace of Prospering Virtue Robert Neff Collection

This included the royal family. The Korean queen was afraid to dwell at Changdeok Palace because of the number of lives lost there during the Imo Revolt. According to Lillias Underwood, an American who had a close relationship with the queen:

"The picturesque palace, with the remarkably beautiful park which surrounds it, was not occupied again by the queen. Her Majesty averred that it was impossible to sleep there at night for the mournful wailing of the voices of her murdered friends, which she heard continually crying, 'Why was I killed, why was I killed?' So now the wind whistles and moans through the deserted rooms, grass and weeds push their way through the crevices of the beautiful marble steps, green mould grows thick on the once lovely lotus pond, and the charming little summer pavilions are falling to ruins, while snakes and lizards slide about the stone seats. The wide reaches of lawn are overgrown with long grass, and tigers and leopards are said to make their lairs in the noble woods and grottoes. The gateways fashioned in various charming designs to form frames as it were for the beautiful vistas beyond, are choked with a wild overgrowth of vines and weeds. Fancy has not to look far, or listen long, to read in all this deserted and neglected beauty the story of that one night of blood and horror, and to hear in every chilled whisper of shuddering foliage the word 'haunted.'"

Perhaps the most haunted of these royal sanctuaries was Gyeonghui Palace. Although the palace was mostly torn down and only a few buildings have since been reconstructed, some claim ghosts still prowl its grounds.

Even the streets of Seoul were not safe from ghostly molestations. Independence Arch was the playground for mischievous goblins. Ghosts wandered the streets near the West Gate ― perhaps searching for their heads or seeking justice for their lives wrongfully shortened. The many public wells in the city were also the hunting grounds for water ghosts seeking to ease their loneliness by clutching the ankles of the unwary and dragging them into the depths. And, of course, the entertainment district of Jongno is filled with jealous spirits ― angered that others can feel happiness when they cannot.

Tonight, when you go out to celebrate Halloween, you don't need to hunt ghosts in Korea ― they will hunt you. They number in the thousands and "waylay the traveler as he leaves his home, beside him, behind him, dancing in front of him, whirring over his head, crying out upon him from air, earth, and water."

Stay safe.

Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.