The Mystery of the Taesil
Taeguk is the beginning of all things.
It refers to the primal state of the world before heaven and earth were divided. Human beings, too, have a tae. Life grows from that unborn knot of flesh. When a child is born, the umbilical cord that gave that life is treated as sacred and preserved. It is regarded as the child’s very double.
The tae is blessed with prayers for the baby’s peace, health, and future fortune. Because it must be carefully tended, the custom came to be compared with funerary rites and was called the culture of burial and preservation.
There were chiefly four ways to handle the tae: burn it in fire, bury it in the ground, cast it into water, or dry it and keep it as it was. Whichever method was used, the intent was the same—to pray for the child’s good fortune. It might sound like a dusty old custom from our ancestors, but it was not confined to Korea. It was a world-wide tradition practiced in Japan and China, and even in Europe.
For royalty, the practice was even more special. This was called a taesil, and it was held in such high regard that it became one of the royal court’s major rites.
Taesil placed great importance on feng shui. There was even a guidebook called Taebong Registration, which held that, in geomantic terms, the very best site was a stone cavity.
A stone cavity is a formation that is round in shape, like an upturned cauldron with a swelling belly.
It was divided into two types: those in mountains and those on flat plains.
The mountain type took the form of flying dragon entering the water, while the plain type arose from the hidden dragon; in both cases, the terrain had to be level on all sides and bordered by water systems on either side. The place most famous for this kind of royal taesil mountain was Seongju.
But this culture of burying and preserving the tae was not practiced only by the royal family. Common people did the same; the scale was simply smaller, while the reverence was hardly any different.
Among families with a long lineage, the family grave mountain was used.
“Ah.”
As Kang-to followed the thread of his thoughts, the words of Granny Hong-seo flickered through his mind.
“That wicked mother-in-law of yours must’ve buried Soon-ho’s taesil in the wrong place.”
There was such a culture by the sea, too. On Chilui Island and Gyecheong Island, people mostly used the mudflats. It had nearly disappeared now that deliveries were handled in obstetrics wards, but in the past, when births took place at home, it was common.
Taesil.
That was the true identity of the shadow that had followed Li Rin. A taesil was not a living thing. Because of that, it could not become a wandering spirit; it remained only as a trace. Thanks to that, it had not been caught clearly by Kang-to’s spiritual possession. But when he looked closer, it carried the feeling of Li Rin herself. It was less a blessing than a deep, bitter sorrow, and Li Rin’s complete burnout had come from that taesil.
In the end, there was no doubt about it.
Li Rin was the one who had been marked by a taesil. And it had been done properly.
[Taesil]
That was the cause.
“......?”
Li Rin, receiving Kang-to’s oracle, flinched hard.
“A taesil?”
“Have you never heard anything like that from your parents?”
“No.”
“I see.”
“Is a taesil... a problem?”
“It looks that way.”
“You’re saying that was my umbilical cord?”
“Yes.”
“Then could it be...”
Li Rin tilted her head, thinking.
“Do you have some idea?”
“My mother. When I failed audition after audition, she kept saying it. She said my grandmother had buried my umbilical cord in an auspicious place, so I would definitely make it.”
“Exactly?”
Kang-to brightened. His spirit guide couldn’t be wrong.
“But... my grandmother is dead.”
“Could your mother not know?”
“I don’t think so. My grandmother followed old customs a lot, but my mother never liked things like that.”
“Li Rin, this is important. If we solve it, you can get out of this frustration and helplessness.”
“Beopsa-nim.”
“It started last year, didn’t it? Your lethargy?”
“That’s right. Early the year before last, a villainous fan who hadn’t been invited to my birthday party reported me for school violence. Of course, it was found to be false, but things started going wrong after that. Two scheduled advertising contracts were canceled, the tax office came in for an audit, and my mother got so upset she fell ill... That was when I first became disgusted with being a celebrity.”
“That’s the taesil.”
“Beopsa-nim.”
“You’ve heard that saying before, haven’t you? If an ancestor’s grave is violated, the descendants suffer?”
“Like grave digging?”
“Something like that.”
“But an umbilical cord isn’t a grave. It isn’t even a person.”
“Not necessarily. Especially if it was buried on an auspicious day in an auspicious place to pray for the cord’s owner’s long life and success.”
“......”
“Ask your mother about the taesil. Something definitely went wrong.”
“......”
“Li Rin, I understand your frustration and emptiness. But you didn’t feel this way before last year, did you?”
“No... back then, everything was happy. Even though the schedule was hard.”
“That’s exactly when the taesil must have gone wrong. A warning light came on in your fate with a click. Once we fix this, the lethargy, depression, and frustration will all disappear.”
“Beopsa-nim...”
“You said you trusted me and came all this way, didn’t you?”
“Well...”
“You said Yoo Jae-hee recommended me?”
“Yes.”
“To be honest, even Jae-hee didn’t believe me at first. No, most people don’t. Until we’ve got perfect chemistry, they always think, ‘No way.’ If that thought crosses your mind, think of me as a doctor who diagnoses fate. I’m giving you that diagnosis now.”
“A doctor of fate?”
“My daughter calls me a mind doctor.”
“Really... all this frustration and lethargy because of a taesil?”
“You said you failed auditions over and over, didn’t you? Back then, wasn’t this how you felt? If only they’d cast me, I’d grind up my soul and work my fingers to the bone.”
“Yes.”
“This is that moment. The moment when you have to grind down your soul and fight back.”
“......”
“I’m sorry, but... there are a lot of stars in the entertainment world who’ve taken their own lives, right?”
“Yes.”
“When you heard those news stories, what did you think?”
“Did it really have to come to that?”
“Do you want to become the subject of one of those news stories?”
“......”
“No, right? If only that lethargy could fly away, you’d want to soar onstage again, wouldn’t you?”
“I would...”
“Then call her.”
Kang-to pointed to the phone. After staring at it for a moment, Li Rin finally made up her mind.
“Mom.”
The call connected.
“Li Rin, where are you now?”
The voice over the speaker rose at once. It seemed she had come without telling her destination.
“Don’t worry. And there’s something I want to ask you...”
While Li Rin was on the phone, Kang-to was looking down at the island. Far off, he could see the harbor. Jua and her father were out for a walk.
Grandma Jua...
He thought of that taesil again. Perhaps it had been buried in that mudflat after all.
“Beopsa-nim.”
By the time he came back to himself, Li Rin’s call had ended.
“You were right, Beopsa-nim. My mother said my grandmother took the cord after asking the doctor’s permission.”
“How would she know that much?”
“She said she didn’t know that clearly...”
“......?”
“My mother said they took it to the family grave mountain in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, but she didn’t know exactly how it was handled. And that grave mountain was later taken by public development, so part of it became apartments...”
“Then there should have been a grave there.”
“They were compensated, then had the remains cremated and moved to an urn burial.”
“What about the taesil?”
“She says she doesn’t know anything about that.”
“Are you sure your mother remembers correctly?”
“She says it was definitely taken to the family grave mountain. My grandmother came back and said she’d carefully kept it in a good place in the family grave mountain, so our Li Rin would surely become great...”
“You know where that is, right?”
“I do, but apartments have already been built around it...”
“Let’s go.”
“Now?”
“You’re picturing suicide in your head, aren’t you? In other words, you’re an emergency patient. Now that we’ve got the diagnosis, we need to move quickly to treatment.”
“Beopsa-nim...”
“You don’t want to?”
“No. I just feel too sorry...”
“No need to thank me. It’s part of a spirit disciple’s duty, and besides, you’re signed to my older sister’s agency. And...”
Kang-to smiled.
“Our Solbi likes your songs, too.”
“......”
“You booked a place to stay, right?”
“Yes. A guesthouse...”
“Go there and rest. I’ll take an advance look at tomorrow’s divination. If it’s Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, I should be able to go out on the morning ferry and come back on the afternoon ferry. If not, I can be back the day after tomorrow.”
“Understood.”
It was just as Li Rin was getting to her feet that Solbi burst into the reception room, having rolled in from the mudflat.
“Dad, Solbi’s here.”
Her eyes met Li Rin, who had just come out of the sacred hall. Li Rin had not yet returned to her disguise.
“Huh?”
Solbi’s eyes went wide.
“Naive.”
Her finger shot out, pointing at Li Rin.
“Dad.”
Still staring at Kang-to, she looked utterly bewildered. Kang-to’s guest was Naive? She couldn’t quite make the picture in her head fit together.
“Solbi.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes, it’s your favorite singer, Naive. But for now, you can’t go pestering her.”
“Why?”
“She came to see a mind doctor. That means her heart isn’t doing well, right?”
“......”
Solbi’s face froze as if struck by lightning. One of the idols she’d only ever seen on television was right there in front of her, and she couldn’t do anything at all.
“But if Dad fixes her heart, I’ll get you a photo and an autograph later.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Dad’s guests usually come back, don’t they?”
“Okay...”
“Then, Naive unnie, can you secretly escort her to the guesthouse? You can do that, right?”
Even Solbi gave her solemn orders.
“Manager-nim.”
Kang-to called for Manager Seo and pulled the schedule forward. There were seven reservations for tomorrow morning. Five people said they understood, and two said they were in no condition because they’d been drinking. Those two were set to see him early in the morning, and then he went into Mukkuri.
Human destiny.
It was truly all over the map. It was different even from medicine; the process was completely different for the same sort of affair, and the same went for conflicts between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law or disputes over property. He illuminated those paths through the oracle of his spirit guide.
“Dad.”
That evening, when Kang-to stepped into the living room, Solbi hid something behind her back.
“A secret, Solbi?”
“Mm-hmm.”
She nodded, but what she was hiding was obvious. She had apparently gotten Li Rin’s autograph.
“Solbi didn’t beg for it. Big sister said thanks for showing me the way.”
“Did she really?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”
“Mm-hmm. Only Solbi knows.”
“Good. Then let’s eat dinner.”
“I already ate with unnie.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm. She asked if I could do that.”
“So our Solbi’s a traitor?”
“No, unnie...”
At one joke, Solbi’s face instantly fell into a pout.
“I’m kidding. But do you like Naive unnie that much?”
“Mm-hmm. This much.”
Solbi spread both arms wide, wider than ever before.
“If the little spirit medium hears that, she’ll be hurt.”
“Still can’t be helped. Solbi likes Naive unnie more.”
“Oh, this fickle little thing... Go wash up and put your clothes in the washing machine. All right?”
“Yes, Beopsa-nim Kang-to.”
With a squeaky salute, Solbi darted off to the bathroom. It seemed she really did like celebrities.
“Ma’am.”
Before dinner was prepared, he called Granny Jua. It happened to be low tide.
“Oh, if you’d do that, I’d be so grateful. I was just about to ask you, but I’ve got a face, don’t I...”
“Then would you like to come out now? The tide’s going out.”
“Then I’d feel too guilty...”
“Get ready and come out quietly.”
He delayed dinner and changed clothes. Nothing else mattered, but the incoming and outgoing tides never waited for people.
“This way.”
As the sun tilted low, Granny Jua led the way across the mudflat. Since they had left the pier behind, there were almost no people around.
“Who buried it?”
As he stepped onto the mud, Kang-to asked.
“My late mother-in-law buried it. Jua’s father was born a little weak, so she said that if the taesil was buried well, he’d be safe and sound.”
“......”
“She told me it was here somewhere, but after Jua’s father was sent to prison, I wondered if something had gone wrong and came to look. I couldn’t find it.”
The old woman raised her head where the seawater was lapping close.
“Are you sure?”
“She said it was buried three hundred steps from the point between the camellia rose sand dune and the breakwater.”
“I understand. I’ll find it now.”
At the edge of the mudflat, he entered spiritual possession.
Hoo.
As he steadied his breathing, his body began to respond.
“Oh my.”
The old woman behind him shrank back. The air around them had turned cold. With the eyes of spiritual possession, he stepped into the mirror world. He searched for traces of the umbilical cord by sensing them through his sight.
“......?”
Something strong came first: the spirits of sailors who had died at sea, and the spirits of great fish. Filtering out the large and finding the small—this might even have been harder than the business in China.
How much had he peeled away? He found the place where a sailor had washed ashore long ago in a shipwreck. From the spot where only a trace of a spirit remained seated, he finally detected the taesil.
“It looks like it’s here.”
When Kang-to pressed his hand to the mud, Granny Jua started digging with her octopus spade. A mudflat spade was called an octopus spade. Some people also called it a family-spade. She was an old woman, but she was a sea person; even old, she was better than Kang-to at this.
“There’s something here.”
When the spade hit something, Granny Jua set it down. She dug with both hands and brought out an old bowl-shaped jar.
“Oh no.”
A sigh escaped her at the same time. The neck had broken off the lid, turning it into a paradise for crabs. Naturally, the cord was gone, leaving only a small taejiseok behind.
“No wonder... no wonder our son went through such misery...”
The old woman, stunned, finally sank down onto the mud.
“When the tide comes back in, please wash the jar clean with seawater and bury it in a sunny place together with the taejiseok. Then all the bad luck will go away.”
“Thank you, thank you, Beopsa-nim Kang-to.”
After bowing her thanks, the old woman washed away the residue inside the jar with tears, as though she were rinsing out every last drop of her son’s misfortune.
Back on shore, he called Li Rin over. The moment she saw the taejiseok and the broken jar, she froze.
“Oh.”
“This was what held this gentleman’s taesil. Because of what happened to it, misfortune struck and he ended up in prison. It has now been set right.”
“......”
Seeing is believing.
Human beings believe what they can see.
Now that she had seen it with her own eyes, the feeling hit her properly.
Reverence.
Li Rin began to swell with renewed hope.
---