Cats are fierce by nature. Even after years of taming,
they will ignore their owner the moment they are displeased.
Yet Geummyo was truly remarkable.
Yi Ik, from Seongho Saseol
King Sukjong, the 19th king of Joseon, was a famous cat butler. (In Korea, cat owners jokingly call themselves jipsa, "butler," because the cat is clearly the one in charge.)
Records of his cat survive in Kim Si-min's Dongpo-jip, Yi Ik's Seongho Saseol, Yi Ha-gon's Duta-cho, and other writings.
King Sukjong's Cat, Geummyo
The cat's name was Geummyo.
Kim Si-min wrote that King Sukjong himself named it Geummyo (金猫, "golden cat"), while Yi Ha-gon recorded that the palace staff called it Geumson (金孫, "golden grandchild").
Geummyo's mother is said to have been a cat that King Sukjong (some records say his father, King Hyeonjong) found starving to death in the palace's rear garden and took in. When the mother cat died, Sukjong wrote a piece in her memory, mourned her, and had her buried.
The King's Favorite Chubby Cheese Cat
According to the records, Geummyo had yellow fur and was very large. It was most likely a chubby orange cat, or what Koreans fondly call a "cheese cat."
Geummyo seems to have enjoyed a happy life in the palace as the king's favorite. One record says, "Geummyo alone stayed close beside the royal table (金猫獨近侍玉食)," which makes me wonder if it was the only one who got to share meals with the king. At night it slept curled up beside the royal throne. Even the king's consorts didn't dare touch it, and it let no one but the king pet it.
Wrongly Exiled
But trouble came for Geummyo. One day it was falsely accused and banished from the palace. Meat meant for the king had gone missing, and the palace staff, believing Geummyo had stolen it, exiled the cat to a Buddhist temple.
Before the cat could be pardoned, the king passed away. When the news reached the temple, Geummyo refused to eat and cried for days. The monks all found this strange and reported it to the palace. Geummyo could not be by Sukjong's side at the end and only heard the news from a faraway temple.
The Cat Who Followed the King
The Queen Dowager, Queen Inwon, quickly brought Geummyo back to the palace. But its crying only grew worse. When the palace staff offered rice, it wouldn't eat. When they offered meat, it wouldn't even look. When they smeared meat on its mouth, it immediately rubbed its mouth on the ground to wipe it off. The cat ran straight to the courtyard of the binjeon, the hall where the late king's body lay before burial, and cried there day and night for twenty days. Then one evening, Geummyo was found lying dead beneath the stone steps of the hall. In the end, it had followed its king.
Queen Inwon was grief-stricken and deeply moved. By her order, palace attendants made a silk garment to wrap Geummyo's head, carried the cat by cart, and buried it near Myeongneung, the royal tomb where Sukjong rests.
| Original | Translation |
|---|---|
| 宮中有猫黃金色 | In the palace lived a cat the color of gold; |
| 至尊愛之嘉名錫 | His Majesty adored it and gave it a lovely name. |
| 呼以金猫猫輒至 | Call out "Geummyo!" and it came at once, |
| 指顧之間如有識 | Seeming to understand a mere gesture or glance. |
| 麒麟孔雀尙疎遠 | Even unicorns and peacocks the king kept at a distance, |
| 金猫獨近侍玉食 | Yet Geummyo alone stayed close beside the royal table. |
| 晝靜洗面螭陛頭 | On quiet days it washed its face atop the dragon-carved steps; |
| 夜寒做圓龍床側 | On cold nights it curled into a ball beside the dragon throne. |
| 姬嬙不敢狎而馴 | The royal consorts dared not touch or tame it, |
| 御手撫摩偏恩澤 | But the king stroked it with his own hand, a favor it alone enjoyed. |
| 一朝得罪非其罪 | One day it was charged with a crime that was not its own, |
| 宮人告例僧寺謫 | And following custom, the palace staff exiled it to a temple. |
| 生來紫闕參臠身 | Born in the palace and raised on morsels of meat, |
| 憔悴山房木魚粥 | It wasted away in a mountain temple on gruel, to the knock of the wooden fish. |
| 龍飛鼎湖消息至 | When word came that the king had passed away, |
| 金猫不食三日哭 | Geummyo refused to eat and wept for three days. |
| 慈聖聞此惻然感 | The Queen Dowager heard of it and was moved to pity; |
| 卽日放赦還歸促 | That very day she pardoned it and hurried it home. |
| 蓬萊物色異昔時 | As if sensing the palace was no longer as before, |
| 猫兮入門悲蹙蹴 | The cat shrank in sorrow the moment it came through the gate. |
| 人之嘗試胡不諒 | People tried to feed it; how could they not understand? |
| 飯旣無心况復肉 | It had no heart for rice, let alone for meat. |
| 遑遑走哭殯殿庭 | It rushed, crying, to the courtyard of the mourning hall, |
| 仰首向殿頻跼蹐 | Gazing up at the hall and bowing low again and again. |
| 其聲甚哀不忍聞 | Its cries were so sorrowful that no one could bear to hear, |
| 觀者人人淚自滴 | And everyone who saw it wept. |
| 一哭二旬仍以死 | After twenty days of weeping, it finally died, |
| 骨見寒毛尤慘目 | Its bones showing and its fur ragged, a heartbreaking sight. |
| 錦以裹首輦而葬 | Its head wrapped in silk, it was carried by cart to its grave, |
| 埋處明陵是咫尺 | Buried a stone's throw from Myeongneung, the king's tomb. |
| 嗚呼此事罕千古 | Ah, such a thing is rare in a thousand years! |
| 古有桃花今繼躅 | Long ago there was Peach Blossom; now another follows in its steps. |
| 啣仁戀澤死報主 | Cherishing kindness and longing for favor, it repaid its master with its life. |
| 異哉忠臣在毛族 | How strange: a loyal subject among the furry ones! |
| 微物如何乃能然 | How could so humble a creature do such a thing? |
| 總是吾王及獸德 | It is all because our king's virtue reached even the animals. |
| 末世人多愧玆猫 | Many in these fallen times should be ashamed before this cat, |
| 背恩忘義爲亂賊 | Betraying kindness, forgetting duty, and becoming traitors. |
| 寄語蘭臺秉筆人 | I send word to the historians who hold the brush: |
| 金猫特褒書實錄 | Honor Geummyo and write its story in the Annals. |
Original text: Korean Classics DB, Kim Si-min, Dongpo-jip Vol. 2, "Geummyo-ga"
Translation: newly translated from the original
Peach Blossom: A dog loved by Emperor Taizong of China's Song dynasty. It was buried beside the emperor's tomb after his death.
The Annals: The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, the official royal record. Despite Kim Si-min's plea, Geummyo's story was never included.