The 1609 Gangwon Province Fire-Light Sightings

Gwanghae year 1. The 8th lunar month, the 25th day. Several sources convert it to 22 September 1609. In Joseon Korea, strange things in the sky were read as portents of disaster. Heaven, it was believed, answered the way a ruler governed.

About a month later the court logged an urgent report from Yi Hyeong-uk, governor of Gangwon Province. Each county had sent its account. He compiled them and passed them on. The entry survives in the Gwanghaegun Ilgi, part of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty.

Ganseong, now Goseong. Morning. "Blue sky, bright sun, not a speck of cloud in any direction." Thunder broke out, moving from north to south. Everyone looked up. Something like smoke came faintly out of the blue sky in two places, shaped like a solar halo. It stirred and moved for a time, then stopped.

In Wonju, something red, like cloth, flowed a long way from south to north. In Gangneung, an object appeared in the clear sky, making a faint sound. It was shaped like a large jar, pointed at the top and large at the bottom. It flowed down toward the north as if falling to the earth, lengthening to about 3 to 4 jang. Deep red. White vapour trailed where it passed. Then a roar shook heaven and earth.

At noon, Chuncheon saw a fire-light shaped like a large basin. It rose from the south-east and flew north. Its speed was like an arrow. As the fire faded, blue-white smoke swelled out, bending and curling, and did not disperse for a long time.

Then came Yangyang, and the report that reads most like a close encounter. Early afternoon. In the courtyard of Jeon Mun-wi, a local office-holder, a round light suddenly appeared under the eaves, bright like a basin. At first it seemed to touch the ground. Then it curved upward about one jang. Its east side was white. Its centre glowed blue. Its west side was red.

It twisted like a rainbow, shaped like a furled flag. In mid-air it turned wholly red, then went straight up and became a white cloud, bright and lovely. It moved as though stuck to the face of heaven, thrusting as if it had living breath. Then it broke in two. One piece went south-east and vanished like smoke. The other floated where it was, shaped like a cloth mat. Thunder followed, then a sound like drum-beating from within it.

The court took it as a warning. The next day, minister Sim Hui-su spoke of the fire-light in broad daylight and asked why heaven's warnings came so often. According to namu.wiki, the phenomenon was also recorded that day in Seoul and in Seoncheon, Pyeongan Province, where observers saw fire and explosions in the eastern sky.

namu.wiki says Korean academia treats the record as an exploding meteor, a match down to the blasts. The blog phoue.co.kr compares it with Chelyabinsk in 2013, then raises objections. The reports span some six hours. The Yangyang object was low, and it split. For that writer, the case stays open.

Four centuries later the record found a new audience. The SBS drama My Love from the Star, written by Park Ji-eun, was inspired by it. Its alien hero arrives in the Joseon of 1609. In December 2013 manhwa artist Kang Kyung-ok said the drama copied her comic Seolhui, built on the same record. She later dropped the complaint. Many English retellings still name the Yangyang householder Kim Mun-wi. The Annals write Jeon.