The Cry Heard Beneath the Plum Tree

There is a claim that an old government document from late Joseon records the following line:
“A woman’s sobbing was heard beneath the plum tree.”

But when examined closely, no such sentence can be found in the surviving sources.
At least within the publicly available Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, national heritage archives, or academic papers, there is no confirmed record that states, in that exact form, “a woman’s cry beneath a plum tree.”

Still, it would be wrong to say the story came out of nowhere.

Joseon-era records and yadam (unofficial tales) frequently mention ghosts, female spirits, restless souls, and strange sounds in the night.
During King Seongjong’s reign, officials discussed how the capital was said to be full of malicious spirits. One report claimed a ghost was moving objects inside a house. When an owl cried from a palace tree, the king dismissed it—“What is so strange about that?”—but one minister even suggested using cannons to drive it away.

In other words, such things were not merely jokes to people of the time.

Some believed in them, some did not.
Some insisted on calling a shaman, others said the phenomenon would fade on its own.
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