Assuming that the episodes of Heungbo breaking gourds and of Nolbo doing the same thing would constitute a mutually contrastive corresponding pair, this paper tries to verify this assumption with various versions produced in the mid 19th century.
As a result of the examination of Heungbo’s and Nolbo’s gourd episodes in three versions of Heungbo-jeon, including the Seoul Publication version, the Yenching Library version, and Shin Jae-hyo’s version, we can not only tell that the compositions in Heungbo’s and Nolbo’s gourd episodes are based on making one party rich and the other declined, but also find out such pairs as (1) achieving wealth vs. physical punishment or losing wealth (even unable to keep what one owns), (2) nobleness vs. humbleness, (3) long life or health vs. life in jeopardy, (4) settlement vs. losing one’s base or unstable life, and (5) having a beautiful concubine vs. sexual insult. The discovery of such pairs means that the folktale frame that defines Heungbo-ga as an imitated story with respect to its formation has persisted since then. Though the achievement and loss of wealth was of course the core, other composition materials have been gradually added in accordance with audiences’ correspondence.
Then, this paper tries to explore what the gourd episodes in Heungbo-jeon represented in the mid 19thcentury, based on such composition materials. As a result of the analysis of the compositional elements of the episode of Heungbo’s gourds, it has been found out that they were the symbols of low class males’ material and vulgar desires. We cannot find things that can be said to be symbols of mental desires like knowledge and honor. Nolbo’s gourd episode, given that it was formed in the contrastive correspondence with Heungbo’s, is not different than Heungbo’s in that material and vulgar desires for wealth underlies their background. However, Nolbo’s gourd episode is different in that the desire for wealth with others’ life excluded should be negated, that is to say, in that it raises ethical questions about wealth. Thus, the two episodes of gourds in Heungbo-jeon can be regarded as containing dual recognition of wealth shared by people at that time, that is to say, the recognition that wealth is a subject of desire on one hand, but is also a subject of criticism for which one can be charged in the name of ethics on the other.