East Slavic epic, the title character—an adventurer, merchant, and gusli musician from Novgorod—lives for some time in the underwater court of the "Sea Tsar" and marries his daughter, Chernava, before finally returning home. The tale inspired such works as the poem Sadko by Alexei Tolstoy (1817–75), the opera Sadko composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and the painting Sadko by Ilya Repin. Chinese folklore A merfolk race called the are described as populating its own nation in the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) compilation of Chinese geography and mythology, dating from the 4th century BC. The ancient work also included several types of human-headed fish, such as the or "red ru fish"; as well as creature with some humanlike qualities like the renyu () or "human-fish". Note that these are not of a specific gender, so they are not really conducive to being called "mermaids", though some English (European) writers might use "mermaid" as shorthand. There is also an account of the (; "sea human fish"), given in the Taiping guangji compilation, sourced from the work entitled Qiawenji (). The female of its kind had a head like beautiful woman's, with hair like a horse's tail, and white skin like jade without scales, covered with multicolored downy hair (or peach fuzz), and legless. The male and female had sexual organs like humans, so that widows and would keep them in their ponds, and the creatures could perform sexual intercourse normally as a human would. An anecdote considered relevant concerns a renyu ("human fish") allegedly seen by the ship carrying Zha Dao (), and emissary to Korea. She had a unkempt hairdo and scarlet mane extending to the back of her elbows. Zha ordered the crew to bring her aboard with poles, but she escaped. Zha explained that she was a renyu, adept at fornicating with humans, and was a type of human dwelling in the sea. The anecdote is included in another leishu compilation called Gujin tushu jicheng ( "Comprehensive Compendium of Illustrations and Books, Ancient and Modern"). Korean folklore Korea is bound on three sides by the sea. In some villages near the sea in Korea, there are mysterious stories about mermaids. Mermaids have features just like humans. Kim Dam Ryeong, a mayor of the town, saved four captured mermaids from a fisherman, as recorded in the Eou yadam (unofficial histories). In Dongabaek Island of Busan is a tale of