Janghwa Hongryeon jeon (literally The Story of Janghwa and Hongryeon) is a Joseon-era Korean folktale. Story Introduction Once upon a time, there was a man named Muryong whose wife had a dream where an angel gave her a beautiful flower. Ten months later, she gave birth to a pretty baby girl, who the couple named "Janghwa" ("Rose Flower"). Two years later, they had another pretty girl and named her "Hongryeon" ("Red Lotus"). Unfortunately, the mother died when Hongryeon was 5 years old; and soon thereafter, the father remarried to continue his line. The new stepmother was both ugly and cruel. She hated her stepdaughters, but hid those feelings, only to reveal them once she had three sons in a row, which gave her a good deal of power, and she abused the girls in every possible way. But Janghwa and Hongryeon never told their father about any of it. Conflict When Janghwa came of age and got engaged, Father told his second wife to help Janghwa plan a wedding ceremony. Stepmother became angry, not wanting to spend a penny of "her family's money" or "her sons' future fortune" on Janghwa. So she came up with a dirty plan: One night when Janghwa was sleeping, Stepmother had her eldest son put a dead skinned rat in Janghwa's bed. Early the next morning, she brought Father to Janghwa's room, telling him she'd had a bad dream about her elder stepdaughter. When she pulled back the covers on Janghwa's bed, something that looked like a very bloody miscarriage shocked everybody in the room. Stepmother accused Janghwa of unchaste behavior, having an out-of-wedlock child. Father believed this. Janghwa did not know what to do so she ran out of the house to a small pond in the nearby woods. Stepmother ordered her eldest son to follow Janghwa and push her into the pond. As Janghwa drowned, suddenly came a huge tiger who attacked Stepmother's eldest son, taking one leg and one arm from him. Stepmother got what she wanted--Janghwa's death--but at the cost of her own son's health. She turned her anger upon Hongryeon, hating and abusing this remaining stepdaughter more than ever. Unable to bear this treatment on top of the loss of her beloved sister, Hongryeon soon followed Janghwa; her body was found in the same pond in which Janghwa had drowned. After that, whenever a new mayor came to the village,