Renowned recluse, elder brother of Chief State Councillor Park Sun (pen name Yeonpa)
| Life | 1511 ~ 1586 |
| Era | 조선 중기 |
| Clan | 충주 박씨 |
Park Gae (朴漑, 1511-1586), the eldest son of Park U of the Chungju Park and elder brother of Chief State Councillor Park Sun, courtesy name Daegyun and pen name Yeonpa Cheosa ("Mist-and-Wave Recluse"), was born in Seoul and was known as a prodigy from childhood. He is said to have astonished elders by remarking that nothing is more worth learning than filial piety, since fortune lies with Heaven but filiality depends on oneself. He acted as taught in the filial chapter of the Sajasohak, so that even when his father boasted of him no one mocked.
He first went to take the examination at eighteen, but on seeing a scholar trampled to death in the crowd he is said to have said that when people die unheeded in the struggle for first place, this is not what a benevolent person would join, and abandoned the examinations. He withdrew to Songjeong-ri in Gwangju, his father's home, and delighted in giving, providing clothing and food to hungry relatives and paying for funerals and weddings that kin could not afford.
A poem he recited while playing the geomungo on a ferry spread by rumor to King Seonjo, who sent an inspector and repeatedly tried to grant him office, which he declined. Seonjo ordered Park Sun, then a lecturer, to persuade his brother, and the recluse, past sixty, reluctantly accepted a post as Hanseong aide, then magistrate of Gosan, the rank of Tongjeong Daebu and a year as magistrate of Gimje before returning to nature. He is said to have died at seventy-six in 1586 at Yeonpajeong with music and a last poem. These tales mix folklore with entries in the Gukjo Indulgo and are best read as such.
As a child Park Gae was famed as a prodigy who put the filial passages of the Sajasohak into practice. That no one mocked when his father Park U boasted of him shows the esteem in which he was held.
Witnessing a fatal crush at his first examination at eighteen is said to have changed his life. He then lived giving to others at Songjeong-ri, and his elegance playing the geomungo on a ferry reached King Seonjo. The inspector Seonjo sent reported a house full of zithers and books and a white-haired man lying in a riverside pavilion chanting verse.
At the urging of his brother Park Sun on Seonjo's orders, Park Gae took posts as aide of the Hanseong office and magistrate of Gosan, rose to Tongjeong Daebu and served a year as magistrate of Gimje before stepping down. On the day he died, aged seventy-six in 1586, he is said to have been carried on a stretcher to Yeonpajeong, received mourners and left a poem amid song and zither music.
He is said to have died at Yeonpajeong; the tomb was not confirmed.