A Single Shard

When Tree-ear approaches the bridge under which he and Crane-man live, Crane-man asks whether Tree-ear has “hungered well” that day—a joking reversal of better-off people’s polite question, “Have you eaten well?” Tree-ear excitedly holds up a bag of rice. In a flashback, Tree-ear is walking along the path he uses to travel among garbage dumps looking for food when he sees a man carrying a container of rice on his back. Rice is falling from a hole in the container. Tree-ear debates whether to warn the man or gather the fallen rice. After waiting a moment, he warns the man. The man laughs at himself for weaving the container sloppily, patches the hole, and rewards Tree-ear by telling him he can have the fallen rice. Tree-ear thinks he has made a “lucky guess.”

Tree-ear has learned his behavioral code from Crane-man, who says that work makes a person dignified, while stealing or begging debases a person. Sometimes Tree-ear has trouble applying the code: for instance, he isn’t sure whether it counts as stealing that he waited until more rice had fallen to warn the man with the container. Crane-man asks what the man with the rice was like. Tree-ear said he was “impatient”—he wouldn’t stop to pick up the rice himself—but had a sense of humor. Crane-man asks what the man would think of Tree-ear waiting before warning him. Tree-ear says that the man would laugh—and not care. Crane-man nods significantly.

Tree-ear is named after mushrooms that sprout from dead trees, which Crane-man says is appropriate for an orphan. Crane-man is so named because he was born with a “twisted calf and foot,” which requires him to stand on one leg like a crane. Crane-man’s family died before him and Crane-man couldn’t work, so he sold all his possessions and at last his family home. After that, he moved under the bridge.

Tree-ear came to live under the bridge 10 years ago, when he was about two: after his parents died of fever in Songdo, a man brought Tree-ear to live with his uncle in Ch’ulp’o—but it turned out the uncle had moved away. The man brought Tree-ear to a temple, but the temple was under quarantine because the monks had the fever too. Some Ch’ulp’o villagers told the man to leave Tree-ear with Crane-man until the monks recovered. By the time the monks did recover, toddler Tree-ear refused to leave Crane-man.

Tree-ear and Crane-man eat a good breakfast. Afterward, Tree-ear creeps up to a small house to watch expert potter Min throwing pots. Hiding behind a tree, Tree-ear watches as Min throws a pot that looks (to Tree-ear) “perfect,” makes a disgusted noise, and throws the clay back onto the wheel. Only on his fourth try does Min accept his own work. The seaside village of Ch’ulp’o is famous for its potters’ celadon ware, and Min—unlike most potters, who work indoors to protect their trade secrets—works outside when it’s hot, as if to boast that no one will be able to surpass him even if they know what he’s doing. Tree-ear adores witnessing Min make art.