The Legend of the Cuckoo: A Cry of Sorrow, Longing, and Unforgotten Grief
Have you ever heard a sad birdcall echoing through the mountains on a quiet spring night?
To people in ancient times, the haunting call of the cuckoo was more than just the sound of a bird. They imagined it as the cry of someone overcome with grief, even describing it as though the bird were coughing up blood from crying so desperately.
For centuries, the cuckoo has appeared in legends, poems, and stories throughout East Asia. It became a symbol of longing for home, sorrow, injustice, separation, and deep grief.
One of the best-known legends tells of Du Yu, the king of the ancient kingdom of Shu. After losing his kingdom, he was said to have died with a deep longing for his homeland. According to the legend, his spirit returned as a small bird that cried through the night.
That bird became known as the cuckoo.
Today, let us explore the story of Du Yu, the meaning behind the cuckoo's many names, the legend connecting the bird to azalea flowers, and the differences between the cuckoo, the scops owl, and the bird known as the “jeopdongsae” in Korean literature.
The Ancient Legend of King Du Yu and the Cuckoo
The most famous origin story of the cuckoo legend can be traced back to the ancient kingdom of Shu in China.
Shu was located in what is now associated with the Sichuan region. Surrounded by mountains and crossed by rivers, the region was fertile but frequently threatened by flooding.
According to legend, a king named Du Yu (杜宇) ruled the kingdom.
He was later given the title Wangdi (望帝), meaning “Emperor Who Looks Back” or “King Who Longs.”
A King Who Cared Deeply for His People
Du Yu was remembered in legend as a compassionate ruler who cared deeply about his people.
He encouraged farming and worked to make life better for his subjects. However, repeated floods continued to threaten the kingdom.
No matter how hard the people worked, controlling the rivers remained a difficult challenge.
Then a man named Bie Ling (鼈靈) appeared.
According to the legend, Bie Ling was skilled at controlling the waterways and succeeded in dealing with the flooding.
Impressed by his abilities, Du Yu entrusted him with important responsibilities.
But this decision would eventually lead to the king's downfall.
The King Who Lost His Throne
As Bie Ling's political influence grew, he eventually became powerful enough to challenge Du Yu.
According to the traditional story, Du Yu was forced to give up his throne and leave his kingdom.
The king who had devoted his life to his country and people was suddenly separated from everything he had known.
He retreated into the mountains, but he could not forget his homeland.
His sorrow and longing became unbearable, and he eventually died far from the kingdom he had once ruled.
A Spirit That Could Not Leave Its Homeland
The legend does not end with Du Yu's death.
It is said that his spirit transformed into a small bird.
That bird was the cuckoo.
The newly transformed bird flew back toward Shu and cried through the night, mourning the kingdom and people he had been forced to leave behind.
The bird's endless cry came to represent the sorrow of someone who desperately wanted to return home but could never do so.
For this reason, the cuckoo became a powerful symbol of homesickness, grief, and an unresolved sense of loss.
Why Is the Cuckoo Called “Gwichokdo” and “Bulyeogwi”?
The cuckoo has been known by several different names in East Asian literature and folklore.
These names often reflect the emotional meaning people attached to its distinctive call.
Gwichokdo (歸蜀道)
The name Gwichokdo can be understood as referring to the “road back to Shu.”
It became associated with Du Yu's longing to return to his homeland.
Because he could never return, the name came to represent the painful desire to go home when home was no longer within reach.
Bulyeogwi (不如歸)
Bulyeogwi is associated with the idea of “better to return” or “why not return?”
Ancient people imagined that the cuckoo's repeated cry sounded like a desperate call to go back home.
The bird's voice was therefore interpreted not simply as a natural sound, but as the cry of someone longing for a place he could never reach again.
Jagy u and the Spirit of Wangdi
The cuckoo is also known as Jagu (子規) in Korean literary tradition.
Another expression, Mangjehon (望帝魂), literally refers to the “spirit of Wangdi.”
These names show how deeply the legend of Du Yu became connected with the identity of the cuckoo.
Over time, the bird came to represent human emotions that were difficult to express in ordinary words.
The Legend of the Cuckoo and the Red Azalea
One of the most beautiful stories connected to the cuckoo is the legend of the red azalea.
In Korean, the azalea is known as jindallae, and the flower has long been connected with spring landscapes and traditional poetry.
The Bird That Cried Until It Bled
According to legend, the cuckoo cried day and night after becoming separated from its homeland.
Its grief was so intense that it eventually began to bleed from its throat.
The drops of blood that fell onto the mountains and fields were said to become beautiful red flowers.
Those flowers were called Dugyeonhwa (杜鵑花), meaning “cuckoo flowers.”
In Korean, the red azalea is traditionally associated with this name.
Of course, this is a folklore story rather than a scientific explanation for how azaleas originated.
The story likely grew from the striking combination of the cuckoo's mournful call and the vivid red color of azaleas covering the mountains in spring.
What the Cuckoo and Azalea Came to Symbolize
Because of this legend, the cuckoo and the red azalea became connected with sorrow, longing, and unresolved grief.
The image is especially powerful in spring.
The mountains become covered with red flowers while the distant call of a bird seems to echo through the night.
For ancient storytellers, nature provided a way to express emotions that were otherwise difficult to put into words.
The Cuckoo in East Asian Literature
The cuckoo has been an important literary symbol for centuries.
Poets often used the bird when writing about separation, exile, lost love, homesickness, or the pain of being unable to return home.
The cuckoo's cry became a metaphor for the voice of someone who had lost something precious.
King Danjong and the Cuckoo
The cuckoo also appears in stories associated with King Danjong of Joseon.
After being removed from the throne, Danjong was exiled to Yeongwol.
Traditional Korean literature connects his sorrow and loneliness with the cry of the cuckoo, known as jagu.
The bird therefore became an especially powerful image for expressing the sadness of exile and the pain of losing one's place in the world.
Seo Jeong-ju's “Gwichokdo”
The cuckoo continued to appear in modern Korean literature as well.
The Korean poet Seo Jeong-ju wrote the famous poem “Gwichokdo,” using the cuckoo as an important image of separation and longing.
Although the historical periods and individual stories are different, the emotional theme remains similar.
The cuckoo represents the feeling of losing someone or something precious and being unable to return to the past.
Cuckoo, Scops Owl, and “Jeopdongsae”: Are They the Same Bird?
When reading Korean legends and poems, it is easy to become confused by the names cuckoo, scops owl, and “jeopdongsae.”
However, these names do not necessarily refer to the same species.
Is a Cuckoo the Same as a Scops Owl?
Biologically, they are completely different birds.
The cuckoo belongs to the Cuculidae family, while the scops owl belongs to the owl family and is primarily nocturnal.
They therefore should not be considered the same bird simply because both appear in traditional stories and are associated with nighttime calls.
Ancient people often interpreted unfamiliar sounds through stories and emotions.
As a result, different birds sometimes became connected through similar themes of loneliness, sadness, and mystery.
What Is the “Jeopdongsae”?
The Korean word “jeopdongsae” is especially well known because of the famous poem “Jeopdongsae” by Kim So-wol.
The poem is based on a traditional Korean story in which a girl dies because of her stepmother's jealousy and returns as a bird.
She comes back at night to mourn for her younger brothers.
The story is different from the Chinese legend of King Du Yu, but both traditions share a similar emotional theme.
In both cases, a dead person becomes a bird and continues to return to the people or homeland they loved.
This shared idea shows how birds became powerful symbols of loss, longing, and unresolved sorrow in East Asian storytelling.
Why Did Ancient People Create Stories About Bird Calls?
Today, we usually understand bird calls through biology and animal behavior.
For people in the past, however, nature was much more closely woven into everyday life.
A mysterious birdcall echoing through a dark mountain at night could easily inspire imagination.
People often gave human emotions to natural sounds.
A bird might seem to be crying because someone had lost a loved one. A flower might appear to have grown from someone's tears or blood.
These stories were not intended to explain nature scientifically.
Instead, they gave people a way to express love, grief, homesickness, loneliness, and memories.
The legend of the cuckoo is one example of this remarkable tradition.
Why Has the Cuckoo Legend Survived for So Long?
The legend of the cuckoo is not remembered simply because it contains a mysterious transformation or a tragic king.
At its heart are emotions that people still understand today.
The longing for home.
The pain of losing someone.
The feeling of being treated unfairly.
The desire to return to a place that can never be reached again.
These emotions have not changed much even after hundreds or thousands of years.
So when spring arrives and red azaleas cover the mountains, the old cuckoo legend can still feel surprisingly close.
Perhaps that is why the cuckoo has remained such a powerful symbol in Korean and East Asian literature.
Its cry is more than a sound in an old legend.
It became the imagined voice of someone who could never return home.
And when we hear a lonely bird calling through a quiet spring night, perhaps we sometimes hear a little of our own longing in that distant sound.
