An inescapable labyrinth.
五里霧中 (오리무중) means lost in a fog five li deep. labyrinth means a maze; an intricately tangled structure. East Asian idiom and Western myth mirror the same human truth.
The Meeting
On the island of Crete stood a vast maze from which, once entered, none could escape, and within it dwelt the man-eating Minotaur. In East Asia, the helplessness of one lost in a fog five li (about 2 km) deep was captured in the phrase orimujung (五里霧中). One was trapped in an artificial labyrinth designed by Daedalus; the other, in a fog made by nature. Yet both point to the same despair -- the powerlessness a human feels standing in a maze with no visible way out.
Western Myth — The Labyrinth of Crete and the Minotaur
The Labyrinth (Λαβύρινθος) was the vast maze built by Minos, king of Crete. To imprison the Minotaur ("the bull of Minos"), the monster born of Minos's queen Pasiphaë and a bull, the genius craftsman Daedalus designed it. So intricate was the maze that even Daedalus himself, once inside, could scarcely find his way out. Minos commanded Athens to send, every nine years, seven youths and seven maidens as tribute, and all of them were cast into the labyrinth as food for the Minotaur. The hero Theseus volunteered to be among the tribute, and Minos's daughter Ariadne, in love with him, gave him a ball of thread -- he was to tie its end at the entrance, enter, slay the Minotaur, and follow the thread back out. So Theseus killed the Minotaur and returned alive from the maze. When the enraged Minos shut Daedalus and his son Icarus inside the labyrinth, Daedalus fashioned wings of wax and feathers and escaped -- but Icarus flew too near the sun and fell to his death. Labyrinth entered English in the fifteenth century, coming to mean "an intricately tangled structure" or "a situation hard to escape."
The essence of the labyrinth is not a simple maze but an "inescapable design." Within it dwells the threat of the Minotaur, and even Daedalus, its maker, could lose his way inside. It is the most intricate trap humanity ever built, and at once a symbol of humanity's deepest fear -- to be trapped within one's own creation. Kafka's novels and Borges's short stories alike are variations on this myth.
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Oxford English Dictionary"labyrinth" etymology entry.
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Etymonlinelabyrinth word origin.
Eastern Lore — Lost in a Fog Five Li Deep
Orimujung (五里霧中) is a phrase that appears in the Biography of Zhang Kai in the Book of the Later Han. Zhang Kai, a Daoist adept of the Eastern Han, was skilled in occult arts, famous above all for a technique that conjured fog across five li (about 2 km) in every direction. When people who wished to see him came seeking, Zhang Kai, in no mood to meet them, would raise a fog stretching five li and hide himself, and the seekers would lose their way and wander in the mist. From this, the expression "to be within (中) a five-li (五里) fog (霧)" came to mean "a state of utter bewilderment, knowing nothing of the ins and outs of a matter." It points not merely to being lost, but to a state "in which one cannot tell which direction is which," "with no clue at all where to go." In later ages it came to be used in many situations -- caught in political intrigue, unable to grasp the truth of a tangled affair, or unable to read the heart of the one you love.
The greatest difference between orimujung and the Labyrinth is "the clarity of the boundary." The Labyrinth is an artificial structure with definite walls; orimujung is a natural phenomenon with no visible boundary at all. The Western maze is "having an exit but failing to find it"; the Eastern fog is "not even knowing whether an exit exists." The West rendered bewilderment as an artifact; the East rendered it as nature.
Where the Mirrors Meet — Where the Two Myths Converge
Both share the common theme of "a maze from which there is no escape."
Labyrinth from Greek myth and orimujung from East Asian tradition captured the same human truth.
Both live on in daily language. Labyrinth endures in English, orimujung in Korean.
Yet their modes of expression differ. The West conveyed this wisdom through a mythic character; the East, through a combination of Chinese characters.
Mnemonic — One Line to Take Home
- ✓ labyrinth = from the Labyrinth of Crete. A maze; an intricately tangled structure.
- ✓ 五里霧中 (orimujung) = lost in a fog five li deep.
- ✓ Remember it in one stroke: "Labyrinth and orimujung -- two different civilizations telling the same story."
"Myth does not die. It still breathes today, in labyrinth and in orimujung."
