Inevitable retribution.
勸善懲惡 (권선징악) means To encourage virtue and chastise vice. nemesis means Retribution; an inescapable adversary. East Asian idiom and Western myth mirror the same human truth.
The Meeting
On Olympus stood a goddess who punished the arrogant; in East Asia there was a principle of heaven that rewarded good and punished evil. One was a deity with a distinct personality; the other, an abstract moral law.
Western Myth -- Nemesis, Goddess of Retribution
Nemesis, daughter of Nyx the goddess of night, was the deity who chastised human pride (hybris). Whenever someone reaped fortune or success beyond their due, Nemesis came to restore the balance. It was she who punished the conceit of Narcissus. In English, nemesis has come to mean "an inescapable adversary, just retribution."
Even today the expression "every hero has their nemesis" is part of everyday speech. That the Joker is Batman's nemesis, and Moriarty Sherlock Holmes's, makes them direct descendants of this myth.
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Oxford English Dictionary"nemesis" etymology entry.
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Etymonlinenemesis word origin.
Eastern Lore -- Rewarding Good and Punishing Evil
Gwonseonjingak means "to encourage (勸) good (善) and chastise (懲) evil (惡)" -- a fundamental moral principle of East Asia. The Confucian idea of the Mandate of Heaven (天命), the Buddhist law of karmic retribution (因果應報), and the Daoist law of nature all converge upon this principle. The Korean classical novels The Tale of Chunhyang, The Tale of Heungbu, and The Tale of Sim Cheong all follow the structure of gwonseonjingak, and this principle forms the very skeleton of East Asian narrative literature.
If Nemesis is a particular deity who punishes individual pride, gwonseonjingak is the principle by which the entire universe operates. The West personified retribution; the East turned retribution into law.
Where the Mirrors Meet -- Where the Two Myths Converge
Both carry the common theme of "inescapable retribution."
Nemesis in Greek myth and gwonseonjingak in East Asian tradition captured the same human truth.
Both live on in everyday language. Nemesis endures in English, gwonseonjingak 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
- ✓ nemesis = derived from Nemesis. Retribution; an inescapable adversary.
- ✓ 勸善懲惡 = to reward good and punish evil. Encourage virtue, chastise vice.
- ✓ Remember it in one stroke: "Nemesis and gwonseonjingak -- two different civilizations telling the same story."
"Myths do not die. They breathe still today, within nemesis and gwonseonjingak."
