#10. 신의 한 수 -- Looking very far ahead

The game of 바둑 (go) and 장기 (Chinese chess) both have a long tradition of being very well-loved by the Korean population. They go way back to our folklore, even. In the traditional Korean shamanism folklore, the old immortal man-gods (called 신선), who know everything about the humans but do not like to meddle in our affairs, pass their time playing 바둑 and 장기. The legend has it that their playing style is so fantastical that if a mortal man passes by while they are playing, they will be completely mesmerized, and will not notice the passage of time. The game of 바둑 and 장기 for the 신선 can take decades to finish, and when the mortal man gains hold of himself again, the wooden handle of their axe might have rotted off thanks to the passage of time.

신선 playing 바둑 is one of the most popular topics of oriental art. There's also the notion that if you can while your time away by playing 바둑, your life is pretty good! So this picture is supposed to be relaxing, and the viewer is supposed to look at this wistfully.

Anyway, a move in one of these games is called "수" in Korean. "Making a move" is called "수를 두다." ("두다" is the usual verb for "playing" these kinds of games; for example, "바둑을 두다" means "play go.") Here, "수" comes from the Chinese letter meaning "hand." For example, a bad move in 바둑 or 장기 is called "악수" (the same 악 as in "악마," a devil; different from shaking hands.) When someone is giving you an advice about how to play, this is called a "훈수" as a noun, and "훈수를 두다" as a verb.

When the 신선 play, each of their 수 is said to have been so profound that mortals might not even understand the ramification of it until many moves later. From this folklore, the Koreans have picked up on a new neologism, called "신의 한 수." It literally means the "one move by 신선," or the one move by a god. When is this used?

In our lives, many a meaningless event happens. But when we look back on it later, some of those events that we brushed off as meaningless were actually very crucial, or very lucrative, or in some ways unexpectedly positive, as if a 신선 has silently coached our move without us noticing. Maybe the restaurant I wanted to go to was completely booked up, so I decide to go to the quieter restaurant next door, only to discover that this restaurant is miles better than the original restaurant I had planned to go to. Then I would say that "그 레스토랑에 가기로 결정한 건 신의 한 수였어," or "the fact that I had decided to go to the other restaurant was a move whispered to me by a god." This expression is often used by sports fans almost as an exclamation as well, as in "우와, 신의 한 수!" for a particularly good assist.

Speaking of "수," there's another word related to it. When someone tries too hard to achieve something, we call it "무리수." "무리" means overexertion, as in "무리하지 마," or "don't overexert yourself." You might have seen a homonym of it, meaning "irrational numbers," but the underlying Chinese characters are different (the "수" in "trying to hard" comes from the word "hand," while the "수" in "irrational numbers" comes from the word "number.")

For example, if two people are on a date, and one person is telling one cheesy joke a minute, the other might be wincing and thinking, "무리수를 두네." You could also exaggerate that someone is trying way too hard by adding the all-purpose prefix "개-" to say, "개무리수," even!

Both words, "신의 한 수" and "무리수" are widely used in real life and online!