To replace his wife, he found a cruel widow who had a very ugly daughter named Patjwi.
He plowed the field in her place and sent Kongjwi home with a basket of apples, a gift from the cow.
Her stepmother accused her of stealing the apples, gave the entire basket to Patjwi, and refused to give Kongjwi her supper.
The next day, the stepmother gave Kongjwi an enormous pot with a hole in the bottom and told her she must fill it with water before she and Patjwi returned home from town.
Before they left, the stepmother gave Kongjwi a huge sack of rice to hull, which she had to accomplish before they returned from the dance.
Kongjwi asked for help from the heavens, and a flock of sparrows appeared and hulled the rice.
A Celestial maiden came down from heaven and dressed Kongjwi in a beautiful gown and a delicate pair of colorful shoes.
The stepmother, thinking it was Kongjwi's gift, ate it, until she realized it was Patjwi's dead body, she yelled so loudly until she died.
[1] The legend of Kongji and Patjwi was passed down orally for many generations before it was first recorded, producing numerous regional variations.
For example, some versions of the story cast a frog in place of the turtle as Kongji's helper, while others have been reduced to the Cinderella-esque first portion.
Although the first part of the story shares elements with the Western fairy tale Cinderella, the traditional Korean belief of kwon seon jing ak (권선징악), the importance of encouraging virtue and punishing vice, pervades the traditional tale coming to fruition with the deserved deaths of Kongji's stepmother and stepsister in the second part of the story.
[3] According to Sinologist Boris L. Riftin [ru], unlike European variants of Cinderella, wherein the princess marries the prince and the tale ends, Asian variants (which include those from China and Southeast Asia) segue into the revenge of the stepfamily and the heroine's replacement by her stepsister.
[4] In the second part of the story, states Ding Naitong [zh], the heroine goes through a cycle of transformations (bird/tree/object), until she regains human form at an old woman's house.
[5] Although the story itself contains fantastic elements, its setting is believed to be the real-life village of Dunsan, Keumgu Township, Gimje-si (김제시 금구면 둔산마을).