Chae Su wrote Seolgongchanjeon around 1508–1511. Originally composed in classical Chinese, it spread widely in a Korean-script translation. A September 2, 1511 entry in the Annals records debate over collecting and burning it for allegedly misleading people with reincarnation and spirit stories.
Chae was impeached over the work but had already left office, so the claim that he was dismissed has been removed. The Chinese original is lost; the surviving Korean manuscript is important to early Korean fiction.