Korean mythology ( ) is the group of
myths
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
told by historical and modern
Koreans
Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula.
Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply refe ...
. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of
various historical kingdoms, and the much larger and more diverse
oral
The word oral may refer to:
Relating to the mouth
* Relating to the mouth, the first portion of the alimentary canal that primarily receives food and liquid
**Oral administration of medicines
** Oral examination (also known as an oral exam or oral ...
mythology, mostly narratives sung by
shamans
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
or priestesses (mansin) in
rituals invoking the gods and which are still considered sacred today.
The
historicized state-foundation myths that represent the bulk of the literary mythology are preserved in
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning
"literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning
"literar ...
-language works such as ''
Samguk sagi
''Samguk Sagi'' (, ''History of the Three Kingdoms'') is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. The ''Samguk Sagi'' is written in Classical Chinese, the written language of the literati of ancient Korea, ...
'' and ''
Samguk yusa
''Samguk yusa'' () or ''Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms'' is a collection of legends, folktales and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla), as well as to other periods and states before, duri ...
''. One state's foundation myth, that of
Dan'gun, has come to be seen as the
founding myth
An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have sto ...
of the whole Korean
nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
. State-foundation myths are further divided into northern, such as that of the kingdom of
Goguryeo
Goguryeo (37 BC–668 AD) ( ) also called Goryeo (), was a Korean kingdom located in the northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula and the southern and central parts of Northeast China. At its peak of power, Goguryeo controlled most ...
and its founder
Jumong
Chumo (Hangul: 추모, Hanja: 鄒牟), posthumously Chumo the Holy (Hangul: 추모성왕, Hanja: 鄒牟聖王), was the founding monarch of the kingdom of Goguryeo, and was worshipped as a god-king by the people of Goguryeo and Goryeo. ''Chumo ...
, where the founder is the son of a celestial male figure and an earthly female figure, and southern, such as that of the kingdom of
Silla
Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of K ...
and its founder
Hyeokgeose, where the founder begins as an object descended from the heavens, and himself marries an earthly woman. Other literary myths include the origin myths of
family lineages, recorded in
genealogies
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...
.
The
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...
s of
Korean shamanism
Korean shamanism or Mu-ism is a religion from Korea. In the Korean language, alternative terms for the tradition are ''musok'' () and ''mugyo'' (무교, 巫敎). Scholars of religion have classified it as a folk religion. There is no central auth ...
, the country's indigenous religion, feature a diverse array of both gods and humans. They are recited in ritual contexts both to please the gods and to entertain the human worshippers. As oral literature, the shamanic narrative is regularly revised with each performance, although a certain degree of consistency is required; new narratives have appeared since the 1960s. It has frequently been at odds with the
official ideologies of Korean society, and its mythology is often characterized as
subversive
Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. Sub ...
of traditional norms such as
patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
.
The shamanic mythology is divided into five regional traditions, with each region having original narratives, as well as distinctive versions of pan-Korean narratives. The mythological tradition of southern
Jeju Island is especially divergent. The two narratives found in all and all but one region respectively are the ''
Jeseok bon-puri
Korean mythology ( ) is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of various historical kingdoms, and the much l ...
'', featuring a girl who in most versions is impregnated by a supernaturally potent
Buddhist priest
A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics (" nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist ...
—who was probably originally a sky god—and gives birth to triplets who themselves become gods; and the ''
Princess Bari
Korean mythology ( ) is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of various historical kingdoms, and the much l ...
'', about a princess who is abandoned by her father for being a girl and who later resurrects her dead parents with the flower of life.
Introduction
Korean mythology comprises two distinct corpora of literature. The first is the literary mythology (Korean: , ) recorded in the traditional Korean histories, such as the thirteenth-century work ''
Samguk yusa
''Samguk yusa'' () or ''Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms'' is a collection of legends, folktales and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla), as well as to other periods and states before, duri ...
''. The myths contained in these volumes are heavily
historicized, to the point that it is often difficult to differentiate between historical fact and mythology. The primary literary myths are the state-foundation myths (, ), which recount the story of how a particular kingdom or dynasty was founded, although the category also includes other supernatural stories found in the historical chronicles as well as the origin myths of non-royal lineages.
![이병도](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/%EC%9D%B4%EB%B3%91%EB%8F%84.jpg)
The second corpus is the modern oral mythology (, ), which is "incomparably" richer than the literary tradition in both sheer quantity of material and the diversity of themes and content. The oral mythology primarily consists of the shamanic narratives (, ), which are sung by
Korean shamans
''Mu'' () is an ancient Korean language, Korean word defining a shaman in the Korean shamanism, Korean traditional religion. Korean shamans hold rituals called ''gut (ritual), gut'' (literally "good") for the welfare of the individuals and the s ...
during ''
gut'', religious ceremonies in which shamans invoke the gods. While also
myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
ological in content, these narratives are very different in function and content from the literary myths. The state-foundation myths are preserved only in writing, deprived of their original ritual context, and have existed in written form for centuries. By contrast, the shamanic narratives are
oral literature
Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...
that is "living mythology," sacred religious truth to the participants of the ''gut''. They began to be published only in 1930, centuries after the first attestation of the literary myths. Unlike the historicized accounts of the literary myths, shamans's songs feature elements such as the
primordial history of the world, the ascent of human individuals to divinity, and divine retribution upon impious mortals.
The academic study of Korean mythology began with the literary myths, with historians such as
Choe Nam-seon
Choe Nam-seon (April 26, 1890 – October 10, 1957), also known by the Japanese pronunciation of his name Sai Nanzen, was a prominent modern Korean historian, pioneering poet, and publisher, and a leading member of the Korean independence moveme ...
(1890—1957) and
Yi Pyong-do (1896—1989) pioneering the first studies of state-foundation myths. But research into the much richer oral corpus was minimal until the 1960s, when the study of the shamanic narratives was spearheaded by scholars such as
Kim Yeol-gyu
Kim or KIM may refer to:
Names
* Kim (given name)
* Kim (surname)
** Kim (Korean surname)
*** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties
**** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948
** Kim, Vietnamese ...
(1932—2013), who applied
structuralist,
comparative
In general linguistics, the comparative is a syntactic construction that serves to express a comparison between two (or more) entities or groups of entities in quality or degree - see also comparison (grammar) for an overview of comparison, as wel ...
, and
myth-ritual approaches to the songs,
Hyeon Yong-jun (1931—2016), who published a vast encyclopedia of
Jeju
Jeju may refer to:
* Jeju Island (Jejudo), an island near South Korea
* Jeju Province (formerly transliterated Cheju), a province of South Korea comprising Jejudo
**Jeju City, the biggest city on Jejudo
**Jeju dog, a dog native to Jejudo
** Jeju l ...
ritual and mythology, and
Seo Daeseok (born 1942), who established the literary study of the shamanic narratives and whose comprehensive work on the ''Jeseok bon-puri'' narrative proved a model for future researchers. Recent trends in the study of Korean mythology since the 1990s include a greater focus on comparisons with neighboring mythologies, new research into the hitherto neglected village-shrine myths (, ) that involve the patron god of one specific village, and
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
interpretations.
The oral mythology is always religious, and must be distinguished from the broader corpus of
Korean folklore
Stories and practices that are considered part of Korean folklore go back several thousand years. These tales derive from a variety of origins, including Shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and more recently Christianity.
Many folk traditions dev ...
, which might be secular. For instance, the ''Woncheon'gang bon-puri'', a Jeju shamanic narrative about a girl who goes in search for her parents and becomes a goddess, is either descended from or ancestral to a very similar mainland Korean folktale called the Fortune Quest. But because the ''Woncheon'gang bon-puri'' is a sacred story about a goddess, unlike the Fortune Quest, the former is a myth and the latter is not. Some Korean myths are mythicized folktales, while many Korean folktales are desacralized myths.
Literary mythology
State-foundation myths
![Gwanggaeto steles 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Gwanggaeto_steles_1.jpg)
State-foundation myths narrate the life of the first ruler of a new
Korean kingdom or dynasty. They include the founder's supernatural birth, the story of how the founder came to create his kingdom, and his miraculous death or departure. They are often interpreted as
euhemerized
Euhemerism () is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths as they are exagge ...
accounts of actual events that happened during the kingdom's founding.
The oldest surviving accounts of the founding myths of the ancient Korean kingdoms—such as
Gojoseon
Gojoseon () also called Joseon (), was the first kingdom on the Korean Peninsula. According to Korean mythology, the kingdom was established by the legendary founder named Dangun. Gojoseon possessed the most advanced culture in the Korean Pen ...
,
Goguryeo
Goguryeo (37 BC–668 AD) ( ) also called Goryeo (), was a Korean kingdom located in the northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula and the southern and central parts of Northeast China. At its peak of power, Goguryeo controlled most ...
, and
Silla
Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of K ...
—are transcribed in
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning
"literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning
"literar ...
in Korean texts compiled during or after the twelfth century. Such texts include ''
Samguk sagi
''Samguk Sagi'' (, ''History of the Three Kingdoms'') is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. The ''Samguk Sagi'' is written in Classical Chinese, the written language of the literati of ancient Korea, ...
'', ''
Samguk yusa
''Samguk yusa'' () or ''Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms'' is a collection of legends, folktales and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla), as well as to other periods and states before, duri ...
'', ''
Jewang ungi'', ''
Eungje siju'', and ''
Dongguk tonggam
The Dongguk Tonggam (''Comprehensive Mirror of the eastern state'') is a chronicle of the early history of Korea compiled by Seo Geo-jeong (1420–1488) and other scholars in the 15th century. Originally commissioned by King Sejo in 1446, it ...
''. These texts were compiled on the basis of earlier sources that are now lost. Several
ancient Chinese texts are also important contemporaneous sources for myths; these include not only the official dynastic histories such as the third-century ''
Records of the Three Kingdoms
The ''Records or History of the Three Kingdoms'', also known by its Chinese name as the Sanguo Zhi, is a Chinese historical text which covers the history of the late Eastern Han dynasty (c. 184–220 AD) and the Three Kingdoms period (220– ...
'' and the sixth-century ''
Book of Wei
The ''Book of Wei'', also known by its Chinese name as the ''Wei Shu'', is a classic Chinese historical text compiled by Wei Shou from 551 to 554, and is an important text describing the history of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei from 386 to 5 ...
'', but also more general texts such as the ''
Lunheng
The ''Lunheng'', also known by numerous English translations, is a wide-ranging Chinese classic text by Wang Chong (27- ). First published in 80, it contains critical essays on natural science and Chinese mythology, philosophy, and literature ...
'', written in 80 CE. In the case of Goguryeo, there are also five Chinese-language
stelae
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
narrating the kingdom's foundation myth from the perspective of the Goguryeo people themselves. The oldest of the five is the
Gwanggaeto Stele
The Gwanggaeto Stele is a memorial stele for the tomb of Gwanggaeto the Great of Goguryeo, erected in 414 by his son Jangsu. This monument to Gwanggaeto the Great is the largest engraved stele in the world. It stands near the tomb of Gwanggaeto ...
, erected in 414 CE.
The founding myth of the
Goryeo
Goryeo (; ) was a Korean kingdom founded in 918, during a time of national division called the Later Three Kingdoms period, that unified and ruled the Korean Peninsula until 1392. Goryeo achieved what has been called a "true national unificati ...
dynasty, which ruled Korea from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries, is recorded in ''
Goryeo-sa
The ''Goryeosa'' (), or ''History of Goryeo'', is the main surviving historical record of Korea's Goryeo dynasty. It was composed nearly a century after the fall of Goryeo, during the reign of King Sejong, undergoing repeated revisions between ...
'', the official dynastic history published in the fifteenth century. ''
Yongbieocheon'ga'', a poem published around the same time as ''Goryeo-sa'' by the succeeding Joseon dynasty, is sometimes seen as the Joseon foundation myth, but it is debated whether ''
Yongbieocheon'ga'' should be seen as having a narrative at all. As the Joseon were the final Korean dynasty, there are no newer founding myths.
State foundation myths were once also narrated orally, perhaps by shamans. The poet
Yi Gyu-bo (1168—1241) mentions that both written and spoken forms of the Goguryeo foundation myth were known during his lifetime, even though the kingdom itself had fallen more than five centuries earlier. The modern ''Jeseok bon-puri'' shamanic narrative has many structural parallels to the Goguryeo myth and may be a direct descendant of the ancient tale.
The ancient (pre-Goryeo) state-foundation myths are classified into two major types, northern and southern, though both share the central motif of a king associated with the heavens. In the northern kingdoms of Gojoseon,
Buyeo
Buyeo or Puyŏ (Korean: 부여; Korean pronunciation: u.jʌ or 扶餘 ''Fúyú''), also rendered as Fuyu, was an ancient kingdom that was centered in northern Manchuria in modern-day northeast China. It is sometimes considered a Korean ki ...
, and Goguryeo, the founding monarch is born from the coupling of a celestial male figure and an earthly woman. In the southern kingdoms of Silla and
Geumgwan Gaya
Geumgwan Gaya (43–532), also known as Bon-Gaya (본가야, 本伽倻, "original Gaya") or Garakguk (가락국, "Garak State"), was the ruling city-state of the Gaya confederacy during the Three Kingdoms of Korea, Three Kingdoms Period in Korea. ...
, the king is generated from a physical object that descends from heaven, and then marries an earthly woman himself. In the northern myths, the demigod king succeeds his heavenly father or creates a new kingdom himself. In the south, the celestial being is crowned by the consensus of local chieftains.
Northern kingdoms
=Gojoseon
=
![Portrait of Dangun](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Portrait_of_Dangun.jpg)
The foundation myth of
Gojoseon
Gojoseon () also called Joseon (), was the first kingdom on the Korean Peninsula. According to Korean mythology, the kingdom was established by the legendary founder named Dangun. Gojoseon possessed the most advanced culture in the Korean Pen ...
, the earliest Korean kingdom, is first recorded in two nearly contemporaneous works: ''Samguk yusa'', a history compiled by the Buddhist monk
Iryeon around the late 1270s, and ''Jewang ungi'', a Chinese-language epic poem written in 1287.
Iryeon's account is as follows.
Hwanung
Hwanung (Korean for the "Supreme Divine Regent") is an important figure in the mythological origins of Korea. He plays a central role in the story of Dangun Wanggeom (단군왕검/), the legendary founder of Gojoseon, the first kingdom of Korea. ...
, a younger son of the sky god
Hwanin
Haneullim or Haneulnim (하늘님 "Heavenly Lord"/"Lord of Heaven") is the sky God of Cheondoism and Jeungsanism. In the more Buddhist-aligned parts of these religions, he is identified with Indra. In the more Taoist-aligned parts of these religio ...
(who the monk identifies with the Buddhist god
Indra
Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...
), desires to rule the human world. Hwanin sees that his son could "
broadly benefit the human world," and gives him three unspecified treasures to take with him to earth. Hwanung descends beneath a sacred tree on Mount Taebaek (), where he and his three thousand followers found the "Sacred City." With the gods of wind, rain, and cloud, Hwanin supervises various human affairs.
A bear and a tiger then ask that Hwanung turn them into humans. The god gives the animals twenty pieces of garlic and a clump of sacred
mugwort
Mugwort is a common name for several species of aromatic flowering plants in the genus ''Artemisia.'' In Europe, mugwort most often refers to the species '' Artemisia vulgaris'', or common mugwort. In East Asia the species '' Artemisia argyi'' i ...
, and tells them that they will become humans if they eat them and do not see sunlight for a hundred days. The two animals then fast, and the bear becomes a woman on the twenty-first day. The tiger fails to fast and remains an animal. The
bear-turned-woman prays for a child at the sacred tree, and Hwanung grants her wish by becoming a human to marry her. She gives birth to a boy named Dan'gun Wanggeom, who founds the kingdom of Gojoseon at the site of
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...
. Dan'gun rules for fifteen centuries, then departs from the kingdom when the Chinese
King Wu of Zhou
King Wu of Zhou () was the first king of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. The chronology of his reign is disputed but is generally thought to have begun around 1046 BC and ended three years later in 1043 BC.
King Wu's ancestral name was ...
sends
Jizi
Jizi or Qizi or Kizi (; Gija or Kija in Korean language, Korean) was a semi-legendary
*
:"Although Kija may have truly existed as a historical figure, Tangun is more problematical."
*
:"Most orean historianstreat the angunmyth as a late ...
to rule over Korea. The king ultimately becomes a mountain god.
The Dan'gun myth is of the northern type, featuring the founder's birth from a celestial father (Hwanung) and an earthly mother (the bear). It is often interpreted as a mythicized account of interactions between three clans whose
totemic
A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system.
While ''the wo ...
symbols or mythological ancestors were a sky god, a bear, and a tiger respectively. The tiger-associated clan was somehow eliminated, but the bear clan joined the dominant sky god clan in the establishment of the Gojoseon polity.
Folklorist
Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
James H. Grayson draws connections to the Japanese foundation myth.
Ninigi-no-Mikoto
is a deity in Japanese mythology. Grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, Ninigi is regarded according to Japanese mythology as the great-grandfather of Japan’s first emperor, Emperor Jimmu. The three sacred treasures brought with Ninigi from ...
descends to earth with
three treasures as well, and the first Japanese emperor
Jinmu is a younger son like Hwanung. Grayson also notes Siberian myths where a bear is the mother of a tribal ancestor.
Dan'gun appears to have been worshipped only locally in the Pyongyang area until the thirteenth century, when intellectuals attempted to bolster the legitimacy of the
Korean state, then imperiled by
Mongol invasion
The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire ( 1206- 1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...
and
domination
Domination or dominant may refer to:
Society
* World domination, which is mainly a conspiracy theory
* Colonialism in which one group (usually a nation) invades another region for material gain or to eliminate competition
* Chauvinism in which ...
, by establishing him as the ancestor of all Korean polities. By the twentieth century he had become accepted as the mythical founder of the Korean nation and plays an important role in the ideologies of both North and South Korea.
=Buyeo, Goguryeo, and Baekje
=
The foundation myth of the northern kingdom of
Goguryeo
Goguryeo (37 BC–668 AD) ( ) also called Goryeo (), was a Korean kingdom located in the northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula and the southern and central parts of Northeast China. At its peak of power, Goguryeo controlled most ...
is recorded in detail in both the ''Samguk sagi'', the oldest surviving work of Korean history, compiled in 1145, and the ''
Dongmyeongwang-pyeon'', a Chinese-language
epic poem
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
written by the poet Yi Gyu-bo in 1193. Yi's work is much longer and more detailed than the ''Samguk sagi'', but much of this may be due to the poet's own literary embellishment. The ''Dongmyeongwang-pyeon'' myth is summarized below.
Haeburu, ruler of the kingdom of
Buyeo
Buyeo or Puyŏ (Korean: 부여; Korean pronunciation: u.jʌ or 扶餘 ''Fúyú''), also rendered as Fuyu, was an ancient kingdom that was centered in northern Manchuria in modern-day northeast China. It is sometimes considered a Korean ki ...
, is childless. One day, he finds a boy in the shape of a golden frog (Korean pronunciation of
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning
"literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning
"literar ...
: ) and adopts him as his son. Some time later, Haeburu moves his court towards the
Sea of Japan
The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...
, where he founds the kingdom of
Eastern Buyeo
Eastern Buyeo, also rendered as Dongbuyeo or Eastern Fuyu, was an ancient kingdom that developed from Northern Buyeo (Northern Fuyu), until it was conquered by Goguryeo. According to the ''Samguk Sagi'', it was established when the Buyeo king ...
(Dong-Buyeo).
Haemosu, son of the sky god, descends to Haeburu's former capital in 59 BCE on a chariot steered by five dragons and founds a new kingdom there. One day, Haemosu encounters the three beautiful daughters of the
god
In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
of the
Yalu River
The Yalu River, known by Koreans as the Amrok River or Amnok River, is a river on the border between North Korea and China. Together with the Tumen River to its east, and a small portion of Paektu Mountain, the Yalu forms the border between ...
and abducts Yuhwa, the oldest. The outraged river god challenges him to a shapeshifting duel but is bested. The river god concedes his defeat and allows Haemosu to marry Yuhwa, but after the marriage the former returns to the heavens without his wife.
The river god sends Yuhwa into exile. She is captured by a fisherman and brought to
Geumwa
Hae Geumwa () was the second ruler (48–7 BCE) of Dongbuyeo (East Buyeo), an ancient kingdom of Korea. His story is recorded in ''Samguk Sagi'', ''Samguk Yusa'' and ''Book of King Dongmyeong''.
Birth and background
Geumwa (金蛙 or 金蝸) wa ...
the frog-king, who has succeeded his adopted father in Eastern Buyeo. He keeps her in an annex of the palace. One day, sunlight falls on Yuhwa from the heavens, impregnating her. She gives birth to an egg from her left armpit, and a boy hatches from the egg. The boy is supernaturally potent, including shooting down flies with a bow—for which he is named
Jumong
Chumo (Hangul: 추모, Hanja: 鄒牟), posthumously Chumo the Holy (Hangul: 추모성왕, Hanja: 鄒牟聖王), was the founding monarch of the kingdom of Goguryeo, and was worshipped as a god-king by the people of Goguryeo and Goryeo. ''Chumo ...
, "good archer." The king makes Jumong the stable-keeper, which offends him enough that he decides to found his own kingdom. With three companions, Jumong flees south, leaving his mother and wife behind. When they find an unfordable river, Jumong proclaims his divine descent, and the fish and turtles of the river allow them to cross on their backs. Jumong founds the kingdom of Goguryeo in 37 BCE. He is opposed by an established local chieftain named Songyang. After a series of confrontations between the two, Songyang ultimately surrenders when Jumong causes a great flood in his country.
Yuri Yuri may refer to:
People and fictional characters
Given name
*Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc.
*Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Jap ...
, Jumong's son by his wife he has left behind in Eastern Buyeo, asks his mother who his father is. When she tells him that he does not have any one father, he attempts to kill himself, forcing her to reveal the truth. After solving a riddle his father has left, Yuri finds his father's token, a half of a sword. He goes to Goguryeo and meets Jumong. Yuri and Jumong match their halves of the sword, and the sword becomes one while oozing blood. When Jumong asks his son to show his power, the boy rides atop sunlight. Jumong then makes Yuri his heir. In 19 BCE, the king ascends into heaven and does not return. Yuri holds a funeral for his father, using the king's whip in place of his missing body, and becomes Goguryeo's second king.
The foundation of the southwestern kingdom of
Baekje
Baekje or Paekche (, ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BC to 660 AD. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla.
Baekje was founded by Onjo, the third son of Goguryeo's founder Jum ...
is also linked to the Jumong myth. According to the ''Samguk sagi'', when Yuri is made heir, Jumong's two sons by a local wife are excluded from the kingship. These two brothers, Biryu and Onjo, migrate south to found their own kingdoms. Biryu sets up court in an unfavorable place, while Onjo founds Baekje in good terrain in what is now southern
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
. The former dies of shame when he learns that his brother's kingdom is flourishing, and the remnants of his people join Baekje.
The myth of Jumong is of the northern type, with Haemosu as the celestial father and Yuhwa as the earthly woman. Contemporaneous Chinese sources report that Jumong and Yuhwa were both actively worshipped as gods by the Goguryeo people, including in rituals involving shamans. Like the Dan'gun myth, the story is also subject to euhemerized interpretations. For instance, Seo Daeseok argues that Haemosu symbolizes an ancient iron-using, agricultural sun-worshipping people, that Yuhwa was a member of a riverine group of hunters, farmers, and fishermen, and that Geumwa's polity centered on hunting and
pastoralism
Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal ...
.
The Jumong myth is first attested in the fifth-century Gwanggaeto Stele, but the first-century Chinese text ''
Lunheng
The ''Lunheng'', also known by numerous English translations, is a wide-ranging Chinese classic text by Wang Chong (27- ). First published in 80, it contains critical essays on natural science and Chinese mythology, philosophy, and literature ...
'' describes a
barbarian
A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either Civilization, uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by som ...
tale of a good archer who crosses a river on the backs of fish and turtles to found a new kingdom in the south. However, this figure's mother is a slave-girl impregnated by an egg-like energy rather than a goddess who gives birth to a physical egg, and the figure himself founds the kingdom of Buyeo, rather than that of Goguryeo. The Goguryeo foundation myth thus incorporates the myths of Haemosu and Yuri and the Buyeo foundation myth into a single narrative.
Southern kingdoms
=Silla
=
![Gyeongju - King Tomb Park - panoramio](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Gyeongju_-_King_Tomb_Park_-_panoramio.jpg)
The ancient
Silla
Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of K ...
kingdom was originally dominated by three clans: the
Bak, the
Seok, and the
Kim
Kim or KIM may refer to:
Names
* Kim (given name)
* Kim (surname)
** Kim (Korean surname)
*** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties
**** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948
** Kim, Vietnamese f ...
. At some point the Seok were eliminated from power, and all Silla monarchs from then on were children of a Kim father and a Bak mother. All three clans have associated founding myths.
The Bak foundation myth is given in the fullest detail in ''
Samguk yusa
''Samguk yusa'' () or ''Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms'' is a collection of legends, folktales and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla), as well as to other periods and states before, duri ...
''. Six chieftains of the
Gyeongju
Gyeongju ( ko, 경주, ), historically known as ''Seorabeol'' ( ko, 서라벌, ), is a coastal city in the far southeastern corner of North Gyeongsang Province in South Korea. It is the second largest city by area in the province after Andong, ...
area convene to found a united kingdom. They see a strange light shining on a well. When they go there, they see a white horse kneeling. The horse ascends to heaven, leaving a large egg behind. The chieftains break open the egg and find a beautiful boy inside, who they name
Hyeokgeose.
Some time later, a chicken-dragon gives birth to a beautiful girl with a chicken beak from its left rib. When they wash the girl in a nearby stream, the beak falls off. When the boy and the girl are both thirteen years old, the chieftains crown them as the first king and queen of Silla and give the king the clan name of Bak. Hyeokgeose rules for sixty-one years and ascends to heaven. Seven days later, his dead body drops from the sky. The queen dies soon after. A giant snake prevents the people from holding a funeral until they dismember the body into five parts, which is why Hyeokgeose has five different tombs.
The ''Samguk yusa'' also records the Seok and Kim foundation myths. In the first, a ship surrounded by magpies lands on the Silla coast after sailing away from
Gaya for unspecified reasons. There is a giant chest in the ship, and when they open it they find slaves, treasures, and a young boy inside. The boy,
Seok Talhae, reveals that he is a prince of a country called Yongseong (). When he was born in the form of an egg, his father put him inside the chest and sent him away to found his own kingdom abroad. Having settled in Silla, Seok steals the house of the aristocrat
Hogong
Hogong was a minister of Silla in the age of nation-building. It is recorded that he was originally from the Wa people of Japan, though his family name or clan name was unknown to the compiler of the Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms. ...
through deceit and marries the eldest daughter of the
Silla king, a descendant of Hyeokgeose. He succeeds his father-in-law as king and founds the Seok clan. After his death, he becomes the patron god of a local mountain. A
village-shrine ''bon-puri'' very similar to the Seok Talhae myth is transmitted by modern shamans in the southern island of
Jeju
Jeju may refer to:
* Jeju Island (Jejudo), an island near South Korea
* Jeju Province (formerly transliterated Cheju), a province of South Korea comprising Jejudo
**Jeju City, the biggest city on Jejudo
**Jeju dog, a dog native to Jejudo
** Jeju l ...
.
![Kim Alji](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Kim_Alji.jpg)
Hogong appears prominently in the Kim foundation myth as well. One night, Hogong sees a great light in the woods. When he goes closer, he discovers a golden chest hanging from a tree and a white rooster crowing below. He opens the chest and discovers a boy, who he names
Alji. Alji is brought to court and made the Silla king's heir, but he later abdicates his position. Alji would become the mythical founder of the Kim clan, which would later monopolize the
patrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
line of the Silla kings.
=Gaya
=
Until their conquest by Silla in the sixth century, the delta of the southern
Nakdong River
The Nakdonggang River or Nakdonggang () is the longest river in South Korea, and passes through major cities such as Daegu and Busan. It takes its name from its role as the eastern border of the Gaya confederacy during Korea's Three Kingdoms Er ...
was occupied by the
Gaya polities. The ''Samguk yusa'' preserves the foundation myth of one of the most powerful Gaya kingdoms, that of
Geumgwan Gaya
Geumgwan Gaya (43–532), also known as Bon-Gaya (본가야, 本伽倻, "original Gaya") or Garakguk (가락국, "Garak State"), was the ruling city-state of the Gaya confederacy during the Three Kingdoms of Korea, Three Kingdoms Period in Korea. ...
. The nine chieftains of the country hear a strange voice announce that heaven has commanded it to found a kingdom there. After singing and dancing as commanded by the voice, a golden chest wrapped in red cloth descends from heaven. When the chieftains open it, they find six golden eggs. The eggs hatch into giant boys, who fully mature in merely two weeks. On the fifteenth day, the six each become kings of the six Gaya kingdoms. The first to hatch,
Suro, becomes king of Geumgwan Gaya.
Later, Suro is challenged by the Seok clan's founder Seok Talhae. According to the history of Gaya given in ''Samguk yusa'', the two engage in a shapeshifting duel, after which Seok acknowledges defeat and flees to Silla. A beautiful princess named
Heo Hwang'ok then arrives on a ship with red sails, bearing great wealth from a distant kingdom called Ayuta. Heo tells Suro that
Shangdi
Shangdi (), also written simply, "Emperor" (), is the Chinese term for "Supreme Deity" or "Highest Deity" in the theology of the classical texts, especially deriving from Shang theology and finding an equivalent in the later ''Tian'' ("Heaven ...
has commanded her father to marry her to Suro, and the two become king and queen. They both live for more than 150 years.
![Cheoyong in the Akhak Gwebeom](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Cheoyong_in_the_Akhak_Gwebeom.jpg)
The foundation myths of Silla and Gaya are of the southern type, with the founder descending directly from heaven on vessels such as eggs and chests. The myths may also reflect real historical figures and processes. Hyeokgeose may therefore symbolize an ancient migration of northern horse-riders who created the state of Silla with the support of local chieftains, while Seok Talhae stands for a maritime group that was defeated by Gaya and was integrated into the Silla state and Heo Hwang'ok preserves the historical memory of a merchant group that contributed to the establishment of the early Geumgwan Gaya polity.
Other literary myths
Many other supernatural stories are contained in the ''Samguk yusa'' to the point that Grayson calls its compiler, Iryeon, "the first Korean folklorist." Some of these stories reflect shamanic mythology. One example is the tale of Cheoyong. Cheoyong, a son of the
Dragon King of the East Sea
Ao Guang (; or ) is the Dragon King of the East Sea in Chinese folklore. He featured prominently in different works including ''Fengshen Yanyi'' and ''Journey to the West''.
''Fengshen Yanyi''
According to the ''Fengshen Yanyi'', after the passa ...
, arrives in the Silla court where he marries a beautiful woman. One night, he goes home to find the
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
god having sex with his wife. Rather than punish the intruder, Cheoyong only sings a
song
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
. The smallpox god is so astounded by his mercy that he repents and agrees to never enter any house with Cheoyong's face on its gate. The people of Silla then attach portraits of Cheoyong to their gates. The story of Cheoyong is traditionally interpreted as the myth of a shaman or benevolent deity who wards off the spirit of pestilence, although the exact relationship between Cheoyong's song (which survives in two different versions) and Korean shamanic chants continues to be debated.
Another genre of literary mythology are the origin myths of specific family lineages, which are recorded in genealogies. The motif of the founding ancestor's birth from a stone or golden chest also appears in the genealogies of many non-royal lineages. Other ancestor myths involve the coupling of a human and a non-human. The Chungju Eo ( "fish") claim descent from a man who was born to a human mother and a
carp
Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...
father, while the Changnyeong Jo are thought to descend from the offspring of a Silla noblewoman and the son of a dragon.
Shamanic and oral mythology
Nature and context
![Hyewon-Munyeo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Hyewon-Munyeo.sinmu.jpg)
The shamanic narratives are works of
oral literature
Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...
sung during ''
gut''—the Korean term for large-scale shamanic rituals—which constitute the mythology of
Korean shamanism
Korean shamanism or Mu-ism is a religion from Korea. In the Korean language, alternative terms for the tradition are ''musok'' () and ''mugyo'' (무교, 巫敎). Scholars of religion have classified it as a folk religion. There is no central auth ...
, the indigenous
polytheistic
Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the ...
religion of the country.
Since the long-ruling
Joseon
Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...
dynasty (1392—1910), the attitude of the Korean population towards the traditional religion has been ambivalent. The Joseon, whose state ideology was
Neo-Confucianism
Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Wa ...
, were opposed to shamanism and made significant efforts to eliminate the religion from the public sphere. As Koreans increasingly accepted the Joseon state's patriarchal and anti-shamanic ideology, shamanism became increasingly associated with women, who were also marginalized by the new social structure. It was in this restrained capacity as women's private religion, without public influence, that shamanism was still tolerated by Joseon society.
Despite the continued presence of shamanism as a significant force in Korean religious life, a cultural ambivalence regarding it persists. As of 2016, the capital of
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
alone has hundreds of ritual places, where ''gut'' are held on most days of the year. Yet when in public, many worshipers—often
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
or
Buddhists
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
as well as practitioners of shamanism—avoid discussing their shamanic worship and sometimes disparage their own beliefs as superstition.
Reflecting this ambivalence, shamanism and its mythology are often characterized as
subversive
Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. Sub ...
of Korea's mainstream values and
official culture Official culture is the culture that receives social legitimation or institutional support in a given society. Official culture is usually identified with bourgeoisie culture. For revolutionary Guy Debord, official culture is a "rigged game", where ...
, though some may also simultaneously incorporate more mainstream thinking such as the Confucian virtues. The story of Princess Bari is a typical example. The myth centers on the princess's journey to the world of the dead to save her parents. The story is thus "an affirmation of a Confucian virtue," that of
filial piety
In Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and Daoist ethics, filial piety (, ''xiào'') (Latin: pietas) is a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors. The Confucian ''Classic of Filial Piety'', thought to be written around the late W ...
. Yet the parents' savior is not a son but a daughter—indeed, the very daughter that Bari's parents abandon at birth merely for being a girl. Later, Bari leaves her husband for her parents, although Confucian culture demands that women transfer their loyalties to their husband's family after marriage. The myth therefore can be interpreted to subvert the Confucian framework of patriarchy using the very values of Confucianism.
All shamanic narratives meet the purposes of both religiosity and entertainment, albeit to varying degrees. Shamanic narratives are almost never sung in non-religious circumstances, and the ritual context is critical to a full understanding of the mythology. For instance, the story of Bari is performed at ceremonies where the soul of the deceased is sent off to the realm of the dead. Bari is the goddess that guides the soul on its way, and the story of the princess's journey thus further reassures the bereaved that the spirit of their loved one is in good hands. At the same time, shamans also seek to entertain worshippers. This may be done by inserting riddles, popular songs, or humorous or sexual descriptions into the retelling of the myth, or by having the accompanying musicians interrupt the narrative with often vulgar jokes. Such humorous elements also helped convey the subversive message of many shamanic myths, such as criticism of gender hierarchies and class structures.
As oral literature, shamanic narratives are also affected by both the received tradition and the performing shaman's original innovations. Many narratives have lengthy formulaic paragraphs and imagery that appear identically throughout multiple versions of the myth or even across multiple myths, and which are memorized by shamans when they first learn the songs. For instance, a series of highly metaphoric descriptions of Bari's mother's pregnancies is found in all regions where the Princess Bari myth is performed. On the other hand, shamans regularly add new content and reword phrases of the narratives, and the same shaman may even sing different variants of the same myth depending on the specific circumstances of the ''gut''. A certain degree of consistency is nonetheless expected; in one case, a Jeju shaman reciting the ''Chogong bon-puri'' narrative was interrupted ten times for giving inaccurate details until more experienced shamans demanded that he name the man who taught him. The shamanic mythology is thus unusually conservative for oral literature.
![Shamanic temple in Ansan 06](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Shamanic_temple_in_Ansan_06.JPG)
Unlike the literary mythology, the shamanic mythology is a living tradition capable of creating new narratives. In the 1960s, an unknown shaman in eastern
Gangwon Province adapted the ''
Simcheong-ga'', a story involving a blind man, into the new
''Simcheong-gut'' narrative, recited in order to ward off eye disease. The new myth has since become very popular in the region. Another apparently new myth is the
''Jemyeon-gut'' narrative, which appeared in the city of
Gangneung
Gangneung () is a municipal city in the province of Gangwon-do, on the east coast of South Korea. It has a population of 213,658 (as of 2017).Gangneung City (2003)Population & Households. Retrieved January 14, 2006. Gangneung is the economic ...
for the first time in 1974 despite not being attested when the same ritual was held in 1966 and 1969. The ''Jemyeon-gut'' myth has no clear source for its story, and researchers have noted an increase in narrative details from the 1970s to the 1990s. Several other shamanic narratives appear to have been adapted at some point from, or otherwise bear a close relation to, late Joseon-era vernacular literature. Cross-cultural similarities have also been noted between Korean shamanic narratives and other East Asian myths, in particular the mythology of
Manchu shamanism
Manchu folk religion or Manchu traditional religion is the ethnic religion practiced by most of the Manchu people, the major- Tungusic group, in China. It can also be called Manchu shamanism by virtue of the word "shaman" being originally from Tu ...
.
Korean shamanism is currently undergoing a major restructuring that is not favorable towards a lengthy performance of the mythology. The traditional village community-oriented ceremonies are in decline, while rituals commissioned by individual worshippers are on the rise. The setting of the ''gut'' has also shifted to ritual places where only the shamans and the relevant worshippers are present, in contrast to the public participation that was traditional for the ceremonies. Most of these individual worshippers have little interest in the mythology itself, sometimes even leaving when the narrative begins, but are very invested in ceremonies specifically related to themselves or their friends and family, such as the ''
gongsu'' rite in which the shaman conveys messages directly from the gods to the worshipper. With the emergence of other forms of entertainment, the entertainment value of shamanic rituals has also declined. In at least Seoul, the performance of the ''Princess Bari'' is therefore becoming increasingly shorter. As many new shamans now learn narratives from published books or recordings rather than being taught personally by a more experienced shaman as was traditional, the regional diversity of the mythology may also be in decline.
Unlike the
Greco-Roman
The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were di ...
or
Norse mythologies familiar to Western readers, the deities of Korean shamanic mythology exist mostly independently of each other. Each shamanic narrative establishes the nature and functions of the deities it is dedicated to, but there are few cases where gods that have previously appeared in their own narratives interact with each other. It is thus not possible to establish a genealogy of the gods.
Regional traditions
The shamanic mythology is divided into five regional traditions (Korean: ), representing the primary variations of the two narratives the ''
Jeseok bon-puri
Korean mythology ( ) is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of various historical kingdoms, and the much l ...
'' and the ''
Princess Bari
Korean mythology ( ) is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of various historical kingdoms, and the much l ...
'', which are both found throughout the Korean peninsula. Each of the five regions also has myths not found in the other regions, as well as distinctive tendencies in the actual performance of the narratives. The mythological tradition of southern
Jeju Island is particularly divergent.
A characteristic of Korean mythology is that the corpus is poorest in and near the capital of Seoul—the traditional political, economic, and cultural center of the country—and largest and most diverse in
South Hamgyong Province
South Hamgyong Province (, ''Hamgyŏngnamdo''; ) is a province of North Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the southern half of the former Hamgyong Province, remained a province of Korea until 1945, then became a province of North Kore ...
and Jeju Island, the northernmost and southernmost peripheries respectively. The two peripheral mythologies are the most archaic. Several similar myths are found in both Hamgyong and Jeju despite the great distances involved, suggesting that the two mythologies both descend from a common ancient Korean source.
Northern
![Mythological regions of Korea](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Mythological_regions_of_Korea.png)
The northern tradition is poorly understood because all of its area is now part of
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
, where ethnographic research is not feasible. Ethnologist Hong Tae-han calls it a grouping made for convenience's sake, as what regional diversity may have existed there is now inaccessible to scholarship. The religion of
South Hamgyong Province
South Hamgyong Province (, ''Hamgyŏngnamdo''; ) is a province of North Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the southern half of the former Hamgyong Province, remained a province of Korea until 1945, then became a province of North Kore ...
may form a coherent shamanic tradition independent of other northern shamanism. The South Hamgyong mythology includes a large corpus of unique shamanic narratives, of which the most important is the ''
Song of Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi
The ''Song of Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi'' is a Korean shamanic narrative recited in the Mangmuk-gut, the traditional funeral ceremony of South Hamgyong Province, now North Korea. It is the most ritually important and most popular of ...
'', centering on a woman who attempts to meet her beloved husband after his death. Other notable South Hamgyong myths include the
''Seng-gut'' narrative, which combines the creation myth and the ''Jeseok bon-puri''; the ''
Donjeon-puri'', in which a husband and wife become the gods of money; and the ''
Jim'gajang'' narrative, about three boys who take vengeance on their murderer by
reincarnating as his sons. By contrast, the province of
Hwanghae
Hwanghae Province (''Hwanghae-do'' ) was one of the Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon era. Hwanghae was located in the northwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Haeju. The regional name for the province was Haeseo.
History
In 139 ...
in North Korea has virtually no shamanic mythology. The ritual and entertainment role played by mythical narratives in other regions is served by an unusually developed tradition of ceremonial dance and theater.
According to a North Korean shaman who
defected
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...
in 2008, shamanism is widespread in modern North Korea and ''de facto'' condoned by the state, but the old songs and chants are no longer transmitted.
West-Central
The west-central tradition is the mythological tradition of Seoul and its environs, and is distinguished by a strong emphasis on the sacred nature of the narratives. The recitations are primarily addressed to the deity, not the physically present human worshippers. Formulaic phrases of the received tradition are frequently used. Hong Tae-han characterizes the west-central mythology as the most "solemn" of Korean shamanic narratives. This may be because Seoul shamans frequently held ceremonies in the royal palaces for queens and other court women, who would have expected dignity and gravity from the rituals. This region also has the fewest myths. The only specifically west-central narrative is ''
Seongju-puri'', explaining the origins of the patron god of the household. In the city of Seoul itself, ''Princess Bari'' is the only shamanic narrative that is performed.
East Coast and Gyeongsang
In contrast to the west-central tradition, shamans of the
East Coast
East Coast may refer to:
Entertainment
* East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop
* East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017
* East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004
* East Coast FM, a ra ...
and
Gyeongsang
Gyeongsang ( ko, 경상도, ''Gyeongsang-do''; ) was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon dynasty. Gyeongsang was located in the southeast of Korea.
The provincial capital was Daegu. The region was the birthplace of the Kingdom ...
tradition do much to make their narratives entertaining for the human worshippers. Narratives are recited with an unusual level of detail, and the diversity of rhetorical techniques is unprecedented. Indeed, Hong Tae-han refers to the East Coast shaman families as "the most skilled
performing arts
The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...
group in the entirety of Korea." The musicians go beyond simply providing background music and intervene directly in the performance, while the performing shaman actively interacts with the human audience. Non-shamanic music, such as folk songs or Buddhist hymns, is integrated into the narrative at appropriate moments. Characteristic regional narratives include a very detailed account of the
journeys of the Visitors, the gods of
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
. The region currently has the most vigorous mythological tradition.
Jeolla
The
Jeolla
Jeolla Province (, ) was one of the historical Eight Provinces of Korea during the Kingdom of Joseon in today Southwestern Korea. It consisted of the modern South Korean provinces of North Jeolla, South Jeolla and Gwangju Metropolitan City as wel ...
tradition is characterized by the reduced importance of the pan-Korean narratives, and the greater prominence of two other myths: the ''
Jangja-puri'', about a rich man who evades the gods of death, and the ''
Chilseong-puri'', featuring seven brothers who become gods of the
Big Dipper
The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" ...
. As of 2002, the Jeolla mythology was in decline.
Jeju
The
Jeju tradition also stresses the sanctity of the myths to the point that the performing shaman always sings the stories while facing the sacrificial altar, turning their back towards the musicians and worshippers. The explicit purpose of the Jeju mythology, as expressed in many narratives directly, is to make the gods "giddy with delight" by retelling them the story of their lives and deeds. The island has the richest corpus of shamanic narratives. The island represents the only tradition where Princess Bari is unknown. The Jeju mythological tradition is also at risk, as the largest Jeju ''gut'' rituals—which take fourteen days to complete—are seldom fully held nowadays. Several myths are already no longer performed by shamans.
Creation narratives
Several Korean shamanic narratives
discuss the creation and primordial history of the world. The most complete creation narratives are found in the northern and Jeju traditions, although one is known from the west-central tradition. Several East Coast versions of the ''Jeseok bon-puri'' also incorporate relevant elements.
The northern and Jeju creation narratives share many elements. In both traditions, the universe is created with the division of heaven and earth, which were originally fused. A giant is often involved in the creation; in one northern narrative, the creator god Mireuk who cleaves heaven and earth is said to have eaten grain by the ''
seom'' (180 liters) and to have worn robes with sleeves twenty
feet
The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...
(6.7 meters) long or wide. In both northern and Jeju myths, a benevolent god is challenged by an usurper who claims rule over the human world. The two gods engage in three contests to decide who will rule. In both, the final challenge is a flower-growing contest, in which the god that grows the better flower will take charge of humanity. The benevolent god grows the (better) flower, but the usurper steals it while the other god sleeps. Having won this final contest, the usurper takes control of the world, but his unjust victory is the source of the evil and suffering of the present world. Both northern and Jeju creation myths also tell of how there are once two suns and two moons, making the world very hot during day and very cold during night, until a deity destroys one of each.
Nonetheless, the northern and Jeju creation myths differ significantly in structure. In the north, the two protagonists are the creator Mireuk and the usurper Seokga. Both are
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
names, referring to
Maitreya
Maitreya (Sanskrit: ) or Metteyya (Pali: ), also Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha, is regarded as the future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. As the 5th and final Buddha of the current kalpa, Maitreya's teachings will be aimed at ...
and
Shakyamuni respectively. But as the myths are otherwise unrelated to Buddhism, they are believed to be indigenous gods whose original names were at some point replaced. The two gods fight two duels of supernatural power—such as making a river freeze in midsummer, or hitting a bottle of liquor midair and having the liquor float in the air even while the bottle shatters and falls—before the final flower contest. In the majority of narratives, the sun and moon double or disappear after Seokga's unjust victory, and the usurper is obliged to embark on a quest to restore cosmic order by retrieving the sun and moon or destroying the doubled ones. Only the northern tradition discusses the creation of humanity; according to one narrative, Mireuk grows insects into humans.
The Jeju creation myth does not show Buddhist influence. In Jeju, the sky god Cheonji-wang descends to earth some time after creation, often to punish an impious man named Sumyeong-jangja. There, he sleeps with an earthly woman and gives her the tokens of two
gourd
Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly ''Cucurbita'' and ''Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. One of the earli ...
seeds as he returns to the heavens. The woman gives birth to the twins Daebyeol-wang and Sobyeol-wang. When the brothers grow up, they plant the gourd seeds, which grow into gigantic vines that stretch into heaven. The twins climb these vines to enter their father's realm. After verifying their parentage, the twins hold a contest to decide who will rule the human world and who the world of the dead. After two riddle contests, the younger twin wins the final flower contest through cheating and takes charge of the living. The realm of Sobyeol-wang, the physical world where humans live, is full of suffering and disorder. But Daebyeol-wang establishes justice and order for his kingdom of the afterlife, where human souls go after death.
''Jeseok bon-puri''
The ''Jeseok bon-puri'' is the only truly pan-Korean myth, being found in all five regional traditions. The mainland versions of the narrative recount the origins of the Jeseok gods,
fertility deities
Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertilit ...
that guarantee fortune and agricultural prosperity, as well as often
Samsin, the goddess of childbirth. As of the year 2000, there were sixty-one known versions of the ''Jeseok bon-puri'', excluding the highly divergent Jeju versions.
![Painting of Jeseok at Yongsan-gu Nam I shrine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Painting_of_Jeseok_at_Yongsan-gu_Nam_I_shrine.jpg)
All versions share the following basic narrative structure. Danggeum-aegi is the virgin daughter of a nobleman. When her parents and brothers are temporarily absent, a Buddhist priest comes on an
alms round to her house. Danggeum-aegi gives alms in the form of rice, but the priest usually stalls for time by spilling all the rice that she gives, so that she must pick them up and offer them again.
In the Jeolla tradition, the priest then briefly grasps her wrist before leaving. In the west-central tradition, Danggeum-aegi eats three of the grains of rice that the priest has spilled. In the northern and East Coast-Gyeongsang traditions, the girl offers the priest lodging in her father's room, but he refuses. He consecutively rejects her offer of every room in the mansion until she agrees to share her own room with her, where they have sex. In any case, the girl becomes pregnant. When her family returns, they attempt to kill her
to salvage the family's honor but fail, sometimes because rocks and earth fall on top of her parents and brothers while celestial light shines on the girl.
In the west-central and Jeolla traditions, they then expel her from the household. Danggeum-aegi successfully finds the priest and gives birth in his presence to sons, usually but not always triplets. The priest abandons Buddhism and starts a family with her and the sons. In the Jeolla tradition, the myth ends here without anybody becoming gods. In the west-central tradition, the priest confers divinity upon his sons with Danggeum-aegi as the Jeseok gods.
In the northern and East Coast-Gyeongsang traditions, the family imprisons Danggeum-aegi in a pit or stone chest, but she miraculously survives and always gives birth to triplet sons. Danggeum-aegi is then brought back to the family. In most versions, the triplets prove to be supernaturally talented, such that the other children repeatedly attempt and fail to murder them out of envy. One day, the triplets ask who their father is. Danggeum-aegi usually gives the names of various trees as their father, but each tree tells the triplets that she is lying. Once she admits the truth, the brothers go out to find their father. When they reach the priest's temple, he gives them a series of impossible tasks to verify their parentage. This includes walking in water while wearing paper shoes without making any of the paper wet, crossing a river using only the bones of cows dead for three years, creating a rooster out of straw that perches and crows, and eating a fish and then vomiting it out alive. The triplets succeed in all these tasks, and the priest acknowledges that they are his sons when he sees that his blood mingles with the triplets'. The priest then makes Danggeum-aegi the goddess of childbirth, and the triplets either the Jeseok gods or a group of equivalent fertility deities.
In the northern and eastern traditions, the ''Jeseok bon-puri'' is often linked to the creation narrative, with the usurper Seokga being the same god as the priest who impregnates Danggeum-aegi. According to Hong Tae-han, the ''Jeseok bon-puri'' was probably originally episodes in a longer narrative centering on the deeds of the creator god, as still seen today in the South Hamgyong ''
Seng-gut
The ''Seng-gut'' narrative is a Korean shamanic narrative traditionally recited in a large-scale '' gut'' ritual in Hamgyong Province, North Korea. It tells of the deeds of one or multiple deities referred to as "sages," beginning from the creat ...
'' narrative. The northern versions where the ''Jeseok bon-puri'' follows the creation narrative are thus the most archaic.
Despite the Buddhist veneer, the priest has many attributes of a sky god. In various versions, the priest is said to live in the palace of the heavens, or to ride into his home in the clouds on a paper horse, or to take Danggeum-aegi with him on a journey to heaven using a rainbow as a bridge. Many versions refer to the priest or his temple as "Golden" ( ), which may be a corruption of the archaic
Middle Korean
Middle Korean is the period in the history of the Korean language succeeding Old Korean and yielding in 1600 to the Modern period.
The boundary between the Old and Middle periods is traditionally identified with the establishment of Goryeo in 91 ...
phrase ''han kem'' () "the Great God." The myth is thus one in which an earthly woman is impregnated by a celestial male figure and gives birth to children who become the objects of worship. Scholars have noted parallels between the meeting of the girl and the priest and the meeting of Yuhwa and Haemosu in the Goguryeo founding myth, and between the triplets' quest to find their father and their subsequent attainment of divinity and Yuri's quest to find Jumong and his subsequent coronation as king.
''Princess Bari''
The ''Princess Bari'' narrative is found in all regions except Jeju. Roughly one hundred versions of the myth have been transcribed by scholars as of 2016, and around half of those since 1997. As of 1998, all known versions were sung only during ''gut'' rituals held for the deceased. Princess Bari is therefore a goddess closely associated with funeral rites. Bari's exact role varies according to the version, sometimes failing to become a deity at all, but she is usually identified as the patron goddess of shamans, the
conductor of the souls of the dead, or the goddess of the
Big Dipper
The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" ...
.
![Princess Bari holding the flower of resurrection](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Princess_Bari_holding_the_flower_of_resurrection.jpg)
Despite the large number of versions, most agree upon the basic story. The first major episode shared by almost all versions is the marriage of the king and queen. The queen gives birth to six consecutive daughters who are treated luxuriously. When she is pregnant a seventh time, the queen has an auspicious dream. The royal couple takes this as a sign that she is finally bearing a son and prepares the festivities. Unfortunately, the child is a girl. The disappointed king orders the daughter to be thrown away, dubbing her Bari, from Korean
버리 "to throw away." In some versions, she must be abandoned two or three times because she is protected by animals the first and second times. The girl is then rescued by a figure such as the
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
(who regrets upon seeing her that he cannot take a woman as his disciple), a
mountain god
Sacred mountains are central to certain religions, and are usually the subjects of many legends. For many, the most symbolic aspect of a mountain is the peak because it is believed that it is closest to heaven or other religious realms. Many rel ...
, or a
stork
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons an ...
.
Once Bari has grown, one or both of her parents fall gravely ill. They learn that the disease can only be cured through medicinal water from the
Western Heaven. In the majority of versions, the king and queen ask their six older daughters to go fetch the water, but all of them refuse. Desperate, the king and queen order Princess Bari to be found again. In other versions, the royal couple is told in a dream or a prophecy to find their daughter. In any case, Bari is brought to court. She agrees to go to the Western Heaven and departs, usually wearing the robes of a man.
The details of Bari's quest differ according to the version. In one of the oldest recorded narratives, recited by a shaman from near Seoul in the 1930s, she meets the Buddha after having gone three thousand leagues. Seeing through her disguise and remarking that she is a woman, the Buddha asks if she can truly go another three thousand leagues. When Bari responds that she will keep going even if she is to die, he gives her a silk flower, which turns a vast ocean into land for her to cross. She then liberates hundreds of millions of dead souls who are imprisoned in a towering fortress of thorns and steel.
When Bari finally arrives at the site of the medicinal water, she finds it defended by a supernatural guardian (of varying nature) who also knows that she is a woman, and obliges her to work for him and bear him sons. Once this is done―she may give birth to as many as twelve sons, depending on the version―she is allowed to return with the medicinal water and the flowers of resurrection. When she returns, she finds that her parents (or parent) have already died and that their funerals are being held. She interrupts the funeral procession, opens the coffin lids, and resurrects her parents with the flowers and cures them with the water. In most versions, the princess then attains divinity.
Each of the four mainland regional traditions feature distinctive elements of the ''Princess Bari''. The west-central tradition is marked by strong Buddhist influence. The rescuer is always the Buddha, who brings her to be raised by an old childless couple who are said to desire good ''
karma
Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptivel ...
''. The East Coast and Gyeongsang tradition elaborates the most on Bari's quest, and portrays the guardian of the medicinal water as an exiled god who must have sons in order to return to heaven. The Jeolla tradition is the least detailed, and does not mention Bari dressing as a man. There is great diversity within regions. For instance, the aforementioned 1930s version mentions a wood of resurrection, although most other versions, including other west-central ones, involve a flower.
The northern tradition is represented by only two versions, both from South Hamgyong, but feature remarkable differences. The princess does not reach the divine realm on her own, but through divine mercy. There, Bari steals the flowers of resurrection and flees. She suddenly dies at the end of the narrative without becoming a goddess, and the mother that she resurrected dies soon after. Her divine role in funerals as the link between the living world and the afterlife is replaced by the local goddess
Cheongjeong-gaksi.
The ''Princess Bari'' has traditionally had an informal association with the royal court, and there is some evidence that its performance was patronized by King
Jeongjo
Jeongjo of Joseon (28 October 1752 – 18 August 1800), personal name Yi San (Korean language, Korean: 이산; Hanja: 李祘), sometimes called Jeongjo the Great (Korean language, Korean: 정조대왕; Hanja: 正祖大王), was the 22nd monarc ...
for the soul of his father,
Prince Sado
Crown Prince Sado (Hangul: 사도세자, Hanja: 思悼 世子; 13 February 1735 – 12 July 1762), personal name Yi Seon (Hangul: 이선, Hanja: 李愃), was the second son of King Yeongjo of Joseon. His biological mother was Royal Noble ...
, who starved to death in a rice chest in 1762. According to modern Seoul shamans, an older version of the narrative had much jargon that was specific to the Korean court. Parallels to the
Manchu
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
folktale ''
Tale of the Nishan Shaman'' have also been drawn.
Localized mainland narratives
![Hogu-byeolseong (Korean Smallpox goddess)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Hogu-byeolseong_%28Korean_Smallpox_goddess%29.jpg)
The vast majority of mainland shamanic narratives are localized, being transmitted only in one or two specific regional traditions. South Hamgyong Province was particularly rich in these localized myths, with nine different narratives recited during the Mangmuk-gut funerary ritual alone. One of the most popular myths in South Hamgyong was the ''Song of Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi''. The myth centers on a woman named Cheongjeong-gaksi, who is devastated by the death of her husband Dorang-seonbi. The
priest from the Golden Temple gives her a series of tasks in order to meet her husband again. This includes tearing out all her hair, twisting them into a rope, boring holes into her palms, and hanging from the rope in the middle of the air, with the rope passing through her palms, without screaming in pain; immersing her fingers in oil for three years, then praying while setting them on fire; and, finally, paving rough mountain roads with only what remains of her bare hands.
Despite succeeding in all this, she can only temporarily be reunited with Dorang-seonbi. In one version, the husband drowns in an accident the same day he is revived. As he dies, he tells his wife to commit suicide so that they can meet again. Cheongjeong-gaksi hangs herself and is united with her husband in the afterlife. Some time later, they both become gods. Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi were the most important of the deities invoked in the Mangmuk-gut funeral, and were even worshipped in Buddhist temples as second only to the Buddha himself.
In a testimony to the diversity of Korean mythology, the localized narrative of the Visitors ( ), a group of wandering male and female
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
gods most prominent in the East Coast-Gyeongsang tradition, covers entirely different themes from the tragic romance above. The narrative was traditionally performed to appease these dangerous deities during smallpox epidemics so they would inflict only light cases of the disease, and also to forestall potential epidemics. In a typical version performed in 1987, three of the Visitors, a group of male and female
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
gods living in China, decide to visit Korea one day. The ferryman on the
border
Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...
demands that a female Visitor have sex with him to cross. The goddess immediately kills him and consecutively kills six of his seven children with smallpox. When his wife begs for mercy, she lets the youngest live as a blind, immobile
hunchback
Kyphosis is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can result fr ...
.
In
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
, the Visitors are chased away from the house of the wealthy Kim-jangja and lodge at the house of a poor crone. In return for her hospitality, the gods reward her and her granddaughter with great fortune. The crone also requests that the Visitors bless Cheolhyeon, Kim-jangja's fifteen-year-old son who she used to nurse. But when Kim-jangja rejects the Visitors a second time, the female Visitor takes the form of Cheolhyeon's mother in order to lure him away and gives him a severe case of smallpox. Kim-jangja vows to sacrifice a calf for the gods, only to refuse the sacrifice when the Visitors recall the illness in response. The outraged gods kill Cheolhyeon, who becomes the youngest Visitor. Later, the Visitors discover that Kim-jangja has been reduced to poverty and that he has no children left due to Cheolhyeon's death. They take pity on him and give the 70-year-old Kim-jangja a new son.
Jeju narratives
![제주 칠머리당 영등굿판](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/%EC%A0%9C%EC%A3%BC_%EC%B9%A0%EB%A8%B8%EB%A6%AC%EB%8B%B9_%EC%98%81%EB%93%B1%EA%B5%BF%ED%8C%90.jpg)
The Jeju tradition has the richest mythology. Its corpus of shamanic narratives, called ''bon-puri'' (), is divided into three or four categories. The approximately dozen general ''bon-puri'' are known by all shamans, and involve deities with universal functions who are worshipped throughout the island. The village-shrine ''bon-puri'' feature the guardian gods of a specific village, and are known only by shamans from the relevant village and its neighbors. The ancestral ''bon-puri'' are about the patron gods of specific families or occupations; despite the name of the category, the god is often not perceived as an actual ancestor. They are known only by shamans from the family or occupation in question, and are thus poorly understood. Some analyses also include a small fourth category of "special ''bon-puri''," which are no longer ritually performed by shamans.
Many general ''bon-puri'' are clearly related to mainland narratives but have distinctive Jeju characteristics. A typical example is the ''
Chogong bon-puri In Korean shamanism, the ''Chogong bon-puri'' is a shamanic narrative whose recitation forms the tenth ritual of the Great ''Gut'', the most sacred sequence of rituals in Jeju shamanism. The ''Chogong bon-puri'' is the origin myth of Jeju shamanic ...
'', the Jeju version of the ''Jeseok bon-puri'' but with a very different ritual function. The early part of the ''Chogong bon-puri'' is similar to ''Jeseok bon-puri'' versions from Jeolla, the closest part of the mainland. After being supernaturally impregnated, the teenage Noga-danpung-agassi (the Jeju equivalent of the mainland Danggeum-aegi) is expelled from home and goes in search for the priest. But in Jeju, the priest sends her away to give birth to the triplets alone. Unlike in Jeolla, but like in the northern and eastern traditions, the triplets grow up fatherless.
When they best three thousand
Confucian
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...
scholars in the
civil service examinations
Civil service examinations are examinations implemented in various countries for recruitment and admission to the civil service. They are intended as a method to achieve an effective, rational public administration on a merit system for recruitin ...
, the jealous scholars murder Noga-danpung-agassi. The triplets visit their father for help, and the priest makes them abandon their previous life and initiates them into shamanism. The triplets hold the first shamanic rituals to successfully resurrect their mother, then become divine judges of the dead in order to bring justice to the scholars in the afterlife. When asked about the origin of a ritual, Jeju shamans respond that "it was done that way in the ''Chogong bon-puri''."
["<초공본풀이>에서 그러했기 때문이라는 답" ]
Village-shrine ''bon-puri'' are dedicated to the patron gods of one or multiple villages. Most fit a formulaic structure. In their most complete form, a carnivorous hunting god emerges from the hills of Jeju and an agricultural goddess arrives from overseas, often
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. The two marry and become village gods, but then separate, generally because the goddess cannot stand the god's foul habits or the stench of his meat. The goddess then gives birth to a third god, who is expelled from the island and goes on adventures abroad before returning to settle as the god of a different village. Many villages have only parts of this structure, so that the ''bon-puri'' ends with the marriage or even involves only the emergence or arrival of the deity. Many Jeju village gods are also thought to be related to one another. Among the most important village ''bon-puri'' is thus the one dedicated to the gods of Songdang shrine, who are the parents or grandparents of 424 guardian gods of various villages and locations on the island.
Mainland village-shrine myths
![Village guardian tree in Andong Hahoe-maeul](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Village_guardian_tree_in_Andong_Hahoe-maeul.jpg)
As in Jeju, mainland Korean villages are traditionally associated with specific guardian deities. The Joseon dynasty strongly promoted Confucian-style worship for these gods over traditional shamanic practices. By the late nineteenth century, most important rituals for village gods were being held by men according to Confucian norms, complete with invocations in Chinese instead of Korean. The sacred stories associated with these gods are therefore not (or no longer) shamanic narratives, except in Jeju Island.
Nonetheless, many such stories reflect shamanic beliefs, such as the emphasis on appeasing sorrowful spirits. Like the shamanic narratives, village-shrine myths are closely associated with rituals dedicated to the god, often explaining the identity of the deity that is venerated. The village mythology is also a living one. For example, it is now believed in the village of Soya, in
North Gyeongsang Province
North Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상북도, translit=Gyeongsangbuk-do, ) is a province in eastern South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Gyeongsang province, and remained a province of Korea until the ...
, that the local guardian god accurately predicted which soldiers from the village would survive
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
In a study of 94 village-shrine myths from
South Jeolla Province
South Jeolla Province (; ''Jeollanam-do''; ), also known as Jeonnam, is a province of South Korea. South Jeolla has a population of 1,902,324 (2014) and has a geographic area of located in the Honam region at the southwestern tip of the Korean ...
, Pyo In-ju divides the myths into two major categories, depending on whether the god is identified as a natural object or a human spirit. The most prominent natural objects in the myths are trees,
dragons
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
, and rocks. In the village of Jangdong in
Gwangyang
Gwangyang () is a city in South Jeolla Province, South Korea. Gwangyang city is the home of POSCO's Gwangyang Steel Works, the largest facility of its kind in the world.
The city is also home to K League Classic football side Jeonnam Dragons.
Gw ...
, for example, a local tree is said to have wept one day during the
1592 Japanese invasion. While all the villagers crowded to the tree at this strange sound, the Japanese attacked. Finding the village abandoned, they suspected a trap and left. A few days later, the Japanese returned and attempted to cut down the tree, but the tree dropped giant branches on them and killed them all. The Japanese never dared approach the village afterwards. Ever since, locals have worshipped the tree as a god.
Village gods identified as the spirits of humans are often the founder of the village, or alternatively a sorrowful spirit (, ) which has remained in the human world after death because of their grief or resentment, for instance because they were murdered or because they died as a child.
In popular culture
The state-foundation myths have been adapted into several South Korean TV series, such as the popular 2006 series ''
Jumong
Chumo (Hangul: 추모, Hanja: 鄒牟), posthumously Chumo the Holy (Hangul: 추모성왕, Hanja: 鄒牟聖王), was the founding monarch of the kingdom of Goguryeo, and was worshipped as a god-king by the people of Goguryeo and Goryeo. ''Chumo ...
'', but their potential in popular culture is limited due to the small size of the corpus and the lack of thematic diversity. In recent years, the larger and more diverse shamanic mythology has also appeared in South Korean culture beyond its ritual context. The shamanic narrative best known in South Korea is the ''Princess Bari'' in large part due to the work of
feminists
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male poi ...
since the 1990s, who highlighted the myth's characteristics as
women's literature
The academic discipline of women's writing is a discrete area of literary studies which is based on the notion that the experience of women, historically, has been shaped by their sex, and so women writers by definition are a group worthy of separ ...
. The goddess has since appeared in mediums as diverse as
flash games
A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer.
Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on co ...
to
musicals
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...
. In 2007,
Hwang Sok-yong
Hwang Sok-yong (born January 4, 1943) is a South Korean novelist.
Life
Hwang was born in Hsinking (today Changchun), Manchukuo, during the period of Japanese rule. His family returned to Korea after liberation in 1945. He later obtained ...
—one of the country's most important living novelists—published ''Bari-degi'', a novel set in the modern day about a girl named Bari, whose life parallels the myth of her divine namesake. Other shamanic narratives have also recently entered popular culture, notably in the 2010s
Webtoon
Webtoons (), are a type of digital comic that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones.
While webtoons were mostly unknown outside of Korea during their inception, there has been a surge in popularity internationally ...
''
Along with the Gods'', which draws heavily on Jeju ''bon-puri''. However, much of the shamanic mythology remains largely unknown to the South Korean public.
See also
*
Chinese mythology
Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions.
Much of t ...
*
Japanese mythology
Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto and Buddhist traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of year ...
*
Mongol mythology
The Mongol mythology is the traditional religion of the Mongols.
Creation
There are many Mongol creation myths. In the most ancient one, the creation of the world is attributed to a Buddhist deity Lama. At the start of time, there was only wate ...
*
Manchu shamanism
Manchu folk religion or Manchu traditional religion is the ethnic religion practiced by most of the Manchu people, the major- Tungusic group, in China. It can also be called Manchu shamanism by virtue of the word "shaman" being originally from Tu ...
*
Vietnamese mythology
Vietnamese mythology ( vi, Thần thoại Việt Nam 神話越南) comprises national myths, legends or fairy tales from the Vietnamese people with aspects of folk religion in Vietnam. Vietnamese folklore and oral traditions may have also been infl ...
Notes
References
Footnotes
Works cited
Korean
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
English
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Korean Mythology
History of Northeast Asia
History of Korea