Culture Focus

Stories of the Origin of the World and Humans

1. Changsega
The Changsega is a foundation myth originating from Hamgyeong Province, the northernmost region of the Korean Peninsula. It represents very well Korean views of the formation of the world and the principles underlying its creation. It may be summarized as follows:

In the beginning, the heavens and earth were of one piece. One day, with the separation of heaven and earth, the god named Mireuk (Maitreya) was born. Mireuk erected four pillars in the four corners of earth so that heaven and earth would not rejoin. Then, as two suns and two moons appeared in the heavens, Mireuk divided up the extra one of each to create stars. Wondering about the origins of fire and water, Mireuk set out to find them. First, he captured a locust and asked it about the origins of fire and water but could get no answer. Then he captured a frog and asked, but still he received no answer. Next, he captured a mouse and asked it about the origins. The mouse replied by asking what Mireuk would give him as compensation were he to give him the answer. Mireuk answered that he would let the mouse have the rice jar of the human world. The mouse then told Mireuk the origin of all the water on earth and the place where the original spark gave birth to fire. Satisfied with this answer, Mireuk duly compensated the mouse. This is how the mouse has forever after been able to secretly steal and eat humans' rice.
When Mireuk cast a spell toward the heavens holding ready a golden and a silver tray, a pair of caterpillars, one male and one female, fell from the sky, one onto each of the trays. These caterpillars became a human couple, whom Mireuk took under his wing and taught such things as how to make clothes and eat food.
One day, Seokga (Sakyamuni) appeared and threatened Mireuk, saying he would take over the human world. Thus, Mireuk and Seokga competed with each other for control of the human world. They then engaged in three contests: a tug-of-war at sea, freezing a river, and making a flower bloom. Mireuk won the first two, but fell asleep during the last wager and, while sleeping, a flower blossomed from his body. Feigning sleep, Seokga then came and plucked Mireuk's flower, planted it in his own body, and declared he had won the wager. Mireuk realized all that had happened but was so weary of Seokga's antics that he abandoned the human world. Mireuk cursed that the human world ruled by Seokga will be corrupt, and then vanished.
Seokga, having taken over the human world, gave birth to several thousand groups of human beings. He took them around and taught them how to prepare food to eat. Mireuk and his crowd ate raw food, but Seokga and his crowd ate cooked food. There were two people among Seokga's followers who refused to eat cooked food, and when they died they became the pine tree and the rock.

This story reveals various mythological elements, such as the traditional Korean view of the universal order, the birth of humankind, and cultural change. One's attention is first drawn to the appearance of two gods, Mireuk and Seokga. The first half of the story details the appearance of Mireuk as well as the emergence of the cosmos out of chaos. The ordering of the moon, sun, and stars and the quest for the origin of water and fire, etc. reveal how, with the opening of the world, order must first be established. After the world is put in order, Mireuk then creates humankind. The middle part of the story sees the appearance of Seokga, who challenges Mireuk for control of the human world. Mireuk was superior to Seokga in every respect, but because of Seokga's deception and persistence, Mireuk abandons the human world, and with a curse disappears. The second half of the story shows the order of the world that Seokga now rules. The main point here concerns the birth of many humans and the culture of food.

This myth relates how the human world over which Mireuk once ruled is revamped under Seokga. While Mireuk signifies a cultural form of an early period, Seokga represents a later cultural form. In contrast to how Mireuk created only one human couple consisting of a male and a female, thousands of humans appear in the world ruled by Seokga. While the initial humans seem to originate in the heavens, the humans of later days proliferate on the earth. This signifies that while the general earthly laws were not applicable to early initial humans, humans of later days could reproduce on earth. Further, this myth reveals the cultural changes that resulted from the increase in human population. The most representative change concerned dietary habits, which changed from eating raw to eating cooked food. Cooked food means the consumption of meat cooked with the energy generated by the burning of natural sources like wood. The cooking of food is a form of consumption that uses far more natural resources. If a defining attribute of nature is its unchanging and eternal aspect relative to humans, then we can better interpret the meaning of the two people who refused to eat cooked food becoming a rock and a pine tree. In traditional Korean thought, the rock and the pine symbolize the unchanging, the long-lasting, or the eternal.

A characteristic feature of this myth that is difficult to find elsewhere is the appearance of an evil god. Mireuk is the driving force of creation and the one who brings order to the world. As shown in the wager with Seokga, Mireuk is excellent in every aspect. In contrast, Seokga is the one who attempts to steal the world that Mireuk has created and given order to, and it is he who resorts to lies and deception in their competition. Mireuk, who gives up the earth, curses the world Seokga is about to create, declaring that its rules will become corrupted, and this is precisely what happened in reality. This prediction signifies the sacred and noble nature of the human world that Mireuk has created, and the lowly and corruptible world over which Seokga rules. There is a tradition in Korea of wishing for the appearance of the Mireuk, or Maitreya, Buddha; a millenarian desire for the coming of a new world. This kind of Mireuk idea is manifest in this myth. It is important to note that according to this myth, the fault for the human world's becoming debased and corrupted rests not with humans themselves but more with the troubles and conflicts of the gods that have created and rule over the human world.

2. Master Mok and the Great Flood
"Master Mok and the Great Flood" is a tale which, though transmitted orally among the people, has retained its mythic qualities. It is not a story about the creation of the world like the Changsega, yet in it one can discern the Korean mythical perceptions of the origins of humankind. This story can be summarized as follows:

Long ago, a heavenly fairy descended to earth and bore a son with a tree spirit (moksin). The son was called "Master Mok" (Tree) because he was born of a union with a tree. One day, the fairy returned to heaven and the world became submerged under water by a great deluge. Master Mok's father, that is, the tree, was carried away by the flood waters, with Master Mok clinging to it.
Then, Master Mok meets a crowd of ants and a crowd of mosquitoes that are also being carried away by the flood and, after obtaining his father's permission, he rescues them. As they go further, Mok sees a boy shouting for help and endeavors to save him. His father the tree, however, opposes this. But Master Mok pities the boy and saves him anyway. Finally, the tree carrying Master Mok, the ants, the mosquitoes, and the boy comes to rest upon the peak of a high mountain.
There is an old woman living there with a daughter of her own as well as a foster daughter. Master Mok and the boy both wish to marry the biological daughter. The boy asks the old woman to test Master Mok, who he says possesses wondrous abilities, in order to get Master Mok into trouble so that he, the boy, might marry the woman's daughter. The boy's plan is to take the daughter for himself after Master Mok fails the test and the old woman mistrusts him as a result. Master Mok is first tested with the task of picking out grains from a pile of sand. Just as Master Mok is at a loss as to what to do, the crowd of ants that he saved from the flood appears and solves the problem by picking out the grains. Then, the old woman places her two daughters in separate rooms, not revealing which one is in which room, and gives Mok the assignment of selecting the room of the spouse he desires. This time, the crowd of mosquitoes that he saved from the flood appears and tells him the location of the biological daughter. Master Mok finally marries the biological daughter while the boy marries the foster daughter.
The rest of humankind is wiped away by the great flood and these two couples become the progenitors of a new human race. The good humans are the descendants of Master Mok, while the evil humans are the descendants of the boy.

This myth may be considered a flood myth or a human origin myth in the sense that the world is destroyed by a flood and that the protagonist, Master Mok, becomes the progenitor of a new postdiluvian human world. The biblical story of Noah's Ark is the most representative example of this form of story, but it is a tale found in some form or other in many parts of the world.

A notable part of this myth is the issue of why the flood occurred; the tale never provides the reason in any detail. However, it is important to note that the period of the great deluge begins immediately after the departure for home of the heavenly fairy, who leaves her earthly husband and son behind. It is common in Korean myths and tales for a mother and her children to find themselves in a desperate situation after the departure of the father. However, in this story, it is the mother who leaves and the father and son who are left behind in this emergent world of the flood, which is very rare. The break-up of a married couple reveals a conflict between maternal and paternal rights, and the son and father being left behind together and the son taking his father's surname (Mok) may be taken to represent the reorganization of the family system with a paternal focus.

The transformation of the world may be condensed into the appearance of the founder of a new human race, while the focus of the myth really becomes the nature of the person of Master Mok. From the depiction of Master Mok's personality, we can discern the ideal model of humanity or the values called for in the new world order. First, Master Mok stands apart from other humans in that he is a sacred being born of the union between a celestial fairy and a tree (a tree spirit or god). It is common in the Korean narrative tradition for a great hero to be born through a union of heaven and earth. Such a being pursues the union and harmony of the "heaven-earth-human." That is how much it is seeking for the identity of the new founder Master Mok from the heritage of sacred parents. Next, we examine his personality as revealed through his character and abilities. He possesses a good character such that he seeks to save creatures that are being drowned in water. Further, he has the ability to communicate with nature and its creatures, like ants and mosquitoes. These abilities play a critical role in his solving problems in the story. It could be said that this reveals the pressing values required in the new human world.

The boy who stands at the antipode with Master Mok in this myth also carries important mythical meaning. The boy represents the values of the mundane world and the evil heart. He is depicted as a figure who deceives others, slanders those who save him, and is loyal only to his own desires. His plan eventually founders but he, too, becomes one of the new progenitors of humankind along with Master Mok. The logic is that half of humankind received the genes of Master Mok and half those of the boy. This myth presents the two foundational traits of humanity, good and evil, and the sources of the sacred and the mundane, in the forms of Master Mok and the boy, respectively.

Infokorea 2021
Infokorea is a magazine that introduces Korea to readers overseas, including teachers, textbook developers and other educators. The magazine offers the latest statistics on the Republic of Korea and articles that focus on Korean culture, society and history, which can be used as a reference source for textbook writers and editors and as materials for teachers to prepare for class. The theme of the 2021 issue was 'Myths of Korea'.