Culture Focus
An Overview of Korean Mythology - 4
Korea's Representative Myths
Koreans and Stories of Shamanist Gods
1. Princess BariThe tale of Princess Bari is sung in rituals for consoling the dead and sending them to the afterlife. This myth, which recounts Princess Bari's life story, is representative of Korean shamanist myths. It may be summarized as follows:
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There once was a king of a country who moved forward the date of his nuptials, breaking with the date set by the fortune teller. Because of this, the royal couple is cursed and they give birth in succession to six princesses but no prince. The queen then becomes pregnant with a seventh child, and though the king sincerely wishes for a prince, yet another princess is born. The king, sorely disappointed, abandons this seventh child, named Princess Bari. Princess Bari, who thus faces the risk of death from the day she is born, is pitied by the heavenly god, who commands a divine couple of deities to adopt and raise her. Thanks to this couple, Princess Bari grows up well. |
The years pass, and the king falls ill with a disease that no earthly medicine can cure. A soothsayer appears, saying that the king is now paying the price for having abandoned his baby, and predicts that he will only be healed by drinking the life-saving water found in the realm of the gods. All six daughters refuse to fetch this life-saving water, whereupon a minister stands up and says that he will set off in search of the seventh princess and ask her to find it. This able minister passes a place through which humans cannot pass and arrives in the land of the gods where Princess Bari resides. From the minister Princess Bari hears the story of her father's ailment and decides to go to the palace to meet her real parents at last. With a kind heart, Princess Bari meets her biological parents, greets them, and takes pity on them. She decides to obtain the life-saving water and departs on her quest. With the assistance of the gods, she passes beyond the point through which the living cannot pass. As she passes through the underworld she prays for the poor souls of the dead. Princess Bari then arrives in the world of the gods where the life-saving water is to be found.
In the underworld, Princess Bari meets Mujangseung, keeper of the life-saving water, and for three years she labors collecting wood for him, then works for another three years making fire for him, and finally spends three more years procuring water for him. After all this she marries Mujangseung, and by him gives birth to seven sons. Princess Bari eventually obtains the life-saving water, but she returns with the water only to find the king, who had been waiting for her, has died and is about to be buried. However, Princess Bari succeeds in resuscitating her dead father with the life-saving water, whereupon the king asks her what she most desires. Princess Bari asks to become a deity so that she might console the souls of the poor dead she witnessed in her passage through the underworld. At Princess Bari's request, the king allows her to become a shamanist god (musin) and to receive the shamanist ritual, and all the members of her extended family also become deities.
This myth, which deals with the story of a shaman ancestor goddess (or mujosin), can be found in some form or other throughout the Korean Peninsula. Although Princess Bari is born the daughter of a king, she is an unlucky figure as she is abandoned by her father. However, she completes the difficult task of obtaining the life-saving water for the parent who abandoned her and in the end becomes a god. This myth tells the story of the protagonist's passage through various spaces while describing the characteristics of each of them, revealing the Korean world view in the process. Thus, there is a human world ruled by the father-king, and beyond that there is a sacred space which is the world of the gods. Between these places is a boundary zone through which humans cannot pass. Princess Bari traverses that zone which lies between the human sphere and the realm of the gods. Princess Bari is born in the human world but lives in the realm of the gods. She returns to the human world by passing through the other world, then returns to the world of the gods to procure the life-saving water, and finally journeys once more back to the human world. This journey of the protagonist represents transcendence over life and death, and in the end she becomes a god herself, responsible for leading human souls in their passage from life to death. In this way, the myth of Princess Bari clearly presents the mythical conception that Koreans have of the worlds beyond, all while keeping this world in focus.
The next thing that should be noted in this myth is the value system that is created through the protagonist, Princess Bari. This story establishes a clear conflict between Princess Bari and her father. First, the father king is both head of his household and of a state. That is, the ruler is a male. By contrast, Princess Bari is recognized as a useless being, abandoned simply because she is born female. Her very name "Bari" means "cast away," a name she is tagged with by some royal retainers after the king abandons her. The tasks Princess Bari performs in order to obtain the life-saving water are typical household chores such as gathering firewood, carrying water, and starting a fire, demonstrating how she is still a passive being even in the household.
In this way, Princess Bari is, socially speaking, a subject or inferior being, yet she has something that her father, the king, lacks. The father-king has the power to rule over humans and the ability to transform humans into gods, yet he is a figure who dies of disease. In other words, he is weak in the face of his own mortality, despite his great power and authority. In contrast to this, Princess Bari escapes a near-death experience as soon as she's born and passes to the other world to save her parent. Her life is a constant succession of encounters with death, which she eventually overcomes to become an eternal being.
According to Korean's perception, Princess Bari is the manifestation of the ideal female and human being. She does not work wonders nor does she possess any special wisdom or power. She demonstrates filial piety toward her parents despite the fact that they abandoned her. She silently takes on the role of housewife and mother required of women. In addition, she pities the dead and offers earnest prayers on their behalf. Korean traditional society was patriarchal and, within that unequal hierarchy, women were always recognized as inferior beings. However, women assumed the most important and basic of human roles, that is, giving birth and caring for the household. The myth of Princess Bari stresses that such roles are in alignment with the most sacred duties of reviving the dead and leading the souls of the dead to the next world.
2. Segyeong bonpuri
This myth concerns the life story of a god of agriculture of Jeju Island. The god of animal husbandry appears to have originated together with the god of agriculture. The following is a summary of the story:
Once upon a time there was a wealthy household that was greatly concerned by its inability to produce a child. One day, a Buddhist monk came and told the couple that they would have a child if they made an offering to his temple. The wealthy man prepared an offering just as the monk had commanded, and set off to make the offering to the temple. On the way there, however, he was beguiled by another monk who told him that he could only fulfill his wish for a child by going to his temple. So the wealthy man went to the other temple. Later, the household had a child— a daughter—whom they named Jacheongbi. On that very same day, and at the very same time, a female slave from the household gave birth to a son and named him Jeongsunam. Nurtured by her parents' love, Jacheongbi grew up into a beautiful girl.
One day, Jacheongbi was doing the laundry by the creek because she had been deceived by the female slave into believing that the chore would give her beautiful skin. It was here at the side of the creek that Mundoryeong, a prince of the heavenly realm, encountered Jacheongbi while on his way to study writing. When Jacheongbi revealed her identity to Mundoryeong on the last day of the academic calendar, Mundoryeong fell in love with her and came to her house and stayed there together with her. Time passed by, and when Mundoryeong inevitably returned to the heavenly world, Jacheongbi remained behind, waiting for the day when she would see him again.
One day, Jeongsunam, the slave boy, stopped for a nap while he was on his way to feed the cow and horse, which died as a result of his negligence. So Jeongsunam ate both cow and horse and, upon returning home, lied that he had lost the beasts while he was watching Mundoryeong at play with some celestial faeries. Jacheongbi, who overheard this, made Jeongsunam lead her to the mountain to find Mundoryeong. When Jeongsunam tried to rape her in the depths of the forest, Jacheongbi used her wits and exhausted him by making him create a place to take a rest. She then killed Jeongsunam and returned home safely. However, Jacheongbi's father rebuked her and ordered her to leave the house and set out in search of the life-restoring flower in order to save Jeongsunam.
So Jacheongbi disguised herself as a man and wandered far and long before coming to stay at the home of a god named Great King Sara. There, Jacheongbi earned the Great King's appreciation for her ability to snare a bird that had long been a source of trouble for his household, and so the Great King Sara declared his wish to make the still disguised Jacheongbi his son-in-law. Jacheongbi came up with the excuse that she must first finish her studies and leave Sara's house after obtaining the life-restoring flower. She returned to her family home and saved Jeongsunam with that life-restoring flower before heading off again to find Mundoryeong.
During her wanderings, Jacheongbi met an old lady who was weaving silk to offer to the king of the heavenly world. So one day, Jacheongbi wove some silk and offered it to the heavenly palace, in place of the old lady, and received lavish praise for her skill. The old lady then tried to invite Mundoryeong to meet with Jacheongbi. Mundoryeong did not realize it was Jacheongbi in the room and tried to peek in. But when he put his finger through the window paper to create a peephole, Jacheongbi pricked the finger with a needle, unaware it was Mundoryeong's. Furious, he returned to his palace. The old lady was incensed to see her invitation come to nothing and expelled Jacheongbi from her home. On her way again, Jacheongbi encountered some celestial faeries being punished by having to carry water using cracked water jugs, and, taking pity on them, decided to help them. The celestial faeries thanked her and then, listening to her wish, guided her to the palace of Mundoryeong.
Now Mundoryeong recognized Jacheongbi and greeted her. He asked his parents for permission to marry her, which they granted. However, when Mundoryeong's former fiancée, who had been betrothed by the parents, committed suicide, Jacheongbi became the target of scorn. In the midst of all this turmoil, a war broke out in the great country of the human world, which then beseeched the heavenly world for assistance. Jacheongbi decided to join the war in Mundoryeong's stead, and disguised Mundoryeong as herself so that Mundoryeong could take refuge in the home of the Great King Sara, who had previously wished for Jacheongbi to join his household. After leading the way to victory in the war, she summoned Mundoryeong to return. The daughter of the Great King Sara sat Mundoryeong backward on a horse and sent him back in order to keep him from going. Upon spotting Mundoryeong from afar coming with his back to her, Jacheongbi assumed that it was because he no longer cared for her.
Jacheongbi separated from Mundoryeong, received grain seeds as a reward for winning the war, and then returned to the human world. Jacheongbi shared the grain seed with humans and taught them to till and farm the earth.
This is how Jacheongbi became the god of agriculture, while giving Jeongsunam the role of the god of animal husbandry or pasturage.
This myth concerns a woman from this world who goes to the heavenly world in search of her beloved, and then receives recognition for her outstanding abilities, eventually returning to this world to become the god of agriculture. The protagonist, Jacheongbi, is proactive and represents a three-dimensional model of existential transformation.
Jacheongbi is born as a woman instead of a man due to her father's mistake, but she possesses abilities superior to those of any man. Her difficult journey begins when she meets the prince of the heavenly world, Mundoryeong, and falls in love with him. The story's structure is such that it shows how Jacheongbi completes the difficult tasks that are constantly required of her. She solves Great King Sara's problems and obtains the flower of rebirth in order to save Jeongsunam, just as her father commanded. Her silk-weaving skills are recognized in the heavenly world, and she also performs a good deed by helping the celestial faeries who were under duress. Her performance reaches a climax when she joins the war in place of her husband, Mundoryeong, and wins a great victory. Even the king of the heavenly world, who was unfavorable toward her, appreciates her victory. This shows an earthly being receiving recognition as a god of the heavenly world. Now all is resolved and she is finally appreciated by her parents-in-law, but because of foolish Mundoryeong, Jacheongbi abandons her life as the daughter-in-law of a king of the heavenly world. Jacheongbi returns to the human world with the grain seeds obtained from heaven to become the goddess of agriculture, receives a religious service from humans, and appoints Jeongsunam, whom she has saved, as the god of animal husbandry to look after cattle and horses.
In this way, Jacheongbi, throughout the story, continuously overcomes difficulties and completes the tasks assigned her. Even when she completes the final task, she refuses to become a member of the heavenly world, choosing the human world instead. In Some version of the myth, Mundoryeong runs after Jacheongbi and becomes the god of agriculture. However, in terms of the story's logic, it is appropriate to view Jacheongbi as becoming the goddess of agriculture of this world along with Jeongsunam, not Mundoryeong. The independent figure in the myth is Jacheongbi, and she is also the one who distributes the grain seeds to humans. Furthermore, one should focus on the relationship between Jacheongbi and Jeongsunam, which appears in both the early and later stages of the story. Their conflict and later reconciliation represent changes in Korean civilization's system of production, with the farming culture emerging as the center. Settled cultivation, represented by Jacheongbi, ultimately absorbs the nomadic and pastoral culture as represented by Jeongsunam.
In the agriculture myths of the Asian cultures surrounding Korea, the hero that descends to the earth with the grain seed obtained from the heavenly world is male. In contrast to this, Segyeong bonpuri puts forward a proactive, independent female hero as the god of agriculture. The personality of Jacheongbi also reveals a distinctive feature of family composition often found in Korean myths. In Korean myths, female protagonists generally meet their husband, give birth to a child, and form a complete family. Under the patriarchal system represented by the male, the female protagonist's role is emphasized as a wife and mother. However, Jacheongbi freely gives up her status as a daughter-in-law in the heavenly world and becomes a god of the human world. She does not allow herself to be subjugated to a man nor does she unite with a male character and give birth to a child. This is likely an expression of the primitive mythical notion that men are the main agents of animal husbandry and women are the main agents of agriculture. Originally, the earth was represented as feminine, while a production system such as farming was directly compared to childbirth. As such, the myth of Jacheongbi presents the mythical origin of farming as an expression of femininity.
In the underworld, Princess Bari meets Mujangseung, keeper of the life-saving water, and for three years she labors collecting wood for him, then works for another three years making fire for him, and finally spends three more years procuring water for him. After all this she marries Mujangseung, and by him gives birth to seven sons. Princess Bari eventually obtains the life-saving water, but she returns with the water only to find the king, who had been waiting for her, has died and is about to be buried. However, Princess Bari succeeds in resuscitating her dead father with the life-saving water, whereupon the king asks her what she most desires. Princess Bari asks to become a deity so that she might console the souls of the poor dead she witnessed in her passage through the underworld. At Princess Bari's request, the king allows her to become a shamanist god (musin) and to receive the shamanist ritual, and all the members of her extended family also become deities.
This myth, which deals with the story of a shaman ancestor goddess (or mujosin), can be found in some form or other throughout the Korean Peninsula. Although Princess Bari is born the daughter of a king, she is an unlucky figure as she is abandoned by her father. However, she completes the difficult task of obtaining the life-saving water for the parent who abandoned her and in the end becomes a god. This myth tells the story of the protagonist's passage through various spaces while describing the characteristics of each of them, revealing the Korean world view in the process. Thus, there is a human world ruled by the father-king, and beyond that there is a sacred space which is the world of the gods. Between these places is a boundary zone through which humans cannot pass. Princess Bari traverses that zone which lies between the human sphere and the realm of the gods. Princess Bari is born in the human world but lives in the realm of the gods. She returns to the human world by passing through the other world, then returns to the world of the gods to procure the life-saving water, and finally journeys once more back to the human world. This journey of the protagonist represents transcendence over life and death, and in the end she becomes a god herself, responsible for leading human souls in their passage from life to death. In this way, the myth of Princess Bari clearly presents the mythical conception that Koreans have of the worlds beyond, all while keeping this world in focus.
The next thing that should be noted in this myth is the value system that is created through the protagonist, Princess Bari. This story establishes a clear conflict between Princess Bari and her father. First, the father king is both head of his household and of a state. That is, the ruler is a male. By contrast, Princess Bari is recognized as a useless being, abandoned simply because she is born female. Her very name "Bari" means "cast away," a name she is tagged with by some royal retainers after the king abandons her. The tasks Princess Bari performs in order to obtain the life-saving water are typical household chores such as gathering firewood, carrying water, and starting a fire, demonstrating how she is still a passive being even in the household.
In this way, Princess Bari is, socially speaking, a subject or inferior being, yet she has something that her father, the king, lacks. The father-king has the power to rule over humans and the ability to transform humans into gods, yet he is a figure who dies of disease. In other words, he is weak in the face of his own mortality, despite his great power and authority. In contrast to this, Princess Bari escapes a near-death experience as soon as she's born and passes to the other world to save her parent. Her life is a constant succession of encounters with death, which she eventually overcomes to become an eternal being.
According to Korean's perception, Princess Bari is the manifestation of the ideal female and human being. She does not work wonders nor does she possess any special wisdom or power. She demonstrates filial piety toward her parents despite the fact that they abandoned her. She silently takes on the role of housewife and mother required of women. In addition, she pities the dead and offers earnest prayers on their behalf. Korean traditional society was patriarchal and, within that unequal hierarchy, women were always recognized as inferior beings. However, women assumed the most important and basic of human roles, that is, giving birth and caring for the household. The myth of Princess Bari stresses that such roles are in alignment with the most sacred duties of reviving the dead and leading the souls of the dead to the next world.
2. Segyeong bonpuri
This myth concerns the life story of a god of agriculture of Jeju Island. The god of animal husbandry appears to have originated together with the god of agriculture. The following is a summary of the story:
Once upon a time there was a wealthy household that was greatly concerned by its inability to produce a child. One day, a Buddhist monk came and told the couple that they would have a child if they made an offering to his temple. The wealthy man prepared an offering just as the monk had commanded, and set off to make the offering to the temple. On the way there, however, he was beguiled by another monk who told him that he could only fulfill his wish for a child by going to his temple. So the wealthy man went to the other temple. Later, the household had a child— a daughter—whom they named Jacheongbi. On that very same day, and at the very same time, a female slave from the household gave birth to a son and named him Jeongsunam. Nurtured by her parents' love, Jacheongbi grew up into a beautiful girl.
One day, Jacheongbi was doing the laundry by the creek because she had been deceived by the female slave into believing that the chore would give her beautiful skin. It was here at the side of the creek that Mundoryeong, a prince of the heavenly realm, encountered Jacheongbi while on his way to study writing. When Jacheongbi revealed her identity to Mundoryeong on the last day of the academic calendar, Mundoryeong fell in love with her and came to her house and stayed there together with her. Time passed by, and when Mundoryeong inevitably returned to the heavenly world, Jacheongbi remained behind, waiting for the day when she would see him again.
One day, Jeongsunam, the slave boy, stopped for a nap while he was on his way to feed the cow and horse, which died as a result of his negligence. So Jeongsunam ate both cow and horse and, upon returning home, lied that he had lost the beasts while he was watching Mundoryeong at play with some celestial faeries. Jacheongbi, who overheard this, made Jeongsunam lead her to the mountain to find Mundoryeong. When Jeongsunam tried to rape her in the depths of the forest, Jacheongbi used her wits and exhausted him by making him create a place to take a rest. She then killed Jeongsunam and returned home safely. However, Jacheongbi's father rebuked her and ordered her to leave the house and set out in search of the life-restoring flower in order to save Jeongsunam.
So Jacheongbi disguised herself as a man and wandered far and long before coming to stay at the home of a god named Great King Sara. There, Jacheongbi earned the Great King's appreciation for her ability to snare a bird that had long been a source of trouble for his household, and so the Great King Sara declared his wish to make the still disguised Jacheongbi his son-in-law. Jacheongbi came up with the excuse that she must first finish her studies and leave Sara's house after obtaining the life-restoring flower. She returned to her family home and saved Jeongsunam with that life-restoring flower before heading off again to find Mundoryeong.
During her wanderings, Jacheongbi met an old lady who was weaving silk to offer to the king of the heavenly world. So one day, Jacheongbi wove some silk and offered it to the heavenly palace, in place of the old lady, and received lavish praise for her skill. The old lady then tried to invite Mundoryeong to meet with Jacheongbi. Mundoryeong did not realize it was Jacheongbi in the room and tried to peek in. But when he put his finger through the window paper to create a peephole, Jacheongbi pricked the finger with a needle, unaware it was Mundoryeong's. Furious, he returned to his palace. The old lady was incensed to see her invitation come to nothing and expelled Jacheongbi from her home. On her way again, Jacheongbi encountered some celestial faeries being punished by having to carry water using cracked water jugs, and, taking pity on them, decided to help them. The celestial faeries thanked her and then, listening to her wish, guided her to the palace of Mundoryeong.
Now Mundoryeong recognized Jacheongbi and greeted her. He asked his parents for permission to marry her, which they granted. However, when Mundoryeong's former fiancée, who had been betrothed by the parents, committed suicide, Jacheongbi became the target of scorn. In the midst of all this turmoil, a war broke out in the great country of the human world, which then beseeched the heavenly world for assistance. Jacheongbi decided to join the war in Mundoryeong's stead, and disguised Mundoryeong as herself so that Mundoryeong could take refuge in the home of the Great King Sara, who had previously wished for Jacheongbi to join his household. After leading the way to victory in the war, she summoned Mundoryeong to return. The daughter of the Great King Sara sat Mundoryeong backward on a horse and sent him back in order to keep him from going. Upon spotting Mundoryeong from afar coming with his back to her, Jacheongbi assumed that it was because he no longer cared for her.
Jacheongbi separated from Mundoryeong, received grain seeds as a reward for winning the war, and then returned to the human world. Jacheongbi shared the grain seed with humans and taught them to till and farm the earth.
This is how Jacheongbi became the god of agriculture, while giving Jeongsunam the role of the god of animal husbandry or pasturage.
This myth concerns a woman from this world who goes to the heavenly world in search of her beloved, and then receives recognition for her outstanding abilities, eventually returning to this world to become the god of agriculture. The protagonist, Jacheongbi, is proactive and represents a three-dimensional model of existential transformation.
Jacheongbi is born as a woman instead of a man due to her father's mistake, but she possesses abilities superior to those of any man. Her difficult journey begins when she meets the prince of the heavenly world, Mundoryeong, and falls in love with him. The story's structure is such that it shows how Jacheongbi completes the difficult tasks that are constantly required of her. She solves Great King Sara's problems and obtains the flower of rebirth in order to save Jeongsunam, just as her father commanded. Her silk-weaving skills are recognized in the heavenly world, and she also performs a good deed by helping the celestial faeries who were under duress. Her performance reaches a climax when she joins the war in place of her husband, Mundoryeong, and wins a great victory. Even the king of the heavenly world, who was unfavorable toward her, appreciates her victory. This shows an earthly being receiving recognition as a god of the heavenly world. Now all is resolved and she is finally appreciated by her parents-in-law, but because of foolish Mundoryeong, Jacheongbi abandons her life as the daughter-in-law of a king of the heavenly world. Jacheongbi returns to the human world with the grain seeds obtained from heaven to become the goddess of agriculture, receives a religious service from humans, and appoints Jeongsunam, whom she has saved, as the god of animal husbandry to look after cattle and horses.
In this way, Jacheongbi, throughout the story, continuously overcomes difficulties and completes the tasks assigned her. Even when she completes the final task, she refuses to become a member of the heavenly world, choosing the human world instead. In Some version of the myth, Mundoryeong runs after Jacheongbi and becomes the god of agriculture. However, in terms of the story's logic, it is appropriate to view Jacheongbi as becoming the goddess of agriculture of this world along with Jeongsunam, not Mundoryeong. The independent figure in the myth is Jacheongbi, and she is also the one who distributes the grain seeds to humans. Furthermore, one should focus on the relationship between Jacheongbi and Jeongsunam, which appears in both the early and later stages of the story. Their conflict and later reconciliation represent changes in Korean civilization's system of production, with the farming culture emerging as the center. Settled cultivation, represented by Jacheongbi, ultimately absorbs the nomadic and pastoral culture as represented by Jeongsunam.
In the agriculture myths of the Asian cultures surrounding Korea, the hero that descends to the earth with the grain seed obtained from the heavenly world is male. In contrast to this, Segyeong bonpuri puts forward a proactive, independent female hero as the god of agriculture. The personality of Jacheongbi also reveals a distinctive feature of family composition often found in Korean myths. In Korean myths, female protagonists generally meet their husband, give birth to a child, and form a complete family. Under the patriarchal system represented by the male, the female protagonist's role is emphasized as a wife and mother. However, Jacheongbi freely gives up her status as a daughter-in-law in the heavenly world and becomes a god of the human world. She does not allow herself to be subjugated to a man nor does she unite with a male character and give birth to a child. This is likely an expression of the primitive mythical notion that men are the main agents of animal husbandry and women are the main agents of agriculture. Originally, the earth was represented as feminine, while a production system such as farming was directly compared to childbirth. As such, the myth of Jacheongbi presents the mythical origin of farming as an expression of femininity.
3. Igong bonpuri
Igong bonpuri is a shamanist myth from Jeju Island that is known to have been mythicized with the incorporation of Buddhist folklore. The myth tells the story of the divinity of the attendant of life and death, who is in charge of managing the celestial flower garden. The myth may be summarized as follows:
Wongang Doryeong and Wongang Ami live a happy married life together until the day when Wongang Doryeong is appointed to manage the celestial flower garden of Seocheon (Western Heavens), that is, the sacred world, and therefore they have to depart the human world. But as Wongang Ami is pregnant and cannot move very quickly, she tells her husband to go ahead on his own. Wongang Ami then sells herself into slavery to a wealthy household and gives the money to her husband to cover the expenses of his long journey. While working in the wealthy household, Wongang Ami gives birth to Hallakgungi. The master of the wealthy household is always lusting after the beautiful Wongang Ami, but she manages to escape his advances by making up all manner of excuses. When Hallakgungi is almost fifteen years old, he declares his intention to go out in search of his father, and Wongang Ami tells him the way. The wealthy owner tries to rape Wongang Ami, but when she repels him forcefully, he kills her and casts her body into a field. Fearing the consequences of his terrible act, the master of the wealthy household pursues and tries to capture Hallakgungi, who escapes and heads toward the celestial flower garden of the Western Heavens.
Once there, Hallakgungi meets his father and tells him the story of his mother. From the celestial flower garden, Hallakgungi receives from his father the life-restoring flower and the evil spirit flower. He then returns to this world to avenge his mother's death. Hallakgungi gathers all the family members of the wealthy household together, with the exception of the youngest daughter, takes out the evil spirit flower and kills them all. He then asks the youngest daughter about the location of his mother's corpse and sets out to finds it. After exhuming the body and reviving his mother with the life-restoring flower, Hallakgungi takes her to the celestial flower garden of the Western Heavens to meet his father. Hallakgungi eventually succeeds his father as the attendant of the celestial flower garden.
Interestingly, this myth features both a flower that takes life and a flower that restores life. Ultimately, the life-restoring flower and evil spirit flower of this story signify the powers controlling life and death in this world, while the attendant of the flower garden signifies a divinity that decides and manages life and death.
The characteristic family relationship commonly found in Korean myths is also well presented here. In Korean shamanist myths, the protagonist and his family always appear as the main characters, and the structure of the story proceeds from the family's separation to its reunion. In the story of Princess Bari, the youngest daughter is removed from the familial community, and when the representative of the family, the father, dies, Princess Bari eventually comes to save the father and create a new family for herself. As such, Jeseok bonpuri may be summarized as the story of a youngest daughter who has an encounter with a divine being without her parents' consent, becomes pregnant, is forced to leave home, and then finds her husband to create a new family.
In Igong bonpuri, the protagonist's family consists of three people—the parents and the son. The father is an exceptional figure who is summoned by the celestial world and transforms into a divine being. However, the problem is that mother and son are forced to lead a precarious existence with the father away for work. In traditional Korean society, the absence of the father means a loss of identity for the son, while a wife without a husband is always at a risk of having her property seized by outsiders. Therefore, they are compelled to locate the head of the family, who is at once father and husband. However, in the story this very crisis comes about because of the success of the head of the family and the sacrifices the wife makes to support that success.
Wongang Ami becomes a slave of her own volition and prepares the expenses for the long-distance journey necessary for her husband's career. She gives birth to a son whom she raises well all by herself, and her loyalty to her husband eventually leads to her death. This shows that the success of a family in a patriarchal society centered on the male has the woman's sacrifice as its base. Hallakgungi, who has lost his guardian father, has to seek out his father and establish his identity. Hallakgungi, who travels to the celestial world and meets his father, is transformed from a fatherless bastard into the son of a god. Soon after, Hallakgungi has to complete another searching task. He is required to show his filial piety by avenging his mother's death. Viewed from the outside, Hallakgungi might seem like a trivial being who is born without a father, but he is actually an outstanding figure who succeeds to a sacred bloodline. He succeeds in escaping the rich and powerful master of the household and entering the celestial realm. Furthermore, he obtains shamanistic power to use the flowers in the celestial flower garden of the Western Heavens. Hallakgungi's act of vengeance for his mother is ultimately a test of his qualifications to be the manager of the celestial flower garden. It is a test of filial piety, a key virtue for Koreans.
One may say that Igong bonpuri presents in its story a condensation of the problem of family composition, the most basic element of human society for Koreans. The shamanist myth is based on the sacrifice of the female and the growth of the child, aspects finely encapsulated in the Igong bonpuri narrative.
Igong bonpuri is a shamanist myth from Jeju Island that is known to have been mythicized with the incorporation of Buddhist folklore. The myth tells the story of the divinity of the attendant of life and death, who is in charge of managing the celestial flower garden. The myth may be summarized as follows:
Wongang Doryeong and Wongang Ami live a happy married life together until the day when Wongang Doryeong is appointed to manage the celestial flower garden of Seocheon (Western Heavens), that is, the sacred world, and therefore they have to depart the human world. But as Wongang Ami is pregnant and cannot move very quickly, she tells her husband to go ahead on his own. Wongang Ami then sells herself into slavery to a wealthy household and gives the money to her husband to cover the expenses of his long journey. While working in the wealthy household, Wongang Ami gives birth to Hallakgungi. The master of the wealthy household is always lusting after the beautiful Wongang Ami, but she manages to escape his advances by making up all manner of excuses. When Hallakgungi is almost fifteen years old, he declares his intention to go out in search of his father, and Wongang Ami tells him the way. The wealthy owner tries to rape Wongang Ami, but when she repels him forcefully, he kills her and casts her body into a field. Fearing the consequences of his terrible act, the master of the wealthy household pursues and tries to capture Hallakgungi, who escapes and heads toward the celestial flower garden of the Western Heavens.
Once there, Hallakgungi meets his father and tells him the story of his mother. From the celestial flower garden, Hallakgungi receives from his father the life-restoring flower and the evil spirit flower. He then returns to this world to avenge his mother's death. Hallakgungi gathers all the family members of the wealthy household together, with the exception of the youngest daughter, takes out the evil spirit flower and kills them all. He then asks the youngest daughter about the location of his mother's corpse and sets out to finds it. After exhuming the body and reviving his mother with the life-restoring flower, Hallakgungi takes her to the celestial flower garden of the Western Heavens to meet his father. Hallakgungi eventually succeeds his father as the attendant of the celestial flower garden.
Interestingly, this myth features both a flower that takes life and a flower that restores life. Ultimately, the life-restoring flower and evil spirit flower of this story signify the powers controlling life and death in this world, while the attendant of the flower garden signifies a divinity that decides and manages life and death.
The characteristic family relationship commonly found in Korean myths is also well presented here. In Korean shamanist myths, the protagonist and his family always appear as the main characters, and the structure of the story proceeds from the family's separation to its reunion. In the story of Princess Bari, the youngest daughter is removed from the familial community, and when the representative of the family, the father, dies, Princess Bari eventually comes to save the father and create a new family for herself. As such, Jeseok bonpuri may be summarized as the story of a youngest daughter who has an encounter with a divine being without her parents' consent, becomes pregnant, is forced to leave home, and then finds her husband to create a new family.
In Igong bonpuri, the protagonist's family consists of three people—the parents and the son. The father is an exceptional figure who is summoned by the celestial world and transforms into a divine being. However, the problem is that mother and son are forced to lead a precarious existence with the father away for work. In traditional Korean society, the absence of the father means a loss of identity for the son, while a wife without a husband is always at a risk of having her property seized by outsiders. Therefore, they are compelled to locate the head of the family, who is at once father and husband. However, in the story this very crisis comes about because of the success of the head of the family and the sacrifices the wife makes to support that success.
Wongang Ami becomes a slave of her own volition and prepares the expenses for the long-distance journey necessary for her husband's career. She gives birth to a son whom she raises well all by herself, and her loyalty to her husband eventually leads to her death. This shows that the success of a family in a patriarchal society centered on the male has the woman's sacrifice as its base. Hallakgungi, who has lost his guardian father, has to seek out his father and establish his identity. Hallakgungi, who travels to the celestial world and meets his father, is transformed from a fatherless bastard into the son of a god. Soon after, Hallakgungi has to complete another searching task. He is required to show his filial piety by avenging his mother's death. Viewed from the outside, Hallakgungi might seem like a trivial being who is born without a father, but he is actually an outstanding figure who succeeds to a sacred bloodline. He succeeds in escaping the rich and powerful master of the household and entering the celestial realm. Furthermore, he obtains shamanistic power to use the flowers in the celestial flower garden of the Western Heavens. Hallakgungi's act of vengeance for his mother is ultimately a test of his qualifications to be the manager of the celestial flower garden. It is a test of filial piety, a key virtue for Koreans.
One may say that Igong bonpuri presents in its story a condensation of the problem of family composition, the most basic element of human society for Koreans. The shamanist myth is based on the sacrifice of the female and the growth of the child, aspects finely encapsulated in the Igong bonpuri narrative.
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'.
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'.
