Korean mythology

Korean mythology gathers the Mythe S and Légende S main roads of all the Korean Péninsule.

The initial religion of Korea was a form of Chamanisme Eurasia N and of Totémisme of the Far East, more particularly that of the Peuple S Nomade S of the current Mandchourie. Thereafter this one was tinted of Bouddhisme, Confucianisme and of Taoïsme come from China.

At the time of the beginnings of Buddhism, the Korean Chamanisme was largely discredited to try to establish Buddhism like religion of state. Later, Korean Buddhism and the shamanism were largely pursued at the point almost to lose the trace in the popular conscience of it.

After the War of Korea in 1953, the Shamans were seen like charlatans ready to extort people for some money than religious personalities. Recently, however, there was a movement revival substanciel which becomes an essential component of the Korean Culture.

Although the values and habits Confucianists are well diffused in the company, about half of the south Korean are said today without religion, a Christian quarter , and another quarter Buddhists.

Today, those which believe in the myths Korean as a religion form a minority. Among them one find faithful Chondogyo and Daejonggyo, which venerates Tangun commen a god, without counting the few places where the shamanism still survives.

Sky, Ground and Spirit are the 3 bases of the Korean mythical world.

Key symbols

Sun and cock with 3 legs
the Moon and rabbit
Sky
Clouds
Stars: consultable and guides.
Ground
Water
Wind
Tree: symbol of the house
Man and

spirit

Mythology of creation of the world

The mythology of Korean creation of the world, or Cosmology, knows variations according to the sources but can be generally found in one of these three categories:

the totemic/chamanic cosmology
cosmology taoist (these two first are called the cosomologies pre-Buddhists)
cosmology with Buddhist influence

Totemic/chamanic cosmology

The totemic and chamanic traditions are perhaps more autochtones (Korean) of cosmologies pre-arts person in Korea and includes/understands many references to the local geography, the mountains or the rivers for example. The totemic and chamanic legends of old Korea belong to the great oral literature (not written) that had the mudang (Shaman) local. The mudang was at the same time storyteller and Shaman and generally the legends included/understood an attempt at justification of the capacities of the mudang or an explanation of the origin of such or such clan.

Also known under the name of mythology Mago 마고신화 (麻姑神話), they are in fact one the Korean cosmologies least known mainly because of the increasing emergence of Buddhism and the taoism at that time as to the establishment of a system patriarchal which forsook legends strongly directed towards the goddesses.

The first mention of this cosmology is found in the Budoji (부도지), written for the period Silla.

The creation of the world

At the beginning the world did not exist. A divinity called Yul-ryeo 율려 (律呂) appeared and gave rise to a named goddess Mago (mythology) 마고 (麻姑). Yul-ryeo died. Mago in its turn gave rise to two goddesses: Gung-hee 궁희 (穹姬) and So-hee 소희 (巢姬) which gave in their turn birth each one with two Celestial Men 천인 (天人) and two Celestial Women 천녀 (天女).

After the appearance of Celestial People, Yul-ryeo 율려 was récessucitée and by its resurrection the skies, the ground and the oceans were created and with them, Chi (the breath) 기 (氣), fire 불 (火), water 물 (水), and the ground 흙 (土). These four elements mixed then to form grass, the plants, the birds and the animals.

Mago then decided to remain with Yul-ryeo, whose body had become the world and Celestial People reigned on all the living beings since their called celestial fortress Magoseong 마고성 (麻姑城) in the honor of the goddess.

Birth of humanity

There were four Celestial Men who kept each one a cardinal Point of the fortress: Cheong-gung 청궁 (靑穹) and Hwang-gung 황궁 (黃穹) children of Gunghwee and Hukso 흑소 (黑巢) and Baekso 백소 (白巢) children of Sohwee. They were married with the four Celestial Women and gave rise to twelve children who were going to become the ancestors of the human ones.

These ancestors were pure and it is said that they drank the Lait of the Earth 지유 (地乳), which ran of one source inside the castle. They could speak without emitting of sound, acting without seeing and were immortal. They thus lived ten thousand years of peace.

Came then a time when the number of anybody became too important. There was no more enough of Milk of the Earth (or Jiyu ) for everyone. This is why, a man of the line of Baekso 백소 (白巢) of the name of Jiso 지소 (支巢) decided to yield five times his meal of Milk of the Earth to his neighbors (of other versions say that it waited in the tail but which this one was so long until its turn never arrived). Finally its hunger became intolerable and, deciding to put an end to its days, it moved towards a cliff. There, he saw a vine which pushed on the edges. Incompetent to make conceal his hunger, it ate the grape and acquired at once five savors of sourness, the bitterness, the spiced taste, softness and the salted taste. This is known under the name of Incident of Five Savors (오미의변).

Jiso turned over towards its people and informed them of its discovery. Soon however, of the teeth are reflected to push with those which had eaten grape. Of these teeth saliva spouted out which was transformed then into venom. That because they had eaten another living being to remain in life.

Soon they were able to see, but could not hear the skies any more. Their skin became thick, their hairy feet and they were not pure any more. They gave rise to children who resembled animals and their lifespan started to be reduced.

At this point in time people of Magosung are reflected to blame Jiso for this transformation and him and its family as all those which had eaten grape were forced to leave Magosung.

As the line of Jiso left the castle, Hwang-gung, one of the four guards and direct ancestor of the Korean people, tried to give again courage to them in their saying that if they could find their nature of pure beings, they could be released from their misery.

Hearing that, people were convinced that the only means of becoming again pure was to drink Milk of the Earth once again. They then attacked the castle and submerged it by shaving the fortress to its foundations to reveal the source which gave the Milk of the Earth. Unfortunately the source was put to be spread in all the directions and milk was transformed into inedible ground, then letting die of hunger not only the authors of carnage but also all those which still lived the castle.

It followed then a massive famine and everyone was tiny room to eat not only grape but also all kinds of plants and even of the animals while trying to calm their hunger. Of all these people, Hwang-gung was the only one to come in Mago and to beg it to forgive them. It the Jura which he would not have of rest before humanity finds its pure nature. From it obtained the Three Heritages Celestial and a great knowledge. It then gathered people of the ground and taught agriculture to them, gave to each chief of clan a Celestial Heritage then sent them in various directions to populate the ground.

The organization of the world

Cheong-gung 청궁 (靑穹) left towards the east, where it created China.

Baekso 백소 (白巢) and its people left towards the west where they became the people of Europe and the Middle East.

Hukso 흑소 (黑巢) left towards the south, in the area which is now India and the Southeast Asia.

Establishment of Korea

Hwang-gung 황궁 (黃穹) took with him three thousand faithful and they left only towards the Far North to a place called Chonsanju 천산주 (天山洲), which wants to say " ground of the mountains célestes" , where the ground was cold and dangerous. It had done that intentionally, because it wanted to become again pure. On its arrival Hwang-gung made the oath find its purity.

Hwang-gung reigned during thousand years, using the Celestial Heritage which gave him capacity on fire and the sun. It finishes by attendeindre its goal of car-purification. It gave to his oldest son Yuin 유인 (有因) the Celestial Heritage like signs of its right to control the kingdom, and it gave to each one of its two sons juniors a province to be controlled. Then it left towards the Celestial Mountain 천산 (天山) where it became a stone which said the message of Yul-ryeo, permanently recalling to the men their way towards innocence.

Yuin reigned for another millenium. Using the Celestial Heritage he taught with his people how to tame fire and to cook food. He left then for the Celestial Mountain like his father and gave the heritage to his son Han-in 한인 (桓因) (sometimes marked " Hwanin" 환인). Han-in was the last of the celestial sovereigns which used the capacity of the Heritage to bring abundant sunning and a lenient time. During the three millenia of reign since Hwang-gung people lost their appearance of animals gradually and started to find their image.

Demystification of the myth

Later Han-in a kingdom with the Lac Baïkal establishes which it called Hwan-guk 환국 (桓國), a nation proto-Chosun, from which the future kings of the Period KB-Chosŏn would come. It seems that the resemblances between the legend of Tangun and that of Mago (in particular Three Celestial Heritages, or three the thousand faithful ones) would come owing to the fact that the legend of Tangun borrowed these details from the legend of Mago, older.

It would seem that the initial pronunciation of Hwan-guk 환국 (桓國) was closer to " Han-guk" 한국 (as in " Han-in"), which is the name that the Koreans use today to speak about their country. Han-in is also called by other names in particular Ahn Pa-kyeon 안파견 (安巴堅), and Chonjae Han-in 천제한인 (天帝桓因), which wants to say " Han-in Céleste" Emperor;.

The specialist in Silla Park Che-Blood (박제상) mentions this myth as being much older than the mythology of Tangun which is better known. Some claim that Hwanguk collapsed around 3898 av. J. - C. (the date of foundation of the period KB-Chosŏn would be 2333 av. J. - C.), whereas it is said that it was established in the neighborhoods of the first front century J. - C.

Collection of mythologies pre-Buddhists

Very few mythologies pre-Buddhists survived, the great majority belonged to the oral tradition and an important part disappeared today from the folklore.

It would seem that of an initial chaos the world was made and a race of géans posed stars in the sky and separated them from a deep water. When their work was completed they fell into a sleep eternal and their bodies curve the islands and the mountains.

Sun and the moon

In the world of before the sun and the moon, there were only stars.

It was in these old times that two brother and sister lived: Haesik the big brother and Dalsoon the little sister. Their mother was a poor country-woman who sold rice puddings to earn her living.

One day the mother returned from the village when it fell on a tiger perched on a hill which required of it a rice pudding to leave him the safe life. She gave him and the tiger from went away, but to only appear in front of her with the following hill; this time he asks him two rice puddings. It gave him the cakes, but he still returned to the third hill requiring this time four rice puddings. When it did not have any more a cake to nourish it, the tiger threatened it to devour it.

The mother begged it by saying to him that it was widowed and mother of two children. By hearing that the tiger became even more vicious. It devoured the mother and took her clothing to be disguised. It then continued the way of the mother to the house where, it knew it, the children waited.

At the house the children worried about the delay of their mother. Haesik suggested that they close the door when he heard a voice which called outside. The Dalsoon, youngest, thought that it was their mother, but Haesik heard that the voice was different and felt that something clochait. The tiger pressed them to open the door, but Haesik refused firmly.

Not giving up, the tiger used face powder which remained cakes and applied it to the back of its hands making them white. When it passed its fingers by a hole in the door, Dalsoon was convinced that it was their mother and opened the door immediately. The tiger put itself then at their continuation until the children climb in a tree to put itself at the shelter.

When the tiger found an axe in the house and that it started to attack the trunk of the abre, Dalsoon made a prayer requiring of the skies to send a solid cord if it were to be saved and a rotted cord if they were condemned. A solid cord was sent and the two children climbed to the skies.

By seeing that, the tiger made the same request but the cord that it received was rotted and it fell into fields from millet. Its blood tinted the millet and therefore one says that the fan of the millet is red.

With the skies Haesik became the sun and Dalsoon became the moon. But later Dalsoon complained because it was afraid of the black and Haesik then decided to take its place so that Dalsoon can become the sun. ==

Mythology of the first man

Mythology of foundation of the Period KB-Chosŏn

In the skies lived a god of the name of Hwanin 환인 (桓因). Hwanin had a son who was called Hwanung 환웅 (桓雄). Each day, Hwanung leant on the edges of the skies and looked at the ground in bottom and he cried with heats tears. When his/her father asked him why, Hwanung answered that it worried about the fate of the mortals and that it would like to be able to control them to bring peace and justice to them. Moved by its attention, Hwanin authorized it to go down in the world. It gave to his son Three Celestial Heritages like three thousand servants and ordered to the three Lords wind 풍백 (風伯), rain 우사 (雨師) and clouds 운사 (雲師) to follow it.

Hwanung thus went down in the world. It arrived first of all at the top of the Mont Taebaek and founded there a city which it called Shinshi 신시 (神市), which wants to say the city of the gods . Hwanung dealt with 360 human businesses of which agriculture, the life, the disease, justice, the good and the evil, etc It is for this period that two animals transfer with him which wanted to become human.

One of them was a tiger, which one says today to symbolize a clan whose totem was the tiger which competed to be able it with the bear, representing a softer clan and more civilized.

Hwanung gave them to both a handle of armoise and twenty heads of garlic, with which they were to mislead their hunger during hundred days in a dark cellar without being able to see light of day. The tiger, with its mood, flees before the end of the test but the bear remained patiently and it twenty-and-unième day was transformed into a splendid young woman. The woman was called Ungnyeo 웅녀 (熊女).

Little time after its transformation, Ungnyeo very wanted to have a child, but as it was an animal before becoming a woman nobody wanted to marry it. In its sadness, she sat down under a holy tree and requested the every day to have a child. Hwanung, moved by its prayers, took a human appearance for a short moment and by him it gave rise to a son.

This wire was Tangun, patriarch of the Korean people.

Tangun establishes a kingdom which it called Asadal 아사달 (阿斯達), which wants to say the place or the sun of the morning is shining . Later it was famous in Chosŏn 조선 (朝鮮) (called today KB-Chosŏn or old Chosŏn to distinguish it from the more recent kingdom of Chosŏn). The legend says that Tangun reigned peacefully during thousand five hundred years before its kingdom was not invades by the Empire Ju. It is said that it lived until the 1908 years age, age to which it decided to leave the ground of the mortals and to leave for the calm one the mountains where it became a divine spirit of the mountain, or Sanshilyong (산신령).

Representation and Art pre-Chinese

Art Korea N, compared with its neighbors, is surprisingly realistic and close to the daily newspaper, where the China is more symbolic system, and the Japan more towards the esthéthique one.

Folklore

Korea has a very rich tradition of folklore with major bonds with the Korean Chamanisme.

Korean mythology ajourd' today

Recent efforts were made to preserve the Korean folklore. The televised series " Animentary Korean Folklore" in 150 episodes for example which tells old legends with cartoons in two dimensions in the Korean traditional style.

Korean mythology also gave rise to several roleplay, in particular NexusTK.

Legendary characters

Haneul-nim - the Celestial, Sovereign Emperor of the Sky and the Earth. contemporary Adaptation " Dieu" .
Okhwang Sangje - the King of the Skies (of the taoism).
Dal (soon) - nim it the moon, sister of the sun.
Hae (sik) - nim it sun, brother of the moon.
Cheonha Daejanggun - Guard of the village and general of the skies, husband of Jiha yeojanggun.
Jiha yeojanggun - Guardian of the village and general of the ground, woman of Cheonha Daejanggun.
Sanshilyeong/Sanshin it god of the mountains.
Yongwang - the dragon, king of the seas.
Hwanin - the instigator of the Skies and a title of seven sovereigns on ground.
Hwanung - the son of the Skies and a dynasty of sovereigns in Mongolia.
Ungnyeo - the bear which became a woman and generated Tangun.
Tangun - wire of Hwanung - the first Korean king of KB-Chosŏn.
Seon-nyeo - Angel of the skies.
Gyeonu and Jingnyeo - They meet the July 7th each year of the lunar calendar and their tears are the rain of July 7th.
Jeoseung Saja - Angels of death.
Chi Woo - a semi-legendary king who overcome the Yellow Emperor.

Supernatural beings

Yokwe

Kumiho - a fox with nine tails which can disguise itself as a woman.
Bulyeowoo - an old fox of more than one hundred years which can be disguised as a woman.
Dokkaebi (goblins) - a kind of gods with sceptres, a little mischievous.

Gwisin

a late heart in water (물귀신)
the late heart of a virgin (처녀귀신)
the late heart of an unmarried man (몽달귀신)
the heart of the eggs (달걀귀신)

Guard

the bird with three legs

The following guards are synonymous with the Chinese polar guards:

the blue dragon - Guard of a tomb of the East (right-hand side).
the white tiger - Guard of a tomb of the West (left).
the black tortoise - Guard of a tomb of North.
the red phoenix - Guard of a tomb of the South.
Bonghwang - Bird of fire, divided with the Chinese Mythology.

Notes and references of the article

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