Korean creation narratives are Korean shamanic narratives which recount the mythological beginnings of the universe. They are grouped into two categories: the eight narratives of mainland Korea, which were transcribed by scholars between the 1920s and 1980s, and the Cheonji-wang bon-puri narrative of southern Jeju Island, which exists in multiple versions and continues to be sung in its ritual context today. The mainland narratives are subdivided into four northern and three eastern varieties, plus one from west-central Korea.
Many elements are shared by most Korean creation narratives. In one such episode, two gods grow flowers in a contest to decide who will rule the human world. The deserving, benevolent god grows the (better) blossom, but the other god steals it while the good god sleeps. The undeserving cheater thereby becomes the ruler of humanity and spreads evil into the world. In another pan-Korean episode, there are originally two suns and two moons, making the world unbearably hot during the day and intolerably cold at night, until a deity destroys one of each.
Nonetheless, there are major structural differences between most mainland narratives and the Jeju Cheonji-wang bon-puri. In the former, the world is created by the god Mireuk, who ushers in an ancient age of plenty. Mireuk is then challenged by the god Seokga, and the two gods often engage in contentions of supernatural power, culminating in Seokga's victory through trickery in the flower contest. Mireuk departs, and the era of abundance is replaced by the current world. In Jeju, the celestial deity Cheonji-wang descends to earth after creation and impregnates an earthly woman. She gives birth to the twin boys Daebyeol-wang and Sobyeol-wang, who ascend to heaven, destroy the doubled sun and moon, and engage in the flower contest. The world of the living under the duplicitous Sobyeol-wang's rule is full of evil, but Daebyeol-wang goes to the world of the dead and often establishes justice there.
Many elements of Korean creation myths find parallels in the mythologies of nearby East and Inner Asia societies. The mainland gods Mireuk and Seokga are named after the Buddhist figures of Maitreya and the Buddha, respectively, reflecting influence from a tradition of Maitreya worship. The Korean episode of the flower contest appears with similar themes in many other areas of East and Inner Asia, while stories of superfluous suns and moons have also been attested both north and south of the Korean peninsula.
Sources and ritual context
Korean creation narratives belong to the genre of shamanic narratives, hymns which convey a myth and which are sung by shamans during rituals called gut. In the Korean language, works of the genre often bear the title puri "narration" or bon-puri "origin narration". These myths are traditionally taught line-by-line by accomplished shamans to novices, who are trained over the course of many gut rituals. Korean creation narratives are geographically divided between the eight mainland narratives, transcribed between the 1920s and the 1980s, and twenty known variants of the Cheonji-wang bon-puri, which is still performed in its ritual context on Jeju Island and whose associated rituals are the most archaic. The mainland narratives are subdivided into three groups: four northern, three eastern, and the Siru-mal from west-central Gyeonggi Province. The seven northern and eastern narratives are similar in content, although the eastern ones are more truncated. On the other hand, the story of the Siru-mal is closer to the Cheonji-wang bon-puri.
The basic framework for understanding Korean creation myths—such as the identification of major shared elements between the narratives—was established by Seo Dae-seok of Seoul National University in the first major study of the myths, published in 1980. Kim Heonsun of Kyonggi University made a major contribution in a 1994 monograph that included transcripts of all then-known narratives, including the previously largely unknown Changse-ga hymn of Jeon Myeong-su.
Mainland narratives
Eight creation narratives have been preserved from mainland Korea. Some are independent narratives. Others survive as elements of the Jeseok bon-puri, a pan-Korean shamanic narrative that celebrates fertility deities. + Northern creation narratives Title Title meaning Reciting shaman Shaman hometown Date of recitation Notes World Creation Song Kim Ssang-dori Hamhŭng 1923 Independent creation narrative World Creation Song Jeon Myeong-su Kanggye 1931 Independent creation narrative Sage's Gut Gang Chun-ok Hamhŭng 1965 Part of sequence that includes the Jeseok bon-puri Narration of the Three Princes Jeong Un-hak Pyongyang 1966 (published) Included in the beginning of the Jeseok bon-puri
The Hamhŭng Changse-ga was transcribed in 1923 by ethnographer Son Jin-tae, based on the recitation of Kim Ssang-dori, a "great shamaness" of Unjŏn-myŏn (modern Hŭngnam) born in 1856. The ritual context is poorly understood. Kim herself recalled that it was a hymn only heard during certain large-scale gut, and that it was not learned by common shamans and that she had been specially trained to perform it. It is the oldest recorded creation narrative. The Kanggye Changse-ga was also transcribed by Son Jin-tae in approximately 1931, with the male shaman Jeon Myeong-su as source. Kim Heonsun calls the two Changse-ga hymns "representative of the northern creation narratives"."북부 지역의 창세신화를 대표"
The Seng-gut is known from a 1965 recitation by the female shaman Gang Chun-ok, who had fled from Hamhŭng to South Korea during the division of Korea. A very long song with Buddhist influences that strings six stories together, beginning with a creation narrative and ending with a Jeseok bon-puri narrative, it was part of an important ceremony that beseeched the gods to grant long life and sons. Both Kim's Changse-ga and the Seng-gut were recited by Hamhŭng shamans, which may explain a number of shared elements not found in the other northern narratives.
The Sam Taeja-puri was performed in 1966 by two shamans, Jeong Un-hak and Im hak-suk, who had fled Pyongyang during the division. It is primarily a Jeseok bon-puri narrative which, however, opens with a lengthy creation narrative.
According to testimony from a North Korean shaman who defected in 2008, gut rituals have not been held in North Korea since the 1970s and the old hymns are no longer known.
+ Eastern creation narratives Title Title meaning Reciting shaman Shaman hometown Date of recitation Notes Titled after the heroine of the myth Choi Eum-jeon Yeongdeok 1971 Included in the middle of the Jeseok bon-puri Prayer for Safe Delivery Gwon Sun-nyeo Uljin 1975 Included in the beginning of the Jeseok bon-puri Song of Danggom-agi Bak Yong-nyeo Gangneung 1977 (published)
All Eastern narratives are found in truncated form as part of versions of the Jeseok bon-puri. In the Danggom-agi norae, the creation narrative has been so truncated that only one relevant element survives: a flower-growing contest between two creator gods. The purpose of the narrative is also lost. Rather than explain the reason there is evil in the world, as the flower story does in most other accounts, the episode concludes with the cheating god being taught how to spread the Buddhist faith in Korea. The Jeseok bon-puri continues to be performed throughout Korea, but none of the several dozen versions transcribed since 1980 have any creation-related elements.
+ Siru-mal Title Title meaning Reciting shaman Shaman hometown Date of recitation Notes Steamer Speech Yi Jong-man Osan 1937 (published) Independent creation narrative Yi Yong-u 1980, 1981 Truncated compared to Yi Jong-man's narrative
The Siru-mal was traditionally passed down by hereditary shamans in southern Gyeonggi Province, and its ritual context is better understood. The Siru-mal was an important part of the Dodang-gut, a series of village rituals intended to ensure the community's prosperity. In the 1930s, it was sung as the second phase of the Dodang-gut, held immediately after the shaman had ritually cleansed the ceremonial grounds. The narrative was accompanied by the shaman's offering of rice cakes to the arriving gods, presented in an earthenware food steamer ( ) with seven holes. Just before the recitation, this vessel was also used to confirm that the gods had indeed descended and were present. The ceremonies involving the food steamer, including the Siru-mal recitation, thus formally initiated the Dodang-gut.
While the rituals were still being continued into the 1980s, by then the only shaman who knew the narrative itself was Yi Yong-u, who died in 1987. The Siru-mal is known both from his recitations in the 1980s and from a much fuller version sung by his uncle Yi Jong-man in the 1930s. Besides being a close relative, Yi Jong-man had mentored his nephew for six years during the latter's training as a shaman, and the two versions thus represent a single narrative source.
Jeju Island
In the shamanism of Jeju Island, the creation narrative is recited in the Great Gut, a large-scale sequence of rituals in which all eighteen thousand gods are venerated, as well as in certain smaller ceremonies dedicated to specific deities. Unlike in mainland Korea, Jeju's creation narrative continues to be performed as sacred ritual.
The Chogam-je is the first procedure of the Great Gut by which the shaman invites all eighteen thousand deities to partake in the rituals, from the supreme deity Cheonji-wang to minor spirits such as the shaman's own ancestors. The very first ceremonies of the Chogam-je involve explaining the circumstances of the gut so that the gods may know when, where, and why to come. But before giving the specific details for any particular gut, the shaman begins by retelling the history of the universe in order to give the rituals their full historical and mythological context, a ceremony called the Bepo-doeop-chim.
Before singing the Bepo-doeop-chim narrative, the shaman dances with the sacred knives and bell to the accompaniment of buk drums and suspended and bowl gongs, thus physically reenacting the narrative that is about to follow and also paying respect to the deities of the directions. The creation narrative then opens with the division of a mingled universe into the discrete spheres of heaven and earth and the subsequent creation of mountains, rivers, and other natural entities. Next, the shaman recounts the birth and deeds of the twin deities Daebyeol-wang and Sobyeol-wang. Once this is done, the narrative enters more historical space, lauding the heroes of ancient China from Tianhuang to Laozi and concluding with the recorded history of Korea and Jeju Island.
Versions of the Jeju creation narrative have been titled both Bepo-doeop-chim and Cheonji-wang bon-puri, and the relationship between the two has been disputed. In 2005, for instance, Kim Heonsun claimed that the two were overlapping but separate creation narratives, much as there are two overlapping creation narratives in Genesis. However, practicing Jeju shamans refer to the entire series of chants beginning with the division of the cosmos and ending with the history of Jeju Island as the Bepo-doeop-chim narrative, and consider the Cheonji-wang bon-puri to be the part of this broader narrative that specifically pertains to the twin gods. More recent analyses of Jeju ritual practice also suggest that the Cheonji-wang bon-puri should be considered a component of the Bepo-doeop-chim.
Scholars often refer to the Jeju creation narrative in general, i.e. the part of the Bepo-doeop-chim prior to the discussion of Chinese figures, as the Cheonji-wang bon-puri. This article does likewise.