Korean Mythology

Korean mythology consists of national legends and folk-tales which come from all over the Korean Peninsula. Even within the same ethnic group, myths tend to have slightly different variations. For example, in Korea, there are differences in the way of life between those living on the mainland and Cheju Island, and in turn, these differences generate different forms of myths.

The form of belief which we call animism today was the prime source of religious life for the Han race (Korean). The belief of Koreans, originated from the worship of nature. In the primitive age, the people were so struck with wonders at the mysterious and marvelous formation of nature that they believed that the spirit existed in such universal as well as the sun, moon, stars, mountains and rivers, and even in strange animals, rocks and trees. Aside from worshipping the mysterious forces of these creations, they perceived that the spirit also possessed the potential to direct the vicissitudes of human life. Thus, they offered tributes and sacrifices in order to avoid the disastrous harms imposed by the spirits, and performed various forms of services to sustain the life of comfort and delight. Among many natural creations, the worship of the sun had been most particular.

With some improvements made on such as animistic form of religion, the new Shinkyo belief subsequently emerged in the primeval society. The natural creation was not the only object of worship in this newly developed religion, but the existence of gods managing certain particular fields of work and, at the same time, the existence of the human soul were also believed. Among many natural creations, the worship of the sun had been most particular.

Such a form of religion, in which the exorcist executes various rituals for the Heavenly God and conducts magic to conjure the evil spirits, is generally recognized as Shinkyo in Korea, although many scholars termed it a shamanism. The exorcist official was highly looked upon as a man who was a deity or a fairy. The first one who came into being a man of deity or a fairy in the history of Korea was Dankun, sometimes referred as Dankun Deity or Dankun Fairy.

As the reign of the king expanded from the time when the country was divided by the Three Kingdoms of Kokuryo, Baekje, and Silla, the group of the sorcery officials were relegated to street diviners, witches, or wizards. Around this time, Buddhism reached the Three Kingdoms (4~5th century). Buddhism not only received the royal protection but, since its teachings and preceptios were not entirely inconsistent with those of the native Shinkyo, made a remarkable progress in conciliation with the home religion. During the Koryo Dynasty, the local religion of Shinkyo survived through the shadows of the powerful Buddhism with a great potentiality. From the middle of the Dynasty, however, the formalities of the Shinkyo festivals were seasoned with much of the Buddhist flavors. During the Chosun Dynasty, shamanism flourished extensively among the people in the first part of the Chosun Dynasty. For it was a period of no outstanding religion for the masses with Buddhism pressed into the backfround, and the Confucianism of less appealing contents was unacceptable to the people. However from the middle of the dynasty, it was almost completely subdued by the Confucian influence which can be seen through the incident of ‘the removal of the sokyuk-su (pavilion)’.

At the closure of the last Chosun Dynasty, the Shinkyo religion was restored with the upsurge of a national spirits, the Daejong-kyo. On the basis of the scriptures founded by Baek, Bong, the doctrines of the Dajong-kyo was composed in combination with Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism elements.

However, in the 1970s, Korean oral mythology suffered extreme suppression by the government, as shamanism was deemed to be 'superstition'. This became called the Anti-Superstition Movement, and the myths of the Korean people suffered greatly from the movement. However, in the 2000s, mythology has made a comeback.