Myths and Legends from Korea.

An Annotated Compendium of Ancient and Modern Materials

by James Huntley Grayson
Review by: Karel Werner
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Nov., 2001), pp. 414-417
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain
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414
Reviews
of
Books
author,
besides
presenting explanations
of technical
terms,
discusses the
implications
of the translated
texts.
Section A on the so-caUed "defeat"
(p?r?jika)
concerns variants of the offence which merits
expulsion
from the
sa?gha.
It involves sexual union or its
approximation,
when a nun
"oozing
with
desire,
consented to
physical
contact with
a
male
person
who is
oozing
with
desire";
when
a
nun,
aware of such misbehaviour
by
another nun,
does not
report
it;
when
a nun foUows a monk who has
been
suspended
from the
sa?gha;
when
a
nun,
facing
a male
donor, agrees
to various intimacies
or
accepts
a
special
food donation from him wh?e both are
"oozing
with
desire";
if she is not in that
frame of
mind,
but he is and she knows
it,
it is a
lesser
offence,
caUed
sangh?disesa,
which attracts
only
suspension.
A related offence which
requires
confession
(p?cittiya)
in the
assembly
is committed when
a nun converses with a man in situations of
privacy. Among
the selections in Section B are
iUustrations of rules which forbid ordination of women who seek to
escape punishment
for
crimes,
are
pregnant,
are
nursing
a
child,
are under
age
etc.
Thematic studies
to both sections demonstrate
convincingly
how rules for
nuns were
graduaUy
tightened
more and more and how the discrimination
against
nuns
kept increasing
which reflects the
cultural situation of women in
traditionally
male dominated societies. This is most
blatantly
shown
when the
penalty prescribed
for the same offence is heavier for nuns than for monks. Yet the author
shows,
by analysing
most of the extant versions of
pr?timoksa,
the code of rules recited in the fuU- and
new-moon
assembUes,
that
originaUy
nuns were
governed by
the
same rules as monks. The P?U
version of these rules for nuns
(Bhikkhun? P?timokkha)
is shown also on
ph?ological
and
terminological grounds
as
being
much later than the version for monks
(Bhikkhu P?timokkha).
The
points
demonstrated in this
book,
too numerous and
compUcated
to be
fuUy
reviewed
here,
are
important
and should be noted
not
only by speciaUsts.
Their
incorporation
into a more
general
picture
of Buddhism
presented
in books for wider
readership
is
highly
desirable. This book
is,
of
course,
for
speciaUsts, although
even
they may
find that its
style
and
layout
make its
systematic
reading
a bit difficult. But
a
reasonably good
Index
helps
to locate information
on
specific questions
scattered
throughout
the text of the book and in its extensive footnotes. The book is
produced
with
the usual
high
standard of PTS
pubUcations,
with
only
a few
misprints. (E.g.
on
p.
no,
note
204;
there is
dupUcation
of a
phrase
on
pp.
139-40;
and two
misprints
are even in the PTS
president's
Preface. One
sentence,
on
pp.
134?35,
has remained
incomprehensible
to
me.)
The
BibUography
is
very
valuable for further research into the
subject.
Karel Werner
Myths and Legends from Korea. An Annotated Compendium of Ancient and Modern
Materials.
By James
Huntley Grayson.
pp.
xx, 454. Richmond, Curzon,
2001.
The
author,
who
spent
some sixteen
years
in South Korea and is now reader in Modern Korean
Studies
at the
University
of
Sheffield,
has
developed
a
strong
interest in Korean oral folklore and is
obviously eminendy qualified
for the task which he set himself in this book and for which he received
substantial
support
from several
institutions,
EngUsh
and Korean. His
approach
to his material
is,
basically, anthropological,
but in
quoting,
in his
Introduction,
Franz Boas
(1888-1942),
the
giant
of
the culture-centred school of
anthropology,
he shows his cornmitment
to this kind of
deeper
and
more broad-minded outlook than
one
perceives
in
many
recent
speciaUsed anthropological
studies.
When
speaking
about oral tradition
one has to be aware that aU ancient and even modern folk
narratives are
read?y
ava?able
only
in written
form,
but the author
sensibly explains
that
they
are stiU
authentic
as
long
as
they
are not
products
of a writer
or
comp?er
of
tales,
but records of
anonymous
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Reviews
of
Books
415
transmission. He also
provides,
at the
outset,
useful definitions
cum
explanations
of basic terms as he
understands them:
folklore,
folk
narrative,
myth, legend
and
folktale;
as weU as of some technical
terms,
such
as
Weltanschauung,
existential and normative
postulates, ethnogenesis
etc. To enhance
understanding
of the
values,
beUefs and
symbols incorporated
in Korean
myths
and
legends,
the
author divides what he caUs "Korean
cognitive history"
into five
periods during
which the
perspective
on and
experience
of those
values,
beliefs and
symbols
underwent substantial shifts:
(1)
the
ancient
period
of nativistic culture
(with
elements of ancient Korean folk
reUgion
and
shamanism)
before
major foreign
cultural inroads took
place
-
prior
to the fifth
century AD;
(2)
the
period
of
early absorption
of
mainly
Chinese culture with its Buddhist and Confucian
(and partly
also
Taoist)
constituents
mingling
with nativistic ones
-
fifth to tenth
centuries;
(3)
the time of a kind of
synthesis
(or
should
we rather
say "symbiosis"
in most
cases,
with Taoism
only latendy present)
of these
traditions
-
eleventh to mid-fifteenth
centuries;
(4)
a
period
of domination of Confucianism
(under
official neo-Confucian
administration)
when Buddhism and
indigenous
traditions suffered some
oppression
-
mid-fifteenth to mid-nineteenth
centuries;
and
(5)
the modern
period
of
absorption
of
western culture with inroads
by
Catholic and Protestant
Christianity,
to
say
nothing
about western
secularism
-
mid-nineteenth
century
to the
present.
The
author, however,
presents
material from
only
the ancient and modern
periods.
The former he divided into two
sections,
one dedicated to
foundation
myths
and the other to
legends
and
tales,
and in the latter he deals with folktales.
Foundation
myths
are
"ethnogenetic"
-
a
type
of creation
myth
concerned with the
origin
of the
state, nation,
people, dynasty
or national
culture,
while creation
myths proper
?
of which none has
been recorded in Korea
(except
as folktales of the modern
period)
-
are
"aetiological", explaining
how
things
came to
be,
and
they go
as far back
as
the
origin
of the universe.
Prominent
among
Korean foundation
myths
is the
Myth of Tan'gun
in
which,
the author
states,
there is a
Uvely popular
and
scholarly
interest,
but there
is,
in
fact,
more than that. I
gather
from other
sources that it is the basis for a
new,
or
renewed,
indigenous reUgion
known as
Tan'gungyo
or
Taejonggyo
and also
Han'gomgyo.
It was called to life
by
a
group
of inteUectuals who were
meeting
in
the
closing years
of the nineteenth
century. Resenting
the fact that
reUgions dominating
Korea came
from
China,
India
or the
West,
they
decided to renew the
reUgion
of
Tan'gun
whose traces were still
evident in the Confucian state cult and in
popular worship
of the
god
of mountains. The first leader
of the sect was Na
Ch'?l,
and as the
year
of its formal foundation was
1910,
the sect suffered
persecution
under the
Japanese
colonial
regime
which
reportedly
drove Na Ch'?l to suicide
(1916),
but
prompted
a
popular
reaction which
generated support
for the old-new cult outside the inteUectual
classes as weU. The leaders of the movement took
refuge
in Manchuria to
escape persecution
and
estabUshed its
headquarters
in Seoul
only
after the defeat of
Japan
in
1945.
It is now
supposed
to have
thousands of members and the control of about 80
temples.
Its eclectic
teaching
has a
philosophical
dimension in that it stresses
co-substantiaUty
of
godhead
and
humanity. Outwardly
it is marked
by
a
temple
ritual in
old-style
ceremonial costumes which is directed to
Tan'gun
as the divine founder of
the state and nation.
(The supreme deity,
stiU named
Hwanin,
the
heavenly king
of the old
myth,
is
addressed
directly only
on rare
occasions.)
The
Myth
of
Tan'gun
teUs the
story
of the foundation of the first Korean state caUed Chos?n
(a
name of Chinese
origin
which is
usuaUy
translated as "the land of the
morning calm"). Hwanung,
the
second
son,
or the son from
a
secondary
wife,
of the
heavenly
ruler
Hwanin,
descended from
heaven,
with the
approval
of his
father,
onto a mountain with a
sandalwood
tree,
to rule mankind for its
benefit
by estabUshing
civiUsed
ways
of Ufe with the assistance of a retinue of
spirits, specialists
in
various
aspects
of culture. A bear and a
tiger
who lived as
friends in a cave
wanted to share in this and
be transformed into humans.
Only
the bear fumlled the conditions set
by Hwanung,
and was turned
into a woman who then
prayed
at the sandalwood tree for
offspring. Hwanung obUged
and she bore
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4i6
Reviews
of
Books
him a son who was named
Tan'gun,
the Prince of the Sandalwood Tree.
Tan'gun
then created the
state of Chos?n and ruled the Korean nation for more than
a
thousand
years whereupon
he withdrew
from the
scene to become the mountain
god, having passed
on the rule to his son or a
related
dynasty.
The author
presents
four
preserved
versions of the
myth
from different sources, and
subjecting
them to thematic structural
analysis,
finds six distinct scenes in them:
(i)
Decisions made in
heaven;
(2)
descent to earth and the estabUshment of
divinely
ruled
kingdom; (3)
the transformation of an
animal into human
form;
(4)
the union of heaven
(the king
from
heaven)
and earth
(the
bear woman
representing
the earth
spirit)
which led to the birth of
a
son;
(5)
the creation of the
state;
(6) passing
on the rule and withdrawal of
Tan'gun
into the
spiritual
dimension
as the mountain
god.
In the
course
of his
analysis
the author identifies
some universal
mythological
elements,
such
as the sacred
mountain and the sacred tree as
representing
axis mundi and as the
place
where the sacred and
profane
come
together.
On another level the descent of the
secondary
son of the
heavenly king
could be
interpreted
as a
migration story
of
a
people
who came from afar to rule over local
peoples.
Elements
of ancestral totemism and
magic
are also identified. The bear woman's
prayers
on the summit of the
sacred mountain and at the base of
a
sacred tree
point
to a shamanistic ritual.
(Female
shamans are
stiU
a
part
of
popular reUgious
scene in
Korea.)
The author even extracted
some historical facts from the
myth
on the basis of references to Chinese
sources and discusses the
uses of the
Tan'gun myth
for the
purpose
of
estabUshing poUtical authority throughout
Korean
history. Curiously enough,
it was
utilised in this
way
even
by
communist North Korea for Kim
Ch?ng?,
the
son of Kim
Ils?ng,
the
first leader of the
state,
to secure the
"dynastic" continuity.
A modern
myth
was
created,
according
to
which Kim
Ils?ng
had been born where
Hwanung
descended from heaven. In
1994
the
government
even announced that
they
had found and excavated the tomb of
Tan'gun
with his and his wife's
bones
(now displayed
in a new museum
nearby)
which was then
"reconstructed",
with statues of
Tan'gun's
four sons.
Foundation
myths
of Korean
kingdoms subsequent
to
early
Chos?n receive a similar treatment to
those for ancient Chos?n and
they
are
supplemented by
sections about
myths
on various Korean
clans'
origins,
foundation
myths
of the states of Northeast
Asia,
including
the
Mongol
and Manchu
dynasties
which
eventuaUy
ruled
China,
and of the
early Japanese
Yamato
state,
and the foundation
myths
and
legends
of the tribal
people
of Northeast Asia. The section closes with
"Comparison
of
Northeast Asian Foundation
Myths"
which enables the author to
suggest
that the
Myth
of
Tan'gun
dates back at least to the middle of the first miUennium B.C. He concludes that it
was,
to
begin
with,
a tribal
origin myth
later reused for the
purposes
of
telUng
the
story
of the
origin
of
a state in Korea
and its
ruUng fam?y.
The section
"Legends
and Tales from the Ancient Period"
contains,
in the
part
on
aetiological
tales,
seven tales on the
origin
of Buddhist
temples
which demonstrate the
syncretic
trend in Korean
Buddhism,
incorporating
the traditional cult of
waterspirits (dragons),
dream
visions,
Confucian f?ial
piety,
the
guardian
function of the deceased
relatives,
stiU
looking
after the welfare of the
Uving
etc.,
aU this
being
ut?ised for the sake of
strengthening
the faith of
people
in Buddhism
(which
thus
demonstrates in Korea its traditional tolerance of
indigenous
cults in countries in which it took
root).
There are two
etymological
tales
concerning
names of Buddhist
Temples
and also
eight
"heroic"
tales of Buddhist monks and five
"edifying"
tales of
Buddhism,
including
one on the
attempt
of
a
king
of
Kogury?
to introduce Taoism in the seventh
century.
It teUs how Taoist
priests
renamed the
features of the
landscape
and
destroyed
an ancient shamanistic rock
(which
had been left untouched
under
Buddhism) whereupon
a mountain
spirit prophesied
the destruction of the
kingdom (which
duly happened
and Taoism never recovered the
position
of
a
reUgion
in Korea and has
no
temples
there).
Confucian
virtues,
on
the other
hand,
are extolled in four tales and
they
also suffuse other tales
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Reviews
of
Books
417
(one
can notice the influence of Confucian values
on
the manners of Korean
people
even
today).
Tales of
magic,
divine
protection
and
healing
and even adventurous and
amusing
tales foUow.
The section
on
"Folktales from the Modern Period"
has,
as weU
as
the same
types
of tales found in
the ancient
period,
a number of animal stories in which bears and
especiaUy tigers
and foxes feature
prominendy.
In
analysing
the tales in his commentaries the author focuses on what he describes as
"four
possible
functions of a folktale" which
express
the
"underlying
existential concerns of a
people": (1)
amusement or the
escape
from
oppressive
circumstances into
fantasy; (2)
"the vaUdation
of the fundamental existential
postulates
of the
culture";
(3) conformity
to social
standards;
and
(4)
information about the
origin
of the
world,
the
people,
the
state,
natural circumstances and social
customs.
Although
recorded in modern
times,
motives and themes of most of the tales
presented by
the author
may
be
quite
old. But there
are
also
examples
of modern and even
European
influences.
In the
part
on
"Aetiological
and
Etymological
Tales" there are several tales about
origins.
The first
one
is on the creation of the universe and it shows
a
high degree
of
syncretism;
the elements of local
cults of the
original
folk
religion
are
overlaid with Buddhist ideas and
concepts.
Thus,
for
example,
Miriik
(the
future Buddha
Maitreya) appears
as the creator of heaven and earth. But thereafter
everything
is
wrapped up
in a
fantastic web of events in which animals and natural
phenomena play
a
substantial
part. Among
the
edifying
and moral tales are some which teU of misdeeds of monks and
their
punishments (a
theme known from
many
other
traditions,
both Asian and
European).
The
Confucian value of filial
piety
is
high
on the
agenda
and in one tale it is even rewarded
by
a
tiger.
A
tale on
the theme of "a
pound
of
flesh",
an
obvious Korean
adaptation
of the
plot
from
Shakespeare's
The Merchant
of
Venice,
was used here to underline the
magistrates' duty
to be
"just,
fair and
perceptive".
There are
altogether
175
Korean stories in the
book,
aU
analysed
and set into the broader context
of Far Eastern and even Central Asian
mythology
and folklore which is iUustrated for
comparison by
sixteen additional stories from those
areas.
The book has extensive
footnotes,
a rich
BibUography
and
sixteen
appendices
which include lists of folklore motifs
according
to
Thompson's
classification and
the
Aarne-Thompson
index of
types
of folktales and
a
table
enabling
the
corresponding
identification
of the tales in this book. There are
very
few minor inaccuracies in the
book,
but
perhaps
one is worth
mentioning:
Sarasvati is not a
Buddhist,
but a
Vedic-Brahmanic-Hindu
goddess
who
was,
like some
other members of the Hindu
Pantheon,
aUowed
a
part
in Buddhist
mythology (p.
170,
note
6).
The
style
of the
book,
which is
obviously
a
piece
of immaculate academic
research,
is
very
clear and
easy
so
that
lay
readers interested in folktales
may
find it a
delight
to
read,
skipping
over
only
some
specialised passages.
One wonders what riches
may
become
accessible,
if the author
manages
to
pubUsh
a similar work
deaUng
with the three omitted
periods
of his "Korean
cognitive history".
Having
visited
altogether
48
Buddhist
temples during
two
trips throughout
South
Korea,
their
foundation stories
impressed
me as
being particularly fascinating,
but I failed to find
any comprehen
sive work dedicated to them. But there are
many worthy topics
within the rather
neglected
field of
Korean studies
waiting
to be tackled.
Karel Werner
An Anthology of Premodern
Japanese
Senryu. Light Verse from the
Floating World.
By
Makoto Ueda.
pp. ix, 270.
New
York,
Columbia
University
Press, 1999.
If we were to nominate the
category
of material most difficult to
translate,
we
might
choose
poetry,
or
else comic
writing.
Take a comic
poetry
that satirizes a distant
society,
in a
tradition for which
aUusion,
the coUision of
registers,
elision and observation of the
contingent
are
prominent,
and
you
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