 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Introduction To Korean Folklore |
|
|
|
On top of a black turban-shaped headdress is worn a red hat decorated with colorful paper flowers. Dressed in a voluminous red robe with rainbow-colored sleeves and a red belt, she steps into a shrine. Holding a folding fan in her left hand and brass bells and a cymbal in her right, she starts chanting, all the while jumping and dancing, to the beats of a chang-gu (an egg-timer-shaped Korean traditional drum) played by her man-partner. She is a shaman priestess, a spirit medium in shamanism. |
|
|
|
The shrine may be a town or village shrine of a guardian spirit. Her ritual chanting and dancing may be an annual prayer ceremony for health and prosperity of the whole community, or a special ceremony of exorcism to cure the sick. An individual may be consulting her for divination to know what a recurring nightmare may mean and then have her services to appease and comfort the disgruntled spirits of the family dead. |
|
|
|
A young woman is praying for a son to a huge jutted-out rock (probably a phallic symbol), which symbolizes the Stone Spirit that is believed to have a supernatural power to enable a woman to conceive. Before building a house, the future owner-dweller of the house has a brief ceremony, with or without the service by a shaman, to "report" his intent of construction to a Spirit of Earth, called the Site Spirit, and after the construction has been completed, a completion ceremony is performed to cleanse any lingering evil spirits around and to pray to the Master Guardian Spirit of House for continuous health and prosperity of the household. |
|
|
|
These and other ritual ceremonies are expressions of folk religion, many of which are based on shamanistic beliefs and customs. Though rituals and ceremonies performed by shamans nowadays are not so frequently seen as in the past, a complex of spiritualistic ideas and customs has been well incorporated into the everyday life of the Korean people and their presence is unmistakable. Such folk religious ideas and customs are often reflected in many folktales. In order to help the reader better understand Korean tales, why people do certain things and why certain things happen this or that way in those tales, some aspects of Korean folk religion --such as Korean folk conceptions of deities and ghosts, the roles of shamans and geomantic beliefs and practices-- will be introduced briefly. |
|
|
|
The Korean folk religion is rooted in animism and based on shamanism. It has also absorbed many elements from the more systematized and sophisticated schools of thoughts, such as Confucianism (idea of filial piety and ancestral worship, for example), Taoism (the um-yang theory and mysticism) and Buddhism (reincarnation and retribution), to suit the needs and the intellectual level of ordinary people. |
|
|
|
Philosophically, the world of nature and man is a unified whole in which man's task is not to manipulate the world of nature to suit his desires and taste. It is to maintain the Way of Heaven (Tao; or To in Korean), that is, to maintain harmonious functioning of the whole universe. In folk beliefs, the world of nature includes the world of the supernatural that, though invisible, is a real dimension of this world, populated with many spiritual beings. Some examples of these are Spirits of Heaven and Earth, Water Spirit, Spirit of Tree, Spirits of the Dead, Spirits of Animals, Guardian Spirit of House, and goblins. These sprits often appear in many folktales. |
|
|
|
Every thing and every phenomenon in the world, it is believed, has ki (or chi in Chinese; life force or spirit) and there are two basic life forces in the world: um ki (the um or ying force) and yang ki (the yang force). The material or phenomenal world is manifested through various interactions of these two life forces. Therefore, the world is never static; it is constantly fluctuating and changing. As for man, for example, when the yang element (hon) and the um element (paek) of human soul or ki maintain harmony, man maintains life functions. Man's death would mean the breaking down of that harmony between yang spirit and um spirit. When man dies, yang spirit (hon) leaves his body, hovering in the air, then it either rises to Heaven and become sin, benevolent deity or spirit, if the dead had a satisfied and contented life in this worldly life, or descends back and settles on earth and become kwi (um-spirited, malevolent ghost) if the dead had a disgruntled life in this worldly life on earth. Such benevolent spirits or deities are fair and helpful to humans, while malevolent ones or ghosts harm and bring misfortunes to them.
Both benevolent and malevolent spirits have become the objects of prayer and worship. People pray to benevolent spirits such as Spirit of Heaven (or, simply Heaven), the highest spirit of all, and the benevolent spirits or souls of their ancestors for health, fortune, success and bountiful harvest. They propitiate malevolent spirits with prayers and offerings, hoping to prevent misfortunes from visiting them. Prayers to both kinds of spirits ultimately have the same purpose of promoting one's happiness here on earth. From such beliefs all sorts of religious rituals and ceremonies have developed. |
|
|
Since folk religion is strongly animistic, believing that common objects like trees, stars, stones and animals all have their own spirits, moving a stone, cutting a tree, or treating an animal involves care so that it would not bring misfortunes to the person and his family. This may have also been influenced by Buddhist's teachings of refraining from depriving living creatures of life. One often finds stories about snakes, toads, centipedes, ants, frogs and fish that are personified and interact with humans. This is because people attribute soul or spirit even to those lowly creatures. |
|
|
|
Korean Folklore Page 2. |
|