Musok-Kyo - Korean Chamanism

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MUSOK-KYO
Folk Religion in Modem Society
1. The Historical Background

We have seen that when Buddhism first made contact with the ancient states of
Korea, the Indian religion tended to absorb many of the characteristics and
forms of Korean primal religion, which we shall now refer to as Musok-kyo
(literally, shamanistic religion). Some scholars refer to the folk religion as
simply musok (shamanistic customs) or more descriptively as minsok chonggyo
(folk religion). I prefer the term musok-kyo because it emphasises the fact that
while Korean folk religion is more than just shamanisim, the folk religion's
most diagnostic characteristic is shamanism. The emergence of an eclectic and
esoteric form of Buddhism in the seventh century did not mean the end of a
separate tradition of Korean primal religion, as from this period onwards, the
primal religion became the religion of the folk, the ordinary man. Traces of this
folk religion may be found throughout the history of the late Silla, Koryo, and
Choson periods.
Scholars are generally agreed that during the Koryo Dynasty, there were three
types of local ceremonies which were a continuation of the practice of the primal
religion.! These were (1) the sanch 'on-je, ceremonies offered to the spirits of the
mountains and rivers; (2) the chosang-je, or non-Confucian ancestral rites; and
(3) the ki 'u-je, or shamanistic petitions for rain. From the records remaining
from the period, Ryu Tong-shik (Yu Tongsik) discerns five features of the folk
religion of that time. First, there was a designated altar or shrine where
ceremonies were held. Second, these rites were offered to a great spirit called
either Chesok or Ch'irwonsong-gun. The term Chesok occurs in the Tan'gun
legend (see Appendix A), where this word, originally referring to the great
Hindu god Indra, was used to represent the Ruler of Heaven, Haniillim.
Ch'irwonsong-gun is the Seven Star Spirit now more frequently called
Ch 'ilsong-nim, and also a guise of the Lord of Heaven. Third, the practitioners
Copyright © 2002. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
of Korean folk religion in the Koryo dynasty used wine, song, and dance as a
1 Yu Tongsik, Han 'guk Mugyo-ui yoksa-wa kujo (Soul, Yonsei U~ 1975), pp. 115-28.
216
Grayson, James H.. Korea - a Religious History : A Religious History, Taylor & Francis Group, 2002. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bibliotecauma-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1542769.
Created from bibliotecauma-ebooks on 2022-12-05 11:06:16.
MUSOK-KYO
means of inducing ecstacy and so permitting the spirits to enter into their bodies.
Fourth, following the entrance of the spirit a message was conveyed from the
spirit world to the earthly world. Fifth, these ceremonies were attended without
discrimination by members of all classes and sexes who paid for the privilege
of holding the ceremony. These Koryo rituals would seem to be a continuation of
ancient traditions and are obviously parallel to the shamanism of modem
Siberia. Hyun-key Kim Hogarth notes that historical records indicate that the
mudang performed rituals with the following distinct characteristics - healing,
divination and the conveying of oracles, descent of the spirit and possession of
the shaman, and cursing. Except for the latter element, all these features are
characteristic of contemporary shamanism.
Yi Niing-hwa, Ryu Tong-shik and others find that the folk religion of the
Choson period had similar characteristics to the Koryo period. They find that
the historical records from this period show that there were three general classes
of rites: the sanch 'on-je: the ki 'u-je; and the songhwang-je, or rites to the spirit
of the city wall or the local village tutelary spirit. Ryu says that many of the
rites addressed to the spirits of the mountains and rivers were petitions for
prosperity or for the curing of disease, a common shamanistic emphasis. He and
Kim Hogarth have also observed that mudang were frequent if unwelcome
visitors to the royal palaces throughout the Choson period. Although there are
records of conflict between Confucian officials and the mudangs and that the
latter were often forbidden access to the palace, it is also plain that the entrance
of shamans to the royal residence was the generally accepted practice
throughout the entire history of this most Confucian of dynasties. Not only
were shamans permitted access to the palace, but a selected few were permitted
the right to use one or two buildings within the palace precincts which had been
specially prepared for them. These structures existed up to the end of the
dynasty and were used for performing curative ceremonies. Shamans who
gained access to the palace or who were resident in the halls prepared for them
were called kungmu or national shamans. The ambivalent attitude to shamans is
indicated by the fact that in both the Koryo and Choson periods, shamans were
taxed, that is, their existence was admitted officially if grudgingly. As a sign of
the disdain in which the shamans and their rituals were held, official
government documents from the period refer to kut or shamanistic rites as
umsa, 'obscene rites'.
Thus, historical records from the Koryo and Choson periods show, that in
whatever regard the shamans and their ceremonies were held, the primal religion
of Korea did not disappear but became transformed into a folk religion which
existed as the substratum of Korean religious experience. What is the nature of
this folk religion at the present time? In the following sections, we shall discuss
the modem practitioners of this folk religion, the spirits which they worship, and
the ceremonies and rituals which they perform.
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KOREA IN THE MODERN ERA (1872-2000)
2. The Practitioners of Musok-kyo
(aj Shamans
Encompassing all the aspects of modem Korean folk religion, the practitioners
of this folk cult may be divided broadly into three types, namely, shamans, ritual
leaders, and diviners. There are two kinds of shamans in Korea, female shamans
called mudang, who predominate, and male shamans called paksu. The first
thing to observe about these terms is that they are not Chinese words but pure
Korean words. Ryu Tong-shik has attempted to show that these terms are related
to words used by various of the Neo-Siberian tribes in contemporary Siberia.
Whatever the validity of Ryu's comparisons, it is certainly true that the practice
of shamanism does not derive from a Chinese source but from a source common
to both Korea and Siberia. A more respectful term for a female shaman is
mansin (ten thousand spirits), referring to the number of spirits which she could
call upon. Female shamans could be further divided into two types, the kangsin-
mu (spirit-possessed shaman) who are possessed by their familiar spirits who
then speak through them, and the sesum-mu (hereditary shaman) who receive
their authority to shamanise not through a unique experience with a spirit, but by
inheritance through the female line.
As with shamans in many nations, people become mudang through the
encounter or possession of a spirit or spirits. This event usually happens when
the potential mudang is in a dream or trance-like state, most frequently when the
person is very ill. The illness which the potential shaman experiences at that
point is called the sinbyong (spirit disease) or mubyong (shaman's disease).
The experiences contained in these illnesses, referred to by Kim Hogarth and
others as pre-shaman possession illness, are formalised in an initiation rite called
the naerim kut (descent rite). A full-fledged initiation rite might consist of as
many as sixteen sub-rituals and take as long as three days to complete. The
ceremony's sub-rituals consist of three main sections, those sub-rites concerned
with preparing the spiritual atmosphere of the core ceremonies, the core
ceremonies consisting of trials and tests given to the potential shaman of which
the naerim kut proper and its own sub-rites form the largest section, and the rite
proclaiming the status of the candidate as a new shaman.
Another characteristic of Korean shamans is that they possess features which
pertain to both the autochthonous aboriginal tribes called loosely the Palaeo-
Siberian tribes and the more 'recently' arrived Neo-Siberian tribes. Like their
Palaeo-Siberian counterparts, the Korean shamans wear the clothing of the
opposite sex when performing the shamanic rituals. Like the Neo-Siberian
shaman, the mudang and paksu dress in a garb which is covered with dangling,
clanging objects. Palaeo-Siberian shamans are usually women, whereas

Neo-Siberian shamans are males having more cultic functions. Korean shamans
incorporate all of these characteristics. As with virtually all Siberian tribes,
Korean shamans use the drum in order to perform their ceremonies.
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MUSOK-KYO
Ornithological motifs, especially common among Neo-Siberian tribes, are a

principal means for describing the Korean shaman and her experience. For
example, the possession of the shaman's body by a spirit is described as if
the person's soul had been seized by an eagle. Unlike most Siberian shamans, the
soul of the Korean shaman does not ascend to the spirit world, but rather spirits
enter into the shaman's body. Korean shamans are both hereditary, which is
the general Neo-Siberian practice, and selected by a certain spirit, which is the
Palaeo-Siberian practice. Thus it is plain that Korean primal religion represents a
blending of the traits of Palaeo-Siberian and Neo-Siberian tribal groups, and that
this blending must have taken place at the time of the arrival of the Tungusic
tribes in the Korean peninsula between 1,000 and 600 Be.
In 1971, leading shamans and their supporters founded the Tae Han siingkong
yongsin yonhap-hoe (Korean Victory over Communism Federation of Shamans).
The association was formed to promote the interests of shamans, and in
particular ~o help to remove the stigma of superstition and ignorance which
surrounded them and their practices. The rather unusual name of the group
indicates both the anti-communist climate of Korea in the 1970s and the
shamanists' fears for their persecution under a communist social and political
system ifnorth Korea were to be victorious over south Korea. In 1994, this group
claimed a membership of 120,000 persons, of whom 80,000 were women and
40,000 men.
(b) Ritual Leaders

Ritual leaders called chegwan are selected on a one-off basis to function as the
celebrants of certain village ceremonies. Usually three men are selected by
the head of the village to perform one of the village rites. From the period of
selection to the conclusion of the ceremonies, these men must remain ritually
pure, that is, they must avoid contact with menstruating women, with women
who have recently given birth, and with corpses. They are also forbidden to have
sexual intercourse or to quarrel with anyone. After selection by the village head,
they live apart from their family and undergo rituallustrations in order to purify
their body in preparation for the village ritual. Some of the intercessory
functions of the temporary ritual leaders or chegwan are similar to those of the
Palaeo-Siberian shamans connected with the family cult, another point of
contact with ancient Siberian shamanism. However, in modem times these
chegwan seem to relate more to a Confucian world-view, although this probably
represents Confucian influence rather than a Confucian origin.
(c) Diviners
There are several classes of diviners in Korea, the chomjaengi or fortune-teller,

the chigwan or geomancer, and the ilgwan or selector of propitious days. In
addition to the chomjaengi, there is a special class of blind fortune-tellers, the
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p 'ansu. The chomjaengi as such is only concerned with fortune-telling, whereas

the p'ansu has the additional function of exorcism. There are three principal
ways in which divination may be practised: by the use of dice boxes, by the use
of coins, and by the use of certain books of divination. The three types of
divination are effective for all purposes, so the choice of method is unrelated
to the purpose. The dice-box method consists in matching the results of the three
throws of the box with a store of aphorisms which the chomjaengi proceeds to
interpret. The box contains eight strips with symbols called p ,algwae (the eight
trigrams of the I-ching). With each throw one strip or die will be shaken out, and
the results of the three throws will be recorded and correlated. Divination by
coins takes place in the following manner. The fortune-teller will shake eight
coins three times dropping one coin at each throw, or he will cast all eight coins
three times. Either way, the coin faces are read, matched, and an aphorism found
to suit the situation. The third and most prestigious method is divination by a
book. The hour, day, month, and year of one's birth is matched with the content
of the book which the diviner carries. After matching these essential facts, the
fortune-teller proceeds to answer the client's questions. Methods of fortune-
telling are keeping abreast of the times. The author has seen fortune-tellers who
have set up on the street using a personal computer equipt with a specialised
programme called Tojong pigyol!
In Soul, fortune-tellers used to be grouped around the base ofNam-san in the
southern part of the old city, but recently have been forced by city plans to move
away. Most of them have now congregated near the Mi'a-gogae pass in the
northern part of the city. In other cities, fortunetellers are found in and around
parks and· markets, wherever people congregate in large numbers. A somewhat
upmarket version of a fortuneteller's place of business is the ch 'orhag-won or
hall of philosophy, signs for which may be found in front of houses in many
residential areas. There is a cluster of these ch 'orhag-won near Sinch'on railway
station in Soul. The term probably reflects the prestige of the I-ching (Yok-kyong
in Korean) as a quasi-philosophical text in Confucianism. Signs for the
ch 'orhag-won often incorporate the reverse swastika, the symbol of Buddhism in
East Asia.
The p 'ansu in addition to fortune-telling performs exorcism. Among the
types of exorcist ceremonies which a p 'ansu may perform are the following
rites: (1) okchu-gyong (exorcism of insanity spirits), (2) ch 'uksa-gyong
(exorcism of disease spirits by prayer), (3) chisin-gyong (exorcism of evil
spirits in a house), (4) songsin-gyong (exorcism of disease spirits at a distance),
(5) mansin-gyong (ceremony for strengthening the ties between the p 'ansu and
his attendant spirits called mansin), (6) susin-gyong (exorcism of outcast spirits),
and (7) pangsin-gyong (the freeing of lesser spirits imprisoned by greater spirits
for their misdeeds). It will be seen that the rites are of two general types, rituals
for the curing of disease by the ejection of spirits by other spirits, and rituals for
t~e strengthening of ties between the p 'ansu and the spirit world. The relation of
the p 'ansu to the spirit world is one of control through superior magical
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MUSOK-KYO
practices, while the mudang and paksu are humans who had been selected by the
spirits to be their intermediaries on earth.
The chigwan or geomancer is a special category of diviner whose task is to
select propitious sites for buildings and tombs. It was believed that the character
of the terrain would affect the prosperity of those who utilized it. Geomancy or
p 'ungsu chiri (fengshui in Chinese) is the art of determining a propitious site.
The chigwan would use a special spyglass and a compass marked off into
24 directions called a yundo to determine the contours of the land, which in tum
would be interpreted according to passages in the geomancer's handbook, the
Ch 'on 'gi taeyo (Great Digest of Heavenly Indications). Another method
involved the use of a cosmic diagram called the kugung or nine palaces. The
ilgwan or selector of propitious days likewise uses books to determine a
propitious time to undetake an activity, such as a suitably auspicious day for
a marriage, a trip, or some other important event. Among the books used are the
Ch 'on 'gi taeyo and the T'ojong pigyol (Earth Pavilion Secrets). Fortunetelling
involving the knowledge of the birth year, month, day and hour of an individual
by the lunar calendar is called saju p ,alcha (four pillars and eight characters)
referring to the four sets of two-character terms used to describe one's birth date
in the sixty-year lunar calendar. Fortunetelling by physiognomy is called
kwansang and by palmistry, susang.
3. The Spirits
(a) Hananim
The spirit world of Korean Musok-kyo may be divided into six classes: the
Supreme Being, the gods of the air, the gods of the land, the gods of the water,
nameless lesser spirits, and the ancestral spirits. The Koreans from the earliest
recorded period have worshipped a high god who resided in the heavens from
where he exercised his rule. He has been known in Korean variously as
Hananim, Hanallim, Hanunim, or Hanullim - the Ruler of Heaven. Everything
in the universe was attributed to him, the lives of the people, their harvest, the
rain and other natural phenomena. However, as is the case with other high gods
amongst tribal peoples, there was only occasional, if any, worship directly
offered to him. He was the invisible and ultimate cause of everything. Worship
was given to those spirits to which he had delegated authority.
Another spirit of the heavens whose shrine is frequently found behind the
principal hall of Korean Buddhist temples is Ch 'i!song-nim or the Seven Star
Spirit, the Pole Star. We have encountered references· to his worship in Koryo
times, along with that of Chesok. Ch 'i!song together with Chesok and Ch 'on-sin
are the guises of or the alternative names for the Ruler of Heaven, Hananim. As
Ch 'i!song, he is the Ruler of the Pole Star, the central and pivotal constellation
of the northern hemisphere. In primeval times, Ursa Major was probably thought
to be the residence of the supreme ruler. From this belief developed the cult of
221
this star cluster and its powerful spirit. The shrine dedicated to Ch'ilsong, the
Ch'ilsong-gak, is invariably a small, tile-roofed structure usually situated to the
left and rear of the principal temple building. The interior often contains only a
simple altar with a painting of the deity who is often depicted as a Bodhisattva.
(b) Gods of the Air

1. Obang changgun. Immediately beneath the Ruler of Heaven are his highest
subordinates, the Generals of the Five Cardinal Points, the Obang changgun.
Although the belief in these spirits is found amongst the Chinese as well, the
source for their cult may not be China itself but Central Asia and Siberia. Tribal
groups as distant from the Chinese world as the Samoyed and the Yenesei Ostyak
in the far west of Siberia propitiate the rulers of the five directions. The worship
of the guardians of the cardinal directions is not unique, as we also find the cult
of the Sach 'onwang or Four Heavenly Kings in Buddhism. What is distinctive
about the cultus of these five spirits is the designation of the centre as a point of
the compass. The use of the number five indicates that the origin of the cult may
well be autochthonous to Siberian peoples as they use a five-directional division
of the world.
Each of the directions is associated with a particular colour. Thus the
Ch 'ongje changgun (Azure General) governs the East, the Paekche changgun
(White General) governs the West, the Chokche changgun (Red General)
governs the South, the Hiikche changgun (Black General) governs the North, and
the Hwangje changgun (Yellow General) governs the Centre.
These -five great spirits resemble the Siberian master spirits who rule or govern
a portion of the cosmos. The division of the spirit world into five grand hordes is
also reminiscent of the great tribal hordes which swept across the plains of
Central Asia and Manchuria. Neo-Siberian peoples, such as the Mongols, often
conceived of their spirits as being divided into hordes under the authority of a
superior spirit.
2. Sinjang. These spirits are subordinate to the Obang changgun and may be
thought of as the aides-de-camp of the generals. There have been estimates that
there may be as many as 80,000 of these spirits. Beneath them in turn are minor
spirits such as the saja which constitute the heavenly troops. This orderly
hierarchy again reminds one of the hierarchy of the Central Asian hordes. The
sinjang or mansin are important because it is they who are the confidants of the
shamans and the p 'ansu, the blind fortune-tellers and exorcists.
(c) Spirits of the Earth

1. San-sin. Without question, the most important of the earthly spirits is San-sin,
the Mountain God. His cult is celebrated in two places, in small shrines behind
the principal hall of a Buddhist temple, or in front of the village altar. We have
seen that the cult of Ch'ilsong or Samsong (Three Star Spirit, another guise of
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MUSOK-KYO
Ch'ilsong) is also celebrated in such shrines. More common than the shrines
dedicated to either Ch'ilsong or Samsong is the Sansin-gak or Mountain God
Shrine. These plain shrines have only a simple altar behind which hangs a
painting of the god. In this painting he is depicted as a benevolent, white-
bearded figure of great antiquity seated on a tiger beneath a pine tree. Often to
the side there is a small boy offering him a sando (hsien-tao in Chinese) or Peach
of Immortality from the Taoist land of the Immortals.
The unique characteristic of San-sin is that he is not the god of a particular
mountain, but the god of all mountains, and the founder of the first Korean state.
According to the myth, as the grandson of the Ruler of Heaven, Tan'gun was
born on a mountain, and after completing his reign on earth he became the God
of the Mountains. Historically, the worship of San-sin is very ancient. The oldest
known stele in Korea is dedicated to this spirit and is dated to AD 85.
The association of the tiger with San-sin is significant in that the Tungus
tribes of Siberia worship a master of the hunt, an old, white-bearded man who
rides on a tiger. This spirit, Bainaca, is propitiated on mountain passes and river
banks. So too with San-sin; Koreans to this day will place a pebble on a pile of
stones at the summit of a mountain pass in order to propitiate this great spirit.
The depiction of Tan'gun, the conception of his role, and the manner in which he
is commonly propitiated would indicate that he belongs to the class of spirits
known in Siberia as master spirits, rulers of aspects of nature.
Apart from the worship accorded to San-sin at the shrines in Buddhist
temples and on mountain passes, the cult is practised in the villages, especially
on Tae porum, the evening of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. On that
night, all the village elders or heads of households will gather before a plain
stone altar or shrine erected beside the most ancient tree in the village. Written
petitions for prosperity and health in the new year will be set on fire and allowed
to float upwards to Heaven to be received by San-sin. Thus, San-sin is the
benevolent protector of the household and of the village as a whole. There is one
other simple rite which is offered to this god. Women who are barren or who
have not produced male offspring will journey to some famous temple or revered
rock deep in the mountains to offer up their petition for a child.
2. Ch 'on-sin. The Ch 'on-sin is a minor spirit of the land which is responsible
for the fertility of the soil. It used to be common for farmers to offer a portion of
their noonday meal to this spirit. The cult of this spirit is no longer widespread.
3. Changsung. In front of the entrance to most villages in pre-modern Korea,
there were two standing posts frequently made of wood but in some areas made
of stone. These posts, called changsung (which many early writers mistakenly
called totem poles, or devil posts) were crudely carved in the shape of male and
female figures and were labelled Ch 'onha tae changgun (Great General Beneath
Heaven) and Chiha tae changgun (Great General Beneath the Earth). These spirits
are the tutelary spirits of the village and are situated so as to block the entrance
of malevolent spirits into the village precinct. The duality of male/female,
sky/earth characteristic of the changsung is a primeval statement of the Yin-Yang
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Theory. In our discussion of Confucianism in the Three Kingdoms period, we

have noted that Yi Urho holds that prior to the advent of Confucian philosophy
there was already in Korea a folk philosophy which had many of the
characteristics of formal Confucian thought. The changsi1ng are one important
reflection of this folk philosophy. On the volcanic island of Cheju off the south-
west coast, these tutelary spirits are represented on statues of carved lava called
Harubang (Grandfather) and Halmang (Grandmother) in the local dialect.
4. Songju and other household spirits. There is a variety of guardian
household spirits worshipped in the home, among which are Songju, the chief
guardian of the home; Samsin halmoni, the guardian of childbirth; T'oju taegam,
the guardian of the house site; Chowang, the Kitchen Spirit; and Pyonso kakssi,
the guardian of the toilet. Although a minor spirit in the Korean celestial
hierarchy, Songju is the supreme guardian of the home. He makes his residence
in a packet of pine needles tucked away up on the central beam of the maru or
central, wooden floor room of the home. Worship is offered to Songju at harvest,
when a new home is erected, when there is a new male head of the household,
and on other occasions. If members of a household feel that Songju is punishing
them for some infraction or that he is not performing his duties well, this spirit
will be specially propitiated. Samsin halmoni resides in an earthenware jar of
rice grains kept in the inner room or woman's quarters of the house. Conceived
of as a grandmother or matriarch, this spirit protects women during the ordeal of
childbirth. T'oju taegam patrols the precinct of the household, while the Kitchen
Spirit and the Toilet Maiden reside in those places guarding ,against the
predations of evil spirits.
(d) Spirits of the Water

There is a variety of water spirits, all of which are conceived of as dragons. The
yong or dragons live in the rivers and streams, in the springs and wells, and in the
seas and heavens where they control the rains. The worship of these spirits is very
ancient and similar in many ways to the practice of the modem Tungus groups.
Stories in the Samguk yusa record various legends told about dragons during
the period of the Three Kingdoms. One legend tells us that the construction of a
royal palace was halted because of the presence of a dragon. Upon completion,
the palace was named the Hwangnyong-sa, the Temple of the Yellow Dragon.
The most grand of all the dragons is the Yong-wang (Dragon King), also
known as Hae-wang or King of the Sea, who is the ruler of the sea and all that
moves within it. There are many legends about the Dragon King and his relations
with the human world. The Hae'in-sa temple has a magnificent portrait of the
Yong-wang, showing him dressed as a Korean king in state with a ferocious
dragon-face and surrounded by his watery realm. Villagers propitiate the

dragons at times of drought, while fishermen worship them before venturing out
to sea. In addition to the normal village shrine, fishing villages will often have
separate shrines dedicated to the Yong-wang.
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MUSOK-KYO
(e) Nameless Spirits

Beneath the spirits discussed above come a host of spirits, ghosts, imps, and such
which constitute the lowest level of the Korean spiritual realm. Some of these
spirits are benevolent, such as the kitchen spirit and the spirit which inhabits
the rice storage jar. There is also a class of malevolent spirits full of vengeance
towards humanity. These spirits are often the souls of those who have died before
fulfilling themselves, such as drowned persons, young boys, and unmarried girls.
Another class of spirits would be the tokkaebi or imp-like creatures which
delight in mischievous acts such as mislaying household items or cracking the
kitchen crockery. All of these spirits had to be appeased to ensure harmony in
the home.
(f) Ancestral Spirits

The Confucian cult of the ancestral spirits has been discussed above in relation
to the chesa ceremony. It needs only to be stressed here that ancestor worship is
indigenous to Korea. Confucianism only codified and organized a pre-existing
practice. The Myth of Tan'gun, which dates back to the tribal states period, is
one early indication of the importance of the cult of the ancestors. In this case,
the ancestors worshipped are the progenitors of the royal family, and by
extension the ancestors of the nation as a whole. In Siberia to this day there are
ancestral cults presided over by shamans. In Korea there is a parallel to this in
the shamanistic ancestral ceremonies which are unrelated to the Confucian ritual
system, as well as the non-shamanistic, non-Confucian rituals.
4. The Ceremonies
(a) Purak-che, The Village Ritual System

Ch'oe Kilsong (1940-) classifies village rituals into two general types, the tong-je
or community rituals and the pyalsin-gut or household rituals. Each of these
classes of rituals has a Confucian ritual system and a corresponding or
complementary shamanistic system. Ch'oe holds that these two systems form
the parts of a harmonious whole and cannot be understood apart from each other.
He points out that the Confucian ritual system emphasizes lineage structure and
occurs at regular intervals, whereas the shamanistic rituals propitiate a host of
polytheistic spirits at irregular intervals.
The following are some characteristic differences between the various
ceremonies. First, the Confucian ritual system utilizes only members of the
lineage, whereas shamanistic rituals will even draw on people from beyond
the village. Second, with the Confucian system, the household and village
rituals differ in that the former worship the lineage ancestors back to four
generations, whereas the latter assume that the ancestors of a particular lineage
225
are in fact the ancestors of all the village members. Third, Confucian ritual, as
one might suspect, is more concerned with the worship of ancestors than is
shamanistic ritual. Confucian ritual tends, also, to focus on one spirit, whereas
shamanistic ritual offers worship to a whole range of spirits including Buddhist
demi-gods. Fourth, the performance of Confucian and shamanistic ritual is
different. In any Confucian rite, the celebrant is a non-professional. In
Confucian household rites close kinsmen offer the rituals, and in the Confucian
village ceremonies, the tong-je, it is the chegwan or elected elders who do so.
In contrast to these temporary, non-professional officiants, the shamanistic
ceremony is offered up by the mudang, sometimes in concert with selected
village elders. Also, Confucian rituals tend to be simple in form and lack
complexity in contrast to the shamanistic rites, which are complicated and
lengthy. Fifth, as has been pointed out before, Confucian rituals occur regularly,
usually twice a year in the spring and autumn, whereas the shamanistic rites may
occur as frequently as every two years or as infrequently as every ten years, or
simply irregularly.
(b) Household Ceremonies

The Confucian household ancestral ceremony or chesa has been discussed in a
previous chapter and need not be mentioned further here. The corresponding
shamanistic ceremonies are the sanogu-gut and the ogu-gut, which are
performed for persons at their request somewhat like the mortuary, services of
the Middle Ages. The sanogu-gut is performed for persons still alive, while the
ogu-gut is for deceased persons.
One elaborate example of the sanogu-gut was reported to have taken three
days and nights and to have consisted of six separate sub-rites. These sub-rites
were: (1) the pujong-gut or purification rite, in which the mudang invites the
descent of the spirits, (2) the kolmaegi-gut addressed to the tutelary spirits of the
village, (3) the ch 'omangja-gut, addressed to the spirits of the recently deceased,
(4) the paridegi-gut, the principal element of the sanogu-gut, (5) the yongsan
maji-gut, which sends the spirits of the deceased into the next world, and (6) the
kori-gut addressed to various malevolent spirits.
The main purpose of the paridegi-gut is to transform the spirit of the
deceased into an ancestor, which does not occur automatically upon a person's
death. It is interesting to note that in the story which is described in the paridegi-
gut, the sons of the heroine of the story become the seven stars of the
constellation Ursa Major, thus making a connection between the cult of the
ancestors and the cult of Ch 'ilsong. One interesting characteristic of the yongsan
maji-gut is the pushing of ancestral tablets along a white strip of cloth,
symbolizing the movement of the ancestors along the road to Paradise. Thus,
ancestral ceremonies of the shamanistic type are elaborate, lengthy, and rich in
symbolism by comparison with the more lineage-oriented, austere Confucian
rites.
226
MUSOK-KYO
(c) Community Ceremonies

The tong-je or Confucian community rituals are held twice or even four times a
year. A committee of ten village elders selects the chegwan who, in the manner
already described, prepare themselves for the ritual. The ritual area becomes
tabu and is marked off by a rope. Soil is also sprinkled around the shrine proper
to show the sacredness of the area. The ceremony is offered to the spirits of
the village who are treated as though they were the ancestors of the village. The
ritual itself is very simple, consisting of a food-offering of rice, soup, wine, pork,
fish, fruit, and ttok or Korean rice-cakes. A petition is made to the spirits, and
sheets of paper are burned. A bright flame indicates that there will be good
fortune. The ceremony concludes with the chegwan drinking cups of wine.
In contrast to this simple and dignified ritual is the pyolsin-gut or shamanistic
village ceremony. A village ceremony offered to the spirits of a fishing village
was observed to have had as many as nine different sub-rituals. These were
(1) the mun-gut, which opens the ceremony on the evening before the principal
events, (2) the chesa or Confucian rites offered to village ancestors, (3) the
pujong-gut or purification rites, (4) the tang maji-gut, during which an elder
holds a pole down which the shamans invite the spirits to descend to earth,
(5) the sejon-gut, which emphasizes prosperity and the acquisition of wealth,
(6) the Sim Ch 'ong-gut, which stresses the importance of healthy eyes, crucial
for seafaring people, (7) the Ch'onwang-gut, which emphasizes harmony
between the sexes and between wives and concubines, (8) the Yongwang-gut
offered to the Yong-wang and also separately to each villager who has died at
sea, and (9) the kori-gut, which is to appease malevolent spirits which might
have been attracted to the ritual site. Thus a pyolsin-gut is in itself a complete
ritual system offering worship to a wide variety of spirits in order to ensure the
prosperity and happiness of the entire village.
(d) Non-village Ceremonies

We have seen that there are a number of kut or shamanistic ceremonies which are
offered in the village at the household or village level. There are also a number
of kut which are offered to spirits for personal reasons and which may be
classified as non-village rites. Ryu Tong-shik classifies these kut as having one of
three purposes or functions, the curing of disease, petitions for prosperity and
other wishes, and the sending-off of the dead to the next world. Homer B.
Hulbert at the beginning of the twentieth century discussed eight types of kut, 2
which we will classify according to Ryu's schema.
1. Curative Rites. The first kut of this type is a simple ceremony performed by
the mudang in order to rid the patient of the disease spirit or spirits. It may be
2 Homer B. Hulbert, 'The Korean Mudang and P'ansu', Korea Review, 3 (1903).
227
made more elaborate according to the wealth of the client. This kut is called a
pyong-gut (disease rite) and is the most common of all shamanistic rituals. The
second type of curative rite which Hulbert described was a special pyong-gut
addressed to the Smallpox Spirit, the only disease spirit to have such a
specialized rite.
2. Petitionary Rites. In this category are a variety of kut which have the
function of offering up a number of different types of petitions to several
different spirits. First, there is the yongsin-gut (dragon-spirit rite) type, of which
we have already met the rite addressed to the Dragon King. Among the various
yongsin-gut are rites offered as village petitions for rain, for the protection
of merchant vessels, for the protection of fishing vessels, for the protection of
ferries, and finally for the protection of warships and sailors.
Another type of petitionary rite are the rituals offered to Sansin. In this
category, Hulbert placed all those rituals which were offered by a supplicant to
the Mountain God for long life and children. We have already seen how a woman
might offer prayer at a temple or at a designated rock to the Mountain God for a
male heir, which is the most common type of petition addressed to this august
spirit. There was a third and special type of kut which was offered up to San-sin
until 1894 by the servants of envoys going on diplomatic missions to Peiching.
Although frowned upon by the Confucian envoys themselves, the retainers felt
such worship a necessity to ensure the safety of the journey and the success of
the mission.
3. Mortuary Rites. Hulbert described three types of rituals which could be
classified in this category. The first is a pre-burial kut which was offered between
the period of the death of a person and the actual burial of his body. This
ceremony offers the spirit of the deceased, which lingers near the home, the
opportunity to give his valedictory remarks to the assembled members of his
family. A second type of kut is a post-burial rite which is offered immediately
upon the burial of the body and invokes a spirit called the saja, who is implored
to conduct the soul of the departed quickly and safely to the next world. A third
type of kut in this category is an elaborate ceremony which is held a month and a
half after the death of the person and which invokes the Si-wang or Sip-wang
(Ten Judges of Hell). This is done to ensure that the deceased's soul makes the
proper connections with important people in the next world. The deceased in his
tum will then be in a better position to assist his relatives in this world. The
belief that family and personal social connections enable a person to achieve a
desired goal clearly reflects the reality of the Korean social system. Hulbert adds
that once the line to the spirit world is open, attendants at the kut often call up
other spirits and have quite 'an afternoon tea with the dead'.
There are other ceremonies than those which have been listed here, and for
each type one may find variations in complexity and form according to the
region or locale. It will seen from what has been said that the Koreans in
pre-modem times were concerned, as Ryu has rightly pointed out, with health,
happiness, prosperity, and the care and propitiation of ancestral spirits.
228
MUSOK-KYO
(e) Material Aspects of the Kut

The use of various colours in the costumes, and particularly the flags used by the
shamans in their ceremonies, have specific meanings which in part derive from a
broad East Asian tradition and which additionally have a distinct meaning within
the context of Musok-kyo. In shamanistic ceremonies white refers to the Lord of
Heaven, red to San-sin or the Mountain God, yellow to the ancestors, blue to the
General or Taegam, and black to all miscellaneous spirits. The meaning of
colour in the ceremonies applies to the shaman's flags, costumes, the colour of
the ritual foods, and other ritual items.
Sacrificial items offered to the spirits during a kut consist of libations and
food. Liquors of all traditional sorts are offered up while foods consist of rice,
ttok (steamed rice cakes), fruits, nuts, vegetables and various kinds of meat. One
item conspicuous by its absence is any type of kimch 'i, the spicy accompaniment
to any Korean meal. The central object on the sacrificial table is either a pig or
an ox head.
Music is used to aid the shaman to enter into a state of trance and is thus a
necessary accompaniment to any kut. The principal instruments used by the
musicians who accompany the shaman are drums and brass percussion
instruments. The characteristic drum for a kut is the changgo or hourglass-
shaped drum; the puk or barrel-shaped drum is also used. Percussion instruments
used are the chegiim or brass cymbals, and gongs of various sizes. The muga or
shamanistic songs are of four-broad types - long, epic-like mythic tales, tuneful
singing supposedly sung by the spirits possessing the shaman called t'aryong,
chanting for purification and the invitation of spirits, and incantations for driving
away evil spirits, usually performed by male shamans.
The costumes worn by the shaman reflect the spirit possessing them, such as
generals, kings, Buddhist spirits, figures appearing in the muga narrative, and
other narrative characters. The shaman will use a pangul or brass bell rattle to
achieve a state of ecstasy, fans, tridents, swords, knives, double knifeblades
mounted on a block of wood for walking on, flags representing the Obang
changgun or Generals of the Five Directions, paper cut-out objects in a wide
variety of forms, boats to send off the souls of the dead to the next world, life-
sized dolls for ghost weddings, and mirrors engraved with the images of the Sun,
Moon and Pole Stars.
229

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17

1. The Historical Background

2. The Practitioners of Musok-kyo

clanging objects. Palaeo-Siberian shamans are usually women, whereas

Ornithological motifs, especially common among Neo-Siberian tribes, are a

(b) Ritual Leaders

There are several classes of diviners in Korea, the chomjaengi or fortune-teller,

p 'ansu. The chomjaengi as such is only concerned with fortune-telling, whereas

(b) Gods of the Air

(c) Spirits of the Earth

Theory. In our discussion of Confucianism in the Three Kingdoms period, we

(d) Spirits of the Water

dragon-face and surrounded by his watery realm. Villagers propitiate the

(e) Nameless Spirits

(f) Ancestral Spirits

(a) Purak-che, The Village Ritual System

(b) Household Ceremonies

(c) Community Ceremonies

(d) Non-village Ceremonies

(e) Material Aspects of the Kut

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