Lee Kidong_The Indigenous Religions of Silla

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The Indigenous Religions of Silla: Their Diversity and Durability

Lee, Kidong.

Korean Studies, Volume 28, 2004, pp. 49-74 (Article)

Published by University of Hawai'i Press

DOI: 10.1353/ks.2005.0021

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The Indigenous Religions of Silla:Their Diversity and DurabilityKidong Lee

This article examines the indigenous religions of the Silla dynasty. According to the Silla

annals of the Samguk sagi, religion was significant in all walks of life in Koreas pre-

modern societies and formed a basis for state rule. Although Buddhism was recognized

as Sillas central religious belief from the early sixth century, other religions and con-

victions existed in Silla society. Introduced and discussed here are shamanism, Taoist

thought, belief in spirits of springs and dragons, progenitor myths, state sacrifice rituals,

and portent ideology.

Beliefs and religions played a significant social function in premodern societies,

increasingly so the further back in time one looks. Their role was quite promi-

nent in the ancient societies of Korea, and the state of Silla was no exception.

Not only did belief and religion provide stability in the everyday life of the in-

dividual, they even formed the basis for an ideology of state rule. Both state and

citizens depended on belief and religion and formed with them an inseparable

organic relationship. In fact, according to the Samguk sagis Silla annals, be-

liefs and religionespecially the ceremonies for state sacrificeheld priority

positions in Silla society.

Sillas growth and development were accompanied by a continuous influx

of new philosophies and beliefs that coexisted side by side with earlier and in-

digenous faiths. Among these imports was Buddhism, which gained acceptance

in the early part of the sixth century. By endowing the Silla royal government

with the authority necessary to overcome the conservatism of a farming culture

and the isolationism of the old tribal state, Buddhism directly contributed to the

establishment of a system dedicated to maintaining state power. Moreover, it

deeply influenced the spiritual lifestyle of the people of Silla. Even so, the in-

digenous religions that had hitherto regulated the spiritual lives of the people

Korean Studies, Volume 28 2005 by University of Hawaii Press. All rights reserved.


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never completely disappeared, tenaciously sustaining their own existence by ad-

hering closely to Buddhist belief in many forms. As the Swiss historian Jacob

Burckhardt said, moral spirits may change, but they never disappear.

One may thus view the thousand-year history of the Silla kingdom in two

ways. The first is from a geopolitical perspective that describes Silla from the

states earliest emergence in the Ky0ngju basin to its continuous expansion via

campaigns to subjugate the surrounding regions and to its final destruction of

the rival states of Kogury0 and Paekche in the struggle to unify the Korean penin-

sula. The second, a sociocultural view, depicts a succession of shorter periods

wherein diverse beliefs and religions, each with an ideology of state rule at their

core, engaged in rivalries while simultaneously undergoing a continuing trans-

formative process.

In this article, the various beliefs and religions subsumed under the cate-

gory of indigenous religion in the Samguk sagis Silla annals will be roughly

partitioned under the headings of shamanism, belief in the spirits of springs and

dragons, progenitor myths, Taoist thought, state sacrifice rituals, and portent ide-

ology. Afterward, each category will be analyzed and pertinent points of dis-

pute within academic circles will be introduced and discussed.

It must be noted that any study of Sillas indigenous religions does not

suffice for a thorough understanding of its thought and religion, as it is also es-

sential to give due consideration to Buddhism and Confucianism. Confucian

thought, in early times monopolized by a small number of intellectual elites,

became more influential in later periods, serving as a prototype for political re-

form in Silla society as its importance continued to increase. As this subject is

dealt with in detail in chapter three of Yi Kibaeks authoritative work Silla

sasangsa y0ngu (A study of the history of Silla thought, 1986), it is unneces-

sary to cover the subject here.

Shamanism

Ranking foremost among the indigenous religions of early Silla is shaman-

ism. A form of indigenous religion common among the peoples of Northeast

Asia, shamanism came to constitute the mainstream of popular belief through-

out Koreas long history. The origins of shamanism are found in remote pre-

history,1 and it undoubtedly functioned as a basic element of society when civ-

ilization first emerged in Korea and when the primitive state first came into being.

In fact, various implements used by shamans have been found in relative abun-

dance among the artifacts of Koreas Bronze Age.

One example that provides a direct illustration of the influence exercised

by shamanism upon the society of early Silla is the royal title. The Samguk sagi

records that upon the death of the early chief (k0s0gan) Hy0kk0se, the chiefs

son Namhae succeeded him upon the throne with the title of chachaung or

chachung.2 According to Kim Taemun, the imminent literatus of early eighth-

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century Silla, the terms chachaung and chachung were originally vernacu-

lar terms for a shaman.3 Since the shamans (mudang) worshiped ghosts and spir-

its and honored sacrificial ritual, the people stood in awe of them, such that finally

their elders came to be referred to with the title chachung. From this one may

surmise that the leaders of early Silla functioned as shamans.

However, a chachaung was much more than a mere shaman and should

be seen as having served in a more fully developed role of ritual priest. According

to scholars of indigenous religions, although a mudang may have been endowed

with the ability to contact the spirits, the ritual priest, on the other hand, had se-

cured the public trust through specialized training. Moreover, the range of ac-

tivities varied between the two; in contrast with the mudang, whose focus was

upon the individual, the ritual priest presided over the ritual ceremonies of the

community and acted as a guide for the people.

According to the Account of Han in chapter thirty of the Chinese his-

tory Sanguo zhi, a relatively well-informed account of Koreas Han society up

to the mid-third century, the people of Mahan believed in ghosts and spirits,

and each township (the center of the minor state) appointed one person called

a ch0ngun to officiate over ritual sacrifices to the spirits of heaven.4 Although

there is some difference of opinion with regard to the interpretation of the ch0n-

guns role, in a chiefdom society, such as Mahan, where officiating over com-

mon ritual ceremonies carried a greater relative importance, it is more likely

that the ch0ngun was more of a ritual priest invested with public duties than

a mere mudang.5

In theDongyi zhuan (Accounts of the Eastern Barbarians) in the Sanguo

zhi, it is recorded that in the southern Manchuria state of Puy0, populated by

people of the (Korean) Han race, the people held the king responsible when grains

did not ripen in times of unusual flood or droughtsome wanting to replace the

king and others wanting to have him killed.6 Although this phenomenon was first

introduced in the chapter titled The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings in

James G. Frazers The Golden Bough, it was Inoue Hideo who emphasized that

the individual kings of early Silla were by nature said to be vested with the

shamanistic ability to predict the weathera feature essential for the stability

and expansion of farming productivity. In addition to citing the royal title of

chachaung (chachung), Inoue took note of the account given in chapter two

of the Silla annals regarding the accession year of P0rhyu Isag1m, which states,

The king could prognosticate by looking at the wind and clouds and knewin advance if there would be calamity from flood or fire and if the harvest would

be bountiful or poor. He also knew if people were upright or corrupt, and becauseof this he was called a sage.7

Inoue also made note of a passage in the Samguk yusa recording Queen

S0nd0ks (r. 632647) use of portents to prognosticate three events8 and from

kidong lee: The Indigenous Religions of Silla 51


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these records asserted that up to the time of the unification of the three king-

doms, when the Silla kings first acquired the characteristics of truly authorita-

tive rulers, they had maintained a strong shamanistic character.9

Attracting a great deal of interest is the fact that the gold crowns discov-

ered in the Silla royal tombs in Ky0ngju, ranging in antiquity from the late fifth

to early sixth century, are reminiscent of shamanistic caps of the Siberia region,

especially those of the Buriat people. Moreover, these gold crowns suggest con-

nections with the gold crowns of the distant Sarmatians of Novocherkask in the

Rostov region along the coast of the Black Sea, as well as with those found

among the ancient remains of Tillya Tepe in a suburban area of Shibarghan north

of Afghanistan, an area that served as an important point of east-west cultural

interchange.

In present Korean society, shamanism has been preserved as a female folk

custom, and such a tradition seems to date from Silla times. In the early records

of the Silla annals, shamans frequently appear as old women or mothers. For

example, in the first month of the first year of Hy0kk0ses reign, it was an old

woman who took in and reared the young girl born from the right ribcage of a

dragon appearing at Aly0ng well and gave her such instruction in virtue and de-

meanor as to become the future queen.10 Similarly, it was an old woman living

by the seashore who, in the thirty-ninth year of Hy0kk0ses reign, found a chest

floating up to the mouth of Chinhans Ajin-po bay (modern Pohang coast),

and took in and raised the child she found inside. He later became the son-in-

law of Namhae Chachaung, serving in the capacity of taebo (high minister)

and eventually reigning as Tarhae Isag1m of Silla.11

In addition to these examples, there are records concerning old women in

the accounts in the Silla annals in the eleventh month of 28 c.e., in the reign of

Yuri Isag1m, and the ninth month of 500 c.e., in the reign of Soji Maripkan. It

should be understood that these figures were not merely elderly womenthey

were sorceresses who possessed the ability to see the future, foretelling both

fortune and misfortune.12 Additionally, according to the Treatise on Sacrifices

in chapter thirty-two of the Samguk sagi, the shrine for the progenitor Hy0kk0se

was established in the reign of Namhae Chachaung (7 c.e.), sacrifices being

conducted there in each of the four seasons.13 Judging from the statement that

the chiefs sister Aro was appointed to officiate at these ceremonies, one may

generally recognize the spiritual predominance of females in Silla society.

In Silla society, the dwelling places of shamans were, in the case of the

capital, in groves such as Sinyu-rim south of Nang-san and Ch0ngy0ng-rim

east of K1m-gyo (S0ch0n-gyo). Ichadon, acting in accordance with the desire

of King P0ph1ng (r. 514540) for official recognition of Buddhism, intended

to establish H1ngnyun-sa temple at the Ch0ngy0ng-rim site so that Buddhism

might assume the position formerly occupied by shamanism.14

The spirits that were the basis of the shamanistic worldview, who regu-



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lated the world and human life, were for the most part believed to have resided

on mountain peaks. From this one may conjecture that mountains were where

the protagonists of Korean myths originally descended to earth. In fact, it seems

that the heavenly spirits who had descended to earth and mountain spirits were

precisely the same thing. Among them were those who assumed the forms of

animals such as tigers, bears, or deer, but the majority were spirits taking on

human form, female form in particular.15 When given a closer reading, the

records of theDongyi zhuan in the Sanguo zhi specifying that ghosts and spir-

its were worshiped in Samhan society quite likely indicate instead the worship

of mountain spirits. Due to personification, however, these mountain spirits were

simply called ghosts and spirits by the people who believed in them.16

Occupying a relatively important position in the training of the unique

youth group of Silla society, the hwarang-do, was singing and dancing as well

as pleasure travel to mountains and rivers. The people of Silla believed that song

and dance were precisely the incantational means by which they could cause

the spirits to be moved. As can be seen in the case of Kim Yusin (595673),

who emerged from the ranks of the hwarang to become a hero in the unification

wars, the purpose of the travels of hwarang to mountain peaks was to find the

shaman mediums hidden in the mountain grottos so that superhuman spiritual

strength might be gained or the thoughts of the mountain spirits might be heard.

According to the biography of Kim Yusin in chapter forty-one of the Samguk

sagi, when Kim Yusin was seventeen, he went alone into a grotto at Chungak

and beseeched heaven to grant him superhuman strength with which to defeat

the armies of enemy states. After four days there appeared an old man named

Nans1ng who taught Kim Yusin his secret arts. This Nans1ng can be viewed as

a kind of shaman. Having completed his quest in this manner, Kim Yusin made

a second attempt the following year. He went deep into the valleys of Inbak-

san, lit incense, and prayed to the heavens, whereupon the spirit of the heav-

enly seat sent down rays of light that imbued his sword with its spiritual essence.

On the night of the third day, two stars shone brightly, whereupon his sword

seemed to move of its own accord.17

In his famous Treatise on Purham Culture (1925), concerning the period

of the unification of the Three Kingdoms, Choe Nams0n offered a very inter-

esting interpretation as to why the hwarang engaged in these nationalistic pil-

grimages: The lives of men and the fortunes of state were thought to depend

solely upon the will of the spirit of K1mgang-san, and like Olympus in Greece,

oracles and prophesies were thought to have been revealed on this mountain.18

Even after the official acceptance of Buddhism around the first half of the

sixth century, shamanism tenaciously maintained its existence. A representa-

tive example is the case of the priest W0ngwang. The Silla annals record that

W0ngwang went to the southern Chinese state of Chen to study Buddhism in

the third month of 589 in the reign of King Chinpy0ng.19 According to the an-



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cient document called Accounts of the Extraordinary cited in chapter four of

the Samguk yusa, the motivation for W0ngwangs trip abroad was the revela-

tion of a ghost that had suddenly appeared to W0ngwang while he was living

alone at Samgi-san engaged in Buddhist study.20 Because another monk who

had built a temple near W0ngwangs home was producing a clamor of incan-

tation and was obstructing the ghosts path, the ghost caused the mountain to

collapse during the night, burying the monks temple. Such tales suggest that

for some time, shamanism held greater influence than Buddhism among the com-

mon folk, even after Buddhism had received official recognition.

Belief in the Spirits of Springs and Dragons

Just as the water spirit Osiris, identified with the Nile of ancient Egypt,

and the water spirit Enki of the Mesopotamia region held the ability to integrate

society and nature, similar beliefs concerning water spirits were widespread in

early Silla society. However, in the case of Silla the name of the water spirit is

not to be found in historical records. For the sake of convenience, this will be

referred to in the present work as spring belief, which is in fact the term used

in Yi Py0ngdos technical study of the subject.21

Worship centered on freshwater springs is by nature closely connected to

the worship of trees. The ancients saw springs and trees as sacred because of

their great powers of life and saw them as indispensable elements in the for-

mation and survival of society itself. In the ancient Middle and Near East, sim-

ilar water spirits appeared as the creators of grain and the earth, and the over-

whelming majority of the spring belief legends of ancient Korea were related

to human birth. Connections were made between springs or rivers and the birth

or conception of clan progenitors or great men. According to the account of

Hy0kk0se K0s0gan in the Silla annals, the progenitor first appeared in the form

of a great egg in the forest beside Naj0ng well at the base of Yangsan mountain

in Ky0ngju .22 In an account in the Samguk yusa, the child Hy0kk0se, born of

a great egg, was taken to the eastern spring and bathed, whereupon a radiance

shone from his body, the heavens and earth trembled, and the sun and moon

shone brightly as he danced with birds and beasts. Therefore was he named

Hy0kk0se.23 Also, according to a record dating to the first month of the fifth

year of the reign of Hy0kk0se in the Silla annals, the girl named Aly0ng, later

to become Hy0kk0ses queen, was born from the right ribcage of a dragon that

appeared at Aly0ng well, and her name was taken from the name of that well.24

In the second month of 487 in the reign of Soji Maripkan, the Silla court had a

national shrine (sin-gung) constructed at Na1l, the birthplace of the progeni-

tor.25 This Na1l is without doubt synonymous with Naj0ng, and the term Na1l

is clearly a written representation of the phonetic quality of the word nal, mean-

ing transmigration. From the fact that in the third chapter of the Fangyan, a dic-

tionary written by the Confucian scholar Yang Xiong (53 b.c.e.-18 c.e.), the



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character nie (pronounced ny0l or nal in Korean) indicates Buddhist transfor-

mation, one may see that the origins of this word are very ancient.26

The aforementioned legend of the dragon at Aly0ng well spotlights the

creature most closely associated with waterthe dragon, the imaginary crea-

ture that originated in the beliefs of the Han people of China. The dragon of the

ancient Chinese was the most peculiar of creatures, being at once a spiritual be-

ing bringing good fortune and a demon of cruelty, appearing both as a controller

of weather and a fearful and violent destroyer. Such dragon-spirit belief was

transmitted to Korea at an early stage of its history. In Silla especially, the wor-

ship of dragon spirits and dragon kings was widespread, and many legends con-

cerning dragons are recorded in the Samguk yusa. Numerous researchers have

exhaustively analyzed the data concerning dragon-spirit belief in Silla, and thus

numerous pertinent interpretations and perceptions are available.27

Of particular interest is the fact that two contradictory types of dragons

are mentioned in the Silla annals. One type of dragon protected the royal house

and the fortunes of state and caused rains to fall, while the other type foretold

the death of the king or was connected with antistate acts. An example of the

first type of dragon can be found in the Samguk yusa, which states that a boat

containing a chest drifted ashore on the Silla coast and was placed in a forest.

Tarhae emerged from this chest and claimed birth in the Dragon City King-

dom, where twenty-eight dragon kings had all sprung from the wombs of two

individuals, and a red dragon had kept guard over him when the chest in which

he had been placed was cast adrift upon the sea.28

As Mishina Akihide has pointed out, the Tarhae legend is a complex con-

struct representing an embellishment of Chinese serpent tales and Buddhist

dragon-king legends, which later came to reflect the social organization and

thought of Silla, possibly combined with the concept of state protection.29 Such

tales of dragon-related state protection also appear in the Silla annals. In a tale

dating from the second month of 553 in the reign of King Chinh1ng, which re-

lates the origin of Hwangnyong-sa temple, a yellow dragon appears at the con-

struction site of a new palace east of W0ls0ng. The king thinks this event re-

markable, so he orders a Buddhist temple constructed in place of the new

palace.30 In the summer of 628, in the reign of King Chinpy0ng, there was a

severe drought, so that the markets were relocated to different sites and pictures

of dragons were drawn to pray for rain.31 This kind of concept also appears in

passages of the Chinese textLushi chunqiu, wherein mention is made of using

dragons to bring rain.32

The cases wherein dragons presage natural calamities or other such in-

auspicious events are rather diverse. The Silla annals, in the ninth month of 3

c.e., in the reign of the progenitor Hy0kk0se, tells of two dragons that appeared

from a well in the capital of K1ms0ng, whereupon thunderstorms suddenly arose,

and in the third month of the following year, Hy0kk0se died.33 Similarly, in the



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necessary to make some adjustments to both lineage and chronology. In sum-

mary, it may be said that the historical value of the three-clan lineage of ancient

Silla and its chronology as presented in the Silla annals has yet to be ascertained.

At any rate, it is an indisputable fact that there exist progenitor myths for

each of the three Silla lineages of Pak, S0k, and Kim. These tales not only reflect

past events but also serve to reinforce tradition and to provide retrospective mod-

els for morality, social order, and religious beliefs, and in this sense they fall

within the domain of mythology. Myths are essentially the collective creation

of a people at the dawning of their culture, but since such myths can later be

embellished to accord with various political aims, it is often very difficult to re-

construct their original forms.

Among the progenitor tales of Silla, the myth of Hy0kk0se is not only the

tale of the progenitor of the Pak clan but also the foundation tale of Silla itself.

According to the Silla annals, around the time six villages had formed among

the mountains and valleys of S0rabol in modern Ky0ngju, a horse knelt down

and brayed in the forest next to Naj0ng well at the foot of Yangsan Mountain

in Alch0n. After the horse suddenly vanished, the elder of Koh0 village at Tol-

san rushed to the site and discovered a large egg. When he broke the egg, he

found inside a young boy, whom he took in and reared. The people of the six

villages considered the birth of this boy to have been miraculous, so they ele-

vated him to a high position and made him their king when the child was thir-

teen years old. Since the egg from which the child, Hy0kk0se, emerged was

shaped like a gourd, the people of Chinhan gave him the surname Pak (gourd).38

A more detailed record of this tale can be found in the Samguk yusa.39

Mishina Akihide took special note of the egg-birth element among the motifs

appearing in the Hy0kk0se myth, noting that such a motif also occurs in the tales

of Tongmy0ng (Chumong), the founder of Puy0 and Kogury0, and Alchi, the

progenitor of Sillas Kim clan. He emphasized that the basis of these myths was

the so-called corn-spirit ceremony, which is a common element among farming

cultures.40 In contrast, Kumagai Osamu emphasized the gourd-birth concept over

the egg-birth motif. According to his view, the gourd was an everyday utensil

of practical use considered to hold very special spiritual power and as such be-

came a motif in the progenitor myth of the Pak clan.41 In fact, the account of 20

b.c.e. in the reign of Hy0kk0se in the Silla annals states that in the second month

of that year the king sent Ho-gong to Mahan to pay respects. It is recorded that

this Ho-gong was originally a man of the Wa of Japan who had crossed the sea

to Silla by strapping gourds around his waist as a means of floatation, and he

thereby came to be called Ho-gong, or Sir Gourd.42 Judging from such exam-

ples, one may infer that gourds had spiritual significance to the people of Silla.

The account of Hy0kk0se in the Samguk yusa, however, states that he was

named Hy0kk0se because his body shone with a radiant luster.43 A note in this

passage, moreover, suggests that because he ruled with brilliance he was ac-



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cordingly called King Pulgunae (perhaps meaning one who projects brightness).

It is therefore clear that the hy0k character in the name Hy0kk0se was se-

lected for its meaning of brightness. One may infer from this, as many schol-

ars do, that the Hy0kk0se myth arose in connection with the worship of the sun

and its radiance.

The progenitor of the S0k-lineage kings was the fourth ruler, Tarhae

Isag1m, and his arrival on the shores of Silla is described in the Silla annals as

follows.44 Tarhae was originally a native of the state of Tapana, which was lo-

cated one thousand li northeast of the Wa state of Japan. The king of Tapana

had taken the daughter of the ruler of the Queen State of Wa (Y0wang-guk) and

made her his wife. She conceived a child and after the passage of seven years

gave birth to a large egg. The king thought this to be an inauspicious event, so

he intended to have the egg done away with. However, the queen disregarded

his command and instead wrapped the egg in silk, placed it in a chest with rare

treasures, and placed the chest in a boat, which was then cast adrift on the sea.

The boat eventually reached Ajin-po bay in Chinhan after passing by way of

the K1mgwan state. An old woman living by the shore snared the boat with a

rope and guided it to the shore, whereupon she opened the chest and found a

young boy within. She took the boy in her care and raised him, and when he

reached adulthood he stood nine ch0ktall, had robust features and surpassed

others in intelligence. Since a magpie had flown in the wake of the boat as it

reached the shore, the radical of the character for magpie (chak) was removed,

leaving the character pronounced s0k, and this became the childs surname. And

since the child had appeared upon being freed from the chest, he was named

Tarhae (escape-release).

It is of interest that the account of Tarhae in the Samguk yusa contains

unique material not found in the Silla annals. An example is the tale of Tarhaes

clever scheme to appropriate the house of Ho-gong, which was located below

Yangsan mountain and which Tarhae believed to have been an auspicious site.

When this affair was brought before the Silla judges, part of Tarhaes expla-

nation included the mention that he was originally a blacksmith by trade.45 This

provides us with a very valuable key for understanding the character of the

Tarhae myth, for it is commonly known that sovereigns and chiefs of the var-

ious Mongol tribes were smith-kings.

TheDjamit ut Tevarikh (Compendium of history) by the fourteenth-cen-

tury Persian historian Rashid-al-Din notes that the ancestors of Genghis Khan

were blacksmiths by trade, as attested to by the fact that the khanate court prac-

ticed an iron-forging ceremony in accordance with this belief. Similarly, the

smith-masters of the Yakut tribes inhabiting eastern Siberia always made phys-

ical contact with iron while chanting, so as to cause their bodies to become ac-

climated to the spiritual powers of the iron. Another example of the spiritual

power of iron can be seen in the case of the people of the Buriat tribes occupy-



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ing the Lake Baikal region in western Siberia, who believed that sick or sleep-

ing people could be protected by placing a sickle or hatchet by their side. It is

also recorded in Chinese historical texts that the ancestors of the Ashina clan,

a Turkish tribe closely related to the Mongols and overlords of the Tujue em-

pire, were blacksmiths. In summary, the original chiefs and figures of author-

ity among the nomads of northeast Asia were smith-masters.46 When this rela-

tionship between the spiritual powers of the blacksmith and the primitive chief

is established, the Tarhae myth can be clearly seen to include elements link-

ing it with myths of the nomadic peoples of the north.

Moreover, the account of Tarhae in the Samguk yusa makes mention of

cups shaped like oxhorns. This unique style of wine cup was originally the cer-

emonial implement preferred by the nomadic peoples occupying the steppes

south of the Altai Mountains and the shores of the Black Sea. The particular no-

tions the Silla people held toward oxhorn can be seen in the seventeen-grade

official rank system, the highest rank of which was kak-kan (horn-kan). In

more recent times, earthenware in the shape of an oxhorn has been discovered

in the fifth and sixth century Silla and Kaya tombs located at Pokch0n-dong

in Pusan. Archaeologists have interpreted these finds as the result of an east-

ward movement of the civilization of the Scythian lineage by way of the steppe

routes of Central Asia.

Finally we come to Alchi, the progenitor of the Kim-clan kings. The tale

of his birth in the third month of 65 c.e., in the reign of Tarhae Isag1m, is re-

lated in the Silla annals as follows.47 After the king (Tarhae) heard the sound

of a rooster crowing in the night from the direction of Sirim grove west of the

capital of K1ms0ng, he sent Ho-gong out at dawn to investigate. Ho-gong found

a small golden chest suspended from a tree branch, and underneath it a white

rooster was crowing. Ho-gong returned and reported his findings to the king,

who sent people out to retrieve the chest. When they opened the chest, there

emerged from within a small boy with outstanding features. The king took him

to be a son sent from the heavens, so he took the boy in his care and reared him.

As the child grew, so too did his intelligence and resourcefulness increase. He

was named Alchi, and since he had emerged from a golden chest, he was given

the surname Kim (gold).

There are, however, some slight variations in the records concerning

Alchis birth. Following the account of King Ky0ngsuns surrender of his state

to Kory0 in the Silla annals, compiler Kim Pusik included his own commen-

tary, which stated that another version of the tale had Alchi descending from

the heavens in a golden chariot instead of emerging from a golden chest.48 This

version is recorded in the same words in the account of King Kim Pu in chap-

ter two of the Samguk yusa.49 In fact, the inscription on the stele set up at the

tomb of King Munmu (661681) states that the kings fifteenth-generation an-

cestor, King S0nghan, had descended from the heavens seated in a golden char-



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iot, apparently showing that the Silla royal house of the late seventh century

had adopted the golden-carriage version of the tale.

Creating further confusion is the fact that Silla-period inscriptional ma-

terials, beginning with that of King Munmus tomb stele mentioned above, state

that the Kim-clan progenitor was named S0nghan rather than Alchi. The in-

scription on the stele set up at the tomb of King H1ngd0k (826836) as well as

the inscriptions on the pagoda memorials for Chinch0l Taesa and Chingong

Taesa, both written by Choe 4nwi in the early tenth century, all claim that the

progenitor of the Kim-clan kings was S0nghan (though the name is written

slightly differently in the Chingong inscription). One theory suggests that the

name S0nghan comes from a term indicating a village chief, since the s0ng el-

ement of S0nghan means star, pronouncedpy0l in Korean, the sound of which

corresponds somewhat to the words p0l andpul (meaning a plain), while the

han element can be connected with kan, which signifies a high rank.50

In the opening account of the reign of Michu Isag1m, the Silla annals

describe the lineage of descent from Alchi to the earliest Kim-clan king, Michu

(261284).51 According to that arrangement, Alchis first-generation descendant

was Sehan.52 The name Sehan seen here is similar in pronunciation to S0ng-

han, which might make one wonder if S0nghan was not the same person as

Alchis son, Sehan. In fact, Maema Kyosaku concluded that King Munmus

fifteenth-generation ancestor S0nghan and the figure of corresponding genera-

tional rank, Sehan, were the same individual; however, his explanation does not

follow a natural flow of logic.53

The inscription on King H1ngd0ks tomb stele makes mention of Taejo

S0nghan, showing that S0nghan was considered a taejo (grand ancestor) at

that time. Similarly, the inscription on the tomb stele dedicated to King Munmus

younger brother, Kim Inmun (629694), also contains a passage referring to

Taejo, King Han. In the account given in the Silla annals for the fourth month

of 687 in the reign of King Sinmun, the title Great King Taejo also appears in

the text of a sacrifice to the royal ancestral shrine. It is fairly certain that this

title refers to King Michu. This may be inferred from the fact that the preface

to the Treatise on Sacrifices in chapter thirty-two of the Samguk sagi states

that when King Hyegong (r. 765780) first established the Five-Shrine sys-

tem, the Kim-clan progenitor was King Michu and that the Great King Tae-

jong (Muy0l) and the Great King Munmu were given the unalterable status of

divinities.54 Kinoshita Reijin has offered a new explanation to account for the

confusion surrounding the problem of the Kim-clan progenitor. He suggested

that notions concerning the progenitor of the Kim-clan kings changed along with

the shifts and transformations that affected the course of Silla history and that

these changes were directly related to changes in the royal authority. Accord-

ing to this view, the progenitor was said to have been S0nghan in the early period,

and it was the practice to sacrifice to him as progenitor during the time of his



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descendant, King Naemul. However, at some point in Sillas middle period af-

ter King Munmus tomb stele was inscribed, a new tradition was established

wherein either Alchi or Michu was revered as progenitor. Moreover, these two

progenitor traditions, one arranged with Michu as the progenitor with Naemul

descended from him and the other with Alchi as the progenitor with S0nghan

descended from him, were finally united into a single lineage tradition.55

Taoist Thought

We have seen in the section dealing with shamanism that in the shaman-

istic worldview the dwelling place for spirits was typically a mountain peak.

Accordingly, mountains were where many key figures in Korean mythology de-

scended from the heavens, and the progenitor myth of the Kim clan conforms

nicely with this pattern. It appears in the following majestic words in the in-

scription on King Munmus tomb stele: His fifteenth-generation ancestor, King

S0nghan, descended from the heavens, born as a divine spirit on the peak of im-

mortals, and thereupon founded his state.

The birth of this ancestor-spirit on a mountain peak appears in greater de-

tail in Kim Pusiks commentary at the end of the Silla annals. Around the

eleventh year in the reign of Kory0s King Yejong (1116), Kim Pusik attended

Yi Charyang on a mission to the Song capital of Bianjing (modern Kaifeng).

On a visit to the statue of an immortal goddess in the Youshen Hall, the Song

academician Wang Fu informed them that the goddess was a spirit of Kory0,

saying, In ancient times, an imperial princess became pregnant before mar-

riage, thereby drawing the suspicions of others, so she crossed the sea to Chin-

han, where she bore a son. The son became the first ruler of Haedong, and the

princess became an earth-goddess, residing for a long time at S0ndo-san. This

is her image you now behold.56

Kim Pusik added that in 1110 in the reign of Yejong he had personally

seen a text titled Sacrifice to the Eastern Spirit Sage Mother, written by the

Song state courier-envoy Wang Xiang, who had been sent on a mission to

Kory0.57 A passage in that text read, She bore a worthy son who founded a na-

tion. Kim noted that this Eastern Spirit was the same as the sage spirit of S0ndo-

san, but he did not know when her son reigned as king.

A related account in the Samguk yusa, titled The Sage Mother of S0ndo

Happily Performs Worthy Deeds, states that the Buddhist nun Chihye dreamed

that the spirit-mother of S0ndo-san had given her specific directions on how to

go about repairing the image hall of Anh1ng-sa temple.58 The account notes

that the spirit-mother was originally a princess of the Chinese imperial house

and that her name was Sousu (K. Saso). She had learned the arts of the Taoist

immortals and had crossed the sea to become an earth-goddess. The author of

the Samguk yusa claims that Sousu first came to Chinhan and bore a sage son,

who became the first ruler of Tongguk, and that this possibly refers to the ap-



15/27

pearance of Hy0kk0se and Aly0ng. Unfortunately, such theories are likely just

imaginary links between China and the indigenous Taoist-style thought and

mountain-spirit beliefs of Silla.

In fact, Taoist thought and schools were quite widespread in Silla. As Cha

Chuhwan noted in his exhaustive examination of the subject, the development

of Taoist thought was typically related to beliefs in mountain spirits.59 Consid-

ering the geographical features of the Ky0ngju region, surrounded on all sides

by mountain peaks, one may surmise that the seeds of Taoist thought proved

quite fertile in Silla. The Samguk sagi records that in the eighth month of 413,

in the reign of Sils0ng Isag1m, the clouds rose up from Nangsan, appearing in

form like a towered pavilion when viewed from a distance, while the air was

filled with a fragrance that lingered for some time. The king declared this an in-

dication of the descent of a Taoist spirit and that the site should be considered

auspicious ground, and he therefore decreed that people were no longer to cut

down the trees of Nangsan.60 But perhaps the best-known example of the strong

sense of esteem that the lay folk of Silla felt toward Taoism was the youth train-

ing and military corps called hwarang-do. The inscription on the bell of King

S0ngd0k (also called the Emille Bell), cast in 771 in the reign of King Hyegong,

contains a passage that reads,

Upon the East Sea where the host of immortals is hidden,Where the land rests in a peach valley utopia,And the boundaries stretch to the Eastern horizon,There is our countryunited in a single home.

We may surmise from this passage that the Silla court of the time actively pro-

moted a view that described Silla as a land inhabited by immortals.

The Samguk sagi relates the singular tale of how in the seventh month of

587 in the reign of King Chinpy0ng, King Naemuls seventh-generation de-

scendant, Taese departed for lands across the sea.61 In that tale, Taese relates his

desires to his acquaintance, the monk Tamsu,62 saying, If I could but transform

my mortal bones and learn the way of the immortals, I would ride the winds

aimlessly and fly away beyond the skies. It is known that this transformation

of bone had been used from ancient times to treat disease and is thought to re-

fer to the so-called art of wondrous healing (shenfang). Moreover, the riding

the wind and flying through the skies are magic arts featured in Taoist teach-

ings. In summary, the tale of Taese suggests that Taoist thought and the asso-

ciated magic of religious Taoism were prevalent in Silla society.

In connection with Taoist thought in Silla society, Cho P0pchong has re-

cently proposed a view emphasizing a direct Chinese influence. Cho hypothe-

sized that groups of people who associated themselves with forms of occult Tao-

ism prevalent in China since the Warring States period, especially in the regions

of Yan and Qi, migrated into the Chinhan society that preceded the Silla state



16/27

around the time of the dynastic shift from Qin to Han. Making reference to

records in the Silla annals that concern the lineage of kings from the S0k clan,

Cho further surmised that this migrating group might have influenced the S0k

clan from the days of Tarhae.63

We have already dealt with the Tarhae legend, but in addition to the ac-

counts examined previously, there exists another from the Silla annals. In the

third month of 59 c.e., in the reign of Tarhae Isag1m, dark clouds are said to

have floated like a blanket over the kings head while he ascended Toham-san

and to have remained for a long time before dispersing.64 The shamanistic abil-

ities of P0rhyu Isag1m, grandson of Tarhae, have also been mentioned. Ac-

cording the Samguk sagi, in the year P0rhyus descendant, Nahae Isag1m, as-

sumed the throne, there was no rainfall from the first month to the fourth month,

yet on the day of Nahaes accession there was a heavy rainfall, an event cele-

brated by the people of Silla.65 Similarly, P0rhyus great-grandson, Yurye

Isag1m, is recorded as having been conceived and born in an unusual fashion.

One night when Yuryes mother, Pak-ssi, was walking, the light from a star en-

tered her mouth, and she thereby became pregnant, and on the day she gave

birth to Yurye a strange fragrance filled the birth chamber.66 Cho P0pchong fur-

ther draws attention to the peculiar fact that such miraculous tales of the S0k

clan do not have counterparts in those records concerning the Pak- and Kim-

clan kings.

State Sacrifice Rituals

The sacrifices practiced by an ancient state can serve as an indicator of

the developmental stages and social phases of state authority, as well as illus-

trate its beliefs. Records in the Samguk sagi describing state sacrifice ceremonies

are relatively abundant, in particular in the Treatise on Sacrifices in chapter

thirty-two, which describes the categories of state sacrifice practiced and

identifies the various sites of such ceremonies. More comprehensive examina-

tions of this subject have been undertaken, but for the purposes of this survey

Silla state sacrifices have been classified into three groups: ceremonies for the

sacrifice to heaven, sacrifices at the Progenitor Shrine, and sacrifices at the Na-

tional Shrine (sin-gung).

Ceremonies for the sacrifice to heaven had been present since the Samhan

period. TheDongyi zhuanof the Sanguo zhi records that seasonal sacrifices were

practiced in the fifth and tenth months in Samhan society, and scholars are in

agreement that this sacrifice to heaven is strongly reminiscent of farming ritu-

als. Furthermore, the Account of the Han in the Sanguo zhi mentions that the

townships of the various Samhan states permitted the existence of a kind of

sanctuary called sodo. We may surmise that this practice originated from vil-

lage sacrifices centered on the village community and that the sacrificial cere-

mony itself developed out of these as the authority of the state increased.



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Even after a centralized Silla state emerged from the previous era of con-

federated kingdoms, the old ceremonies for the sacrifice to heaven continued

to be observed. This is demonstrated by an inscription on a stone stele discov-

ered in 1988 in Pongpy0ng, Ulchin-gun, Ky0ngsang-pukto. It was erected in

524 in the reign of King P0ph1ng, after a disturbance in K0b0lmora, in the mod-

ern Ulchin region on the East Sea, brought about when locals from that area put

up a resistance to Silla rule, ultimately resulting in the mobilization of Silla troops

and the suppression of the resistance. The court memorialized the drastic mea-

sures taken on that occasion by inscribing them on a stele displayed at the site

of the incident. The inscription states that the officials in charge were sent out

in the name of the six divisions of Silla and made to capture an ox with which

to hold some kind of ceremony and that the natives implicated in the uprising

were punished by flogging.

This ceremony involving the slaying of an ox also appears in the inscrip-

tion on a Silla stele discovered in 1989 at Naengsu-ri, Y0ngil-gun, Ky0ngsang-

pukto. This stele was erected in 503 in the reign of King Chij1ng after a dispute

arose among locals of the region over the ownership of some property. The re-

sulting judgments by chief members of the court were engraved on the stone,

and the ceremony wherein the courts decision was publicly announced included

the slaying of an ox. From these examples it is known that even early in the sixth

century, when the Silla court enforced laws based on a Chinese-style legislative

system, ritual sacrifices involving oxen were still observed.

Though such rituals appear to be ancient traditions held over from the

Samhan period, other theories emphasize the influence of Chinese laws upon

the ceremonies. Sin Chongw0n, for example, felt that since the Puy0 ritual slay-

ing of oxen, appearing in theDongyi zhuan of the Sanguo zhi, was used in all

instances merely as a fortune-telling device and not as a sacrifice to heaven, a

connection could not be made between the Puy0 practice and that of Silla. How-

ever, in the rituals of Silla are elements similar to Chinese sacrificial rites

wherein an ox is killed when forging a pact. In summary, Sin states, the ox-

slaying ceremony seen in the stele inscriptions should be viewed as a Chinese

import of ritual customs, parallel to Sillas adoption of Confucian ideology in

the early sixth century, upon which Chinese-style sacrifice and funeral stan-

dards were promulgated.67 Choe Kwangsik disagrees, however, conceding that

the ox-slaying ceremony was essential to the sacrifice rites, but arguing that

such ceremonies had been practiced even before Chinese-style laws and cus-

toms were introduced.68

As noted previously, ceremonies involving mountain peaks had been prac-

ticed in Silla society from early times, and the Treatise on Sacrifices in the

Samguk sagi presents in great detail the various state sacrifices centered on fa-

mous mountains and great rivers, graded in classes of major, medium, and mi-

nor sacrifices. Sin Chongw0n surmised that this codification occurred during



18/27

the unification period under the influence of Chinese sacrificial forms and after

the introduction of Chinese laws into Silla. Noting that the organization into

major, medium, and minor sacrifices took on a unique ritual form, he suggested

that such an arrangement could have facilitated the centralization of authority

throughout the state. After examining the introduction by King Sinmun (r.

681692) of the Five-Shrine system and the establishment of the altars for the

spirits of earth and grain under King S0nd0k (r. 780785), and hypothesizing

that both constituted reorganizations of the existing system of sacrificial rites,

Sin inferred that the contents of the Treatise on Sacrifices in the Samguk sagi

merely represented the final state of this transformative process.69 On another

note, Choe Kwangsik presented the view that importance afforded mountains

and rivers were significant not only in a religious sense, but also paralleled prac-

tical military objectives. Thus major sacrifices served to protect the capital city,

medium sacrifices the states domain, and minor sacrifices the local regions.70

According to the Samguk sagi, the shrine for Hy0kk0se was first estab-

lished in the first month of 6 c.e., in the reign of Namhae Chachaung.71 The

Treatise on Sacrifices agrees and further states that seasonal sacrifices were

made there, with the kings younger sister present to officiate over them. The

Samguk sagi also records that the Progenitor Shrine was repaired in the second

month of 170, in the reign of Adalla Isag1m, and that in the fourth month of

485, in the reign of Soji Maripkan, the number of households responsible for

maintenance of the shrine was increased to twenty.72 Inoue Hideo, who saw the

ancient kings of Korea as rulers possessing shamanistic abilities, asserted that

the Progenitor Shrine displayed some common characteristics with the Spring

Festivals preliminary celebration sacrifice, wherein prayers were given for a

good harvest. Thus, he interpreted the addition of households for shrine main-

tenance in 485 as an indication that the harvest ceremonies hitherto practiced

at sacred grounds on mountains or riverbanks were for the first time practiced

at a Confucian shrine.

According to the Samguk sagis accounts of the Silla reigns up to that of

Soji, nearly every newly succeeding king visited the Progenitor Shrine in the

first or second month of the year following his accession to pay respects and of-

fer sacrifices. This practice seems to have been part of the accession ceremony

itself. However, even if one ignores the changes in royal lineage from Pak to

S0k and then to Kim, it would still be difficult to presume that successive gen-

erations of kings all held the shrine of Hy0kk0se in equal esteem. Especially

when one considers that the four-season sacrifice was a ceremony performed at

ancestral temples in China, one cannot but wonder if a connection might not

have been drawn between the Chinese practice and the Progenitor Shrine

sacrifice. In view of these points, some theorists maintain that the records in the

Samguk sagi describing the kings personal sacrifice at the Progenitor Shrine

were all fabricated accounts modeled after the example of ancestral shrines or



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the national shrine.73 However, views that go so far as to deny the existence of

the Progenitor Shrine itself have always triggered strong debate.

The National Shrine (sin-gung) appeared in the wake of the Progenitor

Shrine. The Samguk sagis Silla annals record that in the second month of 487

the National Shrine was established at the progenitors birthplace in Na1l.74 The

same works Treatise on Sacrifices, however, dates the establishment of the

National Shrine to the reign of King Chij1ng (r. 500514), a difference of a few

years. Fortunately, further clues can be found in the inscription on King

Munmus tomb stele, which indicates that by Munmus reign seven generations

of kings had passed since the ceremony for the sacrifice to heaven had been es-

tablished. This ceremony for the sacrifice to heaven must refer to the ritual

sacrifice at the National Shrine. Counting back seven generations from King

Munmu finds one in the reign of King Chij1ng. Even so, Chij1ng and his pred-

ecessor Soji were cousins, and both reigned at the end of the Maripkan period.75

Therefore, it is of little consequence whether the National Shrine was established

at the end of the fifth century or at the beginning of the sixth century. Instead,

it must be remembered that the period encompassed by the reigns of Soji and

Chij1ng was one in which Silla was transformed from a confederated kingdom

to a centralized state and the structure of the state was assembled. In particular,

it was a time when the influence of Chinese sacrificial ceremonies effected ma-

jor changes to Sillas own practices.

Opinions are divided over the identity of the spirit worshiped in the Na-

tional Shrine. In the Samguk sagi, records concerning the Silla kings personal

sacrifices at the Progenitor Shrine do not appear after the fourth month of 485,

and since the National Shrine first appears in place of the Progenitor Shrine from

495, it seems that the National Shrine was established to take the place of the

Progenitor Shrine. If this is the case, it is possible that the National Shrines ob-

ject of worship remained the spirit of Hy0kk0se. However, by that time more

than a hundred years had lapsed since the Kim clan of the Naemul lineage had

secured the kingship, and it is much more likely that the object of worship in

the National Shrine was instead the Kim clans progenitor, perhaps King

Naemul. Therefore, certain scholars have presented unique viewpoints with re-

gard to this issue. For example, Sin Chongw0n suggests that at the time of the

shrines foundation the spirit worshiped at the National Shrine was that of King

Naemul. But in the time of King Chij1ng, when relations were forged with the

Northern Wei state and the Chinese system of sacrifices to heaven and earth was

adopted, the sacrifices at the National Shrine were accordingly altered in favor

of a sacrifice to heaven. On the other hand, Choe Kwangsik maintains that the

spirit of the National Shrine was not an ancestral spirit such as a Pak or Kim

progenitor but was instead a vast multitude of spirits of heaven and earth. Ac-

cording to this view, what appeared in place of the Progenitor Shrine was not

the National Shrine but rather the Five-Shrine system established under King



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Sinmun, while the National Shrine was replaced under King S0nd0k (780785)

with altars to the spirits of earth and grain. In contrast to both is Hamada Kosaku,

who is skeptical even about the existence of the Progenitor Shrine in ancient

Silla. He maintains that the ceremony for the sacrifice to heaven, the practice

of which had begun only during the Maripkan period, gradually developed in

the period preceding the establishment of the National Shrine. In the beginning,

Hamada argues, such sacrifices had the characteristics of a royal accession cere-

mony, and when replaced in Sillas late period by the Hundred Seats Assembly

of Hwangnyong-sa temple, this then took on the characteristics of an accession

ceremony.76

Portent Ideology (Natural Calamities and Auspicious Omens)

Just as numerous as records concerning political affairs in the Silla an-

nals are those that record extraordinary natural phenomena appearing in the

heavens and on the earth. These phenomena hold greater importance the fur-

ther back they appear in the chronological record. Sin Hy0ngsik conducted an

analysis of all recorded events in the Silla annals and grouped them into polit-

ical events, extraordinary phenomena (portents), warfare, and international re-

lations. He further divided those records into chronological periods, and his

analysis showed that during the first period (the reigns from Hy0kk0se to Soji)

records concerning portents occupied a total of 38.5 percent of the total, sec-

ond only to the 38.7 percent yielded by politically related records. Proceeding

forward to periods when Sillas military and political affairs were more active

and numerous, there is a corresponding drop in the percentage of records con-

cerning portents; however, in the fifth period (the reigns from Chins0ng to

Ky0ngsun), the portent-related records again ranked second with a percentage

of 28.6 percent, after records concerning political affairs, which took up 48.7

percent of the total.77

That there are so many records concerning natural calamities in the Silla

annals is directly related to issues surrounding the compilation of the Samguk

sagi itself. The dynastic histories of China, beginning with the Han shu, pro-

vided separate sections for treatises on astronomy and the Five Agents, in which

extraordinary phenomena of all types were recorded. However, in the Samguk

sagi, where treatises on such topics were not provided, details of all extraordinary

phenomena, both celestial and terrestrial, no matter how trifling, were recorded

in the Silla annals portion.

Without exception, the deaths of Silla kings of the early period are

recorded as though their passing had been foretold by some extraordinary nat-

ural phenomenon. It is recorded that the death of Hy0kk0se occurred after an

ominous thunderstorm, and the deaths of all successive kings were likewise as-

sociated with extraordinary phenomena: the death of Namhae was preceded by

a plague of locusts, Yuris by heavy rains and winds, Tarhaes by heavy winds,



21/27


22/27

King Muy0l after noting the occurrence of strange phenomena in the former re-

gions of Paekche, which Muy0l had conquered the previous year. If this de-

piction of history is based on Confucian notions of portents, implying that heaven

was inflicting a penalty on the king for his lack of virtue, then a fundamental

inconsistency arises concerning the basic standpoint of the Samguk sagis au-

thors that Muy0ls conquest of Paekche was morally justified.

The Silla annals contain occasional references to such typical auspicious

portents as red crows, white pheasants, divine sparrows, blue oxen or white fish,

as well as trees joined by intertwining branches and auspicious grain. Since such

portents were thought to appear attendant upon the beneficent rule of the king,

these records are always presented as auspicious omens. They also conform to

the Chinese view of portents that illustrate the abundant virtues of the king, which

may explain their inclusion in the records. However, one characteristic worthy

of attention is the fact that among the auspicious portent records in the Silla an-

nals are those taken directly from Chinese historical sources. For example, in

the sixth month of the tenth year of the reign of King Soji (488), a turtle with

six eyes was presented from Tongyang and upon its carapace were written char-

acters. In the treatise on portents in chapter twenty-eight of the Chinese dynastic

history Song shu, compiled in the late fifth century, is a record that states that

on the day bing-yin in the eighth month of 466 in the reign of the Song emperor

Ming, a six-eyed turtle was seen at Changshan mountain in Dongyang and that

turtle had divining diagrams written on its body.83 Judging from the corre-

sponding elements, even to the place name Dongyang (K. Tongyang), it seems

that the record in the Silla annals was copied directly from the Song shu.84

Conclusion

In this article the indigenous religious practices of Silla, as presented in

the Samguk sagis Silla annals, have been divided into several categories and

examined in a very summary fashion. The authors primary objective through-

out this work has been to present a review of the research efforts of historians.

A discussion of the relationships between those indigenous religions and poli-

tics and society, as well as a functional approach to the indigenous religions

themselves, needs to be carried out by others in the future. The lack of such

comprehensive studies is a general limitation affecting the research of indige-

nous religions in Korea.

From the Silla annals we may confirm the existence of very diverse and

mutually interwoven beliefs and religions present in the society of the long-lived

kingdom of Silla. In particular, these religions regulated the spiritual lives of

both the ruling class and the common people for a long period, while contend-

ing with the imported thought and politics of Confucianism and Buddhism for

a leading position in Silla society. Although Buddhism and Confucianism may

appear on the surface to have won out over the indigenous religions, there was



23/27

in fact no clear victor. The shift between old and new ideals and religions was

never complete. For example, although Buddhism enjoyed the status of a state

religion with the full support of the Silla royal house, it failed to prevail in a di-

rect confrontation over indigenous shamanism, instead inheriting some shaman-

istic elements and thereby taking a course that led to modern Korean Buddhism.

The Taoism later adopted by Silla proved to be no exception to this pattern.

Therefore, by the end of the Silla period the various religious traditions had taken

on a highly intermixed aspect. In fact, the situation appears to have continued

fundamentally unchanged through the Kory0 period that succeeded Silla.

If viewed in this manner, it would not be incorrect to say that the people

of Silla, throughout their long history, never realized an abrupt spiritual revo-

lution. Despite Sillas considerable political capacity realizing the grand enter-

prise of unification of the Korean peninsula, the conservative character of its

people remained virtually unchanged up to the moment the state itself perished.

This was due primarily to the effects of geographical isolation. The Sobaek

mountain range provided Silla with a natural barrier, which for a long time pro-

tected Silla from the invasions of Kogury0 and Paekche. Once peoples migrat-

ing from the north crossed the Sobaek range, they were surrounded and cut off

by this geographical obstruction. Due to the unique natural environment of this

region, historically known as Y0ngnam, its populace became insular by nature,

and the process of homogenization could not help but run its course in a rela-

tively brief period of time. Gradually, with the passage of time, these people

came to possess a tenacious sense of regional identity.

Some leading scholars of religious studies in Korea, taking note of the in-

digenization, or Koreanization, of Christianity today, maintain that the foun-

dation of the religious consciousness of the Korean people is governed by the

shamanistic world view. But considering the Koreanization process Buddhism

underwent in the Silla period, we may infer that additional elements were in

play. Such elements seem to derive not only from the natural environment of

Silla but also from the mentality of the Silla people and their views toward an

overall syncretization of religions and ideologies. Such can be seen in the ex-

amples of W0nhyo (617686), who sought to understand Buddhism from a syn-

cretic viewpoint that transcended the contentions of the various sects, and Choe

Chiw0n (b. 857), who sought the basic ideology of the hwarang groups in a

fusion of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.

NOTES

1. Scholars of indigenous religions tell us that after the development of a terres-trial cult, centered on the worship of an earth-spirit, in the early agricultural phase ofsociety, shamanism appeared as a celestial cult that had as its core a belief that the heav-ens were deeply connected to the ideas and forms of nomadic lifestyles.

2. Samguk sagi, ed. Yi Py0ngdo (Seoul: Uryu Munhwasa, 1977).



24/27

3. Kim Taemun was a high-ranking official of the chingol aristocracy. This pas-sage may have been based on his Kyerim chapch0n (Tales of Silla), a text that is no longer

extant.4. Sanguo zhi [History of the Three Kingdoms] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1959),

852.5. Kim Ch0ngbae, Sodo 1i ch0ngchisaj0k 1imi [The politico-historical signi-

ficance of the Sodo], Y0ksa hakpo, 70 (1978); also inHanguk kodae 1i kukka kiw0n kwahy0ngs0ng [The origins and formation of the state in ancient Korea] (Seoul: Kory0Uni-versity Press, 1986), 15354.

6. Sanguo zhi, 841.7. Samguk sagi, 15.8. Samguk yusa, ed. Choe Nams0n (Seoul: S0mun Munhwasa, 1996), 5859.9. Inoue Hideo,Introduction to the Ancient History of KoreaThe King and

Religion (Neirakusha, 1978), 3738.10. Samguk sagi, 1.11. Samguk sagi, 67.12. Choe Kwangsik, Samguk sagi Sojae nogu 1i s0nggok [The characteristics

of elderly women recorded in the Samguk sagi], Sachong, 25 (1981): 713.13. Samguk sagi, 31315.14. Yi Kibaek, Samguk sidae pulgyo ch0nnae wa k1 sahoej0k s0nggy0k [The

reception of Buddhism in the Three Kingdoms period and its social significance], Y0ksahakpo, 6 (1954); also inA Study of the History of Silla Thought(Seoul: Ilchogak, 1986),29.

15. Son Chintae, Chos0n kodae sansin

1i s0nge chwi hay

0 [On the nature ofmountain spirits in ancient Korea], Chindan hakpo, 1 (1934); also in Chos0n minjok

munhwa 1i y0ngu [A study of the culture of the Korean people] (Seoul: Uryu Munhwasa,1948), 26475.

16. Sanguo zhi, 852.17. Samguk sagi, 394.18. Choe Nams0n, Yuktang Choe Nams0n ch0njip [The complete works of Yuk-

tang Choe Nams0n], (Seoul: Hy0namsa, 1973), 2: 50.19. Samguk sagi, 42.20. Samguk yusa, 17985, entry titled W0ngwang Goes West to Study. The

Accounts of the Extraordinary (Sui-ch0n) was written by Pak Illyang (d. 1096) and is

no longer extant.21. Yi Py0ngdo, Hanguk kodae sahoe 1i ch0ngch0n [The spring belief in an-

cient Korean society], Chosen gakuho, 49 (1968); also inHanguk kodae sa y0ngu [Astudy of the history of ancient Korea] (Seoul: Pagy0ngsa, 1976), 78195.

22. Samguk sagi, 1.23. Samguk yusa, 4345, entry titled Sillas Progenitor, King Hy0kk0se.24. Samguk sagi, 1.25. Samguk sagi, 32.26. Kim Sanggi, An Examination of the Foundation Legends in Korean History,

inAcademic Journal of K0nguk University, 5 (1964); also in Tongbangsa munchong[Discussions on eastern history] (Seoul: Seoul University Press, 1974), 37.

27. The primary works in this area are: Yi Us0ng, Samguk yusa sojae ch0yangs0lhwa 1i ilbuns0k [Analysis of the Ch0yong legend recorded in the Samguk yusa], inHanguk chungse sahoe y0ngu [A study of the society of Koreas middle period] (Seoul:Ilchogak, 1991), 16699; Yi Yongb0m, Ch0yong s0lhwa 1i ilgochalTangdaeis1llam sangin kwa Silla [An analysis of the Ch0yong legendSilla and Islamic mer-



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chants of the Tang period], Chindan hakpo, 32 (1969); also inHanman kyorusa y0ngu[A study of the history of Korean-Manchurian interchange] (Seoul: Tonghwa Press,

1989), 1356; Matsumae Ken, Dragon and Serpent Worship and the Royal Authorityof the ancient Korean People, Chosen gakuho, 57 (1970); also inAncient Traditionsand Court Sacrificial Ritual (Hanawa Shobo, 1974), 36994.

28. Samguk sagi, 4748.29. Mishina Akihide, A Study of the Tarhae TraditionThe Dragon King of

the East Sea and the State of Wa, Seikyu gakusu, 5 (1931): 71100; also inA Study ofthe Mythological Traditions of Japan and Korea (Yanagihara Shoten, 1943); also in re-vised form in The Collected Works of Mishina Akihide, (Heibonsha, 1972), 4: 263303.

30. Samguk sagi, 38.31. Samguk sagi, 44.32. Yi Yongb0m, Ch0yong s0lhwa 1i ilgochal, 20. The passages in theLushi

chunqiu are in the section titled Knowing Divisions in the twentieth chapter, Serv-ing the Lord.

33. Samguk sagi, 3.34. Samguk sagi, 6.35. Matsumae Ken, Dragon and Serpent Worship, 372.36. Samguk sagi, 117.37. Yi Us0ng, Samguk yusa sojae ch0yang s0lhwa 1i ilbuns0k, 169.38. Samguk sagi, 1.39. Samguk yusa, 4345.40. Mishina Akihide, On the Myth and Ceremony of the Appearance of Royal

Figures in Ancient Korea, Shirin, 18.13 (1936); also in Ancient Religion and Stateand Corn-spirit Belief, in The Collected Works of Mishima Akihide (Heibonsha, 1973),5: 37140, 475582.

41. Kumagai Osamu, The Gourds of the Korean Peninsula, Chosen gakuho, 101(1981); also in Peoples and Rituals of East Asia (Yuzangaku Shuppan, 1984), 5253, 58.

42. Samguk sagi, 2.43. Samguk yusa, 44.44. Samguk sagi, 67.45. Samguk yusa, 4748. Many of these early myths can be found in Peter H.

Lee, ed., Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, vol. 1 (New York: Columbia UniversityPress, 1993).

46. Mori Masao, The States of Nomadic Horseriding Peoples (Kodansha, 1967),12034.

47. Samguk sagi, 7.48. Samguk sagi, 127.49. Samguk yusa, 94.50. Maema Kyosaku, Concerning the Sequence of Silla Kings and Their Names,

Toyo gakuho, 15.2 (1925); also in Civilization of the Peninsula in Ancient Times(Fukuoka-shi: Matsuura Shoten, 1938), 3031.

51. Samguk sagi, 20.52. He is called Y0lhan in the account of Kim Alchi in the Samguk yusa (4849),

the first character being written slightly differently.

53. Maema Kyosaku, Concerning the Sequence of Silla Kings, 20.54. Samguk sagi, 313.55. Kinoshita Reijin, The Structure of the Progenitor Lineages of SillaCentered

Around the Kim-clan Progenitor, Chosenshi kenkyu kairon bunsho, 2 (1966); also in TheNihon Shoki and Ancient Korea (Hanawa Shobo, 1993), 23957, especially 25457.



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56. Samguk sagi, 12728.57. Wangs vice-envoy on this occasion was Zhang Bangchang, who was selected

as emperor of the puppet state of Chu in 1127 by the invading Ruzhen armies of the Jinstate.

58. Samguk yusa, 21617.59. Cha Chuhwan, Hanguk togyo sasang y0ngu [A study of Taoist thought in

Korea] (Seoul: Korean Culture Institute of Seoul National University, 1978), 14162.60. Samguk sagi, 28.61. Samguk sagi, 4142.62. In the Treatise on Music in chapter thirty-two of the Samguk sagi (318),

Tamsu is said to have composed an ode calledNalhy0nin.63. Cho P0pchong, An Examination of the Vocabulary Relating to the Hwarang,

inHwarang munhwa 1i sin y0ngu [A new study of Hwarang culture] (Seoul: Mund0ksa,1995), 42235.

64. Samguk sagi, 7.65. Samguk sagi, 16.66. Samguk sagi, 21.67. Sin Chongw0n, Yuk segi 1i h1isaeng rye [Sillas sacrificial rites of the early

sixth century], Chindan hakpo, 70 (1990); also in Silla chogi pulgyosa y0ngu [A studyof the history of Buddhism in early Silla] (Seoul: Minjoksa, 1992), 105114.

68. Choe Kwangsik, Kodae Hanguk 1i kukka wa chesa [State and sacrifice inearly Korea] (Hangilsa, 1994), 14647.

69. Sin Chongw0n, Samguk sagi chesaji y0ngu [A study of the treatise on

sacrifice in the Samguk sagi], Sahak y0

ngu, 38 (1984); also inBuddhism in Early Silla,7196.70. Choe Kwangsik, Kodae Hanguk, 31723.71. Samguk sagi, 4.72. Samguk sagi, 32.73. Yoshioka Kansuke, Chugoku Koshino shuhen koka eno denpa [The ex-

pansion of Chinese Jiaosi to neighboring statesFrom its appearance to the introduc-tion of Kawara Sillasin], Chosen gakuho, 108 (1983): 170.

74. Samguk sagi, 32.75. Sin Chongw0n, Samguk sagi chesaji y0ngu, 7584; Choe Kwangsik, Ko-

dae Hanguk, 205209.

76. Hamada Kosaku, The National Shrine, the Hundred Seats Assembly, andReligion of Silla, in Ceremony and State in East Asia, Lectures on Ancient JapaneseHistory (Gakuseisha, 1982), 9: 23338.

77. Sin Hy0ngsik, Samguk sagi y0ngu [A study of the Samguk sagi] (Seoul:Ilchogak, 1981), 2187.

78. Samguk yusa, 228.79. The primary publications concerning this subject are: Park Seong-rae (Pak

S0ngnae), Portents in Korean History,Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 47(1978); Inoue Hideo, Celestial Calamities and the Deaths of Kings, inIntroduction tothe Ancient History of Korea (Neirakusha, 1978); Sin Hy0ngsik, Hanguk kodaesa eiss0s0 chijin 1i ch0ngchj0k 1imi [The political significance of earth tremors in the his-

tory of ancient Korea], Tongyanghak, 14 (1984), also in Tongil Silla sa y0ngu [A studyof the history of Unified Silla] (Samjiw0n, 1990). However, the most comprehensive studyis: Yi H1id0k,Hanguk kodae chay0ngwan kwa wangdo ch0ngchi [The concept of na-ture in ancient Korea and rule by the kingly way] (Seoul: Hanguk Y0nguw0n, 1994).

80. Inoue Hideo, Celestial Calamities and the Deaths of Kings, 28796.



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81. Yi H1id0k,Hanguk kodae chay0ngwan kwa wangdo ch0ngchi, 3132, 89,13233, 19598, 22528, 22937.

82. Seo Y0ngdae, Samguk sagi wa w0nsi chonggyo [The Samguk sagi and in-digenous religions], Y0ksa hakpo, 105 (1985): 133.

83. Song shu (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1974), 801. Records of portents from awide range of Chinese history were here compiled from multiple sources.

84. Yi H1id0k, Hanguk kodae chay0ngwan kwa wangdo ch0ngchi, 13839.


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Lee Kidong_The Indigenous Religions of Silla

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