2021년 가을 증산도문화사상 국제학술대회 기조강연 

 The culture of Immortals during the Joseon Dynasty : the beliefs of the Queen Mother of the West

Jeong  Jaeseo (Chair Professor, Youngsan University)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. The establishment of the myth of the Queen Mother of the West and its transmission to Korea

2.1 The establishment of the Queen Mother of the West myth

2.2 Transmission of the myth of the Queen Mother of the West to Korea

3. Acceptance of the Queen Mother of the West from the Three Kingdoms Period to the Goryeo Period

3.1 Acceptance Aspects of the Three Kingdoms Period and the Unified Silla Period

3.2 Acceptance Patterns in the Goryeo Period

3.3 Analysis

4. Acceptance of the Western Queen Mother in the Joseon Dynasty

4.1 Acceptance Aspects in Literature

4.2 Acceptance Aspects in Art

4.3 Analysis

5. Why does the Queen Mother of the West matters in Korea?

6. Conclusion

1 . Introduction

The Queen Mother of the West is a famous goddess in Chinese mythology and has been worshiped in Chinese cultural sphere since ancient times. This deity was a goddess in ancient myths, but she has the trajectory of being transformed into a female immortal when Taoism was established later.

However, it is worth paying attention to the fact that this goddess, whose name has been forgotten in modern Korea, constantly appeared in various aspects of Korean culture from the Three Kingdoms Period to the Joseon Dynasty.

Since Korea and China have maintained constant cultural intercourses since ancient times, it is difficult to enumerate the cases of characters of Chinese mythology and Taoism being accommodated into Korean culture, and some of them appeared very frequently. It seems that it is not rare to see them appear like the Queen Mother of the West this on the front stage of culture throughout the premodern period.

In the process of studying the acceptance of the Chinese mythology book “The Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海經, Shan Hai Jing)” in Korean culture, the author confirmed this fact and identified it as a kind of cultural “flow,” and raised the issue that it is necessary to do research focusing on the 'Queen Mother of the West phenomenon' in Korea.

It is of course indeed fortunate that there are at least a few papers by Korean scholars, dealing with the aspects of accommodation of her in the fields of classical literature, art history, and classical dance, focusing on the story and motif of the Queen Mother of the West. These papers are positively acknowledged as pioneering works in each field in deriving the meaning of the accommodation of the 'Queen Mother of the West in Korea. However, the question of “Why does the Queen Mother of the West matters in Korea?” can be answered based on the understanding of the accommodation the Queen Mother of the West. It would have been difficult to be answered from the existing discussions on the Queen Mother of the West motif in individual and separate fields.

In this paper, considering the above-mentioned achievements of the past, as the first work on the exploration of Korea's ‘Queen Mother of the West phenomenon’, I first outline the establishment of the Queen Mother of the West myth [including historical changes] and its introduction to and accommodation in Korea from the Three Kingdoms period to the Joseon Dynasty. Thus, it is intended to secure a macroscopic and integrated view by revealing the full picture of the accommodation of the Queen Mother of the West throughout the traditional period of Korea from the Three Kingdoms period to the Joseon Dynasty. Based on this point of view, I will examine the in-depth factors of the reason why the Queen Mother of the West was continuously accommodated in Korea from various aspects and a conclusion will be drawn.

증산도국제학술대회, 신선문화, 서왕모신앙

공유(greatcorea)

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