Predictions and Their Social Resonance in the Goryeo Society: With a focus on “Cham(讖)” (고려시대의 예언과 그 사회적 반향 -‘讖’을 중심으로-)

Sooyoun Kim (김수연)

Predictions and Their Social Resonance in the Goryeo Society: With a focus on “Cham(讖)”

The Review of Korean History
2022, (145), pp.7-50
Publisher : The Historical Society Of Korea
Research Area : Humanities > History
Received : February 11, 2022
Accepted : March 3, 2022
Published : March 30, 2022

Sooyoun Kim ¹

¹국사편찬위원회

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study set out to examine the content and operative modes of “Cham[prediction]”s that spread across the Goryeo society and investigate their impacts and outcomes on the society those days. The study first examined books of predictions that were circulated in the Goryeo society to figure out the nature of predictions in the society. In Goryeo, a variety of Docham-seos[Books on Docham(圖讖)] were in circulation including Doseon-gi (道詵記), Sinji-bisa (神誌秘詞), and Haedong-birok (海東秘錄). During the reign of King Yejong(睿宗), in particular, they published Haedong-birok to commune with the books on yin(陰) and yang(陽) and geography that had been passed around. It was an operation for the government to supervise and control “Cham”s. The “Cham”s that were spread in Goryeo were categorized based on their content. They mainly contained methods to prolong the fate of a state, content about the collapse of a dynasty and the foundation of a new country, and predictions about disasters or the future of an individual. It was apparent that “Cham”s had a broad spectrum in the Goryeo society. The books of predictions and the content of “Cham”s that were circulated in the Goryeo society had the following political implications: first, “Cham” had “room” for interpretations, which means that they interpreted and utilized the content of parts that met a political need; and secondly, the Goryeo society basically had trust in “Cham”s, but there were critical viewpoints of them, too. The keynote was to recognize predictions about the foundation of a state as they concerned the basis of a country and were thus accepted as part of the inviolable territory. This may provide evidence that predictions and their interpretations were quite political. Being afraid that “Cham”s might be used for negative purposes such as a revolt, politicians supervised the spread of “Cham” among the population, which indicates that “Cham” had considerable power of social influence. “Cham” contained the desire of people that talked and made use of them. “Cham”s were called predictions, but they were not necessarily about future events. Some kind of rationality was granted to “Cham”s by putting the desire of people in the clothes of predictions, which suggests the social significance of “Cham.”

KEYWORDS

Cham(讖), prediction, Doseon(道詵), transfer of the capital(遷都), children’s song(童謠), extend dynastic rule(延基業), Mokja-deukguk(木子得國, 木子 gain a country)

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