본문 바로가기
  • Home
Basic Search

Witnessing the Evolution of a Geomancy Tale from a Classic Geomancy Doctrine to a Popular Folktale

  • Journal of Korean Literature
  • 2022, (46), pp.111-136
  • DOI : 10.52723/JKL.46.111
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Literature
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature
  • Received : September 30, 2022
  • Accepted : November 10, 2022
  • Published : November 30, 2022

Yoon, Hong-key 1

1뉴질랜드 오클랜드대학교 환경학부

Accredited

ABSTRACT

A classic in geomancy (known as “p’ungsu” in Korean and “fengshui” in Chinese) is Guo Pu’s Zangjing (葬經) or the Book of Burial. The book contains an important discussion on the nature of vital energy (saenggi: 生氣) and why it can be mysteriously transmitted to a living descendant. It argues that the relationships between deceased ancestors and their living descendants are like those between the tree branches and the tree trunk. Thus, the power of vital energy can be delivered from the ancestor in a gravesite to their living descendants. The explanation of vital energy in Zangjing is vague and metaphysical and is therefore difficult for a commoner to comprehend. That is perhaps why a clever geomancer might have produced a folk narrative on the subject in order to enlighten commoners about the transmission of vital energy from an ancestral grave to a living descendant. The legend of “the geomancer who recognised the auspicious site that will produce a prime minister” expounded the geomantic principle of vital energy without using any technical geomantic terms or jargons. A son in the legend became a prime minister, thanks to his biological father’s bones being placed in an auspicious grave site. However, when an eye socket of his father’s skull was attacked by a stick or a bundle of pine leaves, the son (the incumbent prime minister) suffered terrible pain in his eyes. When those foreign materials were removed from the skull, the pain in the eyes of the prime minister subsided. The legend effectively illustrated in an entertaining manner on how the deceased father’s bones affected the living son’s wellbeing. Out of the eight different versions of folk narratives dealing with the relationships between the deceased father’s grave and living son, seven versions did not contain a love story in them and simply focused on how the wellbeing of the father’s skull influenced the wellbeing of the living son. However, one folk narrative from Ch’ungch’ŏng Province included a love story in it. I classify this legend with a love story as an evolution from a legend to a folktale. Thus, one can witness an evolution of a folk narrative from a solemn geomantic theory in Zangjing to a legend and then to a folktale by incorporating a love story. Korean folk narratives dealings with geomantic topics are numerous in numbers and provide rich resources for the study of Korean culture, history and traditional society.

Statistics

  • 335 Viewed
  • 249 Downloaded

Tools

Issue List

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

Basic Search Advanced Search