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Introduction to Korean Spirituality IntroductionIntroduction toto KOREANKOREAN ISBN 978-9934-18-456-7 SPIRITUALITYSPIRITUALITY 9 789934 184567 Introduction to KOREAN SPIRITUALITY Edited by Seo Jinseok and Kaspars Kļaviņš This work was supported by the Seed Program for Korean Studies under the auspices of the Republic of Korea Ministry of Education and the Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2015-INC-2230001) University of Latvia Introduction to Korean Spirituality. Edited by Seo Jinseok and Kaspars Kļaviņš. Riga: University of Latvia Press, 2019, 168 pages. This work was supported by the Seed Program for Korean Studies under the auspices of the Republic of Korea Ministry of Education and the Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2015-INC-2230001) Editors: Seo Jinseok, Kaspars Kļaviņš Authors: Jeong Duk Yi, Seo Jinseok, Kaspars Kļaviņš, Frank Kraushaar, Li Sanggum English language editor: Andra Damberga Layout: Andra Liepiņa Cover design: Andra Liepiņa © Jeong Duk Yi, Seo Jinseok, Kaspars Kļaviņš, Frank Kraushaar, Li Sanggum, 2019 © University of Latvia, 2019 https://doi.org/10.22364/inkos-2019 ISBN 978-9934-18-456-7 Contents Introduction by Kaspars Kļaviņš Comparative Review of Korean Religions ..................... 5 Seo Jinseok Outlines of Korean Shamanism . 24 Frank Kraushaar Poetry in Hanmun ( hansi), Religous Motives 漢詩 and Cultural Universalism in Pre-modern Korea ................ 104 Jeong Duk Yi Supernatural Wars in a Korean Rural Village: The Hegemonic Fights with Confucius, Ancestors, Local Gods, and Yahweh . 121 Seo Jinseok Heroines in Korean Myths . 135 Li Sanggum Modern Literature after the 1960s in Korea .................... 153 Comparative Review of Korean Religions Kaspars Kļaviņš Introduction to Korean Spirituality 5 Comparative Review of Korean Religions Introduction by Kaspars Kļaviņš University of Latvia, Department of Asian Studies Only through deep and nonbiased understanding of nuances pertaining to different traditions are we able to adequately react to culture differences manifested in the world outlook and mentality. Indeed, certain phenomena have developed over a longer period of time and have been maintained since ancient times. Moreover, in the secular Western civilisation of today they are a heritage of the religious world outlook of the past to the same extent as they are in the environment of residents of the Near and Middle East actively practising their religion. It is clearly manifest even in the works of the leading US thinkers who have developed the new ideological doctrines after the Cold War. The theory of clash of civilisations by Samuel Phillips Huntington, regardless of all politically correct disclaimers, unconsciously continues the idea voiced by the founder of the dualistic explanation of Western history – Augustine of Hippo (354–430) born in North Africa – on the permanent fight on the earth between the ‘God’s children’ and ‘Devil’s servants’, formulated in his work “The City of God” (“De civitate Dei”). Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama, as well as other similar contemporary Western thinkers in their turn, by justifying the exclusive correctness of the social model of globalised capitalism, which, in their opinion, concludes the chain of development of humankind, in a way continue the eschatological outlook of the medieval Catholicism and militant Protestantism of the early modern period regarding the arrival of the ‘last period of time’. Unfortunately, also in the Islamic countries the original tolerance has been replaced by activities of groups formed by aggressive fundamentalists, which plan total subordination or destruction of other cultures. Thereby, the best traditions of the once-so- tolerant Islam civilisation are fully destroyed. This is exactly why researchers of the strategic development of certain Middle Eastern countries have, among others, set forth the task of restricting “...the use of religion (a constant) to serve politics (a variable) and in the subordination of religion – with all its enormous spiritual power – to the world of politics, with all its manoeuvring, 6 Introduction to Korean Spirituality bargains and deals.” 1 A fundamentalism that cripples the spiritual message of any religion is not at all conservative. On the contrary, it is another, albeit dangerous and senseless type of modernism. In fact, religious fundamentalism is a product of globalisation, and it is disseminated by means of modern technologies. A real alternative to this world outlook may be the religious mentality of the Far East, which has maintained the tradition of harmony and coexistence regardless all shocks and challenges of the 20th and 21st centuries. In this context, the Korean model is particularly interesting, taking into account that this country has traditionally been an extremely flexible place of cultural synthesis, able to unite the elements of Western financially-economic and technological ideas with the integration within the framework of the family, kin, community and work teams characteristic to the East. It was exactly this capacity, which largely determined the recent development of Korea as a giant of science and economy. The repressions against religions executed in the past by the politically-economic elite never resulted in mass psychoses similar to European crusades or religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries and the public schism. The tragedy of modern Korean history with the contraposition of the ‘North’ and the ‘South’ is also largely a consequence of the mistakes committed by the US military expansion and transplantation of Western ideological fundamentalism both in the camps of Korean ‘communists’ and ‘capitalists’. Since the 1990s, numerous studies have been devoted to Korean religions, taking into account that even South Korea as one of the world’s leading industrial powers always attached a great significance to tradition. From a viewpoint of intellectual history, Korea is in many aspects a country of paradoxes, where apparently contradictory spiritual teachings used to coexist side by side over a long period of time, which could not have been possible, for example, in the Western society with its exaggerated dualism of ‘the good’ and ‘the evil’. A typical evidence to be quoted in this regard is an observation taken down during his expedition of 1886 by a missionary Homer B. Hulbert: “.... As a general thing we may say that the all-round Korean will be a Confucian when in society, a Buddhist when he philosophises and a spirit worshipper when he is in trouble.” 2 From the modern perspective, we can agree here with Robert Koehler that “... one overriding religious tendency in 1 Al-Suwaidi, J. S. The Mirage. Abu Dhabi: Emirates Center of Strategic Studies and Research, 2015, p. 140. 2 Buswell, Robert E.; Lee, Timothy S. Christianity in Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʿi Press, 2006, p. 376. Kaspars Kļaviņš Comparative Review of Korean Religions 7 the Korean population, and it is a preference for syncretism, seeking essential and common truths amidst diverse and often competing doctrines.” 3 The religious culture of Korea is multi-layered, it comprises different periods of history, different strata of the society, local and imported teachings, teachings, which have undergone extreme national and universal evolution over time, and teachings, which have strictly maintained ancient elements. A religion, which has retained a marked continuity and extremely ancient principles until this very day at the same time effectively adjusting to the needs of a modern society and fully integrating into it is the Korean Shamanism. Shamanism (musok or mugyo) was practiced in Korea before the arrival of Buddhism in the Three Kingdom Period (57 BC–AD 668). Korean Buddhism adopted a lot of shamanistic practices. But shamanism continued also after the adoption of Confucianism – a ruling teaching at the Joseon Dynasty. And despite the modernization of the society and the great historical changes this ancient set of beliefs survived the introduction of Catholic and Protestant Christianity. The term ‘Shamanism’ comes from the Tungusic languages of Siberia and much like stated by Kim Tae-go, is explained as “a traditional, religious phenomenon tied closely with nature and the surrounding world, in which a practitioner endowed with the special ability to enter a state of trance- possession can communicate with supernatural beings. This transcendental power allows the practitioner, the shaman, to satisfy human cravings for explanation, understanding and prophecy.” 4 The extreme viability of Korean shamanism, like the existence of applied magic, interpretation of dreams, folk healing and fortune telling in modern Europe or Middle East may be explained with the practical assignments, which are topical in the daily lives of people and which have always been solved by shamans. Having dropped many a theoretical scientific interpretation it seems that the essence of Korean shamanism has been most accurately justified by Seo Jinseok treating is as “the vernacular religion of Korea”. 5 This to a certain extent coincides with opinions of other scholars, for example, Im Seokje, who concludes that “... Korean shamanism is not a religion established by revelation from god or prophet, but a religion generated spontaneously. It was created from a variety 3 Koehler, R. Religion in Korea. Harmony and Coexistence. Seoul: Seoul Selection. The Korea Foundation, 2012, p. 6. 4 Ibid., p. 10. 5 Jinseok, S. New Perspective of Korean