New Goddesses on Mt. Paektu: Transformation, Myth and Gender in Korean Landscape By Victoria Ten (Jeon Yeon Hwa) and Robert Winstanley- Chesters Edited by Alla Burman Artwork by Lee Sumi Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3 Prefatory Note ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter One: Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5 Transformation and Technologies of the self.................................................................................... 10 Mountain Practices ............................................................................................................................ 13 Chapter Outline ................................................................................................................................. 17 Chapter Two: Mountain Paektu ............................................................................................................ 21 Mt. Paektu History and Mythology................................................................................................... 22 Mt. Paektu and Tan’gun Traditions in North Korea ......................................................................... 30 Chapter Three: Mountain Gods and Immortals .................................................................................... 33 Sŏndo Culture in Contemporary Korea ............................................................................................ 34 Sanshin of Korea ............................................................................................................................... 37 East Asian Alchemy .......................................................................................................................... 40 East Asian Paintings of Mountains ................................................................................................... 44 1 Feminine Images of Divinity ............................................................................................................ 47 Chapter Four: Ki Suryŏn and GiCheon................................................................................................. 50 What is Ki Suryŏn? ........................................................................................................................... 50 Brief History of GiCheon .................................................................................................................. 52 The Setting for Practice and Basic GiCheon Positions ..................................................................... 56 The Principles of GiCheon Practice .................................................................................................. 58 Subtle Body Practices ....................................................................................................................... 64 Chapter Five: Routes to Mt. Paektu: The Young Kim Chŏng-suk ....................................................... 70 The Revolutionary Childhood of Kim Chŏng-suk ............................................................................ 76 Kim Chŏng-suk’s Education in Nationalism .................................................................................... 82 Chapter Six: Kim Chŏng-suk and the Transformation on Mt. Paektu .................................................. 89 The Emergence of Kim Chŏng-suk .................................................................................................. 91 Kim Chŏng-suk and the Road to and beyond Paektusan .................................................................. 95 Kim Chŏng-suk Beyond Paektu ...................................................................................................... 103 Kim Chŏng-suk as Charismatic Immortal ...................................................................................... 105 Chapter Seven: Ch’ŏnsŏnnyŏ, the Woman of Heaven in GiCheon .................................................... 108 GiCheon Legend: Bodhidharma and Ch’ŏnsŏnnyŏ (天仙女, Immortal Woman of Heaven)......... 109 The Context of the Legend ............................................................................................................. 112 GiCheon Connections to Sanshin (mountains gods) and Sŏnpŏp (techniques of immortality) ...... 117 The Woman of Heaven and Kim Chŏng-suk against the Topography of Mt. Paektu .................... 121 Chapter Eight: Korean Mountains and Modern Asceticism ............................................................... 125 Chapter Nine: Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 133 Index ................................................................................................................................................... 142 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................... 150 2 Abstract Mountain worship has always been one of the central features of Korean cultural landscape. While specific traditions of mountain culture have been utilized by North Korea’s leadership for the purpose of promotion of the state ideology, in South Korea mountain culture has acquired different forms. We argue that contemporary South Korean ki suryŏn (氣 修練) practices for perfection of mind and body constitute such manifestation of mountain-related culture. The ancient tradition of mountain gods (山神, sanshin) is a source from which the legendary figures of New Goddesses on Mt. Paektu emerge. We study origination and development of Paektu-related myths of South and North Korea, focusing on two divinities. The first goddess is Ch’ŏnsŏnnyŏ (天仙女, the Woman of Heaven) from the contemporary legend of GiCheon (氣天, Kich’ŏn), one of the ki suryŏn training methods. Our second goddess is Kim Chŏng-suk, the first wife of Kim Il-sŏng, founder of North Korea. In order to study simultaneous processes of origination and development of Mt. Paektu-related myths of South and North Korea, we consider sources from different fields of knowledge, such as folklore, art, philosophy and religion, politics, literary criticism, political science and environmental science. We apply an interdisciplinary approach to two seemingly incompatible processes of mythmaking of contemporary South and North Korea. The two countries, divided geographically, politically, economically, have for many centuries been one nation and one people, one language and one culture. This commonality has not disappeared into the depth of history, but comes to the cultural surface even in this most difficult contemporary time. Prefatory Note The book uses the McCune Reischauer romanization strategy created in 1937 by George McCune of the University of California, Berkeley and Edwin Reischauer of Harvard University. For the names of Korean authors, if they publish in English, we use their names as spelt in English, if they have published in Korean, we romanize their names according to 3 McCune Reischauer. For authors with Korean names, we cite the surname before the given name in the body of the text. We refer to the landscape of our interest as “Mt. Paektu”, and romanize all other texts, places and names of persons from North and South Korea in the McCune Reischauer format. On occasion we use the original Chinese, Korean Hancha, Korean Hangǔl/Chosǒngǔl or Japanese characters if their meaning is not easily translated. We refer to North and South Korea also as Northern and Southern Korea throughout the book. We use the Chicago Manual of Style (16th Volume) for our referencing, footnoting, and style. We use American spellings of the English language throughout the book. 4 Chapter One: Introduction New Goddesses on Mt. Paektu is a book about transformations. It continues the exploration of the various manifestations of the traditional East Asian goddesses done, for example, by T’ang (618–907) poets such as Chang Chiu-ling (Schafer 1980, 1).1 However in the book New Goddesses on Mt. Paektu the images of the goddesses are transformed not by ancient poets but by contemporary residents of North and South Korea.2 We examine the processes by which ancient goddesses rise from archaic layers of culture and come into being and action in modern time and space. New Goddesses on Mt. Paektu are constructed in modern South and North Korea as models for emulation. Our first contemporary heroine is a Woman of Heaven from South Korean mythology, the second is a real heroine Kim Chǒng-suk, who became a “revolutionary immortal” in North Korean mythography. These goddesses of today might look and dress differently, but their connection to older traditions are still visible. These goddesses in the pages of our book connect intimately to famous Mt. Paektu, which in our times has increased in importance and conceptual stature. Mt. Paektu, considered an ancestral mountain during the Koryŏ (918 – 1392) and Chosŏn (1392 – 1910) dynasties, began to gain further cultural and political currency in the Korea of the late 18th century (Kang Sŏk-hwa 2011), eventually becoming a symbol of Korean nation in the 20th century.3 The Korean Peninsula is now divided into two sovereign bodies, split by a geographic and political