• Readings in Early Korean Literature, Selections and Introductions
Second Round, Week of July 9, to be completed by Sunday July 8, 6 pm
For discussion (and further notes): What do the stories seem to be about? Are there themes that connect Lady Suro with the story of Ch'ôyong and then in turn to the story of King Mu, pp. 18-24? Characters? Types? Materials? Issues? Cultural practices? Other?
What were the circumstances of the compilation itself? Who wrote the stories down? When? And can we infer, why?
Re the story of Ch'oyong and the role of women, see pp 101-122, esp the last two pp, 121-122, and the retelling of the story, 112-114. How does that get set up? Does it work, to bring the woman to center stage?
Hyun Kim raised a set of Questions re 단심가. I'd note additionally p 32 in EKP for the two sijo, 145-147 for more on the two sijo, pp 38-40 for the 고려사 account of Cheong's death at the hands of T'aejong, and 145-147 for more on the sijo and the phrase 일편단심 in the Story of Ch'unhyang.
To compare the story of Lady Suro, Choyong and King Mu, it is necessary first to make the main storyline of each story clear. These three stories all have at least one important song in them. In the story of Lady Suro, the sea spirit takes Lady Suro away because of her incomparable beauty, so the whole villagers in the region sing a same song urging the sea spirit to return her. The sea spirit then brings her back.
ReplyDeleteIn the story of Choyong, a beauty, the one indulging in the beauty and a song to get her back also come up. Choyong, a son of a dragon, was given a high estate and a beautiful woman as a wife, but when he comes back after hanging out under a bright moon, he discovers his wife with someone else. Seeing that, he doesn’t lose his temper and just sing and dance, which made the evil spirit that took the wife come under him, ask for forgiveness, promising that it will never invade anywhere there is Choyong’s face. Because of this, the villagers attached Choyong’s figure on the door so that misfortune stays away from them and happiness comes in.
Lastly, in the story of King Mu, there are a beauty, the one taking the beauty and a song, as well, but the song is not for getting the beauty back but for stealing her from her origin. When King Mu of Paekche was young, he made the living by cultivating yams, so was named Sodong, the yam boy. When he heard the Princess Sonhwa in Silla is an absolute beauty, he traveled to Silla and lured kids there by giving yams and made them sing a song he made. It was intended to make Sonhwa expelled out of Silla. So the princess was banished and Sodong met her. When they sent gold to the king of Silla who is Sonhwa’s dad, Sodong gets recognition from him. People consequently respected Sodong more and more and he becomes King Mu of Paekche.
So what are these stories about? As clarified in the summary of each storyline, they all have a similar or same plot; there is a beauty somewhere, someone takes the beauty away, and a song is sung to get her back or to grab her. This is one of the themes that connect Lady Suro, the story of Choyong and King Mu, so they are in common as of plot type and the character. They are also similar in the point of ‘material’ because they are all using a song as a means to accomplish an important task. In case of Lady Suro it was to regain Lady Suro, in Choyong, though it is not that clear here, it would have been to kick the evil spirit out from the wife, and in the story of King Mu, it was to make the princess Sonhwa expelled and have her. These were very central things in the story flow and song played a great role in all of these.
The three stories are all included in the compilation of a monk, Iryon, in a book named Samguk Yusa(SGYS). He wrote this book in 1285, later than Samguk Sagi(SGSG) written in 1145 by Kim Pusik. They are two major history books that enable us look into and learn what happened in those old days and how people lived along then. However, the two books differ in two aspects; while SGSG was written by a high-ranking officer, SGYS was by a monk, and SGYS introduced much wider range of tales, myths or legends. SGSG, the author being a ruling officer, tended to concentrate on dynastic histories, present state officials as the principle actors, and respect China. On the other hand, SGYS was richer in the diversity of materials, included more tales, ordinary people came up much more than in SGSG, and deference to China was almost none. Therefore, it can be suggested that Iryon made SGYS to complement SGSG’s shortcomings.
ReplyDeleteThe original story of Choyong and the revised one covered in the book are totally different, though it is only the focus of a story that changed. In the original one, the story is focused on Choyong, a male, all the way along, which can be interpreted as reflecting the male-centered social milieu. In those days, almost all pieces of literature valued men and composed by men, and even a very small amount of works made by women usually dealt with their relations with men, usually men being in the center of the storyline. However, the revised version of Choyong story is different. Now Choyong’s wife is not hiding behind the door; she plays the major role leading the story by making Choyong do what she wants to do and even scolding him when he didn’t comply her request. Therefore, the revised story really brought female on the center stage.
Story of Lady Suro, of Ch'ôyong, and of Sonwha seem to have some similarities such as role as well as appearance of “brilliantly beautiful woman(wife)”. Also, there are shamanic or magical elements in these three stories.
ReplyDeleteIn a story of Lady Suro, Lady Suro is depicted as she was an ‘incomparable beauty’ that even fascinated dragon to take her to the sea. To get her back, lord Sunjong and other people sang a song with a threatening tone. In Ch'ôyong’s story, ‘bad spirit’ was fascinated by beauty of Ch'ôyong’s wife. When Ch'ôyong discovered four legs in his bedroom, he resigned himself to the circumstance rather than struggle against it. Finally, at the story of Sodong, this talented man wanted to be married with beautiful princess, Sonwha, so he made up of song; song described relationship between princess Sonwha and Sodong, which was not actually true, but became a truth in the future.
In a sense that song of Sodong and of Lady Suro wished for something characters wanted, they can be said to have shamanic elements. Lord Sunjong wanted to take his wife back from bad spirit(dragon), and Sodong created song which led his wish come true. In both stories, characters all achieved what they wanted which seemed to be called as ‘magical power’ virtually worked. In addition, In Choyong’s story, ‘bad spirit’, element that appeared very similarly in Lady Suro story, also appeared, and eventually made himself to reflect his behavior and hid himself forever. In my opinion, cultural belief that Korean had been kept was shown here; Korean had shamanic belief and ways to overcome bad situations that they faced, and in this process, ‘song’ seemed to take an important role.
As all three stories were written down by Iryon, Buddhist monk during Mongolian occupation period of Koryo, there were time-gap between the time stories and songs were actually made up of and the time they were written down as ‘script’ by Iryon. That is, they must be orally transmitted by commoners, and summed up by Iryon later in Koryo era. It means that shamanism elements were deeply into Korean commoners’ life for a long time. Of course Iryon himself could be able to adapt orally transmitted stories by his way-probably more Buddhist way-so that appearance of many temples is also noticeable in the stories. Therefore, it is not difficult to guess that shamanism and Buddhism culture were natural factors of Koreans’ daily lives.
Regarding the Ch'ôyong’s passive reaction to the spirit, there many different interpretations exist. As professor McCann rewrote the story in a sense that a beautiful woman, Ch'ôyong’s wife as a main actor for the story, situation seemed to be quite different. There has been an interpretation that the spirit is a metaphor for a disease, and what Ch'ôyong did was to kick out of the spirit forever through his generous behavior. In professor McCann’s perspective, interpretation for the bad spirit seems almost same, but main actor is a woman, not a Ch'ôyong, therefore his passivity is no longer a problem. From the beginning, Ch'ôyong took supporting role, but woman was a main character. The problem was our stereotyped-perspective that marginalizing woman and centralizing man. Taking this ways of thinking for granted, Ch'ôyong’s behavior seemed really awkward. If we can reorganize the story as professor McCann did, it is doubtlessly possible for woman to take center stage over. In fact, ancient Korean society was quite in equality (much better than we think thesedays), and shamanic roles usually were took by women in commoners’ society. In this sense, continuous appearances of women, and their roles in songs and stories must be re-illuminated.
To understand the similarities between the three stories of King Mu, Ch’oyong and Lady Suro, we need to know about the historical background and the author of Samguk Yusa(SGYS). SGYS was written by a monk named Iryon, and his disciple monks to add on to Samguk Sagi(SGSG) written by Kim-Pu-Shik. Compared to SGSG, Iryon and his followers included a lot of mythical factors such as dragons, spirits and shamans. There are two reasons to it- first, the monks were thinking of many songs and mythical stories that could be told and conveyed easily to the public. Second, this SGYS was written during the Mongolian colonization of Koryo dynasty- so in order to emphasize history and make historical figures such as King Mu seem like a great king, they included the mythical factors.
ReplyDeleteTo speak, there are several similarities between the three stories – how it portrays powerful men, beautiful women, and Korean literature such as many songs.
In these stories, a beauty of a woman is a very important factor which brings the conflict or problems to solve in the story. Lady Suro was beautiful enough, as seen in Hun-hwa-ga that even the old man would climb up the canyon to get her the flowers. Lady Suro’s beauty finally drives the dragon to kidnap her and take her away. In the story of Ch’oyong, his wife is portraye as a beautiful woman, who attracts the bad spirit into her household. They spend a night together- and Ch’oyong comes back and chases the spirit away. Finally, in the story of King Mu, a beauty of Sunwha, the princess, is famous enough to reach Sodong who was residing in another country.
However, in the stories of King Mu and Ch’oyong, through achieving the beautiful women, they become the powerful and recognized men in the society. In King Mu’s story, Sodong who was selling yam meets the princess, and Sunwha educates him, teaches him and financially supports him until he becomes the great King Mu of Paekche. Ch’oyong, by claiming that the beautiful wife is his, he drives the spirit away and becomes nationwide-recognized Shaman. Lady Suro’s husband, Lord Sunjong, is portrayed as the initially powerful figure in the story.
Another commonly shared characteristic is the appearance of ‘songs’ in all three stories of Lady Suro, King Mu, and Ch’oyong. We can see that Korean shamanism involved songs and literary in order to drive the bad spirits away. In Lady Suro, the song sung to the dragon by people, telling the dragon to return the lady was what really brought her back, by making the dragon afraid. Ch’oyong also sings the song in front of the door, so the spirit knows that the owner of the household is here. By pointing to its two legs in the song, Ch’oyong lets the bad spirit know that its presence was recognized. Anyhow, the spirit runs away. Finally, King Mu- or Sodong uses a song as means to get to the beautiful princess, Sunwha. He spreads the song, Sodongyo, which carried the scandalous rumor that the beautiful princess was going out with Sodong every night- and in the story that song worked. That song drove the princess into exile, and that’s how Sodong and the princess met in the first place. Without these kind of songs appearing, the problems could not have been solved.
Throughout the history, women's role in Korea has been somewhat that was subjected under the men's power. While men held the power to control the country and the households, women were expected to stay home, raise children and wait for their husbands. This was what happened in the original version of Ch'oyong's story, where Ch'oyong plays the main role in driving away the spirit and protecting his wife. However, in the retelling of the story of Ch'oyong, we find that it is actually the woman who is finding dominance and the central role. As a shaman, she is the dominant one who orders Ch'oyongs to follow with her plan, and even penalizing him when Ch'oyong didn't follow her orders. And thanks to her bright plans, they are able to drive the disease and the bad spirit away. In this revised version of the story, certainly it was the woman who was brought to the center of the story.
ReplyDeleteThe theme that connects the story of Lady Suro and the story of Choyong is the dominant existence of the supernatural powers that interweaves with the Korean society at that time. However, there are interesting differences as well as similarities between these two stories that also connect with the story of King Mu. The similarity that there are unexpected supernatural, godlike powers(the dragons, the spirit) evokes the problematic situation for the story to untie it as the characters move along. The interesting thing is that the characters—humans—have the capacity to deal with these supernatural powers. The difference between these two stories is shown by how the characters deal with the powers. In the story of Lady Suro, when she is captured by the dragon all the people in the area gather together to fight against the dragon. The song they sang feels like as if they were scolding the dragon, therefore reversing the former hierarchy that existed between the powerful dragon and the powerless humans. The sense of collective power can be also found in the story of King Mu, when Sodong teaches a song to the children. This song emphasizes the collective power because of the fact that it was sung by children, who must have sung it regardless of the lyrics, just for fun, so that all of their parents and family members can listen and talk about a fresh rumor. In the story of Choyong, Choyong deals with the spirit himself(or with the shaman woman), supporting the individual power to deal with the spirit himself, dancing and singing.
ReplyDeleteIn the story of King Mu, I had this feeling that the part that involves the Saja Temple and the Miruk Temple didn’t go along with the story that well. I felt it was somewhat added afterwards by someone with a purpose. In other stories like Lady Suro and Choyong, the intervention of the origins of temples was not that unnatural but emphasized. Considering that the Buddhist Monk Iryon wrote the stories down must be the cause. Even though Iryon collected orally transmitted stories and wrote them down, Iryon is the writer who had the creativity—or authority—to add or dramatize from the original stories. Taking into account his devotion in Buddhism and the Koryo period’s supporting Buddhism, Iryon must have thought that him writing a book is a good chance to give momentum to the status of Buddhism, Buddhist powers and monks.
I believe that the interpretation of the story’s focus is that the woman is not a normal woman, it is a shaman. This week our class saw the movie “To The Starry Island” by Park GwangSoo, and in that film there is a portrayal of a wife constantly beaten by her husband but after she becomes a shaman, she beats his husband because the spirit of her father-in-law was inside her scolding his son. The abrupt change in gender hierarchy was accepted by Korean people when the force of the “spirit” intervened. Therefore, I think that the reason why the woman in the story of Choyong was able to give another interpretation which she becomes the center is available on the assumption that she is a shaman. Throughout the writing I had this notion that Korean people are deeply connected with supernatural and spiritual spheres.
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DeleteThese three stories have many things in common. The first thing is that beautiful woman appeared. There is Choyong's wife in 'Choyonnga', princess Sun-Hwa who had superb reputation in 'King Mu story', Lady Suro who is beautiful enough to be kidnapped many times by desiring spirits. With their attraction and mystique, the writers of traditional stories might consider that there would be a probability that beautiful women could experience such odd and strange events.
DeleteThe most common thing other than beautifulness in these three stories would be 'power of words' within shamanism. for example, The poetry and the dance of Choyong were known to get rid of the evil spirits, so people usually attached the image of Choyong as an amulet. In King Mu story, Seo-dong the yam seller spread some dirty rumor about princess Sun-Hwa and married her who is expelled from the palace and finally became a king. There was also a threaten poetry, saying 'Give me Suro's wife, or I'll burn and eat you up'. These story and poetry purified people's wish and expressed as folk poetry. Shamanism tends to get stronger when it is repeated and complicated by many people, therefore, in the case of oral tradition poetry, it has a certain characteristic to be adapted a lot. These poetry had been sung by many people and the writer was clearly found out, however, it would be opaque to conclude that these could be seen as one single artist's works.
This Choyongga, that is much different from the ordinary story I knew, is curious because the wife of Choyong is the main agent who organized the strategy for exorcism. This story has a format that a woman stands on the center of the story and relatively lead the story, but when see from a feminist point of view, ultimately the woman remains in the minor area of the story. For example, in Greek mythology, Gaia ad Leah removed her husband with borrowing the power of her son, and in 'Baridegi story' of Korea, princess Bari, who had been abandoned in childhood by her father and afterward saved his life, decided to become a shaman god instead of succeeding his power. Such contexts that women eventually remains as some helpers of men would have similar limitation. The beautiful wife of Cheoyoung made the strategy of exorcism, but the result was given to Choyong! The traditional saying in Korea 'One beats the bush and another catches the birds' comes to my mind.
As we can see in 'Dan-sim ga' of Chung Mong-ju who was not seduced to 'Ha yeo ga' of Lee pang-won and in the story of Choon Hyang who had brave fidelity to whom she loved and in the background tale related to poetries, Korean people thought highly of fidelity and integrity to the state, king, or husband. Romantic love story all around the world such as Chun-Hyang story, Romeo and Juliet, the story of Cinderella has same context, however, in the premodern society, this fidelity and integrity was forced to women at the national level. Some women were given the name of 'a lady of virtue', and rarely some monuments of virtue were established in the villages. Sometimes such attitude keeping their faith even sentenced to death seems to be stubborn and stupid. However, due to many ancestors who wanted to cherish their beliefs, we could live this society at the present despite of the rocky history of Korea, I thought anew.
I don’t know why my comment has been removed by 'A blog administrator' , so I posted again.
DeleteSome of the common elements of these three stories are extra-human characters, the appearance of dragons, song and dance, “beautiful” women, and royal travel. Both Ch’oyong and Manghae Temple and King Mu include characters that are the children of dragons and both Lady Suro and King Mu have mysterious characters with extra-human wisdom and magical powers, respectively. Dragons also appear in all three stories, in various levels of importance, and are associated with bodies of water (the seashore in Lady Suro and Ch’oyong and ponds in King Mu). Song plays a prominent role in each of these stories and, in the first two stories, serves as a means to interact with the spiritual realm. These common elements all contribute to a common theme of the interaction between the spiritual and physical realms. Each of these stories relies on this idea. Additional noteworthy common elements are the presence of “beautiful” women as key players in each of the stories’ plots (although, it should be noted that their role is always passive) and royal travel (i.e. in each piece the royalty are traveling to or from some location). Furthermore, each story portrays the main male royalty figure as flawed; in Lady Suro, Lord Sunjong is helpless after the dragon takes his wife (fortunately the mysterious “old fellow” is there to give him counsel); in Ch’oyong, the king misinterprets the spirits’ warnings and leads the kingdom into ruin; in King Mu, King Chinp’yong believes Sodong’s rumors and wrongly sends his daughter into exile. It seems that the royalty of Korean mythology were generally portrayed as human characters rather than as having exceptional wisdom or insight (however, it should be noted that the king in Ch’oyong and the Manghae Temple does have a special line of communication with the several spirits).
ReplyDeleteGiven that the Samguk yusa is dated 1285, these stories are certainly older than that. It’s likely that many of these stories were originally transmitted orally and then written down in part at various times throughout the region. From the compiler’s notes it seems that the primary purpose of the compilation was to establish an authoritative version of stories widely known at that time (e.g. “In the old books it says (King) Mugang, but this is a mistake. There was no King Mugang in Paekche.”). One can infer that several versions of these stories were in circulation, either textually or orally, although many were probably falling out of circulation and thus the author also sought to preserve.
Let me preface what follows by saying that my knowledge of both Korean history and literature is extremely limited.
Concerning the story of Ch’oyong, and the reconstruction offered in McCann’s essay, I find that while the retelling is coherent and culturally insightful, it calls for an extensive rewriting of the story as it is currently available. Furthermore, the original myth appears to have an explanatory purpose, offering an explanation for the practice of making gate plates with Ch’oyong’s likeness but this explanatory purpose is lost in the retelling as the shaman woman is now the primary player in casting out the Demon Spirit. Finally, the passive, “beautiful” woman is a character type common to the other two stories, Lady Suro and King Mu, giving weight to the accuracy of the original telling (although it is also possible that these too have suffered from a similar obscuring).
There are some connections among the works. Especially 'The Story of Lady Suro' and 'Ch'ǒyong and Manghae Temple' have overlapping parts in characters, overall stories and themes. There existed a beautiful woman. And a nonhuman being desired the beautiful woman. Although conducting ways were quite different, the nonhuman being fulfilled their desires respectively. Also there were a song which did a certain role to make the nonhuman being abandon. In the end, the nonhuman beings gave up the woman. Interestingly there appeared a song and the song contained people's mind or intend. And it worked in the story. Another connection is that a dragon was somehow related to the story. The dragon appeared in the story and was related to the main character. 'King Mu' seems that it has a relatively lower connectivity compared to 'The Story of Lady Suro' and 'Ch'ǒyong and Manghae Temple', but it has still certain correlation with those two works. The main character Sǒdong was related to a dragon, actually he was a son of the dragon. And a woman's beauty was the root of the following story. There existed a song which contained intends of the producer and it worked as being desired. So it seems that all the three works have many connections in their stories.
ReplyDeleteThe period of the compilation itself was critical time for the country Korea. There was a precarious situation following the devastating Mongol invasions. Because Korea was in a hazardous condition due to Mongol invasions Iryǒn decided to compile the representative historic works. Samguk yusa compiled by the Buddhist monk Iryǒn was a supplement of Kim Pu-ski's Samguk sagi. He drew many of the works which show our ethnic group's independence and tradition wanting to over the country's crisis. He might want to make people not lose the self-esteem and spiritually unite people. Iryǒn believed that people could be independent when they thought themselves as independent ethnic group by reading the book he wrote.
The retelling story of Ch'ǒyong made a woman as a main character. So the woman character developed the story in an active manner. The woman in the original version actually didn't do anything and had no her own voice in the story. Considering this, retelling version is written in totally different perspective. the woman as a powerful shaman planned to call of the spirit which was the reason of illness and finally succeeded with the help of the Ch'ǒyong. Even though a woman did a main role in the story, I don't think it completely solve the problems of worker's being passive. There are several reasons why. First of all, the woman is still dependent character. She couldn't solve the kingdom's problem by herself. She really needed someone who was extraordinary. What I want to focus on is that helper Ch'ǒyong was a 'male'. Considering the fact that the helper's role was so crucial, I can't exclude the possibility of male's power in the society. It would be a patriarchal society's vestige despite the attempt to make a woman center. Next, the beauty of a woman was still exploited as a lure to attract a male. I think it shows the biased and male-centric image of a woman. So it is still the reflection of passive status as a woman in the period. From these reasons, I'd like to say that the attempt to make a woman central to the story didn't completely succeed. In fact, the new version of the story had a lower correlation with the original song of Ch'ǒyong. It seemed quite contrived to put the song in the newer story. When I think about the story before the song was made, the contents of the songs differ slightly from the story, and does not make as much sense as when they were placed in the original story. Thus I think that the writer somewhat missed the mark on his new woman-centric version of the Ch'ǒyong story.
Lady Suro is so beautiful that even an old man risks his life to pick a flower for her. I think it is noteworthy that an old man bothers doing so while other young men do not. Perhaps, Lady Suro has not only outer beauty, but inner beauty that makes an old wise man and even a dragon feel attracted to her.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Choyong apparently looks like Choyong singing a song since his beautiful wife has been taken by evil spirit. However, it can be interpreted differently as the book suggests that the wife, a shaman at the same time, attempted to fight against the disease and secure the well-being of her country with help of Choyong.
King Mu story is about a young man who spreads a rumor in order to get what he wants, and he actually succeeds in getting married to a princess. Using a magical power, he gifts huge amount of gold to parents of the princess.
It is hard to infer exactly who wrote the stories with these given short writings. However, it is quite clear that the author who was able to dedicate his time and effort to carry on his thoughts that distinct values of Korea should be kept and passed down to further generations.
Speaking of Korean values, all three stories share common characteristics. All of the main characters do not actively or physically fight to get what they want. Instead, Choyong sings a song, Lord Sunjong asks for help from the others, and King Mu gets help from the priest to send the gold with magical power. It shows that people were completely obedient to the nature with esteem. Nature and well-being used to be people’s primary concern all the time. Also, songs serve as the medium that leads the story, which reminds me of shaman’s rituals to comfort spirits just like Lady Suro attracts water spirits, and the “unnamed” wife of Choyong attracts evil spirit.
Considering the cultural background of Koryo period, the status of women used to be higher than that of any other periods. Therefore, it may be interpreted through the text that women were somewhat close to the center stage as stories carry on, focusing on women’s situations. However, I think that women were not brought to center stage as seen through their passive characteristics and the only description about women—the word “beautiful.”
Three hyanggas, Lady Suro, the story of Choyong, and the story of King Mu were compiled in the Samguk Yusa, remnants of the three kingdoms, by buddhist monk Iryon. The time of compilation was during the late 13th century, when Koryo was flourishing in this land with Buddhism as its national religion. With Buddhism's unique view of life and previous life, kings and the royal families could easily prevent the people from causing upsetting riots as well as making them obedient towards them.
ReplyDeleteIn this point of view there are inferences of showing the respect for Buddhism and the king in these hyanggas. In Lady Suro, the dragon threatened by the king and his people returns the lady, in the story of Choyong, king Hongang builds several Buddhist temples to keep away bad spirits which is considered as a virtue to the people, and lastly in King Mu, King Mu builds a great temple to honor the image of Maitreya, Miruk.
Reading the story of Choyong where the role of women was more than mere beauty, it was interesting that her character became a shaman woman. In the story, she had the plan and the power to bring peace to the village, that even the king himself 'traveled to eastern coast, performed rituals, had a temple built' to bring back a talented assistant that could assist her plan. She had the control over the plan to capture the spirit and she even got mad at Choyong when he didn't do as he was told. This reformation of the story reminded me of a scene from' To the starry island' where a woman who was constantly beaten by her husband became physically powerful and mentally able to get back at him after she became a shaman woman. In this scene and in the retelling of story of Choyong, I felt some kind of emotional satisfaction that women were appreciated better, or in a way they should have been treated where beauty is not the only thing women have to offer.
However, I do feel that bringing the woman to center stage limits the story because with the role that woman can play in these hyagga other elements in the story fades out. For example, naming of the different backgrounds that appear in the story of Choyong when the king himself travels around the country. I feel that Korean literature written in this era tries to explain or give evidence to the reality of the stories by including the names of each location precisely and with women in the center of the story these elements would be difficult to portray in the writings.
The 3 stories have a lot in common, but first, i will keep the same subject that i wrote about, last week, to continue in the same direction.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most common things in those three stories is the music and the singing. In the first story, the story of Lady Suro, the entire village sings a song to ask the bad intended spirit to bring back the Lady. The song here can be seen as a prayer, it's a one of the many meanings of songs in the korean culture.
In the second story, the Choyong story, the singing (and also dancing here, is used to fight when he comes home and finds his wife in bed with somebody else. The story could have been classical and could have used a real classic fight, or any other way of fighting, bur here, the singing is used, and it surprises the spirit so much that he changes his mind and ask for forgiveness to Choyong. He also promises that he will never invaded places where Choyong's face is. And this is why people began to put his head everywhere. Here, the singing and dancing is not seen as a prayer, but more as a way to change habits and to find other ways to do a usual thing, peacefully.
In the third and last story, the song is used to spread a rumor for him to get the girl he wants. In here it is used in a third way than the two that we have seen before. The songs can also be used to spread information, stories, and of course, culture foundations.
The 3 stories have been written by the same person, and we can find in his stories, different uses of songs, as i said before : as a prayer, as a peaceful way to obtain something and finally as a way to spread information. Those might be, outside of the regular use of music (just enjoying it as an art) the main uses of songs.
Also they are a lot of common things, other than the singing, in the three stories: the main one would be the woman. They are in the middle of every stories, if they are not the main character, they are at the center of the story.
The selected pieces from the Sanguk Yusa are generally typified by historical accounts heavily intertwined with fantastical elements. Each piece’s principle focus is some person of a higher class—in these cases a Lady and two kings. The overarching fantasy brings these pieces together, however, more specific elements of fantasy that revolve around women unite the tale of Lady Suro and the story of Ch’oyong, and song best unites the tale of Lady Suro and story of King Mu.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the tale of Lady Suro and the story of Ch’oyong, each contains some type of fantastic beauty. The beauty in each of the pieces, however, is fantastic in that it is the catalyst for interactions between reality and fantasy, all the while dehumanizing, to a certain extent, female characters. Lady Suro’s beauty, described as such that “Even deep in the mountains, whenever she passed near a body of water, the water spirits would always come and carry her away,” drives the plot, as she is stolen by a dragon. In the story of Ch’oyong, though the main story focuses on a King’s travels, a beautiful woman is bedded by a demon in front of her husband. Each of these women’s beauty roused the attention of the mythical world and was the impetus to an interaction between reality and fantasy. However, though such beauty could be regarded as power, as it breaks the barriers of reality, it is dehumanizing in that it is seemingly the only attribute these women are granted in each story. Within each story, these women are noteworthy for only their beauty—nothing else.
In regards to the tale of Lady Suro and the story of King Mu, music as a form of power and influence is a common them. In Lady Suro, a large group of people sing for her return, and the dragon brings her back. In the story of King Mu, Sodong composes a song and he teaches to children, and this song eventually causes a princess to fall in love with him, as she “realized the effects of the children’s song.” All the more noteworthy, however, is each song’s length. Each is simply a quatrain, a Korean hyangga, but four verses prove to have a significant impact.
Overall, these stories are histories that likely incorporated fantastic elements as a way to explain traditions or common places in Korea and preserve old tales. These three stories are part of The Samguk yusa, a compilation of several types of literature, which was compiled by the Buddhist monk Iryon in the thirteenth century and said to be “quite deliberately assembled as a supplement to “Kim Pu-sik’s Samguk sagi.”
The tales of King Mu, Lady Suro and Choyong and the Manghae all illuminate cultural, political and social Korean practices.
ReplyDeleteOf all recurring elements, I found the identification of beauty as a useful, feminine quality most interesting. Lady Suro, Choyong’s wife and Princess Sonhwa all share nearly unearthly beauty. This allows them to enter the world of spirits and demons and negotiate with or placate these otherwise overwhelming forces. Beauty in these tales is complex and lends to female characters unexpected power. Beauty is not simply a passive attribute that merits admiration- it allows females, as active protagonists, to negotiate with unfriendly intruding forces for the protection of themselves and their nation. A common theme between the story of Lady Suro and the Story of Choyong is females encountering an outside force and consorting with it, acting a mediator between this foreign, antagonistic power and Korea. If we are to interpret Choyong’s wife as Shaman, she helps protect Korea’s people against the wrath of an unwanted enemy by employing her feminine qualities to trick the enemy into thinking her powerless. Beauty then is a quiet force, a disguise that allows for non-obvious bargaining power.
Similarly, Choyong’s quiet restraint is termed beautiful by the Demon Spirit who beds his wife. Ritual, or the performance of a previously memorized set of gestures and sounds, is also a common theme between this set of tales. Rather than act with force, Choyong performs a ritualistic song that guilts the Demon into recognizing his own lack of restraint. Performance of dance and song, and recitation of verses, all dominate the narration of Choyong and the Manghae Temple. If we are to interpret Choyong’s wife as a shaman, then her encounter with the Demon is a planned exorcism that seeks to protect Koreans against an evil force. Furthermore, song and dance is used as diplomatic gift between the dragon of the Eastern Sea and the king. Here we recognize the power of performance and artistic products as peace offerings. Art forms can generate respect for a foreign people and demonstrate industrious and creative power. Furthermore, performance can be a form of gaining the respect and following of subjects. In the Story of King Mu, Sodong persuades people into acknowledging him as their leader by instructing them in song and dance.
In the tale of Lady Suro, ritualistic song and dance is also a means of mediating with antagonistic forces. By performing together, the people of Korea manage to create a united front against their enemy. Here the performance can be interpreted as a demonstration of the benefits of preserving one’s cultural practices and nationality when faced with intruding forces. This was very much a relevant lesson during the story’s recording. Korea faced Mongol invasion, and in turn the destruction of their way of life. Since then, the concept of persevering as a unique people even when surrounded by an overwhelming foreign power has formed part of Korea’s resilience in times of invasion from China and Japan.
Ritual can also point to official political practices. In the stories of Choyong and King Mu rulers built temples as a means of placating the spirits. However, this attempt to control and foster peace may instead point to a much more practical applications. Korean rulers used to consider controlling the actions of Buddhist temples as a matter of utmost importance. By ensuring that temple priests recognized their power rulers found a means of controlling far off provinces.
Another commonality between all tales is the encounter between supernatural and royalty. This relationship may have served to remind the common people of their ruler’s heavenly association. The rulers, appointed by a higher power, could act as the protectors of their people by directly negotiating with and fending off powerful enemies.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Choyong particularly engages female power. Professor McCann’s interpretation of Choyong’s wife as a Shaman is informed by the Buddhist practices of this time period. SGY tales are writing in deceitfully simple language, but contain deep cultural references hidden in slight cues and visual references. I thought bringing the seemingly passive woman of the story to its forefront took Choyong and the Manghae temple from the superficial look of a folk tale to its true purpose as cultural record. All of these stories somehow deal with shrouded power, and quiet or clever resistance. The interpretation of Choyong’s wife as a Shaman perfectly conforms to this trend and brings an interesting depth to the tale.
Comparing the stories of the ‘Samguk Yusa’ offers very interesting threads both similar and opposing to each other. Lady Suro, the story of Ch,oyong, and King Mu follow basic structures involving the influence of dragons (or dragon offspring), beautiful women, and kings who travel and need help to achieve their desires.
ReplyDeleteDragons and beautiful women seem to have their fates intertwined within these stories. In Lady Suro we discover the power of her beauty through when the dragon leaps out to steal her. The relationship between dragon and women grow through the other two stories as an arranged marriage for Ch,oyong to Sodong’s pursuit, deception, and claim of the beautiful princess in the story of King Mu.
With all the dragons in the stories, we can also say that bodies of water are also common threads to the stories, as the dragons always come forth from the water.
With all these women in the stories SGYS it is hard not to make some very clear sexist conclusions. It is almost as if by being a beautiful woman, you immediately become desired as noted on pg. 109-110 where Professor McCann analyzes the connection between the etymology for beautiful and desire. I would like to analyze this as a statement that the SGYS seems to try to make with this connection in mind. It is as if the SGYS claims that being beautiful and/or female means that misfortune will surely follow, or in simpler terms, women are bad luck and thus inferior.
The figure of the dragon always with women in these stories could also be viewed as a metaphor for power and men. The dragon always succeeds in obtaining the women, and the women never really have any say in the matter. Even further, spirits also desire the beautiful women in Lady Suro and the story of Ch,oyong. In the story of Ch,oyong I noticed a correlation between sprits and misfortune when the people erect the image of Ch’oyong to keep the spirit away, thus also “misfortune is kept at a distance”.
Because of these connections, I strongly think these stories are trying to claim and enforce the notion that women are a misfortune and only with the power of mighty dragons, or men, can a nation like Korea be kept safe and prosperous.
The three stories mentioned in the textbook, The Story of Lady Suro, Choyong and Manghe Temple, and King Mu, are all included in SGYS which was written by Buddhist monk Iryon for several years. These stories have several characteristics in common in terms of form and contents. In aspect of formality, these works are all kind of hyangga, a pattern of poem which is transcribed as hyangchal, a specific way of using Chinese characters instead to convey meanings, sounds, and etc. Apart from the formal characteristics, we can find common elements in their contents and these can be linked together.
ReplyDeleteFirst, unrealistic elements are well-revealed in these stories. In specific, the characters of all stories are related to the dragons. For example, in the story of Lady Suro and Choyong and Manghae Temple, the dragons appear as a fearful creature. Also, Choyong and King Mu are depicted as the children of the dragons. Except for the appearance of the dragons, magical powers which do not follow the law of nature are used at a critical moment. From the story of Lady Suro, all the residents of the district gathered and sang together to get the Lady Suro back from the dragon. Then, surprisingly, the lady came back from beneath the sea. In addition, Sodong in the story of King Mu directed the priest to send the huge pile of gold and the letter of Sonhwa to the distant palace of King Chinpyong. Astonished by the miraculous power, the King ended up appreciating Sodong as his son-in-law.
The most significant feature is that the characters from the three literary works have something in common: there is a beauty in the stories, Lady Suro, the wife of Choyong and the princess Sonhwa. These beautiful ladies play an important role in developing a situation in each story. Lady Suro, the main character of the story, is the one who was kidnapped by the dragon and the subject of the two songs. The wife of Choyong is the one who provoked Choyong to have a mental conflict and confront with the Demon Spirit. Also, in the story of King Mu, Sodong is mesmerized by the beauty of the princess Sonhwa so that his life has totally been changed.
Especially, in the story of Choyong and Manghae Temple, we can find a different feature of the woman character compared to other two stories. According to the professor McCann’s essay, there is a basic thought of marginalization of women in Korean tradition and thus, the women mainly plays supporting roles in Korean traditional literature. Even in the story of Lady Suro in which the main woman character, lady Suro, is of relatively great importance in the story, the one who makes the crucial decision is not her, but the King. However, from the retelling of the story of Choyong, it is the woman not the man who is dominant in the story. For example, Choyong managed to eradicate the disease following the wisdom of his wife. The reason why this story can be interpreted in this way is that the wife of Choyong appears to be a shaman. In the past, shamanism ad prevailed throughout Korean traditional society and people tend to bow to words of shamans. This background probably made Choyong to follow the word of his wife unlike other stories. From this interpretation, I thought that Korean people were so obsessed with shamanism that the position of women in literature could be elevated exceptionally.
The tales within the Samguk yusa all relate to Buddhist tales, myths, and legends. A few common elements do appear among the stories, connecting them as a whole. The reoccurring themes link the tales to one another and highlight some aspects of importance in Korean cultural practices. For example, there are the beautiful women of each story, dragons and the supernatural, the building of temples, as well as songs.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, connecting Lady Suro with the Story of Ch'ôyong, dragons played a main role in both stories. Within Lady Suro, she is the one to be taken away by a dragon from the sea. Within Ch'ôyong, Ch'ôyong himself is the son of a dragon (I'm guessing that makes him a dragon too, but in human form?). In addition, both stories involve the taking of a beautiful woman. In Lady Suro, she is physically snatched away from Lord Sunjong, while in the Story of Ch'ôyong the Demon Spirit lays next to her in bed. What is interesting about both tales is the reactions of their male partners. Neither Lord Sunjong or Ch'ôyong react in manner one would think a man would in order to save their loved ones. Both are very passive in nature, and specifically, Lord Sunjong falls to the ground, while Ch'ôyong simply sings. Though, this does lead to the power of song. A common element in all three stories. As opposed to displaying physical aggression, it is the songs sung by the towns people and Ch'ôyong that save Lady Suro and ward off the Demon Spirit. Whether it be more of a cultural perspective or a buddhist perspective on conflict resolution, during the Koryo period buddhist was the religion of the land.
Also, the connection to King Mu can be seen by, again, the presence of a beautiful woman and a song to attain her. Sodong is also the son of a dragon, similar to Ch'ôyong. The building of buddhist temples is featured in both King Mu and Ch'ôyong, which reminds us of the origins of these stories. It is important to remember that Buddhist monk Iryon compiled the stories and assembled them into the Samguk yusa. At the time, 1285, Buddhism was the state religion and thus such stories are key to collecting and recording not only religious myths, but cultural customs that ultimately were intertwined with Buddhism.
As explained in "Early Korean Literature," Marcel Granet and Chong Pyong-uk considered literary texts as important transcripts that show "vestiges of an earlier culture and rituals." Likewise, the stories in Samguk Yusa are more than pure narratives that are entertaining to their readers.
ReplyDeleteThese stories seem to run the whole gamut of themes and human emotions, yet there are a few remarkable themes that link "The Story of Lady Suro," "Choyong and Manghae Temple," and "King Mu" altogether.
First of all, female characters - especially the beautiful ones - in these narratives instigate problems and conflicts for male characters. Especiallhy when we engage in a simple, straight reading of these literary texts as folk tales, we get the sense that all the female characters are inert characters who are victims of either an evil spirit or an event caused by a male figure. In this perspective and context, the stories are revealing the subjection of women in Korea at the time. (Yet, such texts can be read under different approaches, theories, and perspectives, and some scholars may argue that these stories do not mirror the subjugation of women.)
All of the narratives also deal with supernatural creatures, powers, or events. These tales demonstrate the fact that it is highly likely that Korean people at the time firmly believed in mythical creatures like dragons and supernatural forces including spirits and deities.
"Choyong and Manghae Temple" and "King Mu" also cast light on the importance of Buddhism in resolving conflicts. Depicting Buddhism in a positive light supports the notion that Buddhism was a powerful belief system and seen as a reliable source for people in wading through weighty conflicts. For instance, the Buddhist temple serves as an important place where Sodong is able to send his gold to the King and therefore make the King to acknowledge him in the end. In addition, "Choyong and Manghae Temple" shows that building a temple for the dragon is understood both by the dragon and the king (and his retinue) to be the ultimate solution in appeasing the dragon and establishing a good relationship.
Indeed, the compiler of Samguk Yusa, Iryon, deliberately spotlights folk materials and legends and myths that deal with supernatural powers and mythical creatures. These stories are extremely valuable, for other official historical texts do not contain such topics and themes. EKL notes that Buddhist monks played an important role in passing, spreading, and recording the narratives. (It was a Buddhist monk that compiled Samguk Yusa.) Thus, it is likely that Buddhist monks could pick and choose particular stories that were in accordance with their Buddhist values and decide which narratives are worthy of passing down to the next generation. It may also be possible that some aspects of these accounts were altered or deleted by the monks who retold them. For instance, Choe Chol contends that Choyong's restraint and passivity demonstrated in "Choyong and Manghae Temple" was a kind of behavior valued by Buddhists at the time, and thus the main character's behavior was perhaps one of the reasons Iryon included the story to Samguk Yusa. This is exactly why we cannot view Samguk Yusa as a collection of "pristine" narratives that are completely stripped of biases. Just as literary texts reflect the beliefs and cultural trends of the era they were written in, the writer or the compiler of a literary text also influence the way the text is compiled and written.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, EKL raises an interesting question: what if the beautiful woman in the story of Choyong was the real center of the story? What if she was the actual person who presided over the ritual?
In the retelling of the story in pp 112 - 114, the beautiful woman's identity is far from a vanished one. The woman is described as a powerful shaman who takes an active role in capturing and domesticating the spirit. Although the woman does get assistance from King Hongang and Choyong, the shaman woman is the ultimate deliberator and executor of the plan to catch the spirit.
I believe that placing the woman at the center of the story is just another way of reading this story, and hence such approach works since there is no one definite framework with which to view the text. I agree to Professor McCann's point that the puzzle of the final line of Choyong's song is resolved when we view the female as an active player in fighting off the demonic spirit. In a nutshell, there are numerous ways to interpret the text, and it is also essential for the reader not to fall into the trap of reading the text in a one-dimensional perspective that is deeply embedded in common beliefs and perspectives.
The Story of Lady Suro, Ch'oyong and Manghae Temple and that of King Mu all feature female characters that are relegated to the sidelines. The women function as narrative props, silent and nondescript, only tangentially useful to the male-dominated narrative. Lady Suro is a passive trophy wife, who, despite being the title character, is introduced only after her presence is qualified by the mention of her husband, described throughout in the passive tense - she is “seized” by the dragon, “lifted up” to the ground, and “[carried] away” by water spirits - without her own initiative, and whose one time in exercising her free will is to then confer action to another male character (to ask if someone could pick the flowers for her), completely dependent on others to fulfill her own wishes. Her biggest distinguishing trait is her "incomparable beauty," as is corroborated by her constant seizure by spirits who cannot resist her beauty. Thus, she is sexualized and objectified from the male perspective. The female character in Ch'oyong and Manghae Temple is another beautiful wife, whose role in the story consists of being offered as a literal reward, and coveted, then taken by yet another spirit, at no point which she has any voice or action. Princess Sonhwa, of King Mu, another "peerless beauty," is the third object of male desire, whose life is uprooted by the designs of Sodong and thrust into exile. While she has a more prominent role in the story in comparison to the two other females, her character seems without any individuality, as even after she equates the identity of the man she is with as the same one who had pulled the strings of her own fate to his own devices, she is not not angered, shocked, or responsive of any kind. Instead, she goes on to act the good wife and daughter, by devising ways to make their lives more prosperous and get back into her parents good books. Sonwha has no character of her own, except to play the socially accepted role of what it is to be a good woman.
ReplyDeleteIt is no surprise that women were regarded only as secondary characters, as the author of these compilations was Iryon, a Buddhist monk during the Koryo dynasty. The Samguk Yusa were created in supplement to the Samguk Sagi, which were written prior to the Samguk Yusa at the behest of a Koryo king, whose objective was to create an official national record of the country's history. It is said that Iryon did not find the Sanguk Sagi, which is much more practical and realistic in color, to his liking, as it disregarded and / or marginalized existing Buddhist philosophies and values. Thus, the Samguk Yusa contains what Iryon felt were left out, such as myths, Buddhist tales and such of more supernatural nature. In this way, it can be inferred that the Samguk Yusa is more reflective of the author's personal inclinations and tastes, which would also bias the stories to be male-centric.
In McCann's analysis of the Ch'oyong narrative, it is suggested that the story is rife with possibility that the "beautiful woman" was deliberately erased to be a nonentity, to recalibrate the story to suit Buddhist and Confucian sentiments of patriarchy that ruled the time of Iryon's writing. While she is described to be extremely great in beauty, she utterly lacks any sense of dinstinguishing feature, to the extent that one feels it purposely done. He points to the term "beautiful woman," and parallels her with a powerful soceress illustrated by Henri Maspero in China in Antiquity. He then further explains that when the story is understood to be a modification of an original tale of shamanic religious practices, in which women have the primary authority, the problem that many have with the passivity of Ch'oyong's character can be better analyzed. Ch'oyong may have been an assistant to the "beautiful woman" whom would have been a shaman, and helped her rid of the evil spirit that was plaguing the country. Thus, his singing in lamentation of his wife's apparent affair, would actually be a shamanic ritual to exorcise the demon that the shaman would have intentionally invited, as opposed to a passive resignation that many find puzzling in the story. This interpretation takes a much more nuanced approach to the story, as couched in the cultural climate of the times that marginalized and subjugated women to men, which necessitated a revision of the story to reinstate and reinforce the male authority within the tale, and solves the mystery of Ch'oyong's submissive inaction.
ReplyDeleteIn the story of Lady Suro, it seems that the old fellow is a sea dragon in human form who gave Lady Suro the flower as a token of invitation to live with him under the sea. Upon her acceptance of the flower, thus, the dragon suddenly takes Lady Suro with him to his palace beneath the sea. His song further confirms the old fellow’s identity as it mentions that he had to “let the cow go”, meaning he had to leave his sea abode in order to pluck flowers for the king’s beautiful wife. Similarly in the stories of Choyong and King Mu, a nonhuman figure—whether it be another dragon, spirit, or even an image of a god—play significant roles in the stories. Following this point thus, one can see that all three of the folktales are mainly connected by the manner in which humans respond to their supernatural presence. The village people gather together to evoke the dragon’s sympathy in the Story of Lady Suro, construct gate plates to keep away the Demon Spirit and pass along the dance of Sangsim in the story of Choyong and Manghae Temple, and build a great temple for Maitreya as their king and queen had wished in the tale of King Mu. Thus, these stories depict the importance of cooperation and gratitude.
ReplyDeleteThe SAMGUK YUSA stories were written down by Iryon, a Buddhist monk, in 1285. His reasons for drafting the stories might have been to not only add onto Kim Pu-sik’s SAMSUK SAGI but also to show the importance of the miscellany, or yusa, that were left out in the earlier book. The compilation itself has its roots from a wide array of sources, ranging from Buddhist narratives to native songs, or hyangga. Understanding that these stories are mainly tales or songs and the education of the people at the time, we can assume that much of the compilation has been kept alive throughout the generations via oral tradition rather than directly from the book itself.
At first, the story of Choyong did not occur to me as an observance of women’s societal position at the time. It is fascinating to see how the breakdown of the Chinese character, “mi”, and its nuances can offer us several different perspectives in understanding the story. Moreover, I felt that the simple retelling of the story in the woman’s stance changed the story to a great degree in that the woman was pronounced as a more powerful and deliberate character. Hence it becomes easy to see the clear conflict between the woman’s actual power and her minor portrayal in the story of Choyong. Such method of stirring up the readers’ logical questioning is an effective way of getting the message across, in which this case was raising the issue of women’s positions in society.
Notable common element in three stories is that there are female characters who communicated with divine or supernatural beings while male characters didn’t do it well. Lord Sunjong took a threatening attitude by singing a threatening song and pounding hilltops with great staves for rescuing ‘captured’ lady Suro. However, after lady Suro was rescued by her lord, she said that “The food in the palace decorated with seven different kinds of treasures, it was so sweet and fragrant. It is unlike any human food”. This shows well how Lady Suro’s values are different from the King’s. She stared in wonder at the dragon while the King was afraid of the power of dragon and alert for dragon as a threatening being.
ReplyDeleteOther female characters of stories-mother of Sodong and princess Sunhwa and Choyong’s beautiful wife-also contacted easily with supernatural beings while men characters couldn’t do it. In stories females were not afraid of overwhelming, powerful and supernatural beings such as dragons, spirits and Miruk. According to the Professor McCANN’s essay, Choyong’s beautiful wife was possibly a powerful shaman. In King Mu’s story, mother of King Mu had a child of dragon. Also when Miruk appeared in the water, the Queen, who had been princess Sunhwa before, interpreted the divine will to the King. All of these signs indicate the possibility that shamanism was women’s independent domains in early Korean societies. Also these are the sign that there were female shamans who might be of high social standing in early Korean societies.
In my opinion, women had main roles in traditional Korean religion and they were powerful in societies before early Koryo era. However traditional Korean religion had disappeared as women lost social status gradually after then. Existence of female shamans was possibly hidden intentionally by historians after then so we can’t find them in formal, written history now. However three stories, which were handed down by tradition, were evidence of disappeared female shamans.
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ReplyDeleteLooking through three stories in Samgukyusa(SGYS) of King Mu, Choyong, and Lady Suro, we can find out that there are some themes connected to each other and elements that are in common regarding Korean society.
ReplyDeleteAll stories are focusing on the role of males and females. In case of female character, all the women in three stories are depicted as breathtakingly beautiful women. In the story of Lady Suro, the author describes that Lady Suro had an incomparable beauty. Needless to say that the old man risk his life to pick flowers she wanted, the water spirits and dragon were fascinated by her and carried her away. In the story of Choyong, the writer also mentioned that his wife was so beautiful that the Demon spirit came to admire her. Sodong who later became King Mu got enchanted by princess sonhwa, since she was a peerless beauty. Her name itself also referred to beautification. As three stories show, all female characters have their beauty as necessary quality for women.
Furthermore, considering the original text in SGYS written by a monk iryon, three stories have a lot of supernatural sources within the text. As you can see in the story of Lady Suro, all of a sudden, a dragon came out and carried her away to his sea. When other people chanted a threatening song, a dragon came back and retured Lady Suro. In the story of Choyong, the Demon spirit not only adore choyong’s beautiful wife but also secretly have relationship with her late at night by disguising as a human. In case of King mu, the priest sent all the gold to a temple and even built a temple by his magical power. The existence of dragon, demon spirit, magical power is unrealistic which makes these stories more mythical. This can be explained when looking back to the history of SGYS. Since it was during Mongolian civilization when SGYS was written, the author iryon might have wanted to stress the mythical power of the main characters to give the hope that we can survive.
In addition, songs play a significant role in all three stories. The way to get Lady Suro back to the land was by singing a menacing song directly to a dragon, saying that they would catch you, cook you and eat you. Choyong still remains as a mysterious figure, since he chose to sing a song rather than taking any active actions toward demon spirit. Sodong also got his wife by sing a song and making the song spread everywhere in the capital. The men got the power by achieving the beautiful women and they all used songs to get what they need. This can be connected to the shamanism, since Lord Sunjong, Choyong, and King Mu all sang a song to make a wish.
In three stories, women have no much power except for their beauty. However, when looking at the retelling of choyong, women became dominant figue as a shaman. The wife of choyong made an order to choyong and even punished when things did not work out. This shows the retelling story brought women to center stage of the society.