As one of the best-known myths in the Korean peninsula, the Chasa Bonpuri is a characteristic hero epic.
The term Chasa Bonpuri (차사 본풀이) means "Solving the origins of the death god"; modern academic circles synonymize "Bonpuli" with "myth".
Chasa is the Standard Korean pronunciation of the Chinese word Chaishi (差使), meaning "messenger".
[1] In the Jeju language however, chaishi is pronounced Chesɒ or Cheshi, leading to the different names per each version.
After three years of mourning, the student took the three sons of King Beomu and made them monks.
The wife of Gwayangsaeng (whose name is not given) gave the princes intoxicating wine, then poured molten oil into their ears.
Seven days later, Gwayangsaeng's wife discovered three lotus blossoms floating on the Jucheon River.
Gwayangsaeng's wife constantly plagued the King of Gwayang, Gimchi Wonnim, to go to the Underworld and bring back Yeomra, the god of the dead, so that she may know the cause of their death.
His wife also gave him a green robe with a needle pierced on it and red paper with white writing.
Suddenly, a goddess standing near the hearth muttered that Gangnim was a fool, for he could not know that there was a pillar through the table.
Urgently, he ran and told Kimchi Wonnim, the king of Gwayang, that Gangnim was secretly living in his wife's house.
Only now did the Gwayangsaeng couples understand that their triplets were the princes, reborn, that they had murdered eighteen years before.
One day, a passing monk named Muya (who also appears in several other myths) said that the three sons would survive only if they became merchants for six years.
Gwayanggaxi asked the governing official of her village, which was called Gimchi, to find out the cause of the mysterious deaths.
The angered official sent his lieutenant, Gangnim, to the Underworld to capture Yeomra and bring him to the mortal world.
When Gangnim finally caught her and gave her a siru-tteok, she revealed her identity as Jowangsin, then told him to follow a road to the west.
Gangnim gave each immortal a siru-tteok, and they advised him to wait until a vividly clothed man came this way.
Gangnim discovered that a fierce man with vivid clothes who was holding a red paper in his hands was coming this way.
He finally fell asleep until he was awakened by a booming noise; the march of Yeomra and his soldiers to the Siwang Maji ritual, held in the realm of the mortals.
Gangnim turned into a falcon and surveyed the region, only to find an owl on a wooden ritualistic pole.
He then drained the waters of the Kkachi Well, and made the three princes of King Beomul the Siwang, three of the ten judges of the Underworld.
At the time, the people were unaware that the soul existed, and as a result, the official chose the body.
The Siwangmaji is a ritual that honors all death gods, and the Chasa Bonpuli seeks to appease Gangnim so that he may lengthen a person's given life, and also that he may offer kindness to those that he reaps.
The Chasa Bonpuli appears in all major reports of the Keungut ceremony, and is also recited in the Gwiyang Puli, a mourning ritual.
In Jeju Island, Gangnim is said to first earn permission from the village god for him to reap the dead.
He then reads the name of the reaped thrice from Jeokpaeji (적패지), a book with red paper and white ink, and guides the dead to the Underworld.
Below is an excerpt of the Mozzineun Norae song; "Jeoseung Chaesa Gangrim Doryeong Iseung Chaesa Yi Myengseoni Hutcheogaso Hutcheogaso Yi Motjari Hutcheogaso" (Death Reaper Gangrim Doryeong, Mortal Reaper Yi Myeongseoni, take this take this take this paddy)[8] This song was sung when replanting rice shoots in the ground.
[9] The Chasa Bonpuli bears the most similarity to the Jimgajegut myth, recited in the northernmost Hamgyeong Province.
In the Jimgajegut myth, a man named Son goes to the Underworld to find the reasons for the mysterious death of the three triplets of Jimgaje.
Although they are from the respective north and south of the country, the Jimgajegut's plot is almost identical to the Chasa Bonpuli.