While most of the six versions transcribed by researchers concur that Gongsim was a Goryeo princess-turned-shaman initiated at Namsan, the details diverge between them.

Whether Gongsim is based on a historical noblewoman is unknown, although lack of corroboration in literary sources makes it highly unlikely that she had royal blood.

The invocation also includes a statement about the princess which usually superficially appears to refer to a Buddhist temple or to prostration, but whose true meaning is disputed.

The invocation has since spread north to Seoul shamanism and—in a highly divergent and largely uninterpretable form—south to Jeju Island.

No shamanic narratives about Princess Gongsim[a] are known,[2] but six versions of a southwestern Korean myth about the figure—all told outside a ritual context—have been transcribed by researchers.

Oral transmission of the myth appears to have ended as of 2013, although the brief Gongsim-related invocations recited by shamans during rituals continue.

[3] In the majority of versions, Gongsim is a princess of the Goryeo (918―1392) dynasty who is struck with sinbyeong, a disease that can only be cured by initiation into shamanism.

Jo Tong, who is married, decides that he must leave the capital to avoid the princess and volunteers to serve as a commander on Korea's northern frontier.

[6] As of the 1970s, Jo Tong and Gongsim were worshipped as village patron gods of Okgwa at the local Seonangdang shrine, where wooden statues of the two were installed.

But her wardens themselves learn shamanic rituals from the princess to successfully cure illnesses and cast off misfortune, and the king eventually decides to release her.

The Suncheon myth also features Gongsim being stricken with sinbyeong and moving to Namsan, where she is initiated into shamanism by a Buddhist priest.

[9] In the shamanic tradition of Seoul—the current dominant form of the religion in South Korea[12]—an invocation involving Gongsim is made only at the beginning of the narrative hymn of the Princess Bari, which tells a sacred myth about an abandoned princess who journeys to the afterlife and becomes the patron goddess of shamans.

This invocation begins with a reference to the "country" (nara), continues by connecting Gongsim to the "Buddhist temple" (jeol/jeor[b]), and concludes with the declaration that the "southwest" (namseo) is the "origin" (bon).

[18] The invocation is followed by a formulaic statement about Korean shamanic cosmology, generally explained with Buddhist terminology.

"[22] The occasions believed to necessitate the Gongsim invocation vary greatly within the area, ranging from shamans who only sing it at the start of one specific ritual to those who recite it at the beginning of virtually every rite.

The Gonseon-gaseon prayer therefore becomes a metaphorical letter that shamans are addressing to the goddess Noga-danpung-agissi at the start of every ritual.

[31] By contrast, Jeolla shamanic traditions do not have a clear ancestral figure other than Gongsim, as Princess Bari there is considered a death goddess or as not being a deity at all.

[32] The invocation honors Gongsim as the symbolic queen and ruler of shamans, and affirms the religion's historical legitimacy.

[35] The peak of Namsan that the princess is connected to was the original seat of Guksa-dang, the most important shamanic temple in the city of Seoul and a major center of religious devotion.

'Northern Mount Mang'), a peak full of cemeteries north of the Chinese capital of Luoyang which has become an East Asian metonymy for death, and thus imply an association between shamanism and the forces of life.

It is generally recognized that the "Buddhist temple" interpretation does not make sense in the context of the Gongsim myth or shamanic ritual.

[1][38] The phrase may instead refer to prostration as a form of shamanic devotional act, with the versions suggesting "Buddhist temple" meaning being corruptions.

[39] Im Ni-na argues that jeol/jeor is itself a corruption of the original form jeryeju "mistress of ritual", attested in some versions.

[30] But Jo Tong, the object of her unrequited love in the Okgwa myth, was a historical minister of the Goryeo court who served in the late twelfth century and was once held captive by the northern Jurchen Jin dynasty for three years.

Kim Jeong-eop speculates that Gongsim may have been a historical noblewoman who was romantically involved with Jo Tong before his capture by the Jurchens, and who was then initiated into shamanism and spread the religion in Jeolla.