Life replacement narratives

The myths are important in their religious context because they demonstrate the susceptibility of the gods to both gifts and human empathy, and therefore establish the principles and efficacy of shamanic ritual.

The narratives' relationships to folktales, to other shamanic myths, and to a medieval Buddhist tale with a similar story have also been examined.

In mainland Korea, the term puri "recitation" is common but not universal; they may also simply be named after the gut ritual in which they are performed.

[3] In all three life replacement narratives of Korea, the main figure cheats death by sacrificing to the chasa[a] (lit.

One day, his wife cuts off her hair and tells Saman to go sell it to buy food, but he purchases a gun instead to make a living as a hunter.

Forewarning the man of his impending death, the skull tells him to hold a gut ritual and to set out offerings for the chasa.

Over the course of the ritual, the shaman specifies the household that is to be saved from misfortune through this particular aek-magi, invites the gods to partake in the sacrifice, and finally delivers the message of the chasa to the worshippers.

[22][23] The menggam-je is a small-scale ritual traditionally held on the first month of the year to ensure success in agriculture, husbandry, and hunting.

[30] One version describes his behavior in the following terms:[31] When loaning grain to others, he loaned with a small measure and received with a large measure; He would loan money in the morning and demand repayment in the evening; He sold rice mixed with sand, and water in place of soy sauce; He gave only the outer leaves of kimchi to others; He kicked pregnant dogs in their sides and threw the dredges of sesame seeds in drainage ditches; He put gourds on the kitchen table and sharpened knives on the kitchen hearth; He gave false information, causing local officials to chase after empty errands; He would have a large ox brought to his field and then drive it off like a dog without even using it; He had so many sins that one cannot speak of them all.

[34] The Jangja-puri is sung during the ssitgim-gut, the funeral ritual of Jeolla shamanism in which the soul of the deceased is purified and dispatched to the afterlife.

When the brothers ask why, the skull reveals that the chasa are coming within three days and tells them to prepare a great feast with the fortune that they have been given.

[43] The life-exchanging myths are important in that they "clearly demonstrate the nature of the deities and the value systems of [Korean] shamanic belief,"[44] with even the gods being depicted as being greatly swayed by injeong:[45] a term referring simultaneously to offerings and to the emotion of jeong, or feelings of compassion and empathy, that both gods and humans are thought to share.

[46] Yun Kyoim notes that the Menggam bon-puri establishes principles crucial to Jeju ritual: "the themes of reciprocity... the rules of gift exchange—to give, receive, and return.

Once the skull successfully creates a social bond with Saman by discussing how he had once hunted with the very same gun, the human and the deity establish a reciprocal relationship from which both sides prosper.

"[48] The ensuing favor from the chasa is not a quid pro quo, but a gift of divine generosity provoked by the injeong that Saman has for the gods.

[d] In cases of rites held for severe illness, the shaman mounts a straw model of the patient on a horse and chases the animal away; it must not return to the house.

In one 2002 aek-magi, the chasa announced that the worshipping family would be exempt from an upcoming visit to the village, and explained why:[51] We can't ignore The offered sacrifice.

[49] Like its Jeju equivalent, the Jangja-puri demonstrates that the gods of death can be swayed through injeong, even for a man as sinful as Sama-jangja, and therefore affirms the ritual efficacy of the ssitgim-gut funeral.

[52][53] The narrative's detailed portrayal of the afterlife and its gods as fundamentally akin to the world of the living, complete with corrupt officials, may seek to reduce the funeral attendees' fears and anxieties towards death.

[54] Hong Tae-han also argues that in the majority of versions where Sama-jangja survives, he serves as a contrast to the person for whom the funeral is being held—who, unlike in the myth, will never cheat death.

The funeral successfully frees the dead horse from its punishment in the afterlife and turns it into a human, relieving the animal of its sorrows and curing Sama-jangja as well.

[45] The reason that Sama-jangja and (in many versions) Saman are doomed to die early is because they neglect their ancestors, their neighbors, or both, despite possessing great wealth.

Notably, although Jeju is the southernmost part of Korea and Hamgyong is a far northern periphery, both the Menggam bon-puri and the Honswi-gut feature a benevolent skull.

For instance, the initial relationship between Saman and the skull—in which the latter supernaturally reveals himself as a man who died a violent death, then rewards his human devotee by making him a great hunter—is found only in the Menggam bon-puri.

Many of the gods invoked in the latter types of myths are also souls of those who met untimely deaths who manifest in a human's dream to express their need to be worshipped, then reward their devotees with prosperity.

[66] Similarly, the Jangja-puri bears a close relationship to the Korean folktale of the Rich Man's Pond [ko] (장자못 Jangja-mot).

[68] The folktale thus acts as a literary foil highlighting the heroism of the daughter-in-law, who Jeong Je-ho considers a symbol of the shamans officiating the actual ssitgim-gut ritual and reciting the myth.

[72] On the other hand, the Menggam bon-puri may have been influenced by the Wangnangbanhon-jeon with regards to some details not found in the mainland, such as the extension of Saman's life to unnatural lengths.

[73] Similar stories of extending one's life by making offerings to the chasa appear widely in South Korea[e] in the form of folktales or legends without any religious significance.

The protagonist of the story is often Dongfang Shuo, an ancient Chinese minister who became a stock character in East Asian legend.