In the older version recited in 1931, the tyrannical Chinese emperor Taizong of Tang dies and is obliged to compensate those he had taken unjustly from while alive.

The emperor pays off his victims by borrowing from the rich afterlife vaults of a couple named Maeil and Jangsang, and is then allowed to return to the living world.

He resolves to live a moral life, sends a monk to retrieve the Buddhist canon from the divine realm of Sukhavati, and takes Maeil and Jangsang as his mentors.

The much shorter and rather disorganized 1961 version begins with a discussion of Maeil and Jangsang's charity and ends with the two building a bridge to the afterlife, with Taizong only appearing in the middle of the story.

The Semin-hwangje bon-puri is a shamanic adaptation of the Tale of Tang Taizong, a Korean Buddhist novel itself inspired by a small portion of the sixteenth-century Chinese novel Journey to the West.

It is accordingly classified as one of the "special bon-puri," a term used to refer to narratives which are no longer in oral transmission and are known only from very few transcriptions, and whose ritual context and purpose are thus incompletely understood.

Once he has compensated his victims, the King of the Dead orders him to do good works while alive, and tells the emperor to follow a straight road while ignoring the advice of a spotted calf and a white puppy.

He offers them great fortunes to pay back the money he borrowed from their afterlife vaults, but they refuse, instead regretting that they have not helped as many people as they could.

The emperor borrows money from Maeil and Jangsam's vaults to repay the people he stole from before he is allowed to return to the living world.

[22] The narrative has not been attested in any fieldwork of Jeju shamanism since 1961 and is not recited today,[2] although a disciple of Jo Sul-saeng was aware of its existence when interviewed in 2002.

[23] There is scholarly consensus that the Semin-hwangje bon-puri is a shamanic adaptation of the Tale of Tang Taizong (Korean 당태종전/唐太宗傳 Dang Taejong Jeon),[22][24] a Korean-language Buddhist novel of unclear date which was itself inspired by the tenth to twelfth chapters of the sixteenth-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, in which Emperor Taizong dies but is granted twenty more years of life by the gods of the afterlife.

The Buddhist story begins with a detailed series of intrigues between men and gods which culminate in the emperor's untimely death at the hands of the Dragon King.

[33] Yet not only does the shamanic narrative insert a new character, Maeil, as Jangsang's spouse, the emperor and thus the audience directly witness the good works that the couple do.

Rather than being awed by Taizong's gifts, the couple regret that they have not helped as many people as they could, and Bak's version concludes with them mentoring the emperor in the doing of good works.

[33][34] In Jo's version, Maeil and Jangsam are outright the dominant figures of the narrative, with Taizong himself appearing only in the middle of their story.

[39] Folklorist Shin Dong-hun suggests that Bak's version may be understood in the light of the Cheonji-wang bon-puri, the Jeju creation myth.

The Cheonji-wang bon-puri concludes with the benevolent brother Daebyeol-wang becoming the king of the dead and establishing justice there, while the younger, malevolent Sobyeol-wang takes charge of the living.

Noting that the god of the Semin-hwangje bon-puri is referred to as the "King of the Dead" rather than as Yama, the more conventional designation of the chief death god in Jeju shamanism, Shin speculates that the King of the Dead is Daebyeol-wang himself and that Taizong stands for the injustice and suffering of the human world previously personified by Sobyeol-wang.

"[41] Bak's version includes Hoin's quest for the Buddhist canon found in the original source, which is itself an abbreviated account of Xuanzang's voyage to the Western Regions that makes up most of the Journey to the West.

[44] The final episode in Jo's version—that of the Deokjin Bridge—does not exist in the Buddhist original but is found in Yeongam itself in the form of a well-known folktale without religious significance.

[45] In this story, the county magistrate of Yeongam dies and can only return to life after borrowing money from the afterlife vaults of the virtuous Deokjin to compensate those he made suffer.