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At one time, myths were considered "uncivilized ideas" from primitive or ancient societies. They stood in contrast to reason or rationality of the modern times. Myths were thus easily overlooked as a subject of research, especially for modern historical studies that revolved around the reconstruction of facts and scientific methods of research. Hence, their value as a historical source was not recognized, to which the myth of Dangun was no exception.

Overcoming Modernism

Even Japan, which was the first to establish a system for modern historical studies in East Asia, meant to clearly distinguish history from myths. Modern Japan's studies of oriental history set apart from history the first chapters of Nihon shoki covering myths, the so-called history of Kamiyo (神代史), or the age of the gods. The history of Kamiyo was understood as a political narrative concocted by political powers of later generations. Likewise, the Korean myth of Dangun was not recognized and was merely understood to have been fabricated during the Goryeo dynasty. Yet, the research Japanese historians conducted on the Dangun myth was not purely "scientific." Criticisms toward historical sources related to the myth were used to deprecate or negate the history of the ancient Korean kingdom Gojoseon and thereby profess the heteronomous nature of Korean history. The myth's primitiveness was magnified and compared with Japanese myths to stigmatize it as the nature of Korean history. So, despite their aim to perform scientific research, the Japanese in reality catered to imperialism and colonialism.

Dangun carried a particular significance for nationalism in Korea after the late nineteenth century. It was because the nation's lineage could be built upon Dangun since he was commonly known as the forefather of the Korean people. The myth of Dangun therefore had to be more than a mere myth for nationalistic historical studies. It was reevaluated as a part of history and religious narratives were even produced, urging that the myth should be accepted as factual. These attempts could be considered to have been part of anti-imperialist efforts, but it would be difficult to see them as "scientific" research.

Western academic research into mythology experienced great progress after the mid-twentieth century. The structure and function of myths were explored throughout various academic realms and their historical nature and significance were discussed. In particular, self-reflection was carried out on previous modern studies, which exposed the barbarism of Western civilization that claimed to follow reason and rationality and reevaluated the value and significance of myths that had previously been considered primitive matters. For instance, from an ecological point of view, the grounds for myths and mythic views of the world gained attention for their potential to be used to self-reflect upon the modern civilization of the West.

Studies on the myth of Dangun in Korea also advanced. Korean academia came to accept Western research methodologies and began to broaden the scope of comparison between the Dangun myth and other myths from various East Asian countries. Such efforts revealed that although it later went through some embellishments, the Dangun myth did in fact originate from an ancient society, and hinted at the possibility of assuming that the myth may have functioned as a political ideology that was responsible for integrating the Gojoseon society. So, Korean scholars began to take an interest in the thoughts and world view the myth of Dangun incorporates.

An Asymmetrical World View

Coming up with a simple definition for myths is challenging, but it wouldn't be far-fetched to describe them as "extraordinary stories about humans and the world." In most myths, the world that most intimately surrounds humans is nature. For example, the countless gods that appear in Greek and Roman myths are all impersonations of nature. The relations between humans and nature portrayed in myths may indicate how people of the ancient times viewed the world. And gaining an understanding of such world views in myths can be done using the mythological concept of symmetrical and asymmetrical relations.

Symmetrical or asymmetrical relations were a concept Claude Lévi-Strauss originally introduced through his structuralist theory of mythology, which Nakazawa Shinichi (中澤新一) later developed into a concept that refers to the parallel, free communication between humans and nature. According to Nakazawa Shinichi, myths were created since the primitive times when people gathered and hunted for food, bonding with nature under a symmetrical relationship. A typical example of this can easily be witnessed through myths of Siberian tribes that lived off gathering and hunting for a long time.

Many Siberian tribes, especially those that lived around the Amur River basin, believed bears and tigers were their ancestors. Descriptions of this appear in many of their myths, indicating that bears and tigers typically served as totems. Such myths did not draw strict a distinction between humans and bears or tigers and they were able to communicate freely. Bears and tigers were at liberty to transform into humans at any time. One could turn into a bear or tiger by adorning the skin of either and remove the skin to become human again. Bears and tigers talked with, interacted with, and married humans, thereby becoming their friends, lovers, and family members.

In Siberia, bears and tigers represent nature as predators at the top of the food chain. The communication and interaction between humans, bears, and tigers in Siberian tribal myths can be considered as reflections of a parallel relationship between humans and nature. Comparisons between Siberian tribal myths involving bears or tigers and the myth of Dangun started to be made from early on, and most of such comparisons focused on similarities they share. However, what is significantly different about the bear and tiger in the Dangun myth is that unlike the bears and tigers in Siberian tribal myths, they are unable to transform into humans on their own.

The bear in the Dangun myth is only able to become human with help from the god Hwanung (桓雄). And even after turning into a woman called Ungnyeo, she is unable to find herself a husband. These indicate that the distinction between humans and bears or tigers was relatively visible in the myth of Dangun. This also leads to the assumption that according to the Dangun myth's logic, it was difficult for direct communication or interaction to occur between humans and nature, which places the two under asymmetrical relations. This is why the world view the Dangun myth features can be considered as asymmetrical.

Myths or totems involving bears or tigers were not unique to Siberian tribes. Myths and totems featuring bears can be found across the northern hemisphere, mainly in hunting regions of Eurasia and North America. A variety of animals other than bears were also used to represent thoughts on the symmetrical or asymmetrical relations between humans and nature. Tales of werewolves from certain areas of Europe or the tale of a were-leopard told among the Bantu peoples of Africa are all likely to basically reflect the symmetrical or asymmetrical relations between humans and wolves or leopards.

Such symmetrical or asymmetrical relations and world views in myths demonstrate a universality that applies to the myth of Dangun as well. The original idea behind the Dangun myth may have featured a symmetrical relationship between humans and nature in which bears and tigers were able to turn themselves into humans and easily marry one another without the help of a god. And it was the god Hwanung that was at the heart of the shift from a symmetrical to an asymmetrical world view in the Dangun myth.

Myths and Power in Ancient Societies

The characters Hwanin and Hwanung in the myth of Dangun are heavenly beings from the realm of gods. Hwanung was the one that descended from heaven to the realm of humans. The realms of heaven and human are connected through a cosmic tree (宇宙樹) according to a shamanistic view of the world. The tree Sindansu (神壇樹) that Hwanin descended upon from heaven was also a cosmic tree of sorts. This seems to draw a relatively clear distinction between humans and nature, which also implies that the realm of heaven is divided between the realms of humans and nature.

Hwanung is said to have come down to the realm of humans to oversee some 360 different tasks and also took care of "crops, lives, diseases, and good and evil." And crops in that sense seems to have meant the realm of nature. Furthermore, Hwanung was said to be in command of Pungbaek, Wusa, and Wunsa, who are gods of the wind, rain, and clouds. So, Hwanung was not only in charge of the realm of humans, but of nature as well. Although the bear and tiger from the realm of nature were set apart from the realm of humans, the two were able to communicate and interact through Hwanung.

This brings to mind a custom of the ancient Korean kingdom Buyeo mentioned in biography of the Dongyi from the Chinese historical text "Records of the Three Kingdoms." In ancient Buyeo, the king would be held responsible if crops were unable to grow ripe because of a drought or flood. This means kings of ancient Buyeo were the ones who had to guarantee production in order to secure their royal authority. Likewise, stable production must have been one of the keys to maintaining the crown's power and authority in Gojoseon. To say Hwanung had the gods of wind, rain, and clouds under his command and ruled the realm of nature represented by crops was to suggest that his kin, the king of Gojoseon, would also be able to do the same. Therefore, Hwanung in the Dangun myth is likely to have functioned as a symbol that justified the king's power and authority in Gojoseon.

Based on the above interpretation, the shift from a symmetrical to an asymmetrical world view in the myth of Dangun seems to have been historically influenced by the formation of Gojoseon’s royal authority. As humans were able to move on from a primitive lifestyle and began to pursue stable production through the development of agriculture, they desired to gain more active control over nature and that very desire seems to have been what destroyed the symmetrical relationship in the myth. And as kings emerged as rulers of the realm of humans, they developed into superior, omnipotent beings who were the only ones able to make communication and interaction between humans and nature possible, and thus came to secure exclusive roles in myths. The asymmetrical world view in the Dangun myth can be understood as a reflection of changes that occurred in the Gojoseon society, particularly those involving the formation of royal authority.

※ This article is a revised summary of the paper “The Asymmetrical World View of Dangun Myth and the Royal Authority of Old Joseon” published in volume no. 31 of the academic journal Research on Humanities issued by the Kyung Hee University Institute of Humanities.