The origin legend recorded in the Samguk Yusa in which Hwanung, son of the Heavenly King Hwanin, descends to Taebaeksan to rule the human world; a bear and a tiger who wish to become human are told to avoid sunlight for one hundred days while eating only mugwort and garlic, and only the bear endures it, transforming into the woman Ungnyeo, who marries Hwanung and bears Dangun, the founder of the kingdom of Gojoseon.
Facts
Text
Source TextSamguk Yusa, Iryeon's thirteenth century compilation 1 Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteHistorians of Korea read the bear woman transformation as likely reflecting an old totemic tradition among a bear associated clan absorbed into the founding lineage, while treating the legend's precise founding date, reckoned in the text against the reign of the legendary Chinese emperor Yao, as symbolic rather than historical. 1 Meaning
Central MotifA divine ruler's descent to earth and the ordeal that turns an animal into the human mother of a nation's founder 1 Controversy
Point in DisputeScholars are divided on whether Dangun originated as a purely religious founding figure later given a political genealogy, or whether the legend was substantially shaped, or even invented in its extant form, during the Goryeo dynasty to answer Mongol era pressure with a founding myth of Korean unity. 1 History
Historical NoteThe Samguk Yusa was compiled around 1281 AD, centuries after the events it claims to record, and is the earliest surviving text to preserve the Dangun legend in full; the rival court chronicle Samguk Sagi of 1145 AD omits it entirely. 1 Sources
Primary SourceIryeon's Samguk Yusa, translated into English by Tae-Hung Ha and Grafton K. Mintz, is the earliest and fullest surviving witness. 1 Connections
Associated With
Source Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient KoreaIryeon, compiler, translated by Tae-Hung Ha and Grafton K. Mintz
Belongs to Tradition
Source Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient KoreaIryeon, compiler, translated by Tae-Hung Ha and Grafton K. Mintz
Sources
1. Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea
Iryeon, compiler, translated by Tae-Hung Ha and Grafton K. Mintz, Yonsei University Press, 1972
Tan'gun (Wikipedia)
In Group: Descent from Heaven and National Founding Myths, Introduction, sentence 1Quote, In Group: Descent from Heaven and National Founding Myths, Introduction, sentence 1
Tan'gun (Korean: 단군; Hanja: 檀君; pronounced [tan.ɡun]), also known as Tan'gun Wanggŏm (단군왕검; 檀君王儉; [tan.ɡun waŋ.ɡʌm]), was the legendary founder and first king of Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom.
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