I wanted to visit Neuk-do because of the Mago story told in the region. Its name Neuk-do, which means the Serpent Island (구렁이섬), whispers a deep memory of the gynocentric past. However, people today seem to be oblivious to this. Our guides did not inform us of the meaning of the island’s name. I relished being surrounded by an air of mystery about the island during our visit.
Also I was drawn to Neuk-do because it is under the administration of Sacheon City. The place-name, Sacheon (泗川 or 四川 Xichuan in Chinese), is no unknown place in the mytho-history of Magoism. Like many other place-names, “Sacheon,” recurs in both present-day China and the Korean peninsula. They, although written in slightly different characters, concern Magoism (stories, place-names, or topographies). In the case of the Chinese “Sacheon,” Magoism is systematically suppressed and replaced by Daoism. Today China boasts of Xichuan Province as a birthplace of Daoism. Mt. Qingcheng (青城山) in Dujiangyan City, is known as one of the ancient Daoist centers. Our data are, albeit often sketchy, ample to indicate the importance of Mt. Qingcheng in Daoist history. It is a place wherein Zhangling (34-156) or Zhang Daoling, the founder of Tianshi (天師 Celestial Master) Daoism, founded the doctrine of Daoism and died. Yellow Emperor, the pre-dynastic hero of the third millennium BCE, is commemorated. The Temple of Eternal Dao(常道觀 Changdao Guan) located in Mt. Qingcheng is noted for its oldest hall, the Shrine of the Yellow Emperor, built during the Sui dynasty (605-618).[i] Also the place-name, Dujiangyan(都江堰), reflects the ancient irrigation system originally constructed in circa 256 BCE during the Qin dynasty.[ii]
Alongside a number of Daoist temples extant today, there are Magoist place-names and topographies, Magu Cave (麻姑洞 Magu-dong) and Magu Lake (麻姑池 Magu-chi) also known as Heavenly Lake (天池). Located adjacent to Shangqing Palace (上清宫 Supreme Clarity Palace), Magu Lake has a story that Magu collected water for her alchemical practice.[iii] “Mago” is alternatively used with “Cheon (Heaven, 天 Tian in Chinese),” as is in “Heavenly Lake.” As in other places, such Magoist place-names in Xichuan have survived Chinese mytho-historiography that has obliterated pre-Chinese Magoism and replaced it with Daoism.
Note that Magu is never articulated as the Creatrix in Chinese historiography, whereas her supremacy is adumbrated in Chinese folklore and place-names. Chinese mytho-historiography has paid the price for its matricide: Its origin will never be explained. To say that Xichuan is a Daoist birthplace is a misleading. Xichuan is a pre-Daoist center of Magoism whose origin possibly dates to the time of Danguk (3898-2333 BCE). From the Korean sources, fortunately, we are able to assess that Xichuan was a place of significance from pre-Dangun times. According to the Handan Gogi (Archaic Histories of Han and Dan), Daeeup extant today near Mt. Qingcheng, Xichuan Province, was a place wherein Dangun began her career. The Handan Gogi reads, “Dangun began her career in Daeeup (大邑 Great Town, Dayi in Chinese). All people feared and obeyed her virtue as a divine being. When she was at age 14 in the year of Gapjin (2357 BCE), Sovereign Ungssi, upon hearing her divine virtue, appointed her as Biwang (Auxiliary Ruler) to administrate Daeeup (Great Town) [Female connoting words are mine].”[iv] Thomas Yoon points out that Daeeup is not a fictitious place-name but an actual site extant today in Chengdu, Sichuan.[v]
Mr. Kigap Kang, former politician but now an orchard owner who experiments with nature-based farming for fruit trees in Sacheon City, arranged our meeting with the Director of the Sacheon City Cultural Center. The Director alongside his companion met us in his office. They told us Neuk-do’s stories of Mago Halmae. Then, we drove to the road off the shore where we could look out across the stepping stones in the sea that were said to have been placed by Mago Halmae. The tide was high and we could see only the tips of rocks. I could see the island across the adjoining water. Neuk-do had unusual topography as it was an elongated island conjoined by two mountainous isles. From such topography the name, the Serpent Island, may have derived. Houses are populated in the conjoined area. We drove to Neuk-do via a modern bridge with the hope of running into someone who could guide us to the site of Mago stepping stones. A native of Neuk-do, our guide-to-be, happened to be right there, when we got off the car.
Mr. Gyeung Jang, a 61 year-old fisherman and native of Neuk-do, showed us the site in the sea where Mago is said to have placed stepping stones. Due to the high tide, we could only see the top parts of Mago’s stepping stones upper edge over the waterline. He also led us to peeking Mago Halmi’s washing laundry rock and estimated its size to be about two meters high at the low tide. He added, Mago Halmi was so tall and giant that she needed a tall rock. The motif that the giant Mago Hami carried a boulder to construct standing stones or dolmens and the story of Mago’s laundry rock commonly recur in other regions.
During dinner at a seafood restaurant in Neuk-do, our conversations grew. Mr. Jang informed us of the fact that the whole island of Neuk-do is designated as a cultural and notable site by the province and the state. Its archaeological unearthing began in the early 1980s and has brought out numerous multi-period findings (about 13,000 items) ranging from the Neolithic to the early Iron Age. The unearthed include shell mounds, house sites, human and animal burials, pottery, and daggers that originated from not only Korea but also Yayoi Japan and Nangnang China. As such, Neuk-do has come to be known as a site of ancient transnational maritime centers in East Asia.[6]
As I write this, the Mago story turns out to have several versions. I will share three versions here. In one account, Mago Halmae, so tall and giant, walked around the sea. She brought rocks in her skirt to build a bridge at Deumun Dolpak, located between Samcheon-po and Neuk-do. Rocks fell off, when her skirt wore out. Thus, her construction of the bridge was interrupted.
Another version of the story is that Mago Halmae, also known as Mabu Halmae, Goddess of the Jiri Mountains, visited Neuk-do. Since she was welcomed and hospitably treated by the islanders, she granted them a wish. People wanted her to build a bridge that connected to the mainland. Strong and giant as she was, Mago began to bring rocks from the Jiri Mountains in her skirt. However, she was startled by the shout of a man at the sight of her underwear and drowned in the sea.
In yet another version of the story, Mago Halmi who resided in the Jiri Mountains wanted to go sightseeing in the sea. She hopped one step and landed on Samcheon-po (Harbor of Three Thousands), a port across Neuk-do. Her hop caused a wave to surge, which almost capsized a ship. The ship was sailing from Ma-do (Ma Island) to the mainland. Feeling sorry for that, Mago Halmi built stepping stones to connect Ma-do to the mainland. She carried rocks from the Jiri Mountains in her skirt and placed them for stepping stones. By the time she almost completed the construction, she saw the white waves cresting in a distant sea. A shoal of gizzard shads was approaching. Mago Halmi realized that she should not continue constructing stepping stones. Those stepping stones are the islands we see near Neuk-do.
Mago folktales become a compelling means to transmit people’s intelligence, when written texts are not permitted. As poetic literature of the collective intelligence, they convey not only historical facts but also a symbolic meaning system of Magoism. In short, Mago folktales are a live cultural intelligence of the people. These stories suggest that once upon a time there was an effort to construct a bridge between islands near Neuk-do and the mainland. Here a bridge may mean stepping stones placed in the sea, which could be helpful for the maritime voyagers. Some people may have objected the idea in that stepping stones could interrupt the migration of fish. The motif that Mago Halmae was the Goddess of Mt. Jiri suggests that Sacheon was closely connected with the cultural sphere of Mt. Jiri. That Mago is a giant cosmogonist is a pervasive theme in Korean Magoist sources. Also the storyline that Mago Halmae was ridiculed to drowning by a man for her female sexuality depicted by the showing of her underwear to men in particular indicates the process that Magoism was challenged by men and declined in the region. Given the historical framework of archaeological findings in Neuk-so, it is possible to postulate that Magoism in the region, Sacheon, dates back to the Neolithic period. Does Mago Halmae represent a shaman leader or a shaman collective of the time? Or is she a symbol for the faith in the Creatrix? I would say that Mago Halmae represents both, the historical shaman leader of Mt. Jiri and Sacheon and the Creatrix whom she venerated. Ancient Magoists likely deemed historical shaman leaders as representatives of the Creatrix.
Note:
[i]“Eternal Dao Temple on Mt. Qingcheng (Dujiangyan, Sichuan)” in Wikipedia. http://en.daoinfo.org/wiki/Eternal_Dao_Temple_on_Mt.Qingcheng(Dujiangyan,_Sichuan) (May 18, 2019).
[ii] “Dujiangyan” in Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dujiangyan/ (May 18, 2019).
[iii] See Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Seeking Mago, the Great Goddess: A Mytho-historic-thealogical Reconstruction of Magoism, an Archaically Originated Gynocentric Tradition of East Asia, Ph.D. dissertation (Claremont Graduate University 2005), 344.
[iv] Handan Gogi, 55, cited in Hwang, “Seeking Mago,” 223.
[v] Thomas Yoon, The Budozhi: The Genesis of MaGo (Mother Earth) and the History of the City of Heaven’s Ordiance (Notre Dame, IN: Cross Cultural Publications, Inc., 2003), 341 -2, cited in Hwang, “Seeking Mago,” 224.
[vi] From the official website of Sacheon Cultural Center.
http://www.4000cc.or.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=mun&wr_id=48&sca=%EC%82%AC%EC%A0%81 (11/27/2015)
For more on Mago Pilgrimage to Korea, see here.
See (Meet Mago Contributor) Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.
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