Reversing the Reversed of the Buddhist Textual Erasure (Part 1)
Among the many Sillan Magoist Cetacean expressions which stands out is the temple bell, traditionally known as the Whale Bell (鯨鍾 Gyeongjong). The Whale Bell, a signature device of Sillan Magoist Cetaceanism, has two distinctive features, the dragon loop and the sound tube. The dragon loop functions to hang the bell, which occurs in Chinese and Japanese bells as well. This is not to say that the dragon in Chinese and Japanese counterparts are the same as that of the Korean temple bell, a point which was discussed in an earlier part of my essay on the Korean temple bell. However, the sound tube is a feature exclusively present in Korean temple bells, which is, among others, a hallmark of the Korean temple bell, distinguished from its Chinese and Japanese counterparts. Cast adjacent to each other in the bell head, the two are depicted as if the dragon is carrying the sound tube on its back (see the image). By pinpointing the sound tube, a group of Korean scholars (Suyeong Hwang and Donghae Gwak) posit that the sound tube is a replication of the pacifying flute that defeats all (萬波息笛 Manpasikjeok), the seventh century Sillan treasure. Put differently, the Korean temple bell is an innovative remake of the pacifying flute, which is uniquely Sillan. To support their contention, they draw attention to the fact that the sound tube of some Korean temple bells comes in the form of bamboo nodes. Indeed, while most temple bells show the design of nodes etched in the upright pipe, some from the Goryeo period (910-1392) specify the nodes as those of a bamboo tree.[1] Ironically, the bell with the design of bamboo nodes is a whale-effacing variation of earlier Sillan ones with decorative nodes. The Sillan temple bells replicate the bamboo-looking cetacean flute not a bamboo-made flute. This indicates that the Buddhist erasure of Magoist Cetaceanism was gaining hegemony in the Goryeo period. In any case, what does the bamboo-like node design have to do with the pacifying flute? According to the myth of the pacifying flute, the pacifying flute is made from a mysterious bamboo tree grown in a mysteriously floating mountain in the sea. And the dragon loop is no mere functional or decorative design. In the story, the dragon presents the pacifying flute to King Sinmun the Great, the protagonist, with the message that he would be ruling the whole world with the sound. Even if agreeing that the pacifying flute is replicated as the sound tube, there is an enigma yet to be unraveled. How is the sound tube or the pacifying flute related with whales? What is the role of the dragon with regards to whales? Answering these questions requires reinstating the lost name for whales in the myth of the pacifying flute.
Truth is that the myth of the pacifying flute written in the Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three States), the 13th century Korean Buddhist text that depicts the mytho-history of Korea ultimately Buddhist, comes to us as an altered story. There involved a Buddhist obfuscation of Magoist Cetaceanism. As background, the Buddhist church could not but embrace folk and Shamanic practices in order to reach out to the populace. It must be said that the Buddhist church did not kill or antagonize Magoist Cetacean folk practices. Although seemingly peaceful, however, Buddhist authority aimed at the goal of a patriarchal religion: To subdue and coopt pre-patriarchal spiritual and folk practices, which is gynocentric and cetacean. The evidence of Magoist Cetaceanism had to be dismantled but not completely destroyed. To subdue the public recognition of Magoist Cetaceanism, Ilyeon, its Buddhist monk author, replaces the whale, a narwhal in particular, with “a moving mountain in the sea” and the tusk of a narwhal with “a bamboo tree growing atop the mountain.” By undoing the linguistic harness, we are able to assess the seventh century Sillan Magoist Cetaceanism.
It is possible to reconstruct the cogent Magoist Cetacean story of the pacifying flute. At one point of time before the 13th century when the Samguk Yusa was written, there likely existed an original version of the story, which articulates the narwhal (외뿔고래 Oeppul Gorae or 일각고래 Ilgak Gorae) and its single tusk (Oeppul). If we reverse “a moving mountain” to “a pod of whales” and “the bamboo tree” with “the tusk of a narwhal,” the myth of the pacifying flute would make a perfect sense as follows:
(A hypothetically original account of the Manpasikjeok myth) King Sinmun ordered the completion of Gameunsa (Graced Temple) to commemorate his deceased father, King Munmu. The main hall of Gameunsa was designed at the sea level to allow the dragon to enter and stroll through the ebb and flow of the sea waves. In the second year of his reign (682 CE), Marine Officer reported that a pod of whales (a little mountain) in the Sea of Whales (East Sea) was approaching Gameunsa. The king had Solar Officer perform a divination. The divination foretold that he would be given a treasure with which he could protect Wolseong (Moon Stronghold), Silla’s capital. This would be a gift from King Munmu who became a sea dragon and Gim Yusin who became a heavenly being again. In seven days, the king went out to Yigyeondae (Platform of Gaining Vision) and saw the whale (the mountain) floating like a turtle’s head in the sea. There was a bamboo-tree-like tusk (a bamboo tree growing) on its top, which became two during the day and one at night. The king stayed overnight in Gameumsa to listen to the dragon who entered the yard and the substructure of the main hall. Then, there was darkness for seven days due to a storm in the sea. After the sea calmed, the king went to the pod of whales (the mountain) to meet the dragon. The dragon told him that, if he made a flute out of the narwhal’s tusk (the bamboo tree), the whole world would be pacified. And he would rule the world with the sound. The king had the tusk of a narwhal (the bamboo tree) brought out of the sea and made it into a flute, which became a treasure of Silla. Pods of whales (The mountain) and the dragon disappeared. The flute, when played during times of the nation’s trouble, brought peace. Thus comes its name, Manpasikjeok (the pacifying flute that defeats all). During the reign of King Hyoso (r. 692-702), his son, the flute continued to make miracles. Thus it was renamed Manmanpapasikjeok (the pacifying flute that surely defeats all of all) [The restored cetacean words are placed in italics before the obfuscated words in parentheses.]
The above scenario reverses the reversed and brings back the cetacean words in the limelight. There is no sense of irrationality or mystery caused by concealing the cetacean identity. One may as well question the likeliness of the cetacean theme in this story and beyond. That traditional Korea is steeped in cetacean manifestations remains esoteric, if not forgotten in modern times. A comprehensive discussion of Magoist Cetaceanism manifest in Korean linguistics, petroglyphs, customs, lore, and religions requires another space due to the immensity of data. Suffice it to say that the cetacean theme of the pacifying flute demonstrates the flowering of Sillan Magoist Cetaceanism in the seventh century, proffering key data to assess and unravel the scope and depth of Magoist Cetaceanism as a whole.
In this hypothetical version of the story, the narwhal, the dragon, and the pacifying flute are seamlessly interwoven. The story culminates in the line where the dragon informs King Sinmun that he will receive the gift of a narwhal tusk flute with which he will be able to rule the whole world with sound. The very gift of the flute made from a narwhal’s tusk, known as a Sillan treasure, charts King Sinmun as the oracle of Magoist Cetaceanism. For the narwhal tusk flute is a Magoist emblem, which signifies its holder to be an oracle of the Reign of Mago. In that sense, the narwhal’s tusk flute adds to the list of Magoist emblems after the Three Seals of Heavenly Emblem (天府三印 Cheonbu-samin) and the Golden Measurement (金尺 Geumcheok), all of which designate its receivers as an oracle of Magoism at large, that is, the governor of the Reign of Mago. And he will rule the whole world by the music played through the pacifying flute. Here the whole world means literally the whole world beyond Silla.
Ancient Magoists deemed whales as the paramount oracle of Magoism who tuned the seismic resonance with the cosmic music. Accordingly, the narwhal’s tusk flute representing the teaching of the Magoist Cosmogony is a sacred means to reenact the songs of the cetacean oracle. In short, the narwhal tusk flute conveys the cosmogonic undertaking of cetacean songs. Ultimately, the pacifying flute signifies the heavenly flute of the Eight Daughters of the Mago Triad in the Magoist Cosmogony. In the Magoist Cosmogony, the Eight Heavenly Beings, traditionally known as Eight Seons (八仙 Palseon) are attributed to the task of tuning the cosmic music.[2] Seons primarily refer to the divine Magoists. And that the pacifying flute, a signature instrument of Eight Seons, is given to King Sinmun puts the latter on a par with Eight Heavenly Women. Summarily, the story commemorates the event that the heavenly flute through which Eight Seons tuned the cosmic music, the music of the spheres, was born as a cultural emblem in the seventh century Silla.
(To be continued)
(Meet Mago Contributor) Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.
[1] The Goryeo bell in Samseon-am (Shrine of Three Seons), Jinju in South Korea. See “Pilgrimages to Korean Temple Bells by Professor Eungcheon Choe” in Bulgyo Sinmun (December 12, 2017). http://www.ibulgyo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=162493 (Janunary 12, 2020).
[2] The Budoji, Chapter One, explicated in Hwang, The Mago Way, Chapters 7 and 8.