[Editor’s Note: This essay to be posted as sequels is from the second volume of the S/HE journal. See S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (Volume 2 Number 1, 2023). Page numbers and footnote numbers differ in this page.]
Identifying the Sillan Bell as the Whale-Dragon Bell
A whale is the very model that the Sillan bell takes after. Because the modern mind has been insulated from whale totemism, the cetacean identity of the Sillan bell may appear unexpected. I hold that whale totemism is a matricentric practice in origin, inseparable from the shaman head mothers of pre-patriarchal times who in turn invented the dragon symbol to express divine cetaceans. The whale-dragon bell exposes the three-way bond among shaman mothers, whales, and the dragon, the three axes that constitute the cetacean divine. By “the cetacean divine,” I mean both whales and female deities who are associated with the dragon. Put differently, whale totemism is a matricentric practice, inseparable from its shaman mothers, the originators. Deductively speaking, the royal association with the dragon accounts for the derivative nature of the throne from the socio-political authority of Magoist Cetacean Mothers.[1] The dynamic force of a dragon conveys that the cetacean divine is no abstract concept. Such triadic bond has survived in the iconography of a shaman deity known as Yonggung Buin (龍宮夫人 Dragon Palace Mother),[2] whose iconography comes as a mother seated on a dragon against the background of the sea (see [Figure 1]).[3]
That said, the question, “Is the Sillan Bell really a whale bell?” is only a point of departure. Truth is that the whale bell is one of the myriad expressions of Magoist Cetaceanism.[4] Adding to the gamut of cetacean manifestations, Sillan bells take a special place to hold together the tie between a whale and the dragon. The artistic and poetic language of the Sillan bell betrays the whale-dragon linkage.[5] The dragon represents the “calling” of whales, the sonic waves carried through water. We have the expression, which metaphorically describes the bronze bell as “a standing mountain with the reverberating sound of a dragon.”[6] At the outset, the whale names, the whale-shaped striker, the Dragon Loop, and the Dragon Tube, all taken together, bespeak the whale-dragon bell (see [Figure 10]).
The whale identity of the Sillan bell is unequivocal in the following manners: Primarily, its whale names are noted in East Asian sources. The Korean bell is parochially called Gyeongjong (鯨鐘 Whale Bell), Janggyeong (長鯨 Eternal Whale), Hwagyeong (華鯨 Splendid Whale), or Geogyeong (巨鯨 Gigantic Whale).[7] As such, the sound of the bell is alternatively called “the sound of whales (鯨音gyeongeum).”[8] The Sillan bell is an extension of the sound of a whale.
Secondly, its striker comes in the shape of “a whale” (see Figures 2 and 12). Some of the Buddhist temple bells in Korea have kept the whale-shaped striker to this day: Sudeok-sa in Yesan, South Chungcheong, Seonam-sa in Suncheon, South Jeolla, and Gwaneum-sa in Palgong-san, Daegu.[9]
Thirdly, the Dragon Loop of the whale bell (see Figures 15 and 16) is widely noted as Poroe (蒲牢 Pulao in Chinese) in East Asian historical sources. The whale-dragon link was a puzzle for the ancient mind as well. The lore of Pulao in a Chinese source was known from as early as the Tang dynasty (618-907), which goes:
In the sea there is a big fish called whale, and on the shore there is a creature whose name is pulao. The pulao has always been afraid of the whale. Whenever the whale strikes [or attacks] him, pulao cries [or roars] loudly. Thus those who want to make a loud [bell] would put a pulao on top. Therefore the bell-striker would be made [in the shape of] a whale.[10]
According to the same source, Pulao became incorporated in a later time as one of the “Nine Children of the Dragon (龍生九子Longshen-jiuzi)” during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).[11] Note the nona symbol for the dragon of the whale bell, which signifies the Cosmic Music or Palryeo (Palryeo (八呂Eight-toned Music).[12] The tone of the above, however, is only a playful stopgap at best: Pulao is “afraid of the whale.” When struck by the whale-shaped striker, it “cries [or roars] loudly.” The Pulao scheme is only a reductionist conceptual apparatus. Whales and dragons are not two separate entities. It is inapt to convey the matriversal inter-cosmic consciousness involved in the whale-dragon symbol. The dragon is a phenomenological representation of the divine cetacean.
Taken together the whale names, the whale-shaped striker, and the whale-dragon mythopoeia of Pulao, the Sillan bronze bell, analogized as a standing mountain wherein the sound of a dragon reverberates, is certainly a depiction of the whale in the action of breaching (see [Figure 3]). When the whale-shaped striker hits the striking seat of the bell’s body, the sound waves transmit through the hollow inside of the bell’s body. Some sound waves move upward and pass through the Dragon Tube to the air (see Figures 15 and 16]! Some sound waves move downward to the Depression of Sound Resonance (analogically the bottom of the sea) to be rebounded (see [Figure 13]). The dragon (the sound waves emitted by whales) “soared through the highest peak of heaven and reached below through the bottomless valley.”[13] Note that the bell’s body is adorned with the aquatic images of water nymphs,[14] lotus flower, the sea-wave-like curvilinear designs (see Figures 20-21, 22, 24, 25). The whale-dragon bell reenacts the phenomenon that all beings on the planet are resounding and dancing in responding to the calling of whales!
Now let us turn to a Korean Buddhist utterance on the dragon, Poroe, and the whale-shaped striker. Gyeongdeok the Great (r. 742-765), the 35th ruler of Unified Silla, had the wind-powered automated artifact made, which is called the Manbul-san (Mount of Ten Thousand Buddhas). According to the Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three States), the Manbulsan was an imitation of a paradisiacal mountain, carved and decorated on a sunken fragrant wood piece about 2 meters in height. Manbulsan was created and presented as a gift to the Tang emperor Daizhong (r. 762-779), an allegedly ardent Buddhist believer.[15] Its craftsmanship was so precise, compact, and elegant that it looked like a real mountain. To curtail the details, this miniature mountain is told to have included three copper bells. Placed apart on the lower part of a miniature mountain, the three bells were made to sound upon being hit by a whale-shaped striker respectively. Then, the sound of the bells caused other miniature models of bees, butterflies, sparrows, and swallows to fly. Their flights were synchronized with the motions of dancers and musicians. After depicting the details of the automated paradise replica adorned with beautiful jewels like gold and jade and previous materials, the record states:
There are about ten thousand monks who are strolling in the front. Below them are the three copper bells placed apart from one another. They were housed by the bell pavilions.[16] All bells had Poroe with the whale-shaped striker. When the wind hit the bell to ring, monks in the stroll bowed with their heads touching the ground. The reverberating sound spread. The bells were the center of all motions.[17]
One may find the above account a Buddhist scene. However, the last sentences twist such perception: “The reverberating sound spread. The bells were the center of all motions.” The Manbul-san pronounces the cetacean song as the cause of all motion in a paradisiacal mountain. It is not the Buddha or an emperor, but the singing of whales expressed as a whale-dragon bell, which is the first cause for terrestrial reality. I hold that the Manbul-san artifact is a heuristic device designed to awaken the matriversal cetacean consciousness. In that regard, the miniature mountain paradise signifies the paradisiacal home of Mago Stronghold, the planet Earth. Manbulsan is an important symbol that explains the cetacean base of the Magoist Cosmogony, the cosmogonic account of the paradisiacal home of Mago Stronghold.[18] Manbulsan shows an amalgamation of Magoist Cetaceanism and Buddhism.
Meanwhile, it is intriguing to note that Poroe, the dragon on the bell’s head, comes in the bronze temple bells of China and Japan as well. In that sense, they may be called a distantly expressed whale bell. As seen in Figures 4 and 5, they are significantly distinguished from the Sillan bell. The nona symbol is absent in these bells. Foremost, they lack the Dragon Tube, which depicts the upward motion of the whale song, the dragon (see Figures 17 and 18 series). Whale songs circulate the planetary water from the seas to the atmosphere. In the case of the Jingyung bell of China cast in 711, its designs bear little resemblance to the Sillan bell. The female, aquatic, and nona-numeric images are absent. In the case of the Japanese bell in Ryoanji, it has some resemblance in the nipples. However, not only the number of nipples but also its configurations differ from those of Sillan bells. Aquatic and nona-numeric symbols are absent.
(To be continued)
[1] The dragon is associated with rulers, a topic too complex and immense to cover here. Suffice it to say that the Korean traditional throne is profusely decorated with dragon images. Also linguistically, such Korean words as Yongjya (dragon seat) for the throne, Yongan (dragon face) for ruler’s face, and Yongpo (dragon clothes) for ruler’s clothes indicate the royal identity of shaman mothers.
[2] I transliterate the logographic word “Buin” in Yonggung Buin (龍宮夫人) as a mother rather than a lady. The character bu (夫) does not indicate a wife or one’s female spouse but the great person. Hereafter all transliterations of this character follow the same convention.
[3] The folk painting in [Figure 1] comes from late Yongsuk Bak’s artbook.
[4] The whale-dragon theme permeates the very fabric of traditional Korean culture (customs, religions, lore and placenames, rituals, art, architecture, and linguistics) to this day.
[5] The link between a whale and the dragon, pre-patriarchal in origin, remains coded in a large volume of primary sources concerning Magoist Cetaceanism including myths, customs, religious practices, and artistic and literary expressions. According to a source, the word, yongeo (龍魚 a dragon fish), indicates “a whale” or “a mermaid.” According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, it has one horn, equated with a carp. Residing on a hill or tomb mound, the dragon fish ascends riding clouds and takes flight into the nine regions. Cited in Yetgle Sanchaek, accessed April 8, 2023, http://yetgle.com/chaizip/bbs/board.php?bo_table=yetglezip&wr_id=4169&page=11. The dragon stands as a thealogical symbol for cetaceanism. Discourse on cetaceans necessarily involves thealogy. For whales escape the human standard, with their evolution history on the planet, marine habitat, size of the body, lifespan, and planetary influence. I posit that cetacean totemism caused phenomenological thealogy to take shape in pre-patriarchal times. Matriversal whale totemism was at the core of the pre-patriarchal consciousness of Mago, the Cosmic Mother, which is attributed to Goma as the originator. I hold that human history may be demarcated into two periods, the early period, which is before Magoist Cetaceanism and the late period which is after Magoist Cetaceanism.
[6] The expression comes from the Name Text of the Divine Bell, see “G” in a later section or Appendix III.
[7] Sun-Jeong Im, “The old breath of Chungnam: Guiding the crowd by the sound, the pavilion of beomjong in Sudeoksa, Yesan,” Good Morning Chungcheong, December 17, 2014, http://www.goodmorningcc.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=22802. According to the Chinese source, Gyeongjong (鯨鐘 Jingzhong in Chinese, a Whale Bell) is referred to as a big ancient bell. Given that the whale bell is associated with the Qi State (齊國 Je State in Korean) (1122-265 BC), centered in Shandong, it is possible that the whale bell is pre-Silla in origin. Baidu Encyclopedia, accessed March 10, 2023, https://baike.baidu.hk/item/%E9%AF%A8%E9%8D%BE/6643754. To be noted is that Gang Taegong (姜太公), the founding father of the Je State, was from the East Sea of present-day China, which coincides with the location of Mt. Peach Capital by the East Sea, a large territory wherein Sillans resided in the Early Period. See “Mt. Peach Capital” in a later section of this essay. Yeon-Hui Go, “Gang Taegong: Fishing the World and Right People,” DBR, 136 (September 2013), https://dbr.donga.com/article/view/1303/article_no/5966/ac/a_view.
Also Hwagyeong (華鯨) refers to a whale striker. “Hwagyeong Poroe (華鯨蒲牢),” accessed on March 10, https://m.cafe.daum.net/jang1338/eRJ0/2051.
[8] That gyeongeum (the sound of a whale) is also referred to as the sound of a sacred bell (beomjong) is a dictionary definition. Jeong-Eun Ha, “Beomjong,” Bulgyo Sinmun, May 1, 2010, http://www.ibulgyo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=103544.
[9] The first two temples, Sudeoksa and Seonamsa, are associated with the Seon (仙 read Magoist) tradition. Seon is the concept introduced by Chinese Taoism as Immortals or Immortality in modern times. Unfortunately, however, the mallet of Seonamsa bell is reportedly damaged in the head part of the whale: Its head was deliberately cut off so that the mallet did not look like a whale. See “Story of Thousands of Buddhas and Pagodas: Suncheon Seonam-sa,” Bravo My Life, September 12, 2018, http://bravo.etoday.co.kr/view/atc_view.php?varAtcId=9012.
[10] Li Shan (李善, 630-689) in his comments on “Eastern Metropolis Rhapsody (東都賦, Dong Du Fu) by Ban Gu (32-92), accessed March 10, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulao_(dragon).
[11] The mythopoesis of the Nine Children of the Dragon is a stopgap, which fails to explain the profound and archaic bond among the cetacean divine: whales, shaman head mothers, and the dragon.
[12] See the Budoji Chapter 2 or Hwang, The Mago Way, 154-156.
[13] See the Name Text of the Divine Bell in Appendix III.
[14] Traditionally, nymphs are known as celestial nymphs (飛天 bicheon, ascending heavenly beings) or apsaras. I posit that those figures are the water nymphs given the aquatic images of the bell’s belly together with the lotus flower and sea-wave-like curvilinear designs.
[15] Samguk Yusa’s record on Manbul-san is cross-verified in a Chinese record, Duyang zabian (杜陽雜編) by Su E (蘇驛). “Sillan mechanical mountain, Manbulsan, and its Chinese cross-reference,” KKamagu-dungji (까마구 둥지), accessed March 15, 2023, http://luckcrow.egloos.com/2582128.
[16] For the traditional bell pavilion of Korea, see [Figure 14]).
[17] Samguk Yusa, Volume 3.
[18] For the paradisical home of Mago Stronghold, see the first four chapters of the Budoji. Also see Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Budoji Workbook Volume 1, 1-6.