[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.]
Whale-Dragon Bells and Unified Sillan Politics
The whale-dragon bell is no mere spiritual device. It embodies a political vision of ancient Sillans. Restoring “the One Unified Home,” to quote from the Name Text of the Divine Bell, was the self-missioned political task for the Sillan matriversal ruling house.[1] While upholding the legacy of Magoist Cetaceanism, Sillans shaped their own destiny as the People of Mago, the Creatrix (Magoists). History has it that Silla annexed Gaya in 562 and brought demise to Baekje in 660 and to Goguryeo in 668. The Sillan matriarchal republic finally achieved the goal of becoming the mother state and embraced her daughter states, commencing Unified Silla (676-935).[2] However, the Sillan victory was not the same as the one achieved by their ancestors in pre-patriarchal (read pre-Chinese) times. No same history repeats. Sillans, together with other post-Budo daughter states of ancient Korea, were left without the mother government in the post-Budo period (see [Figure 9]).[3] The post-Budo period marks a watershed wherein the political system of matriversal confederacies was no longer available. No post-Budo states were free from the threats of patriarchal conquerors, the derivative but distortive patriarchal rule of ancient China. International politics dominated by ancient patriarchal China took over “the foreground,” ever debilitating the efforts of post-Budo Koreans to restore the matriversal confederacy.[4]
The era of Unified Silla began with the 29th ruler Taejong Muyeol whose matrilineage came from the main royal matrilineage, the Sulrye line (see [Table 4] and Appendix I). The 30th ruler Munmu the Great completed the military task of defeating enemies and opened the new era, Unified Silla. Ironically, however, Unified Silla marked a transition wherein the matriarchal leadership was losing its political power. Royal mothers were placed on the periphery. Rulers of Unified Silla were in need of the religious, cultural, and spiritual means to proclaim the self-defined identity as the People of the Creatrix. For the first century of Unified Silla, we have noteworthy Magoist Cetacean rulers including Munmu the Great, Sinmun the Great, Seongdeok the Great, Gyeongdeok the Great, and Regent Queen Mother Manwol (see [Table 1]). Their major Magoist Cetacean achievements including Gameunsa (Graced Temple), Sea Tomb, Pacifying Flute, Hwangryongsa (Yellow Dragon Temple) Great Bell are discussed later in the paper. Among them was Munmu, a remarkable ruler with a monumental achievement for his Magoist Cetacean policies.[5]
As international politics fell to the hand of non-Korean patriarchal conquerors in the post-Budo period, Sillan rulers were increasingly under the pressure of adopting the Chinese monarchical system for survival.[6] They faced multiple challenges from inside and outside. Consequently, the royal matrilineage, which previously provided queens to male rulers, was under threat. Ironically, what made Silla the self-identified Mother State, the royal matrilineage (see [Table 4], was losing gravity. In the wake of the disintegration of the royal matrilineage, Queen Mother Manwol (Full Moon) undertook the casting project of the Divine Bell. The Divine Bell was born as her last stand to hold onto socio-political stability and the matriversal Sillan identity. Sillans no longer maintained the royal matrilineage after the 37th ruler Seondeok (r. 780-785), marking the Late Period of Silla (785-935) (see Appendix I). History proves that Sillan court politics fell to chaos and instability. While the reigns of rulers were cut short, short-lived patrilineages began to surface. Meanwhile, whale-dragon bells continued to be cast by the hand of people and the court till the end of Silla and thereafter to this day. In that regard, the whale-dragon bell filled the void created by the fallen matriarchal leadership among Koreans throughout generations.[7]
The eighth century Silla when the extant whale-dragon bells were cast faced queens either of the last in lineage or isolated from the royal matrilineage. As shown in [Table 1], many names of queen’s mothers are unknown, which is a striking contrast to the list of the second major royal matrilineage (see [Table 4]), which lasted for the seventeen generations of queens and queen mothers, approximately six hundred years. “Queen Mothers” refers to the mothers of rulers. The second major royal matrilineage (the Sulrye line) ends with the Queen Mothers, Cheonmyeong, Munmyeong, Jayi, Sinmok, and Saso, as indicated in [Table 4]. Queen Mother Manwol, posthumously addressed as Queen Mother Gyeongsu, was from a new lineage and the last of that lineage.
| Lineage & Reign (Years) | Ruler | Ruler’s Mother | Queen Consort | Queen’s Mother | Magoist Cetacean Expressions |
| 29 r. 654-661 (8) | Taejong Muyeol | Cheonmyeong | Munmyeong | Manmyeong | |
| Bohui | |||||
| 30 r. 661- 681 (21) | Munmu | Munmyeong | Jayi | Boryong | Gameunsa, Sea Tomb at Whale Harbor in the Sea of Whale (East Sea) |
| 31 r. 681-692 (12) | Sinmun | Jayi | ? | Yoseok | Pacifying Flute, Gameunsa (completed) |
| Sinmok | |||||
| 32 r. 692-702 (11) | Hyoso | Sinmok | Unknown | ? | Pacifying Flute |
| 33 r. 702-737 (36) | Seongdeok | Sinmok | Seongjeong, | ? | Sangwonsa Bell (725) |
| Sodeok | ? | ||||
| 34 r. 737-742 (6) | Hyoseong | Sodeok | Hyemyeong | ? | Sea Tomb in the Sea of Whales (East Sea) |
| 35 r. 742-765 (24) | Gyeongdeok | Sodeok | Sammo | Suro | Hwangryongsa Bell (completed in 754), Manbulsan (762-5) |
| Manwol | ? | ||||
| 36 r. 765-780 (16) | Hyegong | Manwol (Regent) | Sinbo | ? | Divine Bell of the Seongdeok the Great (771) |
| Changchang | ? | ||||
| 37 (5) r. 780-785 | Seondeok | Saso | Gujok | ? |
[Table 1: Rulers of Unified Silla with their Matrilineages and their Magoist Cetacean Achievements]
(To be continued)
[1] Sillans were not the only ancient Koreans who self-identified with the goal of restoring “the One Unified Home.” It is conjectured that post-Budo Koreans of Goguryeo (37 BCE-668) and Baekje (18 BCE-660) were also under the same political zeal to re-establish the pre-patriarchal matriarchal confederacy. See the Budoji Chapter 27.
[2] Sillans took the concept of Iltong Samhan (一統三韓), the unification of Three Hans. Here Three Hans refers to the descendants of Three Hans of the Budo Joseon confederacy (2333 BCE-232 BCE), better known as Old Joseon. I have named the early Silla the matriarchal republic. See Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, “Unveiling an Ancient Silla Korean Testimony to the Mother World: An Introductory Discussion of the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City), the Principal Text of Magoism,” S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies, Vol 1 No 2 (2022), 49-50.
[3] I have grouped into six periods the mytho-history of Magoism. See Hwang, “Mago,” 18-29.
[4] I use the term “foreground” by extending Mary Daly’s definition into the political arena of the patriarchal world. Mary Daly defines it as “male-centered and mono-dimensional arena where fabrication, objectification, and alienation take place; zone of a fixed feelings, perceptions, behaviors; the elementary world,” which is a distortion of “the Background.” Likewise, I extend the definition of “Background” from Daly’s definition into the political arena. Daly defines it as: “the Realm of Wild Reality; the Homeland of women’s Selves and of all other Others; the Time/Space where auras of plants, planets, stars, animals and all Other animate beings connect.” See Mary Daly and Jane Caputi, Websters’ First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language (Boston, MA: Beacon Press 1987), 63 and 76.
[5] I have discussed Munmu in several footnotes in this essay. Foremost, Munnu the Great is counted for his will that the ash of his remains be spread over the rock (Sea Tomb) of Whale Harbor (鯨津 Gyeongjin) located in the coastal region of the Sea of Whales. His deathbed wishes to become a state-protecting dragon in the East Sea (Sea of Whales) set a new tradition for his successors. His son, Sinmun the Great, built the temple, Gameunsa (Graced Temple), to commemorate Munmu’s cetacean devotion. Munmu remains underestimated by later Sinocentric and Buddhist historians due possibly to his overt anti-Tang cetacean policy. Sources have it that Munmu defeated the navy force of Tang China in the sea without physically fighting it. Importantly, Munmu is also noteworthy for his no-warring policy after defeating Tang China. He is noted to have duplicated a Buddhist temple to hide the existence of Sacheonwangsa, a temple that had to be kept unknown to the Tang court. I maintain that his Magoist Cetacean policies manifest as the state-protecting legacy originated from a pre-Chinese time. The state-protecting tradition, which runs deep in the mind of Koreans to this day, has to do with the pre-patriarchal mytho-history of Korean Magoism.
[6] For example, Silla’s first female ruler, Queen Seondeok the Great (r.632-647) was challenged domestically and internationally for being female. Her succession to the throne faced a rebellion, the Rebellion of Chilsuk, in fact the first rebellion in Sillan history (see the Samgun Sagi). Despite, her title, Seongjo Hwanggo (聖祖皇姑 Emperor Great-Mother of the Sacred Progenitor), was given by the Council of Hwabaek upon her succession of the throne. For the Council of Hwabaek, see Hwang, “Unveiling,” footnote 89, 59. And her reign was ridiculed by the Tang emperor for being the female ruler. Ironically, Queen Seondeok was the first of the three female rulers of East Asia in the seventh and the eighth centuries, followed by Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690-705) of Tang China and Empress Genmei (r. 707-715) of the Asuka period Japan.
[7] There are about nine or ten more whale-dragon bells cast after the Divine Bell. Out of those, about four bells are extant in Korea. The Bronze Bell of Seonrimwon was cast in 804, known as 122 cm in height, but severely damaged during the Korean War (1950-3). The next bell is the Bronze Bell of Silsangsa in Namwon cast in 828, which was also severely damaged. The next extant largest Sillan bell, the Bronze Bell of Yeonjisa (111 cm in height), is currently housed in Japan. Cast in 833, this bell is said to have been commissioned by the people of today’s Jinju, South Gyeongsang. It is known to have been plundered and brought to Japan during the Imgin Japanese Invasion at the end of the 16th century. The next bell damaged but preserved in Korea is the Bronze Bell of Uncheon-dong, Jeongju. Hyeon-Jeong Kim and Su-gi Kim report it is twelve. See Hyeon-Jeong Kim and Su-gi Kim, “A Review on Treasure No. 1167, Unified Silla Buddhist Bell from Uncheon-dong, Cheongju, about Its form and Conservational Scientific Features,” Munhwajae Volume 40 (2007), 360. https://koreascience.kr/article/JAKO200771663776606.pdf.