Korean TraditionUnderworld
Jeoseung
The 'other world' of the dead in Korean belief, reached by a long road across mountains, rivers, and hells, beyond which lies the Western Heaven where Princess Bari found the water of life; the realm to which she guides the souls of the dead.
About Jeoseung
This world and that world
Korean speech distinguishes iseung, 'this world' of the living, from jeoseung, 'that world' of the dead. In shamanic belief the soul of the dead must travel a long road to jeoseung, crossing rivers and mountains and passing through the courts of the Ten Kings of the underworld, a Buddhist-influenced idea, where it is judged. Rites for the dead, such as the Seoul jinogwi-gut, are performed to guide the soul safely along the road and prevent it from lingering in this world.
Bari's road
In the Bari Gongju songs, the princess travels this road while alive, passing through the hells to the Western Heaven, where she earns the water of life. Having walked it, she becomes the one who leads the dead along it, and shamans reenact her journey in the rite.
Messengers of the dead
Korean tradition also knows the jeoseung saja, the messengers who come to lead the dead away, familiar today from folk tales, films, and television dramas.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Bari Gongju muga, Seoul versions, as collected in Hanguk Muga Jip (paraphrase)
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.