P'ungsu

A Study of Geomancy in Korea

Hong-key Yoon, Hong-key Yoon

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781438468716
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia coreana

This book is a milestone in the history of academic research on the development and role of geomancy (fengshui in Chinese and p'ungsu in Korean) in Korean culture and society. As the first interdisciplinary work of its kind, it investigates many topics in geomancy studies that have never been previously explored, and contains contributions from a number of disciplines including geography, historical studies, environmental science, architecture, landscape architecture, religious studies, and psychoanalysis. While almost all books in English about geomancy are addressed to general readers as practical guides for divining auspicious locations, P'ungsu is a work of rigorous scholarship that documents, analyzes, and explains past and current practices of geomancy. Its readers will better understand the impact of geomancy on the Korean cultural landscape and appreciate the significant ecological principles embedded in the geomantic traditions of Korea; while researchers will discover new insights and inspirations for future research on geomancy not only in Korea, but in China and elsewhere.

PART I

Toward a History of Geomancy in Korea

An Overview of Its Development

1

Introduction

Historical and Cultural Studies of Geomancy in Korea

HONG-KEY YOON

1. A JOURNEY TO THE COLLECTIVE AUTHORSHIP OF THIS BOOK

Presently a number of publications on geomancy (fengshui in Chinese and p’ungsu in Korean) are available in English for Western readers. However, most of them are practical rather than “academic” works written by practicing geomancers for general readers interested in (or curious about) the mysterious Chinese-originated art of divining auspicious locations. There are also many books on geomancy in Chinese or Korean, but again most of them are “practical and rarely academic,” written by professional geomancers to promote the practice of geomancy.

This book is not one of these publications. It is a serious, genuine academic work that endeavors to document, analyze, and explain the past and current practice of geomancy. This book may represent a milestone in the history of academic research on geomancy, for it may well be the first interdisciplinary research on geomancy in Korea. No other works on geomancy have been jointly produced by scholars from a number of disciplines, which here include geography, historical studies, environmental science, architecture, landscape architecture, religious studies, and medicine (analytical psychology). This type of interdisciplinary research may throw new light on future research on geomancy not only in Korea, but in China and other countries. I hope that new research possibilities and research directions on geomancy will come about as a result of this book’s publication. A scholar commented that all chapters in this book are innovative, but I feel that some chapters are particularly innovative as they represent the first attempt to understand geomancy in the English language from a particular academic angle, such as analytical psychology and landscape architecture. This type of research project was only possible with devoted participants at all levels, financial support, and editorial assistants who helped the editor.

The editor of this volume conceived the idea of writing this type of book a number of years ago, but in starting the planning process he soon realized that this type of study on geomancy is a complex matter, much more suitable as an interdisciplinary research project involving a number of scholars. However, this book is not an anthology of papers planned and developed by individual authors with topics freely determined by them. In-depth and systematic research into Korean geomancy requires an interdisciplinary collaboration, and the editor invited nine specialists from different disciplines to research different aspects of geomancy.

Our team’s prime goal was to produce a book in English on Korea’s geomantic heritage for readers in the English-speaking world. The editor assigned a research topic to each contributor and negotiated with each author regarding the research questions and discussion content they would cover. However, each author was principally responsible for researching and writing his or her own topic. All topics presented in this volume address different aspects of people-environment relationships, because geomancy is an art of people searching for an auspicious environment and using it appropriately. During their research and writing process, the authors of different chapters worked together, discussing and providing constructive criticism on their writings through three fruitful workshops. Most authors had opportunities for consultations and discussions with the editor of this volume on a one-to-one basis as well. The editor coordinated and reviewed each contributor’s research to avoid research overlaps and to ensure that the important aspects of geomancy in their field were included in their contribution. This book is the product of a team effort by a group of Korean scholars who originally worked together under the banner of P’ungsu: Historical and Cultural Studies of Geomancy in Korea.

In early January 2009, a group of scholars representing different disciplines formed a research project team with the aim of producing a monograph length piece of research work on p’ungsu, Korean geomancy in cultural ecology. Twelve scholars participated in this project and so far we have had three workshops. The initial meeting, which was the first workshop, for planning and allocating duties, was held in March 2009 at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Seoul National University. Here, we settled on each member’s chapter responsibilities and the participants were asked to write their reports for the second workshop.

The second workshop was held on June 6 and 7, 2009, at the residence of the head family of the Kim clan of Ŭisŏng in Kŭmgye Village, located in Andong City. The village is surrounded by geomantically evaluated hills, streams, and other landscape objects. The village is associated with many geomantic oral traditions. The workshop participants had invaluable discussions with the chongson 宗孫, the head of the family line of the Kim clan, about the geomantic conditions of the village, and we wish to thank him for the hospitality we received while our workshop was held at his village residence.

The third workshop was held on the January 19, 2010, at Kyunghee University in Seoul. The meeting place provided by the university was a congenial room designated for learning and debating Korean classics. Here, a more advanced stage of research was discussed and all contributors helped each other in providing constructive criticism on the papers presented.

The fourth and last workshop was held on September 3, 2011, at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Environmental Studies. At the meeting, three chapter authors presented the revised versions of their manuscripts, and the authors of the history of geomantic theories chapters reported that they were to complete their manuscripts by the end of 2012. After this meeting each contributor completed his or her own chapter in consultation with the editor of this volume.

The journey to produce this volume was a long process for all contributors. The majority of the chapters were completed in a draft form two to three years ago, but the editing process of each author’s manuscript required much more effort and time than the editor had originally anticipated. Thus, the editor and contributors of this volume agreed that if any author wished, they could publish their interim reports—earlier versions of their papers in either Korean or English—to receive feedback from the readership. Subsequently, some earlier (less developed) versions of chapters in this book were published elsewhere, as noted in the first footnotes of some chapters. However, all chapters in this volume are improved and expanded versions of earlier manuscripts through the last two years’ hard work by the chapter authors, to whom I am most grateful for tolerating my comments and advice.

2. THE AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THIS BOOK

This book is not a general introduction to geomancy in Korea for Westerners who want to learn about basic geomantic principles for choosing auspicious sites. There are numerous publications on Chinese geomancy for such purposes. For Korean geomancy, Yoon Hong-key’s book, The Culture of Fengshui in Korea, has already introduced the general practice of geomancy in Korean culture. This book is designed to be a more advanced academic debate and an interdisciplinary discourse on the impact of geomancy on Korean culture, focusing on cultural ecological links between geomancy and Koreans’ interaction with of the environment. The aim of this volume is twofold: (1) to study geomancy, the way it was introduced and practiced in its historical context, and (2) to understand its impact on Koreans’ use of the environment in traditional Korean culture. The first part the book attempts to document and explain the historical development of geomancy in Korean culture; the second part examines how geomancy functioned in traditional Korean culture. A study of the relationships between a particular culture and its environmental conditions is sometimes referred to as cultural ecology by geographers and anthropologists. The term combines the two popular yet ambiguous and difficult concepts of “culture” and “ecology,” as Melvin W. Mikesell once commented.1 Culture is an anthropological term, widely used and has a number of definitions, which are in some ways related to learned behavior. The term ecology is a biological concept which is used very widely, and refers basically to the relationship between biological organisms and their surrounding environment. The concept of cultural ecology is difficult to define, but in this book, it is used to point out specific links between a particular culture and a particular environment. The aim of cultural ecology is to identify and explain the pattern of relationships between a particular cultural trait and its environment. In this book, cultural ecology is used to identify and explain geomantic culture traditions and the Korean environment.

3. THE CONTENTS AND STRUCTURE OF THIS BOOK

This book consists of seventeen chapters, including this Introduction. All chapters were assigned to specialists and leading scholars in their fields, who will discuss historical aspects of geomancy during traditional or premodern Korea. In part I of the book, the first six chapters survey the historical development of Korean geomancy and its role in traditional Korean culture and society with a chronological approach. The eleven chapters in part II are devoted to specific topics relating to traditional Korean geomancy, ranging from ecological aspects of vegetation and geomancy to interrelationships between key religions and geomancy. These ten chapters are organized with a topical approach to geomancy studies.

This remainder of this Introduction (Hong-key Yoon) includes a brief consideration of the relationships between astronomy-astrology and geomancy-geography in Korean culture. Also discussed is the choice of the term geomancy as the suitable English translation of the Chinese word fengshui or the Korean word p’ungsu.

Chapter 2 (Hong-key Yoon) is a general overview of geomancy in Korean history and culture. Here the social and cultural history of how geomancy came to be accepted and practiced by Koreans is discussed, as the art of geomancy has been closely associated with sociopolitical changes of the past 1,000 years in Korea. In this chapter the Korean history of geomancy is divided into eight periods based on the sociohistorical characteristics of geomancy as practiced in Korea. This periodization method is a drastic departure from the existing scholarship, which is based on dynastic cycle as a historical unit.

Chapter 3 (Hong-key Yoon) focuses on the effect of geomancy on major social upheavals or armed uprisings in Korean history. Geomancy played an important role in major armed uprisings as an agent of social instigation. The ringleaders of socially discontented communities often manipulated geomantic ideas and organized people to stand up to the central government or the then-existing sociopolitical elite class. This chapter surveys and comments on the three most important armed uprisings in Korean history from a geomantic point of view.

Chapter 4 (Hong-key Yoon) introduces government affairs relating to geomancy during the Kory...