Prompt: What are the major differences or similarities between the ethos of the creation story or stories you are familiar with and the story King tells in The Truth About Stories?

Koreans do not have a unified creation story, differing by the regions and the cultures that told them, and we also have a handful of founding stories as well. This is similar to the story that King tells in The Truth About Stories, where he says it’s one of many Indigenous creation stories, and that it’s just his favourite. Since I can’t talk about all the stories, I thought I’d pick my favourite to tell as well. This story is called Changsega.

At first, the sky and earth were joined together as one, with no room for a world in between. One day cracks formed in between the two, separating them, and the giant god, Mireuk, seized this opportunity and erected four pillars to hold the heavens high above. He noticed there were two suns and two moons in that sky, making the days too hot and nights too cold, so he decided to crush one of each and decorated the sky with the dust, creating stars.

But even with only one sun and moon, his skin stung during the day and shivered by night. What was he to do? He could destroy the remaining sun and moon… no, he couldn’t possibly do that. So he took a stroll through the forest to think it over when he stumbled into a thick patch of kudzu. While covered head to toe in vines, he was struck with a brilliant idea. He took back a hand full of the plant back home and weaved it into hemp and fashioned it into a robe to protect him from the elements.

But… he still wasn’t happy, the nights were chilly and dark, not to mention that he was starting to get thirsty after working so hard. A passing mouse, seeing Mireuk’s troubled expression, told him to climb mount Geumdeong, promising that he would find what he is looking for at the top. So he did, and at the peak, he found pig iron which made sparks when struck with pebbles! Using this new tool he created fire, and with the new found light, he could see something simmering in the distance at mount Soha. He made the track over to that mountain and found a spring, which he used to create rivers, lakes, and oceans.

The world is ready, he thought, but he was lonely. So he prayed to the sky and it answered him with five golden insects and five silver insects that flew down to earth which turned into five men and five women to keep Mireuk company.

Under his rule, humans thrived and populated the world, but it attracted the attention of an evil god named Seokga. He was envious of the world that Mireuk had made, but didn’t want to do any of the work, so he challenged Mireuk for it. The task was this: to bloom flowers in one’s lap to show care, love, and patience. Seokga’s flowers, to no surprise, died quickly, but he hung around as Mireuk sat patiently. And one night, as Mireuk fell asleep, the flowers began to bloom. Seokga snuck next to him and replaced them with his dead flowers. Next morning, Mireuk woke to find his flowers dead, and Seokga celebrating the blooming of his flowers. Mireuk, being honourable, upheld his agreement and left the world, believing that the world would be better under Seokga’s rule, as he has proven to be a better god. However, this treachery had terrible consequences upon the creatures of the world. Seokga’s twisted victory twisted the world, unleashing upon it evil such as hatred, greed, envy, and war.

It’s interesting, isn’t it? Especially after reading King’s talk about creation stories, comparing Native stories to those of Judeo-Christians, this one feels like it has a bit of both within it. One of the consistent elements in Korean creation stories is that it takes place in a world that is already partially formed. We don’t have anything as dramatic as “let there be light”, but have a character making their way around an incomplete world, trying to make it more inhabitable. I found that to be the biggest similarity between Changsega and Earth Diver. Rest of the similarities are kind of between-the-lines. There is, of course, a talking animal that helps the protagonist, but animals don’t play as large of a role as they do in King’s story, the story is still mostly about Mireuk’s work. Additionally, he is flawed, not all-powerful, and requires help to form the world, but still, definitely above humans and other beings of the world.

The three large differences I wanted to discuss is the concept of creation of sin, the existence of a ruler, and man-made objects. When you read that ending, you might have thought about the ending to Genesis (I did), where through some evil action, sin was created. It seems like a weird concept thinking about it, but many cultures seem to be interested in it, as similarities exist in the Greco-Roman story of Pandora’s Box. My theory is that many of these people, who thought of great gods, wonder why they would create such thing as sin, and wanted to explain it away. I think Native stories manage to circumvent this by making their creators flawed in the first place, the concept of “sin” is just a part of the human/animal personality. Similar to the Bible and many other creation stories, Changsega places their god above human beings as a ruler. This can be explained pretty easily as Korea was a Monarchy, and having it displayed within creation stories as just the natural order of things helps people embrace the concept. The most interesting point for me is the focus on Mireuk’s creation of certain tools, like clothing and a fire striker. Most creations stories I’ve encountered only focus on the creation of nature, but Changsega decides to talk about the origin of certain tools as well.

The last point I’d like to discuss is also the reason I was drawn to this story. For me, this creation story ending in the way it did with an intruder ruling over the people, reflected the multiple invasions that Korea has suffered throughout its history, mainly from Japan, China, and Mongolia, but some from European nations as well. Perhaps stories like this have inspired people during those times to persevere and work to change the difficult situation they find themselves in.

Citations

Park, Jongsung. “Song of the Creation of the Universe.” Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture , National Folk Museum of Korea, 1 Feb. 2019, folkency.nfm.go.kr/en/topic/detail/5402#.

Geo Korea. “Cryptomeria: Korean Hemp, a Sacred Cloth.” Dailymotion, 2002, www.dailymotion.com/video/x16kyg.

“Pandora’s Box.” Myths and Legends, E2Bn, 2006, myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/origins562-pandoras-box.html.