Korea and her neighbors / A narrative of travel, with an account of the recent vicissitudes and present position of the country

by Isabella L. Bird

Beyond Ko-yang, standing out in endless solemnity above a pine wood on the side of a steep hill, are two of the strangely few antiquities of which Korea can boast. These are two mirioks, colossal busts, about 35 feet in height, carved out of the solid rock. They are supposed to be relics of the very early days of Korean Buddhism, when men were religious enough to toil at such stupendous works, and to represent the male and female elements in nature. They are side by side. One wears a round and the other a square hat. The Buddhistic calm, or rather I should say apathy, rests on their huge faces, which have looked stolidly on many a change in Korea, but on none greater than the last year had witnessed.

During the day we saw three funerals, and I observed that a Japanese detachment which occupied the whole road filed to the right and left to let one of the processions pass, the men raising their caps to the corpse as they did so. These funerals gave an impression of gaiety rather than grief. Two men walked first, carrying silk bannerets which designated the woman about to be interred as the wife of so and so, a married woman having no name. Next came a man walking backwards with many streamers of colored ribbon floating from his hat, ringing a large bell, and accompanying its clang with a dissonance supposed to be singing. The coffin, under a four-posted domed cover and concealed by gay curtains, was borne on a platform by twelve men, and was followed by a large party of male mourners, a man with a musical instrument, a table, and a box of food. None of the faces were composed to a look of grief. On the dome were two mythical birds resembling the phœnix. The dome and curtains were brilliantly colored, and decorated with ribbon streamers. Two corpses, each extended on a board and covered with white paper pasted over small hoops, lay in the roadway at different places. These were bodies of persons who had died far from home and were being conveyed to their friends for burial. Later we met another funeral, the corpse carried as before on a platform by twelve bearers, who moved to a rhythmic chant of the most cheerful description, the whole party being as jolly as if they were going to a marriage. There was a cross in front of the gay hearse with an extended dragon on each arm, and four large gaily painted birds resembling pheasants were on the dome.

Korean customs as to death and burial deserve a brief notice. When a man or woman falls ill, the mu-tang or sorceress is called in to exorcise the spirit which has caused the illness. When this fails and death becomes imminent, in the case of a man no women are allowed to remain in the room but his nearest female relations, and in that of a woman all men must withdraw except her husband, father, and brother. After death the body, specially at the joints, is shampooed, and when it has been made flexible it is covered with a clean sheet and laid for three days on a board, on which seven stars are painted. This board is eventually burned at the grave. The “Star Board,” as it is called, is a euphemism for death, and is spoken of as we speak of “the grave.” During these days the grave-clothes, which are of good materials in red, blue, and yellow coloring, are prepared. Korean custom enjoins that burial shall be delayed in the case of a poor man three days only, in that of a middle class man nine days, of a nobleman or high official three months, and in that of one of the Royal Family nine months, but this period may be abridged or extended at the pleasure of the King.

Man is supposed to have three souls. After death one occupies the tablet, one the grave, and one the Unknown. During the passing of the spirit there is complete silence. The under garments of the dead are taken out by a servant, who waves them in the air and calls him by name, the relations and friends meantime wailing loudly. After a time the clothes are thrown upon the roof. When the corpse has been temporarily dressed, it is bound so tightly round the chest as sometimes to break the shoulder blades, which is interpreted as a sign of good luck. After these last offices a table is placed outside the door, on which are three bowls of rice and a squash. Beside it are three pair of straw sandals. The rice and sandals are for the three sajas, or official servants, who come to conduct one of the souls to the “Ten Judges.” The squash is broken, the shoes burned, and the rice thrown away within half an hour after death. Pictures of the Siptai-wong or “Ten Judges” are to be seen in Buddhist temples in Korea. On a man’s death one of his souls is seized by their servants and carried to the Unknown, where these Judges, who through their spies are kept well-informed as to human deeds, sentence it accordingly, either to “a good place” or to one of the manifold hells. The influence of Buddhism doubtless maintains the observance of this singular custom, even where the idea of its significance is lost or discredited.

The coffin is oblong. Where interment is delayed, it is hermetically sealed with several coats of lacquer. Until the funeral there is wailing daily in the dead man’s house at the three hours of meals. Next the geomancer is consulted about the site for the grave, and receives a fee heavy in proportion to the means of the family. He is believed from long study to have become acquainted with all the good and bad influences which are said to reside in the ground. A fortunate site brings rank, wealth, and many sons to the sons and grandsons of the deceased, and should be, if possible, on the southerly slope of a hill. He also chooses an auspicious day for the burial.

In the case of a rich man, the grave with a stone altar in front of it is prepared beforehand, in that of a poor man not till the procession arrives. The coffin is placed in a gaily decorated hearse, and with wailing, music, singing, wine, food, and if in the evening, with many colored lanterns, the cortège proceeds to the grave. A widow may accompany her husband’s corpse in a closed chair, though this appears unusual, but the mourners are all men in immense hats, which conceal their faces, and sackcloth clothing.

After the burial and the making of the circular mound over the coffin, a libation of wine is poured out and the company proceeds to sacrifice and to feast. Offerings of wine and dried fish are placed on the stone altar in front of the grave if it has been erected, or on small tables. The relatives, facing these and the grave, make five prostrations, and a formula wishing peace to the spirit which is to dwell there is repeated. Behind the grave similar offerings and prostrations are made to the mountain spirit, who presides over it, and who is the host of the soul committed to his care. The wine is thrown away, and the fish bestowed upon the servants. It will be observed that no priest has any part in the ceremonies connected with death and burial, and that two souls have now been disposed of—one to the judgment of the Unknown, and the other to the keeping of the mountain spirit.

A chair is invariably carried in a funeral procession containing the memorial, or, as we say, the “ancestral tablet” of the deceased, a strip of white wood, bearing the family name, set in a socket. A part of the inscription on this is written at the house, and it is completed at the grave. It is carried back with exactly the same style and attendance that the dead man would have had had he been living, for the third soul is supposed to return to the house with the mourners, and to take up its abode in the tablet, which is placed in a vacant room and raised on a black lacquer chair with a black lacquer table before it, on which renewed offerings are made of bread, wine, cooked meat, and vermicelli soup, the spirit being supposed to regale itself with their odors. The mourners again prostrate themselves five times, after which they eat the offerings in an adjoining room. It is customary for friends to strew the route of the procession with paper money.

In the period between the death and the interment silence is observed in the house of mourning, and only those visitors are received who come to condole with the family and speak of the virtues of the departed. It is believed that conversation on any ordinary topic will cause the corpse to shake in the coffin and show other symptoms of unrest. For the same reason the servants are very particular in watching the cats of the household if there are any, but cats are not in favor in Korea. It is terribly unlucky for a cat to jump over a corpse. It may even cause it to stand upright. After the deceased has been carried out of the house, two or three mu-tangs or sorceresses enter it with musical instruments and the other paraphernalia of their profession. After a time one becomes “inspired” by the spirit of the dead man, and accurately impersonates him, even to his small tricks of manner, movement, and speech. She gives a narrative of his life in the first person singular, if he were a bad man confessing his misdeeds, which may have been unsuspected by his neighbors, and if he were a good man, narrating his virtues with becoming modesty. At the end she bows, takes a solemn farewell of those present, and retires.

After the tablet has been removed to the ancestral temple, and the period of mourning is over, meals are offered in the shrine once every month, and also on the anniversary of each death, all the descendants assembling, and these observances extend backwards to the ancestors of five generations. Thus it is a very costly thing to have many near relations and a number of ancestors, the expense falling on the eldest son and his heirs. A Korean gentleman told me that his nephew, upon whom this duty falls, spends more upon it than upon his household expenses.