According to Korean tradition, Dangun was the mythical founder of Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom that ruled over a territory stretching between the modern-day Liaoning Province in Northeast China and the northern portion of the Korean Peninsula in ancient times.
The myth of Dangun first appeared in the 13th-century Samguk Yusa, a historical record that also contains many legends and folktales. The Samguk Yusa cites as a source for this myth a lost Korean historical text called Gogi and the Chinese Book of Wei. However, there is no mention of Dangun in the Book of Wei.
Despite the fact that Dangun is likely just a mythical figure, and there is no concrete evidence of his existence, he is celebrated both in North and South Korea every October 3, on a holiday called Gaecheonjeol, which literally means “the day the sky opened”, and is also known as National Foundation Day. Dangun is also a significant figure in Korean society, worshipped by some religious groups and honored with various statues in South Korea, and with a mausoleum near Pyongyang in North Korea. Dangun also inspired a pattern of martial arts techniques in taekwondo.
The myth of Dangun
The myth of Dangun begins with Hwanung, the son of the Lord of Heaven Hwanin. Hwanung wanted to live on Earth to benefit the human world, so Hwanin allowed him to descend from heaven and settle on Baekdu Mountain, the tallest mountain in Korea, with 3000 followers. There, Hwanung founded the “City of God” (Sinsi), and ruled as its king.
A bear and a tiger lived nearby, and prayed to Hwanung to become human. To grant their wish, Hwanung instructed them to avoid sunlight for a hundred days and only gave them twenty cloves of garlic and a bundle of mugwort to eat. The tiger left after twenty days, but the bear kept enduring and was turned into a woman called Ungnyeo. She then prayed to Hwanung for a son, so the king took her as wife and she gave birth to a boy named Dangun Wanggeom. Because of this, Dangun is known as “grandson of heaven” and “son of a bear”.
Portrait of Dangun painted by Chae Yong-sin.
As an adult, Dangun ascended to the throne, founding the kingdom of Joseon, which later became known as Gojoseon (“Old Joseon”) to distinguish it from the later kingdom of Joseon that ruled Korea between 1392 and 1897. Dangun also established the new city of Asadal and moved his capital here. The location of Asadal is disputed, and scholars have placed it either in Hwanghae Province, near Pyongyang, or in Manchuria. According to tradition, the kingdom of Gojoseon was founded by Dangun in the year 2333 BCE, but some interpret this date as the moment when “the sky opened” and Hwanung descended from heaven.
According to legend, Dangun was extremely strong and very wise, and could communicate with animals. He is said to have ruled his kingdom for over 1000 years, even 1500 according to some sources. His successor was a semi-legendary figure called Gija (or Jizi in Chinese), a member of the Chinese Shang dynasty which was sent to rule over Gojoseon by King Wu, founder of the Zhou dynasty in China. Dangun then became a deity at the age of 1908 years old.
Historical interpretation of the myth
This myth has been interpreted as a way by the people of Gojoseon to legitimize and give dignity to their kingdom. The sky god, the bear, and the tiger are said to represent three ancient clans and their mythological ancestors. The entity that later evolved into the kingdom of Gojoseon might have been established when the bear clan joined the sky god clan, while the tiger clan was eliminated.
Some interpretations of the myth claim that “Dangun” was a title rather than a name, and so the over-1000-year-long rule of Dangun could actually refer to a series of kings, while Wanggeom could have been the name of the first ruler of this dynasty. However, the date of 2333 BCE remains highly unlikely, as there is no archaeological evidence of a large and organized kingdom this far back in time in Korea, or all of East Asia. For reference, the earliest Chinese dynasty whose existence is supported by archaeological evidence is the Shang dynasty, founded around 1600 BCE. An agricultural society with some political complexity only emerged in Korea during the Mumun pottery period, dating between 1500 BCE and 300 BCE.
The story of Dangun’s supposed successor, Gija, is also likely to be mostly legendary, as its connection with Gojoseon first appears in the written record in the Samguk Yusa. The traditional date of Gija’s arrival in Korea is 1122 BCE, but King Wu of Zhou, who allegedly sent Gija to Gojoseon, is thought to have overthrown the Shang dynasty many decades later, in 1046 BCE. Nevertheless, in ancient texts Gija represented the influence of the more advanced Chinese civilization over the early Korean people, and his story is believed to refer to a Chinese clan that moved to Korea and replaced the previous “Dangun” rulers. Again, there is no archaeological evidence of this, or the existence of the earliest successors of Gija, as Gojoseon is believed to have only emerged as an advanced kingdom around the 4th century BCE. Since the 20th century, many historians have even denied the existence of Gija, or at least its connection with Gojoseon, due to the lack of evidence and the contradictory dates.
Map of Gojoseon and the other Korean states around 400 BCE (Galdrad, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).
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The myth of Dangun remained confined to a small region around Pyongyang for centuries, and only started to become popular across Korea when Koreans were fighting against the Mongols. Dangun became an important figure in Korean culture especially during the Japanese occupation of Korea. He was also seen as a more “patriotic” figure compared to Gija, who supposedly was of Chinese origins. In addition, since Dangun was placed far earlier in time, his myth painted Korea as an almost 5000-year-old civilization whose cultural achievements surpassed those of China and Japan.
Gaecheonjeol was first established as a national holiday in 1909, just one year before Korea came under Japanese colonial rule. Originally observed on the third day of the tenth lunar month, the date was fixed on October 3 in 1949, when Korea adopted the Gregorian calendar. Despite the different interpretations of this date, understood as either the date of the founding of Gojoseon by Dangun or the descent from heaven of Hwanung, this holiday celebrates the ancient kingdom and its founding myth.