韓中 여성신화의 비교 고찰― 묘선과 바리공주 이야기를 중심으로

Abstract

Story of ‘Miaoshan’ in China and Story of Bari princess in Korea, which both have heroine mythological elements, are similar in that the main characters who are originally princesses become Gods after being abandoned by their father and experiencing suffering. Both stories have narrative structures of ‘hero’s life’ in consecutive order and mythological structure of ‘separation → ordeal → regression’. ‘Ordeals’ were arranged before the main character returned to her own flesh and blood group after she had been separated from it. In Bari princess narrative, most ordeals took place in the ‘transcendental world’, not in the real world. The main character became shaman ancestral goddess there and the narrative was credited for a narrative shaman song. On the other hand, as description about transcendental world in ‘Miaoshan’ Story is just a quotation from a main motif of a scripture, its effect on the entire narrative is insignificant and conflict and overcoming is highlighted instead. Meanwhile, ‘being abandoned’ is a guiding motif in these two narratives. The main characters’ actions and responds showed difference each other after they had been expelled by their father king for the reason that they were not sons. Bari princess represents a passive female, while Miaoshan represents an active female. At the end, Miaoshan and Bari princess returned to their original family and are raised to the status of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy and the shaman ancestral goddess respectively. We can find out ‘sacrifice and salvation’ in common in the description of Miaoshan’s nirvana and Bari’s elevation to the shaman ancestral goddess. Besides, we can identify close relationship between Bari’s narrative and Miaoshan’s narrative in that the dead goes to paradise in the ‘Buddhist Goddess of Mercy’ beliefs and buddhist scriptures used for buddhist worship ceremonies are found in the narratives.