환웅시대 태양시조 사상의 홍익인간과 재세이화 전통

Abstract

The reasons why Hwanung’s Age has been excluded from the periodization in the Korean history are because of both the lack of the understanding of Korean ancient history and the lack of our independent periodization in history due to the non-subjective and the uncritical dependence on the Western periodization in history. Heavenly king without his nation is contradictory in that both king and nation are two components of a pair. Hwanung heavenly king and Sinsigoguk also existed together. Thus, Hwanung’s Sinsigoguk is historical substance that has its records in various documents and whose existence is being supported by archeological excavated relics. As a heaven’s offspring and a heavenly king, Hwanung who governed Sinsigoguk proclaimed the idea of Benefit-All-Mankind. Not only did Hwanung heavenly king have a right to manage rituals for heavenly Gods, but also he opened advanced culture based on agricultural and settlement life through ‘Government and Education of the World.’ Thus, at that time, Sinsigoguk was the most advanced country. For that reason, both a bear tribe and a tiger tribe came to Hwanung to with their longing for Sinsigoguk’s advanced agricultural culture. Sinsigoguk’s agricultural traditions of ideas of Sun Founder, Benefit-All-Mankind, and Government and Education of the World were continued to Tangun of Chusun, Haemosu of Buyeo, Jumong of Koguryo and Park Heokgeose of Silla. Nation founder myth developed from the mythologies of heavenly offsprings’ descent to the earth , such as Hwanung and Haemosu, to the mythologies of offspring-by-eggs, such as Jumong and Par Heokgeose. In the beginning, agricultural settlement life was the most important value. As agricultural culture continued, the value for leaders who should govern the world brightly became more important than the value of agricultural settlement life. It was because good weather and the change in seasons, which determine agricultural life, are determined by Sun’s movement. Thus, the more agricultural culture is reinforced, the more Sun founder idea deeply reinforced. For that reason, it is natural the central value of Sinsigoguk, which has relatively short agricultural history is different from that of Silla, which has relatively long agricultural history. The Sun founder idea and heavenly Gods idea of Hwanung’s Sinsigoguk continued to next generation. However, the founding kings transformed from the forms of heavenly offspring’ descent into the forms of offspring-by-eggs. The ideas of Benefit-All-Mankind and Government and Education of the World developed into Heokgeose idea of ‘Government the world with Enlightenment.’ In this sense, the propagation perspective, in which one distinguish nation-founding mythology into that of heavenly offspring and that of offspring-by-eggs and allocate them to the northern province mythology and the southern province mythology respectively, should be overcome. If one interprets nation founding mythology according to Sun founder idea chronically, the expression of offspring-by-eggs is problematic from its name. It is because big and bright eggs, which appear in mythologies of Jumong and Heokgeose, should be interpreted as metaphors of sun. As Hwanung and Haemosu are figurated as heavenly offspring in their heavenly offspring descent mythologies, the eggs of Jumong or Heokgeose are metaphors of sun. Thus, in order to prevent the possibility of interpretive errors, the mythology of the offspring-by-eggs should be called the mythology of ‘sun-rising.’ Therefore, I argue that idea of Benefit-All-Mankind and the idea of Government and Education of the World historically continued with into the idea of Heokgeose and the idea of Government the World with Enlightenment with developments in their form