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8월, 2025의 게시물 표시

Why Tigers Never Disappeared from Korean Culture

After disappearing from the Dangun myth, what role did the tiger come to play in Korean culture? This essay explores how the tiger survived not in legend, but in everyday language—through proverbs—revealing how Korean ways of thinking and cultural memory have been preserved over time. If the previous article examined the story of the bear and the tiger in the Dangun myth, this piece takes us to what comes next. In the myth, the bear becomes human, while the tiger ultimately fails and vanishes from the story. Yet intriguingly, the tiger never disappears from Korean culture. Instead, in the centuries following the myth, the tiger lives on in proverbs—embedded in everyday language as a way of explaining how the world works. This essay is written to explore precisely that transformation. Where Did the Tiger Go After Being Excluded from the Myth? In the Dangun myth, the tiger is a being that fails to become part of civilization. Unable to endure the taboo, it is excluded fr...
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Korea’s Founding Story: The Myth of Dangun, the Bear and the Tiger

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A Brief Overview of the Dangun Myth Often regarded as Korea’s founding narrative, the Dangun myth explains the origins of the Korean people and the birth of Gojoseon, the earliest Korean kingdom. It was not written as a historical record, but passed down orally through generations before being recorded during the Goryeo period. Within this story appear Hwanung, who descends from heaven, a bear and a tiger seeking to become human, and Dangun, the founder of the first Korean state. The contrasting choices made by the bear and the tiger are commonly interpreted as symbols of patience and self-discipline. Because of this, the Dangun myth is considered a key cultural foundation for understanding Korean identity and worldview. Today, it is generally read not as literal history, but as a symbolic account of national origins. Personally, I find the founding ideal within this story especially meaningful, as it encourages reflection on becoming a better person. The Dangu...
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