The Myth of Gojoseon's
Founding-King Dan-gun
(Korea's Ancestral San-shin)
-- as recorded in first section of the Samguk-Yusa --
Hwan-in  환인 桓因,  the King of Heaven or Jeseok (note #1), was asked by one of his younger sons Hwan-ung to
send him down to earth to govern his own land.(#2)    Hwanin surveyed the mountains of the earth and chose Mount
Taebaek-san 태백산 太伯山  [Grand White Mountain] as the best site,  Opened Heaven (gaecheon) and sent down
his son To Benefit Humanity (hongik-ingan).

Hwanung descended with three heavenly seals or treasures and 3000 followers, to a sacred sandalwood tree on the
peak of Taebaek-san. Here he established a sacred city (Shinshi 신시 神市 spirit-city).  He marshaled  the noble
spirits of Wind, Rain and Clouds as his Ministers.  A government was established with 360 departments to rule with
laws and moral codes about agriculture, grain-storage, hunting, fishing, sickness and medicine, education, the arts,
family-life, determination of good and evil, and etc.

A bear and a tiger both came to Holy Hwanung and prayed (begged) to become human beings.  The Heavenly Prince
decided to give them a chance, and  gave them a bundle of mugwort and twenty bulbs of garlic and told them that if
they ate only these sacred food and stayed in the cave (out of the sunlight) for one hundred days then they would
become human.   

The tiger shortly gave up in impatient hunger and left the cave.  The bear remained and after 21 days was transformed
into a woman.

The bear-woman  Ungnyeo 웅녀; 熊女  was very grateful and made offerings to Hwanung at the stone altar by the
sacred tree on the peak.  She had no husband, however, and prayed for a son.  Hwanung was moved by her prayers to
transform himself as a human man, and mated with her.  

Nine months later she gave birth to a son, who was named Dan-gun Wanggeom  단군 왕검  檀君王儉  (3).

Dan-gun founded the first Korean kingdom, with its capital nearby what is now Pyeongyang and then moved to
Asadal, probably at Mt. Guwol-san in Hwanghae Province, and named it Joseon (4)  in the 50th year of the reign of
the Emperor Yao (China’s mythical sage-emperor ).  Dan-gun reigned over Joseon (Gojoseon) for 1,500 years.(5)

At the end of his reign, in the year 1122 BCE, Founding-King Wu (6) of the Zhou Dynasty enfeoffed Jizi (7) to
Joseon. King Dangun moved his capital again, but then returned to Asadal and abdicated his throne, hiding himself in
the mountains, becoming an immortal San-shin [Mountain-spirit]  at the age of 1,908.
This has become the main Story of Korean National Origin
and basis of the Gaecheon-jeol  [Opening Heaven Day] National Holiday
(now Officially October 3rd,   Lunar Calendar:  3rd Day of the Tenth Moon)

It tells the founding of legendary Gojoseon [Ancient Joseon Kingdom],  probably
in southern Manchuria, by Dan-gun, now regarded as the “Founder of Korea”

This is the very first story in the Samguk-Yusa [Supplementary Tales of the Three Kingdoms],
"Korea's Old Testament", compiled and written by Monk Iryeon 일연 in the late 1200s
This is a typical portrait of King Dan-gun from a temple in South Korea (left) and a similar image used
on the program-cover for a 2008 Dangun-je Ceremony at Inwang-san in Seoul (right).  He sits in a
Chinese-style wooden chair with 'rustic' legs, wears a white robe and unadorned crown, and has black
hair and beard although he lived for over 900 years (indicating his 'immortal' status, or perhaps it is
supposed to be a portrait at the time of his enthronement.  

He usually has a halo around his head, indicating divine status -- in the left icon it's a silver disk that
looks like the Moon is behind him, while in the program's icon it's just a glowing of holy light.  In these
images there is no background -- he is seen as now existing in a "Heavenly" realm.

He wears a mantle of willow leaves on his shoulders, and another of paulownia leaves around his waist
(both Willow and Paulownia are "sacred" trees, their excellent wood used to make religious-ritual implements,
musical instruments and fine furniture such as chests) -- these are symbols of "a man of nature", a ruler in
primitive time. Throughout this website there are several examples of this motif echoed in San-shin
paintings or statues.  Two bust-portraits installed at reconstructed Guwol-san shrines by NK authorities
do not include any leaves on his shoulders, however.

All these iconograghic elements are borrowed from Chinese portraits of Fuxi, the mythical founder of
Bronze-Age Sinitic civilization (and designer of the I Ching Trigrams), a very important deity for Daoists.  
 King Dan-gun is intended as a Korean counterpart of this Fuxi; some Korean spiritual-nationalists claim
that Fuxi IS actually Dan-gun, and the Chinese appropriated him  (tho this is ridiculous).
Iconography of Founding-King Dan-gun
Many more images of Dan-gun can be found all around my site, especially on my Taebaek-san Section.
NOTES:

(1)   Jeseok-bul is a quasi-Buddha deity representing Indra, the Hindu "king of the gods" (leader/manager of the
devas and "Lord of Heaven") -- a common deity in Korean Shamanism, and always appearing at the center of Chil-
seong Seven-Stars icons --  significantly for what comes later, he is also the Hindu deity of Storms, Rainfall and
War.  Author Iryeon is trying to identify this peripheral-Buddhist figure with the ancient Korean-Shamanic "Lord of
Heaven" Hwan-in, whose name rarely appears elsewhere in any historic literature.

(2) what's interesting here is that it's NOT his eldest, primary son, the Crown Prince, but specifically named by a
term denoting a younger son, or a son by a secondary wife, anyway a "junior prince".  Perhaps he was bright and
talented for leadership, but had no hope of kingship or other first-level office, and so he desired his own far-away
territory in which to try to make a new kingdom -- and his father thought it wise to send him, avoiding conflict with his
elder brothers.

(3)  This term Dan-gun probably first meant "Altar King" (gun being a later term used for a minor, illegitimate,
failed or primitive king), the monarch who came from the altar for venerating Heaven, which would be an appropriate
Korean-Shamanic title  --  but it seems that this character dan (altar) was switched to the one for "sandalwood" from
which incense is made (with the same pronunciation in Old Korean), giving "Sandalwood-King", which is more
Buddhist in meaning, probably a change made during the Goryeo Dynasty.  The suffix-title Wang-geom is a
combination of Chinese "King" with an ancient term for a Bronze-Age tribal-leader.  

(4)  The term here "Joseon" [previously spelled Choson] may have meant "Human-Land" at that time, according to
one linguistic-archaeologist, which makes sense for Bronze-Age tribes conquering Stone-Age people whom they
would consider less-than-human.  In 1390 a new dynasty established in Korea chose (with approval from the Ming
Emperor) it's name "Joseon" with the same pronunciation in Korean but different Chinese characters that mean
"Morning Calm", a reference to the teaching of Mencius.  We now call this legendary (or mythical?) prehistoric
kingdom "Gojoseon" - that go is a prefix meaning old, ancient or former, so "Gojoseon" = "Ancient Joseon".

(5)  Some of the 20th-Century religious-nationalists have claimed that the standard written myth that Dan-gun
Wanggeom lived to 1908 years old and ruled for over 1500 years is incorrect, corrupted -- they say that he & his
"Gojoseon" Kingdom were REAL, not mythical, and he was a real person (tho semi-divine / super-human) (North
Korea supports this view, see "Tomb") -- that "Dan-gun" was a monarch-title and there were 33 of them in a
dynasty, that this guy's personal name was "Wanggeom" and the next 32 Dan-guns had other names (which they list
and assign reign-dates for, from 2333 BCE onwards).  The problem is, there is absolutely zero valid evidence for this
scenario, and the standard myth (above) written in the 12th Cen CE says otherwise.  This revisionism can just an
attempt by these 20th-Century Korean religious-nationalists to claim that an old myth is actual "history".

(6)  also known as "King Wen", especially to westerners as the original author of the I Ching / Classic of Changes.  
To Chinese he is Zhōu Cháo Wuwang 周朝武王.  China's fabled Zhou Dynasty is called Ju-nara by Koreans.  1122
BCE is the real historical year of its founding, and thus the first "real" date of this myth, bordering on legend.

(7)  Jizi  (箕子 ji1 zi3,  Gija 기자 in Korean, “Viscount of Ji”, was a semi-legendary Chinese sage who is said to have
ruled Korea in the 12th century BCE.  His family name was Zi (子) and given name was Xuyu (胥餘).  Since the title
of Viscount of Ji was bestowed on him, he is usually called Jizi.  He may have been a prince or wise noble of the
corrupt Shang Dynasty, who helped Zhou King Wu overthrow it --  perhaps Wu then sent him to conquer Korea as
both reward and exile? (normally, all members of a former-royal-family would be killed).  At any rate, he can be
seen as the advent of, perhaps the first carrier of, Chinese Iron-Age culture to the Korean areas -- bringing the
demise of the original Bronze-Age shamanic tribal culture.  He is said to have taught his proto-Korean subjects rites,
agriculture, sericulture and weaving (probably also brought primitive literacy).
a modern religious painting shows the Founding-King in similar motifs (but no halo at all) sitting
under the sacred tree next to Baekdu-san's Cheonji Lake, with mugunghwa flowers, pheasants, a
tiger and a black bear -- presumably a different bear than the one (Ung-nyeo) that transformed
into a woman and became his mother!  Or else the artist seriously confused the myth's timeline...
Anyway, it is very rare to show him sitting in a real natural setting -- this moves closer to the motifs
of San-shin paintings.