[One Thousand Characters a Day] The Mysterious Animal Dictionary Hidden in Cultural Heritage ＜2＞

Editor's NoteVarious animals appear in cultural heritage. From real animals such as tigers, turtles, deer, and monkeys to imaginary creatures like dragons and phoenixes, a wide range of animals can be seen. Among them are lesser-known mysterious beings that spark the imagination of viewers, such as Nwoigongsin, the Eastern version of the 'God of Thunder' Thor; Hwasang-eo, with a turtle's body and a monk's face; Gongmyeongjo, a fantastic bird with two human heads; and Yongma, a dragon-horse with strange patterns on its back. Through these hidden fantastic animals, we can glimpse the creative imagination of our ancestors and discover new convergent cultural contents that connect the past, present, and future. Word count: 1011 characters.

Gareungbinga (迦陵頻伽) is basically an anthropomorphic bird deity with a human face and a bird's body. It evokes images of winged angels in Catholicism or Cupid, the god of love in Roman mythology. If Gareungbinga is the representative anthropomorphic bird deity in Eastern culture, then angels and Cupid serve as icons in the West.

The image of an anthropomorphic bird combining human and bird features is a cultural phenomenon common to both East and West and has existed for a long time. In China’s oldest encyclopedia, Shanhaijing (山海經), a deity called 'Ugang (?彊)' appears, depicted with a human face, a bird’s body, and snakes hanging from both ears. Alongside this, the ancient Taoist scripture Baopuzi (抱朴子) also features 'Cheonchu (千秋)' and 'Manse (萬歲)', figures with the same form as the deity in Shanhaijing. The figure 'Manse' can also be found in Goguryeo tomb murals from the Three Kingdoms period.

The anthropomorphic bird deity image can also be found in late Joseon folk paintings. A representative example is the Munjado (文子圖), where characters and paintings harmonize. Munjado originally traces its roots to China, but it was independently developed in Joseon. People of the Joseon era created Munjado to pray for their wishes to come true. They believed that characters held magical power?that wishes would be fulfilled exactly as the characters signified. This is still understandable today when parents fuss over choosing a good name for a newborn or when people change their names to alter their future when things are not going well. In other words, Munjado is a work imbued with the desire to achieve what one wants by adding pictorial elements to characters.

The representative example of Munjado in the Confucian country Joseon is the 'Confucian Munjado' or 'Hyoje Munjado', which expresses the eight virtues of filial piety (孝), brotherly love (悌), loyalty (忠), trustworthiness (信), propriety (禮), righteousness (義), integrity (廉), and shame (恥). Various iconographies corresponding to these eight virtues, which Confucianism values most, appear, and the character of particular focus here is the character for trustworthiness (信).

－Kim Yongdeok, The Mysterious Animals Hidden in Cultural Heritage Dictionary, Dam & Books, 16,800 KRW