지리산성모 위숙왕후설에 대한 고찰

초록

The long-standing tradition of goddess worship across the Korean Peninsula continued into the Goryeo period in the form of Holy Mother veneration, among which the Jirisan (Mount Jiri) Holy Mother stands as a representative example. Endowed with self-generative creative power, the Jirisan Holy Mother appears in the dynasty’s founding narrative as a transcendent being who reveals that Songak (松岳) is the auspicious site destined to produce a sovereign who would unify the Three Han. This narrative took shape as Doseon (道詵)’s geomantic theory emerged as a dominant political and social discourse during the Goryeo period. In this process, the symbolic space of Jirisan–Doseon was incorporated into the mythic structure, and the mountain deity of Jirisan was reconfigured as a divine being who issues commands to Doseon within a broader discursive framework. The theory identifying the Jirisan Holy Mother with Queen Consort Wisuk (威肅王后) was established in the early Joseon period through the interpretations of Kim Jong-jik. Challenging the prevailing belief that the Jirisan Holy Mother was Maya, the mother of the Buddha, Kim sought to uncover her “true” identity and, drawing on the Jewangungi (帝王韻紀, The Rhymed Chronicle of Emperors and Kings), advanced the theory thatshe was Queen Wisuk. This interpretation emerged from the scholarly worldview and intellectual orientation of Confucian literati, who prioritized historical fact over mythic thinking and relied on documentary evidence grounded in rational inquiry. Accordingly, they favored the historical mother of a heroic figure over a mythological goddess subsumed under the concept of the “Holy Mother.” Supported by Kim Jong-jik’s scholarly authority and the evidentiary power of classical texts, this interpretation spread widely among Joseon literati. Furthermore, the historicist and text-centered interpretive stance of Joseon Confucian scholars has continued to shape modern historiography, in which the Queen Wisuk theory remains an influential framework for political, social, and cultural interpretations of the Jirisan Holy Mother.

키워드