Sobyeol-wang
Jeju Island shamanism · deity · Jeju Island shamanism traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Sobyeol-wang is the younger of Cheonji-wang's twin sons and the cunning counterpart to his upright brother Daebyeol-wang. In their father's court the two are set a flower-growing contest to decide who shall govern the living world. While Daebyeol-wang sleeps, Sobyeol-wang exchanges their flowering plants, claiming the flourishing bloom as his own and so winning the world of the living. Yet because his rule was founded on a lie, the living world remains beset by murder, theft, disease and deceit, ills that his brother, sovereign of the dead, can only partly remedy. The chant thus explains, through the brothers' rivalry, why the world of the living is so much more disordered than the world of the dead.
Parentage
- parent: Cheonji-wangHyun Yong-jun, Jeju-do musok jaryo sajeon (Seoul: Singu Munhwasa, 1980) (primary)
- parent: Chongmyeong-buinHyun Yong-jun, Jeju-do musok jaryo sajeon (Seoul: Singu Munhwasa, 1980) (primary)
Domains
- the living world
Powers
- seize the living world by deceit
- rule the disordered world of the living
Epithets
- 이승왕 — King of the World of the LivingHyun Yong-jun, Jeju-do musok jaryo sajeon (Seoul: Singu Munhwasa, 1980) (primary)
Relations
- parent: Cheonji-wangHyun Yong-jun, Jeju-do musok jaryo sajeon (Seoul: Singu Munhwasa, 1980) (primary)
- parent: Chongmyeong-buinHyun Yong-jun, Jeju-do musok jaryo sajeon (Seoul: Singu Munhwasa, 1980) (primary)
- twin: Daebyeol-wangHyun Yong-jun, Jeju-do musok jaryo sajeon (Seoul: Singu Munhwasa, 1980) (primary)
- rival: Daebyeol-wangHe cheats his elder twin of the living world in the flower contest.Hyun Yong-jun, Jeju-do musok jaryo sajeon (Seoul: Singu Munhwasa, 1980) (primary)
Sources
- Sobyeol-wang, the younger twin, wins the living world from his brother by swapping their contest flowers, and thereby becomes ruler of a world left full of disorder and evil.: Hyun Yong-jun, Jeju-do musok jaryo sajeon [Dictionary of Jeju Shamanic Materials] (Seoul: Singu Munhwasa, 1980) (primary); Kim Heonsun, Han'guk-ui changse sinhwa (Seoul: Gilbeot, 1994) (secondary)