He asked a grasshopper if he knew where to find fire and water, but he said no, he didn't know because he had not existed on the Earth for long enough - he has not learnt much about the Earth yet. The grasshopper referred Maitreya to a frog, who told him the same thing. The frog then told Maitreya to speak to a mouse. This time, the mouse knew where to find them, but asked what he would get in return for sharing this information. Maitreya told him that he would be in charge of all the rice chests in the world if he told him where to find them. The mouse agreed as said "The secret to fire is to rub two stones together, one quartz and one cast iron from Mount Kumjong. The secret to water is to find the spring on Mount Soha". And so, Maitreya found the origin of fire and water.
Maitreya then started thinking about the birth of humans, and prayed to the Heavens whilst holding a silver tray in one hand and a golden tray in the other. The Heavens heard his prayers and sent down the heads of five bugs onto each tray. The heads from the gold tray grew into men and those on the silver tray grew into women. These people then married each other and started mankind.
Mankind enjoyed peaceful times together until a second Buddha descended from the sky, but with things other than the happiness of people in his sights. He was called Sakyamuni and he intended to steal Matreya's world.
Maitreya obviously opposed to this, as he had worked hard on this world and wanted to protect it. However, Sakyamuni was persistent and managed to convince Maitreya to have a contest with him: whoever won would get the world.In this contest they both held a bottle suspended on a string into the East Sea, and whoever's string broke first would lose. Sakyamuni lost, but being the sore loser he was, demanded a rematch. Maitreya then said "the one who manages to freeze the Songch'on River in the summer wins!", and then after attempting this contest, Sakyamuni lost again.
He demanded yet another contest, and this time they both had to fall asleep with an unblossomed peony on their knees. The peony that blooms first indicates the person that wins the world.
This time however, Sakyamuni decided to cheat. He went into a light sleep whereas Maitreya slept normally, and woke up early. He saw that Maitreya's flower had bloomed and quickly swapped the flowers.
When Maitreya woke up, he immediately knew what had happened - Sakyamuni had tricked him. Maitreya decided that he wanted nothing more to do with him, and passed on the world to him, whilst cursing him and his world.
And now onto the second creation story. And when I say second I don't mean it happened after the first one - it's completely unrelated. But it's another idea that someone had about how the world came into existence.
At the beginning the world didn't exist, until a Deity called Yul-ryeo and a Goddess called Mago appeared. Unfortunately, Yul-ryeo died quickly after coming into existence.
Mago, to get rid of her loneliness, gave birth to two goddesses: Gung-hee and So-hee, who in turn gave birth to two Men of Heaven and two Women of Heaven. The appearance of all the Heavenly people caused Yul-ryeo to be revived. The power that came from her rebirth created Heaven, Earth, the Oceans, Chi (soul), fire, water and soil. The last four elements mixed with each other to create plants, birds and animals.
Mago decides to stay with Yul-ryeo, whose body had become the world, and the Heavenly people ruled all living things from their heavenly fortress named Magoseong in honour of the Goddess.
Mago (Ma Gu in China and MaKu in Japan) is known to all as the ancestor of all races who takes care of everything on earth via the equilibrium of cosmic music/sound/vibration.
The third creation story tells us about a Heavenly Prince called Hwanung who looked down at Earth and decided he wanted to rule over mankind. The Ruler of Heaven, Hwangun's father Hwanin, knew that ruling over Earth would bring happiness to all human beings. And so, he chose Mount Taebak to send down Hwanung to.
Hwanung brought three Heavenly seals, and 3000 loyal subjects from Heaven down to Earth with him, where ontop of Mount Taebak, he created a Holy City. Here Hwanung taught humans 360 skills, such as medicine and agriculture, and they lived in peace.
From afar, a bear and tiger watched the humans and saw how happy and peaceful they were, and prayed every day to Hwanung to become human. Hwanung heard them, and promised them: "If you stay in a cave out of sunlight for 100 days, eating nothing but a bundle of mugwort and twenty cloves of garlic, I will make you human".
The bear and the tiger agreed, and went into the cave. After 21 days, the tiger gave up, as he was too hungry. The bear, however, waited patiently until the 101st day when he was transformed into a beautiful woman. This beautiful woman was called Ungnyeo, or 웅녀 in Korean.
With time the women grew lonely and prayed to Hwanung once again, asking him for a child. Hwanung decided to make her his wife and gave her a son called Tangun, who became the first King of Korea, calling it Choson and ruling for 1,500 years.
And so we move on to the next creature. This one is called the Bulgasari (불가사리) - the name originating from China (Bul Ga Sal) and literally meaning "can't be killed", or "killed by fire".
Legend describes it as a beast that has the body of a bear, the nose of an elephant, buffalo's eyes and tiger's claws. It also eats iron, which it uses to make its body stronger and more invincible. The way it looks is similar to the Japanese Baku (The Dream Eater), who also has the elephant's nose.
This monster is said to have been created by a Buddhist monk on the run from the government, when he was hiding at his sister's home. During his stay his sister hid him in a wall closet, but then suggested to her husband that they should report him to the authorities in exchange for a reward. Her husband was disgusted by this and killed her, then set her brother free. However, when the monk was hiding, he had made a beast-shaped object out of cooked rice grains, feeding it needles. As the monster ate more needles it grew, moving onto any kind of metal scrap it could find.
The monster caused mayhem and destruction, so the government assembled people to try and kill it with arrows and swords. All their plans failed, until they thought to kill it with fire. They set its tail on fire using flint, which turned the monster into charred rice.
This legend warns readers against material greed through the character of the sister, as she tried to exchange her own brother for money, acting as a cautionary tale.
Now we move onto the Chollima (천리마). This creature originates from Chinese legends where it was called "Senrima", which translates as "thousand mile horse". It was called this because it could apparently travel at incredibly high speeds, and travel the entire length of the Korean peninsula (393 kilometres) in a day. It is said to be a creature with wings much like the Greek Pegasus, but with the wish to be tamed. However, after no one was able to it flew off into the sky to never be seen again.
Moving on we find the Haechi (해치), sometimes called Haetae (해태).
The Haechi, or sometimes called the Haetae, has been the symbol of Seoul since May 2008, which is why statues of the Haechi are seen all over the city. It look like a lion with horns on its head, scales and feathers, and uses the horns to judge people. It is known as the Guardian of Justice for this reason: it judges people, punishing the bad and rewarding the good. It is also a protector against bad omen and natural disasters, which is why it's often placed outside important buildings that warrant protection, for example the presidential House. The Haechi is seen in Japanese and Chinese culture and well as in Korea, but it is known as the Xiezhi in China, where it is also seen as a symbol of justice and law, and the Kaichi in Japan.
Finally, the Dokkaebi (도깨비). This is a humorously ugly troll-type creature, that can appear in many different forms, for example some Dokkaebi have only one leg. Rather than being a monster, like the other creatures I've told you about, the Dokkaebi is an inanimate object that 'gains' a spirit. It is known to be a trickster, tricking the bad and rewarding the good. They are supposed to always carry a spiked bat and a magic hat, the bat acting as a sort of wand, being able to summon things that are already in existence, and the hat being an invisibility hat, turning the user invisible when worn. The Dokkaebi is seen in more modern times as the symbol of the korean national football team - the Korean Red Devils.
Although the Dokkaebi has similarities to a story from another country, it is not from China or Japan, like all the previously myths. Rather, it is very similar to a myth from Brazilian mythology, where it tells the story of a young black man called Saci Perere. Saci is said to only have one leg, like some types of Dokkaebi, whilst carrying a magical red cap that can turn him invisible, and a pipe. Saci is also known to be a trickster, rewarding the good and tricking the bad much like the Dokkaebi.
That's all, folks! I hope you found it interesting.
