The Village Shrine: A Translation with Critical Analysis of a Significant Literary Masterpiece from the Japanese Occupation

THE VILLAGE SHRINE: A Translation with Critical Analysis of a Significant Literary Masterpiece from the Japanese Occupation -------------------by David Mesler Introduction "The Village Shrine" by which Chöng Pi-sök first attained notoriety when it was selected for acclaim by Chosön libo in 1937, is essentially a story of Korean identity, written at a time when the Japanese were attempting to absorb Korea totally into their newly-forming empire. It was a time of cultural crisis for Korea when restrictions on language, education, public and private expression were designed to eliminate the separateness ofKorean identity. Korea was being japonized culturally as a means of facilitating economic and political subordination. Koreans were desperate. They had no weapons with which to resist engulfment, except their own spiritual resources. They grasped for any straw that could possibly lend support to the spirit ofresistance. Making a national hero of a marathon winner at the Berlin Olympic Games ; searching deep into pre-history to identify native Korean spirit in terms of Paedal People and creating grammars foreign to the Korean ear but pristine in their purity; identifying the balsam flower languishing under a hedge as a poetic symbol of Korea stunted by Japanese suppression—all contributed to the arsenal of spiritual weaponry for resistance. 131 132/Mesler On one level, the village shrine and the spirit that inhabits it is a common expression of Korean shamanism, the roots of which go deeper into Korea's past than any other religious form. Though serious aspects of shamanistic practice tend to produce laughter in the mid-twentieth century and provide a kind of entertainment for the native spectator, they persist with strong, sobering overtones. The village shrine is symbolic of a religious stance intellectually rejected by Korean society, but experientially residual and functional among all strata. Even Christians retain certain ofthe superstitionoriented characteristics that it embodies. On this same level, "The Village Shrine" is a period piece. That is, its meanings are self-contained within the period when it was written. The struggle of Koreans against Japanese authority even at the grass-roots level ; the selection of the village shrine as a native symbol of salvation when other forms of religious expression were being discouraged; restrictions on use of the natural environment placed upon natives by a foreign power; selection of a dialect at a time when Korean language was being officially phased out; restrictions on movement ofpeople—all these have their realities in the time and place the story was written. One ofthe functions of the story at the time which it appeared, therefore, surely must have been to encourage a disarmed people not to give up. If they kept their spirit, they were not vulnerable. And the village shrine was perhaps the most powerfully emotive symbol that could have served to rally them in resistance. This appeal to the spiritual underpinnings of Korean heritage in a time of crisis is a common pattern. When Korea was undergoing an identity crisis in its relationship with China in the early Yi Dynasty, the same type of symbol was used to rally Koreans to the cause. In the fifteenth century Kim Si-süp, a literary giant wrote: Tan'gun— Father of our people. The T'aebaek Mountains Traces of thy spirit hold. Heaven itself Established thee as king. Spirits in peace Thy kingdom ruled. A millenium's reign. . . Then didst thou enter Asadal . Village Shrine/133 Oh! Shed thy light To every generation. I beg thee, Extend thine ancient stay. Make red once more That dying ray Behind the western mountains Fallen. The setting of "The Village Shrine" is one of simple pristine beauty, silence and tenderness, seclusion and self-sufficiency. The characters are developed as the most common, even as to the selection of names. Their language is a dialect of P'yong-an Province, which identifies them as having roots deep in Korea's past. They are simple, uneducated, superstitious people, typical of the peasant population which has always been the great majority and backbone of Korean society. The author skillfully builds a setting truly Korean and truly pure, into which he inserts a Korean Forest Inspector collaborating with the Japanese, assisting in...