page_title: Mengdu
section_title: Knives
hierarchical_section_title: Mengdu / Physical description and ritual use / Knives
caption_attribution_description: English: Labels on Yi Jung-chun's sacred knife. Source file: File:이종춘 심방 신칼.jpg
context_page_description: The mengdu, also called the three mengdu and the three mengdu of the sun and moon, are a set of three kinds of brass ritual devices—a pair of knives, a bell, and divination implements—which are the symbols of shamanic priesthood in the Korean shamanism of southern Jeju Island. Although similar ritual devices are found in mainland Korea, the religious reverence accorded to the mengdu is unique to Jeju.
  The origin myth of the mengdu is found in the Chogong bon-puri, a major shamanic narrative in Jeju religion. According to this narrative, the original mengdu were possessed by the eponymous Mengdu triplets, the three deities who were the first to practice shamanic ritual on earth. The stylistic features of mengdu refer back to important events in the miraculous conception and lives of these gods. The implements play a critical role in ritual; both the knives and the divination implements are used to divine the will of the gods, and the bell is used to invite them into the ritual ground.
  Every set of mengdu is believed to incarnate the spirits of both the heroes of the Chogong bon-puri and the historical human shamans who previously owned the particular set.
context_section_description: Jeju shamans carry a pair of sacred knives, fashioned after the knives that the triplets take when they ascend to heaven to punish the Confucian scholars. Shamans refer to the knives as sin-kal seonsaeng Siwang daebeonji, literally "godly knife the master, daebeonji of the Siwang." The Siwang are the divine judges of the dead that the triplets become, but the meaning of daebeonji is unclear. The knives are among the most important ritual items of Jeju shamanism, and folklorist Kim Heonsun notes that "Jeju shamans' faith in the knives is nearly absolute."
  The knife has two major parts: the brass knife itself, consisting of a blade (11–13 cm long, 1.5–2 cm wide) and a handle (9–10 cm long); and the "skirt" (chima) of the knife, consisting of strands (55–60 cm long) cut from usually eight but sometimes twelve pages of Korean paper, which are connected to the end of the handle by a string with three knots. Every part of the knife is interpreted by reference to the Chogong bon-puri myth, although shamans disagree on the details of the interpretations. The blade is shaped with one flat and one rounded side, representing the flat back and rounded belly of the pregnant Noga-danpung-agissi. Serpentine patterns are often etched on the blade, but what these symbolize are disputed by shamans, ranging from the dragons that the nobleman sees in his dream to a snake that the triplets encounter while serving the scholars. The part of the blade which tapers to meet the handle is called the "bridge of caution" (josim-dari) and stands for the difficult roads by which the girl and her servant cautiously make their way to the Hwanggeum Temple. The spiral marks on the handle symbolize the fingermarks that Noga-danpung-agissi leaves on her wrists after wringing them, either out of despair at her imprisonment or out of panic once she realizes she is pregnant. The hole in the handle represents the hole by which the imprisoned girl is fed, and the three knots on the string tied to it are the triplets themselves. The skirt is either Noga-danpung-agissi's skirt, or the veil that she wears while meeting the priest. There are sometimes six strands of string beneath the paper skirt. These stand for the Mengdu triplets and Neosame-neodoryeong, who in some versions appear as triplets and not a single god.
  There is rarely a reason to replace the brass blade and handle, but the paper skirt requires regular replacement. In the case of eight-page skirts, five pages' worth of paper is replaced at the beginning of every new ritual. The strands remaining from the previous ceremony are called the underskirt (sok-chima), and the new strands are called the outer skirt (geot-chima). Strands may be replaced in the middle of a ceremony as well if they have become too ragged. Discarded strands are ritually burned by an apprentice shaman.
caption: Sacred knives belonging to shaman Yi Jung-chun, with labels
exif: {}