The Beginning and Development of the Adaptation of the Five Dragons Shrine in Gunsando Island

From ancient times the deity in charge of rain was the dragon god. The dragon was established according to the influence of the five emperor gods [五帝] and five spirits [五靈] of the Five Elements [五行] theory during the Warring States period, and was worshiped as the Five Dragon God. During the Tang Dynasty, private dragon ancestral rites were officially recognized and incorporated into official proper ritual [正祀], while the king’s titles were conferred thereby. The state tried to unite the local people and control the order of rural villages by incorporating the model of dragon faith into the village beliefs. This is the reason as to why the various forms of dragon faith prevalent across various places have been adjusted to a unified deity called ‘Five Dragon God.’ The five dragon ancestral rites of the Song Dynasty were strengthened and elevated from little sacrifice [小祀] to middle ceremonies [中祀], and the Five Dragon God was widely worshiped as a god of the sea who protects the safety of navigation. However, in the Southern Song Dynasty, the ‘Majo’ Goddess came to hold the status of a sea god surpassing that of dragon god, which is identified as a factor that influenced the composition of the shrine of the Five Dragons Shrine in Gunsando Island of the Goryeo Dynasty. Now, at the upper building of the Five Dragons Shrine in Seonyu Island, there is a story of an old woman named Lim who was destined to become a queen yet who married into an ordinary family and died at the Five Dragons Shrine. This goddess is believed to have been a sea god introduced to Gunsando Island after the end of the Northern Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty when the worship of the dragon in China slowed down and Mazu began to take over its role. Since the 13th century, Gunsando Island has been neglected as an empty island after suffering from the invasions by the Mongols, plundering by the Japanese pirates, and the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. It was only during or after the late Joseon Dynasty that people migrated to the Gogunsan area, and the existing Five Dragons Shrine operated again. In this process, the Five Dragon God, worshiped by the Chinese people and repeatedly cultivated at the national level, was adapted, and the Mazu Goddess was also determined to have been transformed [changed] into the old woman Lim, who was destined to become the queen, simply by fragmentary memories of ‘林氏’ and ‘妃’.