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Korean traditional graves. (iclickart)
RELOCATING GRAVES
Koreans show particular concern about the location of gravesites of their ancestors. The relocation of the graves of noted celebrities’ ancestors is always newsworthy and never fails to attract public interest. Several decades ago, former president Kim Dae-jung relocated his father’s grave to a new site in Yongin, south of Seoul, when he was the presidential candidate. It was thought that the new site might be a better “blessed site” and more auspicious for the deceased’s offspring. Sure enough, Kim Dae-jung was elected president!
From this, we can surmise that Koreans have regarded life and death as a relationship between yang and yin, that is, between heaven and earth. Yang represents the positive or assertive cosmic force. Yin represents the negative or passive force. These twin forces are the two fundamental, interactive forces of nature, exerting influence on each other and initiating movement. They explain the perpetual change in all things. One cannot exist without the other. We cannot experience light without darkness, stillness without movement, happiness without sadness, and so on. To be in balance, one must be in harmony with these two forces. To build the ancestral yin-house in a blessed site is an attempt to exert affirmative influence on the living offspring. Likewise, a yin-house in a non-blessed site exerts negative influence. At the core of the concept of reburial lies the bones of the deceased as the connecting link between the deceased and their offspring. Bones
March 2020
Why is ancestral grave relocation so newsworthy in Korea? To understand this peculiar social phenomenon, one must understand Koreans’ views of life and death. According to their traditional outlook on life and death, when a person dies, not everything related to the person disappears. For them, death means the separation of the hon (혼, soul) and baek (백, spirit). Hon is regarded as the nature of yang, bestowed by heaven, and when one dies it returns to heaven. Baek is regarded as the nature of yin,
The concept of “house” during the Joseon Dynasty included not only the “yang-house” (yang-gye, 양계), where the living reside, but also the yin-house, where the baek of the deceased reside.
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Another political personage, Kim Jong-pil, also relocated his father’s grave to a blessed site, which created the rumor that he was also expecting to run for the highest seat in the country. Then in 2004, the presidential candidate of the Grand National Party, Lee Hoi-chang, relocated his father’s grave, which was also widely reported by the media.
bestowed by the earth, and when one dies it returns to the earth with one’s body. That is, the grave where one is buried is the place where one’s baek resides, called a “yinhouse” (eum-gye, 음계).
