Ancient novels in this country have not been properly evaluated, even though many have been written, owing to a lack of the reference materials and scholars in this field. The mixture, moreover, of Shamanist, of Buddhist and Taoist thought presented in the ancient novels bring a feeling of distance from the actual life. But the fact that many such novels originated in the Confucian society of Yi Dynasty with a tendency to actualism is very interesting. They had envied the idealistic world escaping from reality. So they believed in the mystery of being reborn after dying. That is to say, they thought that, although the body returned to the earth, they would enjoy immortality, being born again.
Let us glance at the rebirth of the soul under the following five sections.
(1) If Wed study the ancients' conception of the soul, we can find that the conception of the soul contained in the ancient novels was influenced by the Chinese. If a man dies, the soul leaves the body. There is the dualism of the soul (Honpaek I-won-ron 魂魄二元論) that Hon goes to Heaven and Paek returns to the earth. The pluralism of the soul refers to Samhon Ch'ilbaengonon 三魂七魄論. This kind of Confucian doctrine was influenced by Taoists. The soul is also called a ghost, which they believe lives in the cemetery, the shrine, or Heaven. As noted above, the ancient novels dealing with Rebirth, have been influenced by Confucian ideas under the influence of Taoists and the Buddhist's viewpoint about the other world to come. Throuth the Koryosa 高麗史, Suijon 殊異傳 or Hallimbyolgok 翰林別典, we can find that tales of Rebirth, such as the
T'aep'yonggwanggi 太平廣記 and Susingi 搜神記, have left their marks when they came into the country. Therefore, the Chinese literature had exerted and influence on our medium of rebirth.
(2) The forms of the soul expressed in the novels will be concretely developed in the following. Most characters in the novel die by means of stabbing, hanging himself, or plunging into waters. in the religious works, they leave the world by the call of the Heaven (the king of kings), or the lord of hell. The Soul separated from the body ascends to Heaven, that is, by leaving the corpse (Sihae 尸解). It is well known that Paegilsungch'on 白日昇天(to go to Heaven on a bright day) is best in becoming a fairy (heavenly beings) after dying. The soul appears in a dream or in real life in order to reveal some future affairs, of, pleads for mortification to be solved in the sky, owing to having died with vexation. If the soul's mortification is to be solved, the soul is reborn of dies eternally. Also we have many works dealing with two souls' cohabiting. After a male and a female who didn't experience ideal love die only the soul without the body realizes their wishes in this world.
(3) There are two aspects in the rebirth of the soul. Such rebirth was permitted for the purpose of strengthening chastity and love. The one is Taoistic rebirth restoring the dead to life by taking a miraculous drug, of, in the tomb. The other is resuscitation to be guided from this world to paradise, or from hell to the actual world in the works of Buddhism, which were written for the purpose of making one believe in Buddhism.
(4) The background of ideas is intensively dealt with. First of all, we will search out the origin of Taoistic resurrection. The Heaven of Taoism, the scriptures to preserve regenerating power, and the wonder making of a panecea will be developed in the following. We will find the purpose of the works that enforced faithful belief by strongly describing the misery of hell after obserbing the thought of Samsara (the transmigration of souls) and the other world, harmonizing the idea of rebirth with Shamanism.
(5) Conclusions : In the above, we glimpse the medium of rebirth in the ancient novels based on ideas of religion. They believe that only the soul splitting off from the body can enjoy rest and freedom. This is paradiae, Elysium, and the native place of nostalgia.
The rebirth of the soul means religious sublimation of the personality. Even though such rebirth is unrealistic, their lofty spirit, of desiring to live in Paramita after escaping from unharmonious eality, is preserved for such rebirth.