Yongwang- Korean GodDeity"Dragon King of the Eastern Sea"

The Palace Beneath the Sea

Yongwang dwells in the Yonggung, an underwater palace built of coral and crystal, its furnishings decorated with pearls gathered from the ocean floor. Fish and sea creatures serve as courtiers and ministers, taking humanoid forms to wait upon their king. The palace exists outside normal space and time, accessible to mortals only by supernatural invitation.

Korean folk tradition names four Dragon Kings, one for each directional sea, but the title Yongwang belongs first to the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea. From his palace he commands the rain. Fishing villages needed him for calm waters; farmers across the peninsula prayed to him in drought.

The Rabbit's Liver

In the Sugung-ga pansori, the Dragon King falls gravely ill. His physicians tell him that only a rabbit's liver will cure him, and no rabbits live beneath the sea. He summons his turtle minister, the one courtier who can walk on land, and sends him to the surface.

The turtle finds a rabbit and lures it to the underwater palace with promises of wonders. The rabbit descends, marvels at the Yonggung, and then learns why it was brought. Yongwang wants to cut it open. The rabbit thinks fast. It tells the Dragon King that rabbits store their livers outside their bodies and that it left its liver on the riverbank. Yongwang, desperate, orders the turtle to return the rabbit to shore so it can retrieve the organ. The moment the rabbit touches dry land it bolts, shouting back that no creature keeps its liver outside its body.

In Sim Cheong-jeon, the Dragon King's palace receives a different visitor: Sim Cheong, a devoted daughter who throws herself into the sea to pay for her blind father's sight. Yongwang shelters her in his palace and sends her back to the surface inside a lotus blossom.

The Yongwang-gut

Fishing communities along the Korean coast depended on Yongwang's favor for their livelihoods. Before expeditions, fishermen made offerings seeking calm seas and abundant catches, sometimes returning the first catch of the season to the Dragon King as a portion of what his waters provided. Coastal villages maintained shrines to Yongwang, and during storms or poor fishing, communities sponsored the Yongwang-gut, a shamanic ritual in which the mudang invoked the Dragon King's blessing, channeled his voice, and delivered his messages to the gathered village.