The Song of Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi is a Korean shamanic narrative recited in the Mangmuk-gut, the traditional funeral ceremony of South Hamgyong Province, now North Korea. It is the most ritually important and most popular of the many mythological stories told in this ritual. The Mangmuk-gut is no longer performed in North Korea, but the ritual and the narrative are currently being passed down by a South Korean community descended from Hamgyong refugees. Several versions of the Song are known. In all versions, a man named Dorang-seonbi marries a woman named Cheongjeong-gaksi, only to die almost immediately after the wedding. Distraught, Cheongjeong-gaksi weeps or prays until a Buddhist priest—or a god in the form of one—gives her a set of tasks by which she can meet her husband again. The most recurrent tasks are tearing out her hair and weaving the hair into a rope, boring holes into her palms and threading the rope into the holes, and either hanging on it, going back and forth on it, or both; repeatedly drenching her fingers in oil, then setting them on fire; and, finally, paving a difficult mountain road with only what remains of her bare hands. Having done all this, Cheongjeong-gaksi is briefly reunited with her husband before he dies or departs again. In the majority of versions, the woman ultimately commits suicide or otherwise dies to be reunited with her husband for good in the afterlife. Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi were worshipped in the Mangmuk-gut as eminent gods who paved the road on which the deceased soul would travel to the afterlife. In the funeral context, the Song demonstrated the unbreachable gap between the living and the dead but also suggested that shamanic ritual could lead to a brief reunion with the dead. Scholars have focused on the myth's Buddhist influences, and especially on its relationships to Neo-Confucian patriarchy. Whether Cheongjeong-gaksi is motivated by a patriarchal ideal of female virtue that the Song therefore supports, or whether she acts out of personal love, remains debated. Names The central figures of the myth are the dead husband Dorang-seonbi and his grieving wife Cheongjeong-gaksi. Seonbi and gaksi are both titles, not integral parts of the names. Seonbi is a Korean word referring to a Confucian scholar, and gaksi simply means "newlywed bride." According to some versions of the narrative, the husband was named "Dorang" after the Korean word "stone", because it was