Medición

Culin agreed with Frank Hamilton Cushing who claimed that ‘the staves were originally arrows’.199 _{The divination method from which the Nyut game is still maintained is based on}

the eum yang principle as Culin studied: ‘It will be discovered in the arrow-casting that the opposite faces of the substituted staves, distinguished by the colors white and black, were regarded as symbolizing day and night, light and darkness, the active or masculine and the passive or feminine principles of the universe’.200 _{He explained that ‘Under these conditions}

the arrows of the quivers of the representatives of the quarters stood for the people and the world in its totality’.201 _{‘The Korean playing-cards again furnish the most direct evidence in}

Asia of the ceremonial use of the arrow in divination, which afterward became an amusement.’202 _{He argued that ‘it is apparent,’ in the divinatory games, ‘the counts refer to}

people, and the counters actually stand for men.’203 _{He observed that, in a gaming and}

divination system, the counter moved to a certain place on a diagram according to the number made by the throwing arrows or sticks. According to Culin, Korean arrows were originally a divinatory tool which became a Nyut game. And he went on to the use of Korean Nyut sticks for recording trigrams. Culin claims that the diagram, whether the Nyut circuit, or the eight or sixty-four diagrams, the Pachisi cross or the chess-board invariably, stands for “the world” and the Korean board for Patok most clearly manifests the world than any other boards.204 _{If Pollock saw this part he seems to have had a strong interest in the}

sixty-four diagrams made by six sticks. The outline of the circle in his drawing, Untitled (JP-CR 3:537r), 1939-40 is actually made of a trigram or hexagram like short lines (fig.25). The circle has the square so the entire shape resembles the sixty-four diagram in the Korean 199

_{Culin, 1894 : 356.}

_{Culin, 1895: xxi-xxiii.}

_{Culin, 1895 : xxi-xxiii}

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Games (figs. 26). It is noteworthy that Pollock’s painting, Untitled 1938-41 (fig.27) shows an arrow, Nyut-like staves or a trigram and a man together, as Culin associated. The painting is vertically constituted three equal parts which seems to have expressed the Samshin idea (sky, earth, men). These factors and the divided construction by three parts suggest he might have followed the Culin classification and the theory of divination with an arrow, Nyut-like staves or a trigram.

Another piece of evidence for Pollock to have come across this material is a character ‘圭 (gyu)’. This character is mentioned because Culin wanted to examine whether it is originally relevant to the arrows, provided with an illustration of ‘圭’, the sceptres anciently carried by nobles (fig. 28). He explained that ‘圭’ is part of the character for the diagrams, ‘卦 (ghe)’, as well as that for divination by means of the diagrams, ‘掛 (ghe)’. ‘卦’, 圭 with “divination” on the right, indicates the result or record of the divination and ‘掛’, 圭 with “divination” on the right and “hand” on the left indicates the act of divining.205 _The

character-like figures in another drawing (fig. 29) much resemble the character ‘圭’. Its modifications into human-like figures display similarity to Culin’s text in which Nyut or the short sticks for diagram manifest men. A comparison of the drawing (fig. 30) and the passage below shows that he drew the same subjects; dragon, horse, mythical hero and “mystic diagram”- like pattern in the drawing. This drawing contains an arrow, Nyut and the character ‘圭’ at the same time. The arrows and 圭-like strokes on the bottom seem to confirm Culin’s theory that the mystic diagram was originated from the arrow. His occasional narrative drawing provides more connection to the text of the book.

To further his efforts, it was so ordered by Heaven that a supernatural being called the dragon-horse rose from the waters of the Yellow River and presented to his gaze a scroll upon its back, inscribed with mystic diagrams. From these and from the movements of the heavenly bodies he deciphered the system of written characters with which he superseded the method of keeping records by means of knotted cords.206

205 _{Culin, 1895: xxxiii.} 206 _{Culin, 1895: 74.}

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The person in the drawing looks as if he is gazing up at the sky and holds a stick. The scroll- like cylindrical shape appears to emit light. When he applied primitive elements in his work it would have not been the realistic primitive iconology on prehistoric relics or cave paintings but a reproduction of myth or legend on ethnological relics. Considering the wondrous atmosphere in the drawing, the short strokes can be seen as the counters for divination. He also used these kinds of short strokes in another drawing (fig. 31).

Pollock might have been interested in archery and he used the antagonistic ideas, diagrammatic lines and colours. He often drew arrows in drawings (1939-42), print work (c.1943-44) and paintings such as She-Wolf (1943) and Composition with Women (1938-41). He also had a book, Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugene Herrigel (1953). In the Composition with Woman (1938-41), there is a man wearing an Indian headdress-like decoration who looks at the short arrow at the bottom. The man seems to appear to practice divination with the arrow because the arrows are pointing to the abstract lines and mystical figures. In particular, Pollock placed the arrows in the terrestrial globe-like circle which coincides with Culin’s major premise in the Korean Games that the arrows were originally a divinatory tool. The Korean arrow meant more than a weapon and it contained the divisions of the world, and represented the social class.207 _{It also became a tool for delivering divine}

guidance when it was a divinatory tool. I would like to speculate that Pollock adapted a round headed arrow (Masqued Image), a short one without a shaftment (Composition with Woman) by reading Culin’s text. For the round ended arrow, Culin said that “many specimens from the University Museum are marked on the foreshaft near the notch with a ring, or with a black dot, or with both in combination”.208 _{“Part arrows”, among many}

Korean arrows, are much shorter than ordinary arrows, but are discharged with the aid of a guide or rest, and are recovered by means of a string, by which it is tied to the archer's

207

_{Culin, 1895: xxi-xxiii.}

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finger.209 _{According to Korean Games, part arrows are called pyeon-jeon in Korea. Culin}

explained that pyeon-jeon is ‘the most formidable which are used in war. Therefore, such a coincidence in a detailed part provides the higher possibility that Pollock would have known Culin’s study.

Pollock’s other drawings also display a certain type of the arrows with “a heavy conical iron head” and “a large bundle” of the arrows “is kept to be ready for use when required” from the describing text about types of Korean arrows.210 _{The same passage in the}

Korean Games, provides the fact that “archery is the test of proficiency in military examinations in Korea and the candidate shoots five arrows at a mark, and three hits are necessary to qualify”. In the drawing (JP-CR 3:537r), Pollock marked three points and two points on one line with short lines at the both ends (fig. 25). Such arrow or Nyut-like short sticks can also be evidence of the fact that Pollock borrowed text or illustrations from the book. The four abstract forms around the kite in the circle resemble the illustration of paper dolls in Korean Games. There are several kites with a Taegeuk symbol inside forming a queue on the lower left part of the drawing (figs. 32). He seems to have used traditional kites in the Korean Games as representation of the four cardinal points and intermediary points because the Korean kite represents the concept of directions. This can be used as further evidence that Pollock had already encountered the Korean Games by the 1930s. Moreover, the representative American ethnologist, Culin claimed that both of the previously mentioned four colour sets represented the four quarters and Korean Nyut was the antitype of the games in both areas. Culin clarified that there were identical games to Nyut in terms of using four staves and practically the same diagram in both eastern and western North America and Southwestern United States.211

(3) THE NUMERICAL RELATION

209 _{Culin, 1895: xxi.} 210 _{Culin, 1895: xxi.} 211 _{Culin, 1895: xxxiii.}