Citation: Stiller, Maya. 2022. Warrior Gods and Otherworldly Lands: Daoist Icons and Practices in Late Chosŏn Korea. Religions 13: 1105. htps://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111105 Academic Editor: Thomas Michael Received: 3 October 2022 Accepted: 18 October 2022 Published: 15 November 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional afl‑ iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Atribution (CC BY) license (htps:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). religions Article Warrior Gods and Otherworldly Lands: Daoist Icons and Practices in Late Chosŏn Korea Maya Stiller College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, The Kress Foundation Department of Art History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA; mstiller@ku.edu Abstract: This article brings Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910) Korea into the discussion about the vari‑ ous roles of Daoism in East Asian cultures in which it has, unfortunately, all too often been absent. Based primarily on art‑historical methodology and literary analysis, the article ofers an overview of the many sorts of sources and materials that determine the perspectives we have of Daoism‑related beliefs and concepts during the late Chosŏn. In contrast to earlier interpretations of Daoist practices as exclusively expressing a desire to retreat from public life, the materials discussed in this article advance a more subtle understanding of the pervasiveness of Daoism in late Chosŏn society, ranging from Daoist divination texts and rituals at religious shrines to the construction of artifcial mountains for theater performances and the establishment of government ofce gardens that served as conduits for spiritual rejuvenation and display of cultural cachet. Keywords: Daoist visual culture; Korean Daoism; Korean Buddhism; Chosŏn dynasty; Kitchen God; Sansin; Sinjung; Guan Yu; Guan Di; Kwanje; Jade Pivot Scripture; inner alchemy; islands of immor‑ tals; Mt. Penglai; Mt. Kŭmgang; Korean garden culture 1. Introduction This study aims to bridge the divide between those who dismiss Daoism entirely in Chosŏn period Korea (1392–1910) and those who regard it as a third full‑fedged religious tradition, alongside Confucianism and Buddhism. Writing a history of Korean Daoist vi‑ sual and material culture is further complicated by the fact that there is as yet no compre‑ hensive history of Daoism in Korea. Because this article covers a broad time period and a wide range of materials, I had to forego some of the fner‑grained analysis that would be involved with studying a single site or a specifc aspect of Chosŏn Daoism. Consequently, while this initial survey of material will present particular practices such as inner alchemy or Guandi 關帝 worship, future research will necessitate corrections and refnements of my account. But I hope that with this article the reader will become aware of the various sorts of sources and materials that determine the perspectives we have of Daoism‑related beliefs and ideas in Chosŏn Korea. This article illustrates the signifcance of Daoism in Chosŏn literati circles and Chosŏn society at large. Drawing from a wide range of sources, and not limiting itself to texts, this study argues for the need to recover Daoist concepts, visual traditions, and practices from the outdated interpretive habit of seeing them as politically motivated symbolical statements (i.e., ostentatiously withdrawing from a political world one disagrees with). Late Chosŏn Koreans worshipped Daoist icons, studied Daoist texts, and associated cer‑ tain places, objects, and performances with otherworldly realms. Literate individuals as‑ sociated with Daoist themes the idea that spiritual sensation could be atained by using appropriate material surroundings. Thus, in contrast to previous interpretations of Daoist practices as exclusively expressing a desire to retreat from public life, the materials dis‑ cussed in this article ofer an expanded understanding of the strongly spiritual as well as cultural and social aggrandizing aspects of Chosŏn Daoism. Religions 2022, 13, 1105. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111105 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions