Yongwang — the one true spelling, and the forms that fail it
Evidence dossier 543 — Yongwang. Every exhibit catalogued, every ruling stated with its grounds.
At a Glance
- Canonical form: Yongwang
- Original script: 용왕 (龍王)
- Pantheon: Korean
- Convention: the tradition’s own scholarly transliteration standard
- False forms on record: 0
- Contested forms: none attested
- Series: The Canonical Register, No. 543 of 548
The Evidence
Exhibit 1 — the attestation. The attested form is 용왕 (龍王), from the tradition's own record. The canonical transliteration is Yongwang.
Exhibit 2 — the flattened form. The plain form yongwang differs from the canonical Yongwang only by convention of display — case, not content. It is acceptable everywhere: in legacy systems, in plain-text citation, in the DNS itself. What is not acceptable is what follows in the register: respellings that change the letters, not just their case.
Exhibit 3 — the physical record. The dragon king left few monumental traces, but his cult surfaces across the peninsula’s material culture. Goryeo and Joseon temple paintings place dragon kings and the underwater palace among the assembly of guardian deities, and the seaside temple of Haedong Yonggung (founded 1376 near Busan) preserves its founder Naong’s dream of the East Sea dragon king as a living foundation charter. The coastal shrine communities of the south sea — Chaeseon and Suyeong among them — anchor the Yongwang-gut traditions recorded by the folklorist Im Seok-jae in the twentieth century. Most strikingly literal is the royal evidence: the underwater tomb of King Munmu’s ashes off Gampo and the twin pagodas of Gameunsa (682 CE) at Gyeongju mark the dynasty’s fusion of kingship with the sea-dragon cult.
Exhibit 4 — the continuing record. Yongwang remains a vivid figure in Korean coastal culture, appearing in temple art, village rituals, seafood markets, and popular media. Dragon king imagery decorates boats, restaurants, and festivals, and prayers for safe fishing continue in many communities.
The Convention's Own History
Every tradition in this register has its own scholarly transliteration standard, built by its own specialists over decades or centuries, and the register follows each on its own terms: the tradition’s own standard. The principle that unifies them is the one the whole project stands on: a name is evidence, and evidence is not negotiable — not for keyboards, not for convenience, not for anyone.
The Protocol's Position
Can the canonical form live in the address bar? Almost always, yes. IDNA 2008 admits every mark this register defends — the DNS stores them as `xn--` punycode and modern browsers render them natively. The real frictions are practical, not legal: some registrars stock only part of the IDN space, so a theoretically valid name can be temporarily unbuyable; and stacked combinations (an acute riding a macron) remain awkward to type on mobile keyboards even where the protocol accepts them.
The project's answer is a ranked ladder, not a compromise: the full restoration first, then attested fallbacks in descending order of completeness. The ladder's lowest rung, plain ASCII, is a vehicle for legacy systems — sanctioned, but never presented as the scholarly form.
The Verdict
Case closed on Yongwang: canonical, cited, and defended. The keyboard form yongwang is the same name in another register of display — always acceptable. The register's files remain open: if a source surfaces that changes any line of this entry, the entry changes. Until then, the temple at /yongwang/ holds the canonical form.
The docket for this ruling: no false forms on the docket; no contested forms attested; the attestation rests on 5 cited sources — Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms), 13th c. — the yeouiju tale and the reign of King Munmu, Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms), 1145 — the annals of Munmu and Sinmun, Grayson, James H., Korea: A Religious and Cultural History (Routledge, 2002).
The Register Continues
This is one of 548 entries in the Canonical Register — the authoritative reference for every flagship temple. The temple's founding dispatch tells the name's story; its Restoration File details the marks; its Resonance File reads the archetype into the industries. The blog index holds the whole archive, and the Rulebook states the convention this register enforces.
Continue the register — previous entry: Ymir (read it) · next entry: Yùhuáng (read it).
The Canonical Register is written from the same canonical record as the lexicon itself. If a false form is missing from this page, it is because the evidence does not support calling it false — or because we have not seen it yet. Show us, with a citation, and the register will answer.