Throughout the ages, natural disasters like drought, flood, and earthquake and epidemics have inflicted huge damages to the whole society as well as individuals, causing enormous economic losses and casualties. In the pre-modern societies where science and technology levels were not developed, such disasters were calamities humans could do little about.
But, it was not reasonable to passively accept the damages without doing anything about. In such situations, as a way to prevent disasters, block spread of, and overcome them, people would hold the rite called giyangeuirae (祈禳儀禮) to send their earnest messages to heaven. Giyangeuirae, incantation and religious rite, is usually a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, and shamanic faith as well as Confucianism. Giyangeuirae includes giwujae or praying for rain (祈雨祭), gicheongjae, or praying for rain stop (祈晴祭), hegwejae, praying for to stop strange things ending (解怪祭), and yeojae, praying for consoling lonely ghosts (厲祭), etc.
Confucianism, the dominant ideology or religion in Joseon dynasty (1392~1910), would oppress other religions. Such a social atmosphere came to affect forms of rites against disasters. The ruling class and leaders in Joseon determined various rites rooted in Buddhism, Taoism, shamanism, and other folk beliefs as 'leud rites' deluding people, and polluting social order. Accordingly, such rites slowly disappeared, and the rites against disasters had been transformed into what contained Confucian thoughts and ideas.
The Joseon dynasty developed Confucianism-specific rites, which had to embrace various functions on praying for luck and for preventing and fighting against vicious forces which had been performed by Buddhism, Taoism, and shamanism, and other folk beliefs. In such a situation, national rituals came to include incantation functions of other religions in addition to fulfillment of their political functions. In the process, Buddhistic, Taoistic, and other elements were either annexed to the rites or eliminated. But, in private lives which were not dominated by Confucian ideology as much as in the government, rites having characteristics of Buddhism, Taoism, and folk beliefs were still held.
Unlike the previous Koryeo Dynasty when Taistic and Buddhistic cultures were dominant, Joseon was the state constructed based on Confucianism, more exactly, neo-Confucianism. The state ideology influenced the contents of national rites. Over time from the early period of the dynasty when it still retained much parts of the ritual contents of the rites of the Koryeo Dynasty to the later years of the dynasty, national rites of Joseon either absorbed or eliminated elements of other religions. National rites of Joseon did not get rid of all the elements of other religions. Such rites evolved through absorbtion and exclusion of non-Confucian characteristics of other religions.