Korea effectively develops a secular society as Neo-Confucian doctrines sweep the old order away.

Common people, however, retain attachments to folk religions, shamanism, geomancy, and fortune-telling, influences condemned by Confucianism.

This Korean mass culture creates remarkably lively and diverse art forms: uniquely colorful and unpretentiously naturalistic folk paintings of animals, popular novels in Korean vernacular, and characters such as the mudang (shamans who summon spirits and perform exorcisms).

In this way, women frequently find expression for their artistic creativity.