by Ilyon
“I want you to come with me,” the prince replied.
“If we go together,” counseled Pak, “the Japanese will pursue us. I must stay behind to prevent them.”
The prince was distressed. “I look up to you like my own father and elder brother. How can I leave you behind and go alone?”
“If I can save your life and comfort my king I will be content. I cannot think only of myself.”
Pak poured wine into a cup and offered it to the prince in farewell. Then he ordered Kang Ku-ryo, a Silla boatman, to take the prince with him under full sail. He returned to Mihae's quarters and stayed there till the following morning. When the Japanese became curious, Pak came out and told them that Mihae had been hunting the previous day and was relaxing in bed. At noon they came again, and Pak at last told them that Mihae had escaped a long while before.
The king was very angry and ordered cavalrymen to go in pursuit, but to no avail. He had Pak Che-sang arrested and brought before him.
“Why did you send the prince home without my knowledge V
“I am a subject of Kerim and not your vassal. I have simply obeyed the command of my king. I have no more to say.”
The king became angrier still. “You became my vassal and now you say no. What an insolent fellow you are! Now you must suffer the five penalties (extreme torture).”
“But even now, if you will become my subject, I will give you big rewards and make you rich and noble.”
But there was no persuading the loyal Pak. “I would rather be a dog or a pig in Kerim than a nobleman in Japan. I would rather be beaten with long whips in Kerim than receive court titles here.”
“Here, men! Peel off his skin from thigh to ankle and make him walk on the swordlike stubble of the harvested reeds.” (Ilyon points out here that an old tradition attributed the red color of a certain variety of reed to the blood of Pak Che-sang.)
When Pak had been tortured for a time the king said, “Now, fellow! Of what kingdom are you a subject?”
“I am a subject of Kerim.”
“Stand him on red-hot iron.” The men did so. “Now whose vassal are you?”
“I am a vassal of the King of Kerim.”
“You are straight like a bamboo, unbending and unyielding. But you are of no service to me. Hang him, men.” So the Japanese hanged him on a tree on Kishima and burned him to death.
Meanwhile, Mihae crossed the eastern sea and landed safely in Silla. He sent Kang Ku-ryo, the sailor, to the palace to inform the King of his arrival. His Majesty expressed great joy and commanded his courtiers to meet the returning prince on the coast. Together with Prince Pohae he went out to the southern outskirts of Kyongju, and when he saw Mihae, fell on his neck and wept for joy.
The King gave a great banquet at the palace and proclaimed a general amnesty throughout the kingdom. He conferred the title of Grand Duchess on the wife of Pak Che-sang and married Prince Mihae to her daughter.
The courtiers praised the noble deeds of Pak Che-sang, saying, “In old China a vassal of Han named Chou Ko was captured by the soldiers of Ch'u in Yingyang. Hsiang Yu said to Chou Ko, 'If you become my vassal I will make you a governor, rich and noble.' But Chou Ko would not yield and suffered death at the hand of Hsiang Yu. Now Pak Che-sang's unswerving loyalty outshines that of Chou Ko.”
Pak Che-sang's wife, overwhelmed with grief, prostrated herself on the sand beach south of Mangdok temple gate and cried long and bitterly. People still call the place Changsa, meaning long sand. The good lady could not long endure the yearning of her heart for her husband, who would return no more. She took her three daughters with her to Ch'isul-lyong (Kite Pass) in the mountains. There she looked away in the direction of Japan and wailed for sorrow till she died. She became the tutelary spirit of Kite Pass, and the people of Silla erected a shrine to her there.
25. King Silsong (402-417)
In the ninth year of Ihsi, even in the year of Kyech'uk (414) the Great Bridge was built in P'yongyang-ju. King Silsong hated Nulji, the son of the previous sovereign because of his virtue and tried to kill him. He asked the king of Koguryo to send troops to Silla, and when they arrived arranged to meet them in Nulji's presence as a signal to kill the prince. But the men of Koguryo, who admired Nulji's high virtue and fine deeds, plunged their spears into the king's heart instead and raised Nulji to the throne before returning to their country.
26. Shooting of the Harp-case.
In the tenth year (Mujin) of King Pich'o (otherwise known as King Soji, 479-500) the twenty-first sovereign of Silla, the King was enjoying a picnic at Heaven Spring Pavilion when he noticed crows and rats making noisy music in the flower garden where he was seated. Suddenly a rat bowed to the monarch and said, “Follow the crow wherever she flies.” The King commanded an officer mounted on a swift horse to follow a crow which was just then flying away.
The officer obeyed, and followed the crow as far as P'ich'on, a mountain village east of Namsan. Here his attention was distracted for a moment by a fight between two pigs, and when he looked again at the sky the bird was gone. As he wandered on, wondering what to do, an old man emerged from a pond near the village and presented to him a sealed letter. On the envelope were the words, “If opened, two people will die; if not opened, one man will die.”
In wonderment the horseman took the letter to the king, who looked at the envelope and said, “If two people are to die, it is better not to open the letter and let one man die.”
But the royal astrologer18 who was attending the king, said, “The two people are commoners, but the one man is your majesty.” The King nodded and opened the envelope. Inside he found a strange message: “Shoot at the harp-case.”
The King returned to the palace and shot an arrow into the harp case. When it was opened he beheld his Queen in the loving embrace of a monk, both pierced by the arrow and dead.
From that time it became the custom to stay indoors on the first pig day, the first rat day and the first horse day, and to observe the fifteenth of the first moon each year as the crow's festival day, On that day glutinous rice is cooked and offered as a sacrifice to the black bird that saved the life of the King and brought death to the adulterous Queen and her lover. In the common speech this day is called Taldo, meaning a day of sorrow and taboo. The King named the pond Soch'ul chi, which means letter-issuing pond.
27. King Chich'ollo (Chijung, 500-514)
The twenty-second sovereign was King Chich'ollo. His family name was Kim and his given name was Chitaero or Chitoro. His posthumous name was Chijung. The giving of posthumous names to kings and queens began at this time. In common speech his title was Maripkan, the use of which also began in his reign. (According to other sources the use of Maripkan began with King Naemul, 356-402). He ascended the throne in the second year of Yingyuan of Nan-chao (Kyongjin), although some say it was the year Sinsa, which corresponds to the third year of Yingyuan.
The King was a big man and his phallus measured one foot five inches, so that it was difficult to find a suitable queen for him. But it was necessary that he marry, both to live a normal life and to provide an heir to the throne to whom he could pass on his jeweled scepter and royal crown. Courtiers were therefore sent to every corner of the kingdom with instructions to find a giant girl who would be a suitable match for the King.
When one of these courtiers arrived in Moryang-pu, he sat down to rest under a tree. Not far off he noticed two dogs contending over something in the grass that looked as large and bright as a golden drum. Becoming curious he asked the villagers what it was all about, and a little girl told him that the daughter of a nobleman had been washing clothes in a mountain stream and had relieved herself in the forest.
Now really intrigued, the courtier visited the nobleman's house and found that the girl was indeed a giant, seven feet five inches tall. He hastened to inform the King, who immediately sent a royal carriage drawn by two horses to bring her to the court. There they were married and lived happily. (Another source gives her family na
me as Pak. She was popularly known as Yonje Puin, the lady of the long emperor.)
During King Chich'ollo's reign the people of Ullung-do (Dagelet Island), two days' sail to the east, ceased to pay tribute to the King's court, boasting that the deep sea was their ally. The King was very angry and commanded General Pak I-jong to go to the island and punish its disobedient inhabitants. Pak had wooden lions made and mounted them on the decks of his ships. Then he sailed to Ullung-do, and said to the islanders, “If you do not surrender we will set the lions upon you.” Much afraid, the people fell on their knees and begged for peace. The King rewarded Pak I-jong and made him governor of Ullung-do.
28. King Chinhung (540-576)
The twenty-fourth sovereign was King Chinhung. He was crowned king at the age of fifteen (the Samguk Sigi says seven), with his mother as regent. She was King Pophung's daughter, wife of Ipjong-Kalmun-wang (Pophung's younger brother.)
On his deathbed, King Chinhung had his head shaved and suffered his royal person to be clad in the robe as a Buddhist monk. (An extraordinary act of piety which would have been thought beneath the dignity of a king.)
In the ninth moon of the third year of Chengsheng, an army from Paekje invaded Chinsong and carried off 39.000 people, both male and female, together with 8,000 horses. Previously Paekje had proposed to Silla that the two kingdoms launch a joint attack on Koguryo. King Chinhung flatly refused, however, saying “The rise and fall of kingdoms depends upon heaven. If Koguryo has not provoked the wrath of heaven, how can I dare to attack her?” When he heard of this the king of Koguryo was deeply moved, and strengthened his ties with Silla. This caused the exasperated king of Paekje to vent his anger by attacking Silla.
29. Tohwanyo and Pihyongnang
The twenty-fifth ruler of Silla was King Saryun (posthumous name Chinji, 576-579). His family name was Kim and his queen was Lady Chido, a daughter of Kio-kong. During his short reign he was hated by the people for his misgovernment and sexual indulgence. For these reasons he was ultimately deposed.
While he was on the throne there lived in Saryang-pu a country woman who was so beautiful that people called her Tohwarang or Tohwanyo, meaning Peach Girl. The King heard of her extraordinary beauty and had her brought to the inner palace.
“Tohwarang,” he said, “you are my peach. I love you and I must enjoy you tonight.” And he attempted to take her in his arms.
“Let me go!” she cried. “I am a married woman and I cannot accept your love. My body belongs to my husband and him only. Even a king or an emperor shall not take away my woman's treasure.”
“What a bold wench!” the King said angrily. “Don't you know I am an absolute monarch and everything in the kingdom belongs to me? I can take any pretty woman I want for my concubine. If you do not obey my command, I will kill you. Do you still dare to say no?”
But the woman was resolute. “I would rather die than be your mistress.”
The King laughed. “If your husband were to die, would you come to me?”
She was crying now. “Yes, then it would be possible,”
The King sighed resignedly and said, “Go home in peace but do not forget me, for I will keep your beauty in my heart forever.”
The woman sobbed, “May you live ten thousand years, O King!” and left the palace.
In that same year the king was deposed, and died soon afterwards. Three years later the woman's husband died, and ten days later the king appeared to her at midnight, looking just as he had in life.
“You gave me a promise long ago,” he said, “and now your husband is no more. Will you come to me and be my lover?”
“Yes, but first I must ask the advice of my parents.”
Tohwarang's parents told her that the command of a king must be obeyed. So she arrayed herself as a bride and entered her bedchamber. She did not emerge for seven days and nights, during which time the scent of incense emanated from the room and five-colored clouds hovered constantly over the roof of the house. Then she emerged alone, her royal lover having vanished, and eventually it was found that she was pregnant. When the hour of her confinement drew near heaven and earth shook with thunder. The child was a boy, whom she named Pihyongnang.
When King Chinp'yong, Chinji's successor (579-632), heard this story, he had Tohwarang and her baby brought to the palace to live, and when the boy was fifteen he was made a knight. (This probably means that he was enrolled in the order of Hwarang, a quasi-military, quasi-religious organization of aristocratic youth in the Silla kingdom.)
It was noticed at court that the boy often wandered far from the palace at night alone and the king, becoming curious, one night assigned fifty soldiers to keep watch over him. Early next morning; the captain of the soldiers reported to the King as follows:
“Your Majesty, we saw Pihyong fly over Moon Castle and land on the bank of Hwangch'on Stream (west of Kyongju). There he disported himself with a crowd of spirits from heaven and goblins from earth until the ringing of the temple bell at dawn. Then he dismissed his ghostly crew and turned his flying footsteps toward the palace.”
Pihyong was summoned to the throne forthwith, and the King enquired, “Is it true that you consort with ghosts and goblins?”
“Yes, sire, it is true.”
“Then I command you to build a bridge across the stream north of Sinwon Temple.”
“I obey, sire.”
He gathered all his ghosts and goblins together and conveyed the royal order to them. They fell to at once, and by morning a stone bridge across the stream had been completed. The King was pleased, and called it Kwi-gyo, the Bridge of Ghosts. Thinking to make further use of Pihyong's supernatural acquaintances, he then asked, “Do you know any ghost who could return to life and assist the throne in administration?”
“Yes,” replied Pihyong, “Kildal is a fine statesman.”
“Bring him to me.”
The following morning Pihyong presented Kildal before the throne. The King made him a courtier, and found him to be loyal and straight as a bamboo. He commanded Yim Chong, the grand vizier, to adopt Kildal as his son, since Yim had no son of his own. Yim Chong complied, and later ordered Kildal to erect a pavilion south of Hung-nyun Temple and to stand guard there day and night, for which reason the temple entrance became known as Kildal Gate.
But one day Kildal changed himself into a fox and ran away. (Foxes are closely associated with ghosts and spirits in East Asian folklore, somewhat as cats are in the West.) Pihyong then sent the other ghosts and goblins to catch Kildal and kill him instantly. After this all the bad ghosts and goblins feared Pihyong and came to him no more. The people of Silla praised Pihyong in a song which goes as follows:
Here stands the house of Pihyong,
Strong son of the love-spirit of our great king.
All dancing devils, do not come but go away;
Fear the ghost-general and do not stay.
It became a custom to paste up copies of this song on the gates of commoners' houses as a protection against evil spirits.
30. The Jade Belt from Heaven
The twenty-sixth sovereign of Silla was King Paekjong (posthumous title Chinp'yong, 579-632). He ascended the throne in the eighth moon of the eleventh year of Takien of Hsuan-ti of Chen (579) even in the year of Kihae. He was eleven feet tall.
On one occasion King Chinp'yong visited Ch'onju Temple, which had been constructed at his order. As he was ascending the stone steps, three of them broke beneath his weight. He gave no sign of surprise, however, and told his attendant to leave the stones as they were to show his successors. These stones still exist and are counted among the five “immovable” stones in the walled city of Kyongju.
In the year of King Chinp'yong's coronation, an angel from heaven appeared before the throne and said, “The heavenly emperor has commanded me to deliver this jade belt to you as his gift. Rise and accept it.” When the King had accepted the heavenly gift with due decorum, the angel flew back to heaven. Silla kings from that time on always wore this ja
de belt while attending important sacrificial rites at national shrines.
Long afterward Wang Kon, the founder of the Koryo dynasty (posthumous title T'aejo) cautioned his generals and officials on the eve of his conquest of Silla (935): “I forbid you to lay hands on the three treasures of Silla—the sixteen-foot Buddha image in Hwangnyong Temple, the nine-story pagoda at the same temple, and the jade belt of king Chinp'yong.” So these treasures were never touched and the jade belt remained the property of the Silla royal family even after the surrender of the kingdom.
In the fifth moon of the fourth year (Chong-yu) of Ch'ingtai (937), Kim Pu, the grand vizier (King Kyongsun) presented to King T'aejo (Wang Kon, the founder of Koryo) a belt measuring ten arm-spans, carved in gold, studded with jade and glittering with sixty-two jade pendants. This was the heavenly belt given to King Chinp'yong. King T'aejo accepted it and kept it safe in the treasury of his palace.
The court musicians sang:
Heaven has given a long jade belt
To decorate our king's jeweled waist;
His Majesty's jade body is now heavier than ever—
Rebuild the palace with steel for him to tread!
(Jade was not only regarded as precious and beautiful but also had religious significance, One of the Chinese deities was known as the Jade Emperor.)
31. The Three Prophesies of Queen Sondok
The twenty-seventh sovereign of Silla was Queen Tokman (posthumous title Sondok, 632-647). She was the daughter of King Chinp'yong and ascended the throne in the sixth year (Imjin) of Chen-kuan of T'ang T'ai-tsung. During her reign she made three remarkable prophecies.
First, the Emperor T'ai-tsung (of the Chinese T'ang dynasty) sent her a gift of three handfuls of peony seeds with a picture of the flowers in red, white and purple. The Queen looked at the picture for a while and said, “The flowers will have no fragrance.” The peonies were planted in the palace garden, and sure enough they had no odor from the time they bloomed until they faded.