Samguk Yusa

by Ilyon

  Tradition says that when King Muryol ascended the throne (654) a countryman presented to him as a congratulatory gift a pig with one head, two bodies and eight legs. A wise man in the court interpreted this as an omen that the King would annex all the territory in the eight directions under heaven.

  The Silla royal custom of wearing T'ang court robes and carrying an ivory scepter in T'ang fashion began with King Muryol, for whom the famous monk Chajang brought them back from China.

  35. Changch'un-nang and P'arang

  At the battle of Hwang-san (now Yonsan) between the armies of Silla and Paekje, two Silla Hwarang named Changch'un-nang and P'arang were killed. When King Muryol attacked Paekje in a later battle, the two youths appeared to him in a dream and said, “We offered our lives for king and country in a former battle. Though we are now only pale ghosts, we wish to join Your Majesty's army to defend the fatherland forever, but, being overshadowed by Su Ting-fang, the T'ang general, we have to follow behind him all the time. We beg you to give us a small unit of crack troops so that we may attack the enemy and fight for a swift victory.”

  The King was deeply moved by their patriotic spirit even in death. He ordered a memorial service to be held in a pavilion called Mosan-jong, with a solemn Buddhist rite and erected Chang-ui Temple in Puk-Hansanju (near modern Seoul) to the memory of their gallant souls. (The ruins of this temple are still to be seen outside Ch'ang-ui Mun (gate of righteousness) in the old city walls to the northwest of Seoul.)

  Footnotes to Book One

  Ilyon does not actually give these details, but simply alludes to the Chinese sources in which they are found.

  This means “writings of Wei.” The passage quoted by Ilyon is not found in any extant work of this title, but even the surviving texts are in a fragmentary state. It is most likely that he here alludes to a document that has since vanished.

  Properly Sankuo-Weichih, a Chinese book. The passage actually reads as follows: “King Joon took his left and right court ladies with him in his flight across the sea to the land of Han, and assumed the title of the King of Han.” The phrase “across the sea” is not to be taken literally; it simply means “to a foreign country.”

  The Ch'ienhan-shu contains no such passage, but a geographical description of the southern prefecture is found in the chapter “Somyong-hyon” and one of the eastern prefecture in the chapter “Pul-i-hyon.”

  South Taebang was not established during the Tsao-Wei dynasty (which began in 220) but a state of this name did exist for a time after the destruction of Paekje in the seventh century.

  This must be Sungsolgol on the north bank of the Yalu in Manchuria.

  Habaek was the spirit of the waters of the Yellow River in China.

  This egg myth was widespread in northeast Asia as an explanation of the divine origins of founders of dynasties and the like. The implication in the story that the egg was fathered by the sun indicates the existence of sun-worship in early Korea.

  Evidently a mistake. The Old and New T'ang-shu (Paichi-chuan) says that “at the time of the fall of Paekje there were 760,000 households in that country.”

  Ilyon says King Hyokkose was born of “the goddess mother of Sosul.” A similar Chinese legend says that the goddess mother of Sondo (Hsien-t'ao, meaning fairy peach) gave birth to a sage who founded a nation.

  An eighth-century Silla scholar. He is known to have written a book of biographies of famous monks and another concerning the Hwarang, but neither of these works has survived.

  This is a reference to the famous songs of Silla, twenty-five of which have survived. They were recorded by using Chinese characters for their phonetic values only, a system called Idu. These songs are the only records extant of the Korean language during this early period.

  A reference to the seven symbolic treasures of Buddhist lore. They are represented in the scriptures as gold, silver, glass, the giant pearl-clam of India, agate, amber arid coral.

  Attention is called to the resemblance of this story to the tale of “Ch'on-ilch'ang (Amanohiboko), the Prince of Silla,” to be found in Japanese histories. Also see Dr. Yi Pyong-do's Outline of Korean History under “The Colonization of the Chinhan Tribes.”

  The Samguk Sagi says Pak Che-sang was an offspring of Pak Hyokkose and the fifth-generation descendant of King P'asa. Ilyon gives his family name as Kim, but it is Pak in popular tradition.

  In Samguk Sagi (First year of the reign of King Silsong) Mihae is represented as Misahun, and in the book Nihonshoki (Ninth year of the reign of Chuai Tenno and Empress Zingu) he is called Mishikoji, a son of King P'asa of Silla.

  In ancient China the five penalties were, in order, cutting off the nose, both feet, the male organ and finally the head.

  An astrologer who foretold the future by observing the heavenly bodies.

  Samguk Sagi says, “To the west of the royal palace was a pond called Okmunji and on the southwestern outskirts of Kyongju was a valley called Okmun-gok.” Okmun, as pointed out in the text, means jade gate, a reference to the female sex organ.

  Hwarang is literally Flower Youth, representing Silla's knighthood and chivalry. Chosen from among aristocratic sons of physical beauty and trained in civil and military arts, they were promoted to official positions. To cultivate the spirit of loyalty to King, filial piety to parents, sincerity to friends, bravery in war and mercy in killing animals the Hwarang Order was ordained in the days of King Chinhung as the flower of Silla's national armies whose morale reached its zenith during the unification of the three Kingdoms by Silla, when that country placed military glory above literary skill—all strong youths wished to be knights of the King and to live and die for the country. Now the campus of the Military Academy near Seoul is called Hwarang-dae (Hill of the Hwarangs).

  BOOK TWO

  II. Wonder 2. (United Silla)

  36. Munho-wang, Popmin (King Munmu, 661-680)1

  During the first year of King Munmu's reign the body of a huge woman came floating on the sea south of Sabi-su. Her body was seventy-three feet long, her feet six feet long, and her mount of Venus three feet long. Another story says her body was eighteen feet long and dates the event in the second year of Chienfeng (667).

  In the first year of Tsungchang (Mujin, 668) the King, followed by Inmun and Humsun, led his army in person to P'yonyang, which he occupied in cooperation with T'ang forces, and destroyed Koguryo. Li Chi, the T'ang commander, took the Koguryo king Kojang back to Changan, the Chinese capital.

  The T'ang official records tell us that in the fifth year of Hsien-king (660) the Chinese general Su Ting-fang attacked Paekje, and in December of the same year the T'ang Emperor ordered out a large army under general Su, together with Ch'i Ju-ho and Liu Po-ying, to attack Koguryo on three fronts—the Pai River, the Liaotung Peninsula, and P'yonyang itself. In January Hsiao Szu-yeh, commander of the troops occupying Puyo, and Jen Ya-shang commanding the troops on the Pai River, led an army of 350.000 men in another attack on Koguryo. In August Su Ting-fang was defeated in the Battle of the Pai River, and fled.

  In June of the first year of Chienfeng (666) three further T'ang generals—Fang Tung-shan, Hsueh Jen-kuei and Li Chin-hang—arrived with reinforcements. In September Fang Tung-shan defeated the Koguryo forces and in December Su Ting-fang was replaced by Li Chi as Commander of the Liaotung army. Li Chi concentrated the entire T'ang fighting strength of six army groups in a decisive attack on Koguryo in September, broke through the last Koguryo defenses, took King Kojang captive and carried him off to be presented to the Chinese Emperor.

  In February of the first year of Shangyuan (Kapsul, 674) Liu Jen-kuei was made garrison commander of the Kerim army and attacked Silla. The book Hsiangku-chi says that “the T'ang Emperor sent general Kung Kung and admiral Yu Shang to guard the conquered territory of Koguryo side by side with Kim Yu-sin of Silla.” However the Silla records mention only Inmun and Humsun.

  When Paekje and Koguryo had been disposed of, the victorious T'ang armies turned against Silla. King Munmu ther
efore ordered his troops out to fight them. The T'ang Emperor Kao-tsung complained to the Silla envoy Kim In-mun (King Munmu's brother), saying “You employed our Celestial army as your ally in conquering Paekje and Koguryo and now you fight it as an enemy!” He threw Kim In-mun into prison and commanded Hsueh Pang to train five hundred thousand men to attack Silla. (This is not quite so blatantly hypocritical as it seems. Resistance to the Emperor's wishes, whatever they might be, was felt to be tantamount to a sin against heaven.)

  Uisang, a famous Silla monk who was studying in China at the time, learned of the Emperor's intentions from Kim In-mun and reported them to King Munmu on his return from Changan. The King summoned Myongnang Popsa, a mysterious monk who studied miraculous methods of warfare in the Dragon Palace, and asked him what should be done. The monk advised the King to erect Sach'onwang-sa (the Temple of the Four Deva Kings) in the Forest of the Gods south of Wolf Mountain, and to set up a military training ground within its precincts.

  But just at this time news arrived from the western coast near Chongju that a great host of T'ang vessels with troops on board was approaching. The King again consulted Myongnang Popsa and told him about the imminent danger of enemy attack. Myongnang advised him to decorate the temple with silk brocade. The King did so, and in addition had an image of the five-faced god made of grass and ordered twelve monks, headed by Myongnang, to call upon the spirits of heaven and of the sea. Soon a mighty typhoon arose, and the angry waves swallowed the Chinese vessels before the troops on board could get ashore.

  The following year the exasperated T'ang Emperor sent out fifty thousand men under the command of Chao Hsien on a second expedition against Silla, but the fleet that was transporting them went to the bottom just as the previous one had because of the magic art of the Silla monk.

  The Emperor was astonished. He summoned Pak Mun-chun, a Silla nobleman who had been interned in the same prison as Kim In-mun, and asked “What magic art do you have in Silla? Why did two great expeditions perish before they reached its shores?”

  Pak replied, “The Prince and I have been away from Silla these ten years and we know little of what is happening at home, but we have heard that the King of Silla has erected a temple of the Heavenly Kings on Nang-san (Mt.) to pray for the long life of the T'ang Emperor in gratitude for his having sent great hosts to fight for Silla in the war to unify the Three Kingdoms.”

  The Emperor was greatly pleased and sent Lo P'eng-kuei, a high official in the Ministry of Education and External Affairs, to Silla to inspect this mysterious temple. Hearing of his approach, the King of Silla thought it not prudent to reveal the actual temple and so had another constructed to the south of it, and waited.

  When the T'ang envoy arrived and wanted to burn incense at the Temple of the Heavenly Kings, he was conducted to the false temple. But he stopped at the gate and turned back, saying, “This is not a Temple of the Four Deva Kings but a temple of Mangdokyo-san.” (The temple was called Mangdok-sa ever afterwards.)

  The Silla courtiers gave the envoy a luxurious banquet served by a galaxy of beautiful women and presented him with a thousand “yang” of gold ( a very large sum). When he returned to Changan he reported to the Emperor that the people of Silla prayed for his long life in a new temple just as they worshipped in the Temple of the Four Deva Kings.

  The King of Silla then dispatched a special envoy to the T'ang Emperor with a personal letter asking for the release of Kim In-mun, his younger brother. The letter was written in such touching style that the Emperor read it with tears streaming down his cheeks. Then he gave Kim In-mun a farewell banquet and sent him back to Silla. Unfortunately, however, he died during the return voyage. The people mourned his death and worshiped his patriotic soul in the Kwanum Hall at Inyong Temple, which had been erected in Kyongju during his captivity.

  King Munmu died in the second year of Yinglung (Sinsa, 681) and was buried on a big rock in the Eastern Sea, as he had desired. During his lifetime the monarch had often told his good friend the monk Chiui Popsa, “When I am dead and gone, I should like to become a guardian dragon in the sea, to worship Buddha and protect the nation when I have done with worldly glories.” (Other records indicate that actually the King was cremated and his ashes scattered around a rocky islet. Dragons are benevolent creatures in Oriental lore, and are often associated with water.)

  Early in his reign King Munmu had a magnificent warehouse and armory built on South Mountain, fifty foot-spans long and fifteen foot-spans wide, for grain and weapons. He called it the Right Warehouse. He then had a warehouse of similar magnitude built northwest of the Temple of Heavenly Grace, which was called the Left Warehouse.

  According to an old record, in the eighth year of Konpok (Sinhae, 591) King Chinp'yong commenced construction of Namsan fortress, which was 2,850 foot-spans in circumference, but it was not fully completed until the reign of King Munmu. Moreover, the King ordered the construction of Busan Fortress in Kyongju, and that of Ch'olsong,2 a long wall with iron gates for border defense along the Anpuk River.

  But when he ordered the building of yet another fortification, the great monk Uisang memorialized the throne: “If the King's administration is bright and benevolent, the people will not trespass so much as a line drawn on the ground but remain in the Kingdom to enjoy its blessings; if the King's administration is dark and tyrannical, even high walls of iron and stone will not restrain them, and there will be no way to avert evils from without.” Deeply moved by the monk's wise counsel, the King stopped building walls. (The point here seems to be that public works such as fortifications were built with forced labor, a heavy burden on the people.)

  On the tenth day of the third moon in the third year of Linte (Pyong-in), a female slave named Kil-E, belonging to a commoner, gave birth to triplets; and on the seventh day of the first moon of the third year of Tsungchang (Kyong-o), a female slave belonging to Ilsan-kupkan in Hanki Department bore quadruplets—one girl and three boys. The King rewarded each woman with two hundred large bags of rice.

  After the destruction of Koguryo by Silla, a grandson of the Koguryo King was raised to royal rank in the Silla court.

  One day King Munmu summoned his half brother Cha'duk-kong (son of King Muryol by a concubine) and ordered him to become Prime Minister in order to bring peace and prosperity to the kingdom. The latter replied. “If it is the august wish of Your Majesty to appoint your humble servant to the Premiership, I wish first to travel incognito throughout the country to observe the living conditions of the people, their labor and leisure, the taxes and corvee imposed upon them, and whether the local officials are good or evil before I take up such an important post in Your Majesty's government.” The King admired his wisdom and intelligence and readily agreed to the idea.

  Ch'aduk-kong disguised himself as a hermit (unshorn monk), and carrying a harp departed from Kyongju. He visited Asulaju (now Myongju), Usuju (now Ch'unch'on), Pukwonkyong (now Wonju) and Mujinju (now Haeyang). In Mujinju a local petty official named An-gil, perceiving that he was no ordinary man, invited him to dinner at his home and gave him cloudy wine and many delicacies. As night came on he summoned his two wives and a concubine and said, “If one of you is willing to share her beauty and pass the night with the lonely guest in our house I will nevertheless promise to live with her till death. Who will agree?”

  Blushing deeply, the two wives answered, “We would rather part from you than take another man even for one night.”

  But the concubine, who was far prettier than the other two, answered boldly, “If you promise not to cast me away for this forced love, but keep me under your roof even if I become an old hag, I will obey your strange order.” And with downcast eyes like an Oriental bride she came and sat in beauty before the wondering hermit, as fair as a fresh flower.

  On the following morning the departing guest told his host, “I am a traveler from Kyongju. My home stands between Hwangnyong and Hwangsong temples and my name is Tano (a Korean synonym for Ch'a, meaning chariot). If you ever
have occasion to visit the capital, come and see me. I shall never forget your hospitality.”

  Ch'aduk-kong returned to Kyongju and began his duties as Prime Minister. In those days it was the rule for an official from each district by turns to spend a certain period of time in the capital (a kind of hostage system to insure the control of the central government). When it was An-gil's turn to go to Kyongju, he immediately made inquiries about the house of a hermit named Tano. He met with no success, however, until an old man told him that the house between the two temples was the royal palace and that Tano was Ch'aduk-kong. He further pointed out that it was the habit of the Premier to travel incognito in the country.

  Out of curiosity the old man asked whether An-gil had an appointment at the palace or was acquainted with someone there, and An-gil told him about the visitor to his country home and the invitation he had received. The old man nodded and said, “Go straight to the west gate of the palace and speak to any court lady who happens to leave or enter.

  An-gil did as he was told, and soon the Prime Minister came out to greet him. He was invited into the palace and given a delicious feast of more than fifty dishes and the Prime Minister's wife herself filled his cup with good wine and pressed it to his lips.

  When the romantic story of Ch'aduk-kong and the country beauty was reported to the King, he laughed heartily and ordered the grant of large tract of forest land on Songpu mountain to the government officials at Mujinju by way of rewarding An-gil, and prohibited anyone else from felling trees there. The good luck of An-gil was much envied, for the tract included a large farm whose crops were quite adequate to feed a whole family. And strange to say, if the harvest of this farm was good then all the farms in Mujinju likewise had a good year, but if its crop was poor famine was sure to visit the whole area.