by Ilyon
According to Tili-chih, Hsi-Han and San-kuo, Liaotung-ch'eng was located beyond the Yalu River and belonged to Han Yaochow. It is not clear who this King Song was. Some people say he was King Tongmyong (Ko Chumong, the first Koguryo king), but this is hardly believable. Tongmyong became King in 37 B.C. and ruled until 19 B.C. and in those days Buddhist scriptures were unknown even in China, so that there can hardly have been anyone in Koguryo who could read Sanskrit. Since P'odo-wang represents Buddha in this story, perhaps it occurred during the Later Han period when some scholars might have recognized the inscription on the buried monument as Sanskrit.
According to an old legend King Ayuk of India ordered his army of spirits in heaven and on earth to erect one pagoda for each 900, 000,000 people in the land. Thus in his domain of Yompu-che-ju 84,000 pagodas were hidden under giant stones. Now auspicious clouds appear everywhere above these hidden treasures because of Buddha's divine inspiration, which is beyond measure.
Song of Praise to the Yuk-wang Pagoda
Yuk-wang's treasured pagoda appeared to the mundane world;
Though it is shrouded in clouds, weather-beaten and overgrown with moss,
All pilgrims bow before it with reverent hearts.
How many passers-by of yore have halted before it and worshipped Buddha!
68. The Pasa Stone Pagoda at Kumgwan Castle
The Pasa stone pagoda at Hogye Temple in Kumgwan (modern Kimhae) was brought there from Ayuta in India by Princess Hwang-ok (Empress Ho), who became the Queen of King Suro in the twenty-fourth year of Tung Han Kien-wu (48).
When the Princess set sail for the east at the command of her royal parents she was almost drowned, for the angry sea-gods tossed her boat like a toy on the foaming waves, and at last flung it back on her native shores. Her parents then had this pagoda loaded on the ship, saying, “My daughter, take this pagoda and Buddha will protect you.”
She again bade a tearful farewell to her parents and started once more on her journey. This time the ship glided like a feather over the mirror-like water and arrived safely on the southern coast of Kumgwan. It had red brocade sails and a white silk banner and was fitted out with precious jewels as became a bridal yacht. King Suro married her and they ruled the country together for more than a hundred and fifty years.
The people of Kumgwan loved their Queen and named the beach where she first landed Chup'o (Princess' Port), the hill on which she changed her brocade trousers Nunghyon, and the seacoast where she waved her red silk flag toward the shore Kich'ulpyon.
Buddhism had not yet been introduced into Haedong (East of the Sea, a Chinese name for Korea) at that time and no Buddhist temples had been built, so that the people of Kumgwan did not know the worship of Buddha. There is no allusion in the Samguk Sagi to Buddhist temples in Kumgwan until the second year of King Chilji (452), when that King built Wanghu-sa (Queen's Temple) about the same time that Ado visited King Nulji's palace before the time of King Pophung. This temple brought many blessings to the people of Kumgwan and warded off the attacks of the Wai pirates. (Wai, meaning dwarf, was a contemptuous term for the Japanese.)
The Pasa stone pagoda is a five-story square tower of fine-grained reddish-speckled stone with exquisite carvings on it, the like of which cannot be found in this country (Koryo Korea). The color of the stone has been proved by a test to be that of the blood of a cock's comb.
Kumgwan is another name for Karak, whose history is found in the Samguk Sagi and also in Book Two of the present work.
Song of Praise to the Pasa Stone Pagoda
Above the velvety sail of the holy pagoda-laden ship
The silvery flag waved high in the sky;
After prayers to Buddha the billows calmed
For Princess Hwang-ok to come to our shores in peace;
The pagoda erected in Kumgwan became our guardian deity—
Like an angry whale it swallowed the southern Wai for a thousand generations.
69. The Yongt'ap-sa (Holy Pagoda Temple) of Koryo
According to the Kosung-jon (Biographies of Great Monks) Podok's nickname was Chipop and his native place was Yonggang-hyon, though he always lived in P'yongyang. One day an old monk visited his residence and asked him to come to a temple in the mountains and lecture on the Buddhist scriptures. At first Podok stood on ceremony, but at the old man's persistent request he finally agreed and went to the temple, where he delivered a series of lectures on forty volumes of the Nirvana Sutra.15
When the lectures were over he visited Son-sa (a convent of spirits) in a cave on Mt. Taepo to the west of P'yongyang. There he met a spirit who invited him to live in his rock-cave hermitage. Pointing at the ground, the spirit said, “Down there is an octagonal seven-storied stone pagoda.” Podok dug in the place indicated and found the pagoda just as the spirit had said. He thanked the spirit and erected a temple near the pagoda which he called Yongt'ap-sa (Holy Pagoda Temple) and took up residence in it.
70. The Sixteen-Foot Golden Buddha in Hwangnyong Temple
In the second month of the fourteenth year of King Chinhung's reign (553) a yellow dragon appeared near the site of the detached Purple Palace, which was then under construction to the south of the royal residence. The King therefore changed the intended palace into a temple, naming it Hwangnyong-sa. (This means Yellow Dragon Temple, but it was also called King Dragon Temple since the words for yellow (hwang) and king (wang) are pronounced almost the same in Korean.) The pagoda was built in the thirtieth year of the King's reign (569) and so the whole construction was completed in seventeen years.
About this time a large ship from Soch'uk (West Buddha Nation) in India dropped anchor in the bay of Hagok-hyon-Sap'o (now Ulju-Kokp'o). The captain of the ship presented to the King's officers a sealed letter which read as follows: “King Ayuk of Soch'uk gathered 57.000 pounds of yellow iron and 30,000 pun of gold to use in casting three images of Buddha, but failed. I have therefore placed these materials aboard a ship and set it adrift on the seven seas, with the prayer that it will reach a land of destiny where it may be cast into a sixteen-foot Buddha image. I send also models for the images of one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas.”
The officials reported this matter to the King, who ordered the building of a new temple, to be called Tong-ch'uk-sa (East Buddha Nation Temple), where the three models sent by King Ayuk were to be kept.
In March of Ta-kien of Nan-Chao, Chen Hsuan-ti (574; the Hwangnyong Temple records give a different date) the King ordered the gold and iron from India transported to Kyongju to be cast into a sixteen-foot Buddha image containing 35,007 pounds of iron and 10,198 pun of gold and two Bodhisattva images weighing 12,000 pounds of iron and 10,136 pun of gold. The images were successfully finished and set up in the main hall of Hwangnyong-sa.
In the following year the Golden Buddha began to shed tears, which flowed down to its feet and dampened the floor for a foot around it. This weeping of the statue was an omen of the King's death, which occurred the next year.
Some say this Buddha image was made during the reign of King Chinp'yong (579-632), but this is not true. In an old book it is written that King Ayuk was born one hundred years after the death of Sakyamuni.16 In order to honor the Buddha, he attempted three times to cast an image of iron and gold, and was three times unsuccessful. Noticing that the Crown Prince did not take part in the project, the King asked him the reason for his indifference. “I knew that Indian iron and gold workers could not succeed in casting such an image unaided so I kept out of it,” was his reply.
“You are right,” the King declared. “If we cannot do it here in India we had better leave it to more skillful hands in some other Buddhist nation.” He had the gold and rion loaded on a ship and ordered the captain to sail around the Buddhist world of sixteen large nations, 500 medium-sized nations and 10,000 small nations in southern India, calling at 80,000 ports. But the captain met with no success until he landed in Silla, where King Chinhung received the gold and iron and had it cast into a Buddha image at Muning-nim, wit
h exquisite workmanship by Silla sculptors and iron and gold workers. The captain reported this great success to King Ayuk, who expressed exceeding joy.
Many years later the great Silla monk Chajang went to China to study. When he arrived at Mt. Wutai, he met the incarnate Bodhisattva Munsu, 17 who pronounced an oracle to him: “Hwangnyong Temple in Silla is a divine place where Sakyamuni and the Kasop Buddha abode and lectured on the holy life. The stone pedestal of the Kasop Buddha is still there. King Muwu (No Grief, King Ayuk) of India sent a boat laden with yellow iron to drift on the sea for 1,300 years, till it arrived in your country (Silla) for the building of Hwang-nyong-sa, for this iron was predestined to guard the site of that temple.” When the sixteen-foot Golden Buddha was made, the three images in Tongch'uk Temple in Kyongju were moved to the new temple.
In the Records of Hwangnyong-sa we read, “In the sixth year of King Chinp'yong, in the year of the dragon (584) the Golden Hall (main hall) of the temple was erected, and during the reign of Queen Sondok (632-647) T'an-hui (a prince of the blood), Chajang, Hyehun and Sangnyul were successively appointed chief priests of the temple.” The great Buddha image and the images of the two Bodhisattvas have melted and disappeared in the flames of war, leaving only a small image of Sakyamuni in the temple.
Song of Praise to the Sixteen-Foot Golden Buddha
Buddha's palace is everywhere under the sun,
Yet the fire of his incense burns most brightly in our country;
King Ayuk's gold and iron came to Wolsong
To become the image of Buddha facing its old pedestal.
71. The Nine-Story Pagoda at Hwangnyong Temple
This pagoda was built on the site of its present ruins in the heart of Kyongju in the fifth year of Queen Sondok, the tenth year of T'ang Chen-kuan (636) by Chajang Popsa, the great Silla monk, upon his return from China, where he received an oracle from a divine being. It was completed according to the design of Abiji of Paekje and two hundred Paekje architects who followed him to Kyongju. Igan Yong-ch'un (Yong-su, father of King Muryol) supervised the construction.
According to the old book Ch'alju-gi, the pagoda measured forty-two feet above and 183 feet below the iron base of the tower. The Tongdo Songnip-ki (History of the Eastern Capital) compiled by An Hong, a renowned scholar of Haedong (Korea) says that each of the nine stories represented a people who had attacked Silla, namely, from bottom to top, Japan, Chunghwa, Wu and Yueh, Takna, Ungyu, Malgal, Tankuk, Yojok and Yemaek. The tower was dedicated to Buddha with the prayer that these nations be subdued by Silla and pay her annual tribute.
As the years passed the great tower was damaged by fire and lightning and was repaired many times until the Mongol invasion (1238), when fire destroyed it completely. Now only its foundation stones bespeak its majestic appearance in bygone days.
Tradition says that when the great Silla monk Chajang Popsa was studying the spiritual world of Buddha with the Bodhisattva Munsu deep in the Wutai mountains in China, one day his master said to him, “Your Queen is the incarnation of the King of Chalichong18 in Ch'onch'uk (India), who believed in Buddha. Her people are not so wild as the eastern barbarians, but because of the rugged mountains and ugly streams in her kingdom the characters of her people are coarse and distorted, and so they worship evil spirits, which provokes the wrath of Heaven from time to time. However, the presence of enlightened monks will bring peace to your country, and all shall enjoy Buddha's blessing from the throne to the plow.” With these words, the Bodhisattva disappeared from sight.
Spellbound, the Silla monk rose from his hermitage and wandered about the lotus pool called T'aihuo-ch'ih. There he met a divine being who said to him, “Because your country is ruled by a fair frailty (alluding to the Queen) who does not possess the stamina of royal dignity above her shining virtues, neighboring countries come to attack and rape your fair land. The King Dragon of Hwangnyong Temple is my eldest son. He is now protecting the temple under the orders of King Buddha in India. Go and protect the King Dragon of Buddha at his temple by building a nine-story pagoda before him. Then your neighbors will surrender and the Nine Hans (the nine enemies referred to earlier) will send tribute to the court of Silla and pray that its prosperity be coeval with heaven and earth.
“When the pagoda is finished, see to it that the great festival 19 (P'algwan-hoe) is held and a general amnesty granted to all prisoners. Also do not forget to erect a shrine in the southern part of Kyongju dedicated to my spirit. Perhaps I can be of help to Silla within the limits of my power.” So saying, the divine being presented a jade bead to the Silla monk and vanished like a mist.
The Records of Hwangnyong-sa state that Chajang Popsa received the construction plans for the pagoda from “Wonhyang Sonsa” on the South Mountain of Changan, the T'ang capital. (“Sonsa” is the title of a priest of the Yuga sect.)
After receiving many gifts including robes and Buddhist scriptures from the T'ang Emperor, Chajang Popsa returned to Silla in the seventeenth year of Chen Kuan (643). There he reported his experiences with the Bodhisattva and the divine being to the Queen and advised Her Majesty to build a pagoda at the King Dragon's temple. The Queen approved the plan and called Abiji from Paekje to help build the pagoda.
Accepting the Queen's invitation, Abiji arrived in Kyongju with two hundred Paekje architects and commenced building the pagoda. But one night he had an ominous dream in which he saw the Paekje kingdom falling in ruins like a crumbling pagoda. This made him so sad that he stopped construction before the great posts supporting the pagoda had been put in place. But suddenly in the darkness, amidst thunder and lightning, an old monk entered the Golden Palace gate followed by a Herculean wrestler. They put the tall, heavy posts in their proper places and vanished.
With mixed emotions of wonder and remorse Abiji resumed work and continued until he had completed a tower of majestic beauty. Chajang, who had been supervising the great project, buried beneath the front post of the pagoda one hundred Buddha relics which he had received from the divine being in China. (Ilyon says that some other relics were buried at T'ongdo-sa and Taehwa-sa in Ulju, also built by Chajang Popsa. The relics were reputed bones of Buddha, but there were so many of them by this time that this is scarcely believable.)
Soon afterward the Silla kingdom increased in power through the blessing of Buddha, thus paving the way for the unification of the Korean peninsula under her single rule.
Many years later when the King of Koryo (Wang-Kon, the founder of the dynasty) took possession of the fallen Silla kingdom, he ordered his soldiers not to violate or lay hands on the three sacred treasures of Kyongju—The sixteen-foot Golden Buddha and the nine-story pagoda at Hwangnyong-sa and the heaven-sent jade belt of King Chinp'yong in the Ch'onjon-go (High Heaven Vault). These were comparable to the Nine Sacred Vessels of the kingdom of Chou, for fear of which the men of Ch'u refrained from attacking that kingdom when it was tottering to its fall in the north.
According to the Samguk Sagi and an old record of Hwangnyong-sa, after King Chinhung created the temple in the year of the cock (553) the nine-story pagoda was built by Queen Sondok in the nineteenth year of Chen-kuan, the year of the snake (645). It was struck by lightning in the seventh year of King Hyoso, in June of the first year of Sheng-li, the year of the dog (698) and rebuilt during the reign of King Songdok, the next king, in the year of the monkey (720).
The pagoda was again struck by lightning during the reign of King Kyongmun, in June of the year of the rat (868) and was repaired by that King. It was struck by lightning for the third time in the fifth year of King Kwangjong of Koryo, in October of the year of the ox (953) and repaired in the thirteenth year of King Hyonjong of Koryo in the year of the cock (1021). It suffered damage from lightning a fourth time in the second year of King Chongjong, the year of the boar (1035) and was repaired during the reign of King Munjong in the year of the dragon (1064). It was struck by lightning for the fifth time in the last year of King Honjong, the year of the boar (1095) and was repaired during th
e reign of King Sukjong in the year of the rat (1096).
Five times the pagoda succumbed to lightning and five times it rose again, until the whole structure, together with the Golden Buddha and the temple buildings, were finally leveled to the ground on the Western Hill by great fires set by the Mongol invaders in the sixteenth year of King Kojong (1238).
Song of Praise to the Nine-Story Pagoda
Gods in heaven and earth protect the royal capital with divine spells,
The golden walls heighten the winged eaves with wind-bells;
The Nine Hans bow their heads before Silla's invincible might,
Peace reigns beneath the sun through Buddha's holy light.
72. The Bell of Hwangnyong Temple
In the thirteenth year of T'ien-pao, the year of the horse (754), King Kyongdok had a bell cast which was ten feet three inches high and nine inches thick and weighed 497, 581 pounds and had it hung in the belfry at Hwangnyong-sa. It was a gift to his first queen, Lady Sammo, and was designed by a slave of a noble family named Isang-taek. During the reign of this same king, when Su-tsung, the son of T'ang Hsuan-tsung was on the throne (in China), a new bell (six feet eight inches in height) was cast to be hung in the same temple.