by Ilyon
“Mother, I have heard good news from my comrades in the army. Uisang Popsa is preaching at his temple in the lofty T'aebaek mountains, ennobling the souls of thousands of people and enabling them to enter the lotus paradise. When I have fulfilled my duty as a son I wish to enter his temple, have my head shaved and study the way of the Buddha under him, for I admire Uisang very much.”
“The way to Buddha is long and life is short,” his mother said. “If you wait until you have done your filial duty, will it not be too late? Rather it would please me to know that you had awakened to the way of Buddha during my lifetime. Say no more but go today.”
“I am the only one who can take care of you in your old age,” Chinjong protested. “How can I leave you alone in this bleak house?”
But she was adamant. “If because of your mother you do not join the order, denouncing your home and the world, you are leading me to hell. Even though you feed me good food, so long as I have no peace of mind or your mind is inclined toward hell, it cannot be called filial piety. I shall enjoy my remaining days begging from door to door, so say no more if you want to make me happy.” (Some time evidently elapses here.)
“I have cooked seven bowls of rice as provisions for your long journey, because cooking on the way would delay you. Eat one bowl before my eyes and put the other six in your knapsack to eat as you travel through the mountains.”
Chinjong wept. “To leave an infirm old mother alone is painful to a son's heart,” he said. “It is much worse to take away the little rice and soy sauce left in the house and leave her to hunger. Heaven and earth will censure me for this.” “Don't worry about me,” his mother said. “Go, my son.” Chinjong could not disobey his mother's command. He bowed to her and started on his journey, and after traveling three days and three nights reached the T'aebaek Mountains, where he was warmly received by the great monk Uisang Popsa. Having shaved his head, he became Uisang's disciple.
Three years later Chinjong heard the sad news of his mother's death. He was so deeply affected that he sat up seven days and seven nights in the posture of a Buddha praying for the repose of her soul, and at length saw her reborn into a noble life.
Hearing this story, Uisang moved to a new thatched cottage, followed by three thousand people to whom he lectured on the Hwaom scripture for ninety days. Chit'ong, one of his learned disciples, wrote down the outlines of these lectures and published them in two volumes called “Ch'udong Diary.”
On the last night of the lectures Chinjong saw his mother in a dream and heard her say. “My good son, I have returned to life in a heavenly paradise.”
135. Kim Tae-song, twice a Dutiful Son (Reign of King Sinmun)
In the small village of Moryang-ni (otherwise called Pu-un-ch'on) on the western outskirts of Kyongju there lived a poor woman named Kyong-cho who had an odd-looking son. The child was the laughingstock of the village because of his big head and flat forehead, like a wall. The people called him Tae-song (Big Wall).
His mother was too poor to feed him, so she gave the lad to a rich neighbor named Pog-an as a farm laborer. Tae-song worked so hard that his master liked him very much and gave him a small rice field to feed his mother and himself.
About that time Chomkae, a virtuous monk from Hungnyun Temple, visited the house of Pog-an and asked for a donation for a great ceremony at the temple. Pog-an gave him fifty rolls of cotton cloth. The monk bowed in thanks and said, “You are loving and giving. The great Buddha is so pleased with your donation that he will give you ten thousand times what you have donated, and bless you with long life and happiness.”
Tae-song overheard this and ran home and told his mother, “Now we are poor, and if we do not give something to the temple we will be poorer. Why not give our little rice field for the ceremony so that we may have a great reward in our afterlives?” His kind-hearted mother readily consented and the rice field was donated to the temple through Chomkae.
A few months later Tae-song died. On the night of his death a voice from heaven was heard above the house of Kim Mun-yang, the prime minister, saying “Tae-song, the good boy of Moryang-ni, will be reborn in your family.”
In great astonishment the prime minister sent servants to the village, and they found that Tae-song was indeed dead. Wonderful to relate, in the same hour as the heavenly announcement the prime minister's wife conceived, and in due course gave birth to a boy. The child kept the fingers of his left hand tightly clenched until seven days after his birth, and when at last he opened them the characters for Tae-song were seen written in gold on his palm. They gave him his old name again and invited his previous mother to care for him.
When Tae-song had grown into a strong youth he loved hunting, One day he climbed high on Mt. T'oham, and there he killed a big bear. As night was coming he slept in a village at the foot of the mountain, and dreamed that the bear's ghost appeared to him and said, “Fellow! Why did you kill me? I will come back to life and kill and eat you.”
Tae-song trembled with fear and said, “Do not say so! I love sport and I was only testing my courage and strength against yours, risking my life in a fair fight in which you had an equal chance. Now the game is over. I beg your pardon and would gladly shake you by the paw.”
“You are a jolly fellow,” the ghost said, “but no more of your jokes! Will you build a magnificent temple for me?”
“I take your paw and swear,” Tae-song replied. The bear's ghost gave him a gentle scratch and he awoke with a loud cry. His bed was wet with sweat.
From that time on Tae-song gave up hunting, and he built a temple on the spot where he had killed the bear. He called it Changsu-sa (Temple of Long Life ) and dedicated it to the bear.3
His heart moved by heavenly grace, Kim Tae-song built the beautiful Pulguk Temple in memory of his two sets of parents and also founded the wonderful grotto of Sokkul-am. He invited the two distinguished monks Sillim and P'yohun to supervise these temples. He had his fathers and mothers represented among the images in these temples in gratitude for bringing him up as a useful man.
After the great stone Buddha for Sokkul-am was finished, Kim Tae-song was working on the lotus pedestal when suddenly it broke into three pieces, He wept bitterly over this, and at length fell into a trance. During the night gods and goddesses descended from heaven and restored the stone to its original condition. Tae-song awoke in joy and climbed the southern peak of Mt. T'oham, where he burned incense and worshipped the celestial deities. People thereafter called the place Hyang-nyong (Incense Peak).
The two stone bridges of the blue and white clouds, the seven-treasure lotus flowers and the two pagodas, Tabo-t'ap (Pagoda of Many Treasures) and Sokka-t'ap (Pagoda of Sakyamuni) at Pulguk-sa, in addition to the seated image of Buddha and the bas-reliefs of Kwanum on the walls and ceiling of Sokkul-am, are unsurpassed in exquisite workmanship among the art works in the temples of Korea.4
In addition to the above account, which is derived from old legends, the official records of these two temples give the following information: “During the reign of King Kyongdok, Tae-song, the King's first minister, commenced the construction of Pulguk-sa in the tenth year of T'ien-pao (742). Tae-song died during the reign of King Hyegong, on the second of December in the ninth year of Ta-li (774); the construction of the temple was finished some years later.”
Song in Praise of Kim Tae-song.
When spring ended in Moryang he donated three furrows of land;
When autumn came to Hyang-nyong he harvested ten thousand pieces of gold.
His mother knew poverty, wealth and nobility in a hundred years;
Her son rose from a low servant to a high aristocrat in a dream.
136. Hyangduk-Saji Feeds his Father with His Own Flesh
In Ungch'onju a man named Hyangduk-Saji lived on a little farm. One year famine visited the land and the poor soil would yield no crop, so that his old father was all but starved to death. Hyangduk cut some flesh from his thigh and fed the old man. Deeply moved, the people of the provin
ce reported this to King Kyongdok. The King praised this unusual deed of filial piety and gave Hyangduk five hundred large bags of rice as a reward.
137. Son Sun Offers to Sacrifice his Son.
During the reign of King Hungdok a poor man named Son Sun lived in the mountain village of Moryang-ni near Kyongju. After the death of his father (Hak-san) he and his wife worked at a neighboring house as day laborers and supported his old mother with the rice and vegetables they earned in this way.
Son Sun had a little son. This baby ate all the food served to his grandmother, for she was very fond of her grandson and would put the dainties she got into his mouth.
“This is good for our son but bad for my mother,” Son Sun said. “We may have another son but we can never have another mother. We must get rid of this hindrance to our first duty.” His wife was deeply moved by her husband's filial piety and readily agreed.
One night the mother took the child and carried it at her breast while her husband carried a spade on his shoulder, and they climbed the northern side of Mt. Ch'wi northeast of the village. With heavy hearts and many tears they began to dig a grave in which to bury their son alive. But Son Sun's spade struck a stone which gave a musical sound, and when he dug it out he found it was a small bell of exquisite beauty, about the size of the water jars which women carry on their heads.
The young couple looked at the bell with wondering eyes. They hung it on a tree and struck it with a pebble and it rang with a wonderful sound. In great joy the wife exclaimed, “We have discovered a wonderful bell, a God-sent gift. My good husband, do not bury my child, but spare his life.” Son Sun agreed. With singing hearts and dancing feet they descended the hill with the bell and the baby.
On reaching home at daybreak they hung the bell under the eaves of their thatched house, and it swung in the wind and rang out its music far and wide. The King heard it in his palace and said, “I hear the wonderful sound of a bell ringing in the western wind. Who will go and find it?”
“May your majesty live ten thousand years!” the servants responded, and went in search of the wonderful bell. When they had found it they reported the good news to the throne.
The King greatly admired the good conduct of Son Sun and his wife, and said, “In the olden days, when Kuo-chu was about to bury his child, heaven sent down a golden cauldron, and now when Son Sun was about to bury his child earth yielded up a stone bell.5 Such men are good models of filial piety, sure to be rewarded by heaven and earth.” The King gave Son Sun a fine house and fifty large bags of rice annually to encourage others to honor their parents with pure hearts.
Son Sun donated his old home for the foundation of a temple. People called it Honghyo-sa (Temple of Filial Piety), and the bell was enshrined in it.
During the reign of Queen Chinsong (888-898) bandits of Later Paekje attacked this village and stole the bell, but the temple escaped destruction. The mountainside where the bell was found was called Wanhop'yong, but now the local people call it Chiryangp'yong.
138. The Beggar Girl Who Supported her Mother
Hyojongnang, a noble Hwarang, gave a banquet in the P'osok-jong, the stone abalone pavilion, also called Samhwa-sul; (Three-flower Arbor) at the foot of Namsan near Kyongju, and all his followers and friends gathered early except two, who arrived very late. When the noble Hwarang asked them why they had not arrived on time, they told the following story:
“In the eastern village near Punhwang Temple we saw a girl who seemed to be about twenty years old holding her blind mother in her arms and crying loudly.
“We asked the villagers what was going on, and they explained that the girl was so poor that she had begged from door to door for years to support her mother. Then there was a bad harvest and she could no longer get any income from begging, so she sold her labor to a rich man's house and entrusted her master with thirty large bags of rice from her wages.
“She worked hard in that house every day, and at twilight she brought home a bowl of rice which she cooked for her mother and herself. She slept with her mother and at daybreak she rose quietly and went back to work in the rich man's house. She supported her mother in this way for several years.
“One day her mother said to her. 'I had peace of mind when I ate coarse food, but my heart is troubled these days, as if the good food hurt my stomach. Can you tell me why?'
“The good daughter told the truth, whereupon her mother burst out crying and the daughter cried too, lamenting between sobs that she had fed her mother's mouth but had failed to comfort her mind. We stayed to observe this pitiful sight, which is why we are late for your banquet.”
The Hwarang took pity on this mother and daughter and sent them a hundred bushels of grain and some fine clothes, while his followers collected a thousand large bags of rice to help the needy family.
When this story reached the throne, Queen Chinsong rewarded the dutiful daughter with an additional five hundred large bags of rice, and gave her a fine house to live in with her mother. She also sent soldiers to guard the house. The Queen also ordered the building of a pavilion in the girl's' honor at the entrance to her village, and named it Hyo-yang-ni (Filial Sustenance Village) to commemorate her good conduct. Later the girl donated her house to a temple called Yangjon-sa (Temple of the Two Buddhas).
Footnotes to Book Five
(1). A “Po” was a sort of fund donated by the pious for some special religious purpose. It may be compared to the donation of funds to the church in medieval Europe to pay for masses for the soul of an individual.
(2). This is a reference to a poem in the Book of Odes, one of the Confucian Classics, in which the loyal kinsmen complain that King Yao of Chou pays more attention to flatterers than to his own family.
(3). It is possible that this story is connected with a very ancient folk belief. It will be recalled that Tangun, the legendary founder of Korea, was born of a woman who had been a bear. Probably this indicates the practise of totemism in ancient times.
(4). There is a tradition that the sculptor who carved these bas-reliefs was in love with the King's daughter and used her as the model for the image of Kwanum in order to immortalize her beauty.
(5). The Chinese story of Kuo-chu, which dates back to the Han dynasty, is almost identical to the present one, except that Kuo-chu dug up a golden cauldron rather than a bell.
Epilogue
The wood blocks for printing the Samguk Sagi and the Samguk Yusa kept in the government archives have become illegible except for four or five characters to the line. Scholars nowadays wish to widen their knowledge of peace and war on earth and the rise and fall of nations and wonders done in various places. Much research is needed in our country to broaden knowledge of our national affairs.
With this in mind the compiler of this volume has sought for several years for one of the original printed copies, but to no avail, for they are very rare. This is most unfortunate, for this valuable history is in danger of being lost, and we shall be unable to pass on to our descendants the history of this eastern nation.
Fortunately, his honor Kwon Chu, the magistrate of Songju, hearing of my search, obtained a perfect copy and sent it to me. I showed it to Governor An Tang and Director Pak Chon, informing them of my printing project, and they gladly approved of my plan. I have therefore had the book printed in several counties and donated copies to provincial governments for preservation.
It is natural that old things are lost and lost things are found again as nations and peoples rise and fall. Realizing this, I have had this book reprinted to preserve permanently a literary treasure of our scholars for all ages to come. Late Winter, Imsin Year of Ming Cheng-te (1512)
Written by Prince Chon P'yong, Yi Kye-pok, Merit Subject, Lord Kason, Prefect, Military Commander, Kyongju-chin Area.
(Yi Kye-pok was raised to the rank of Merit Subject by King Chungjong (1488-1544) of the Yi Dynasty for his assistance in the deposition of the tyrant Prince Yonsan.)
THE END
Chronology of Kin
gs and Queens of the Three Kingdoms and Karak
The dates here given are traditional ones and may not be accurate for the earlier periods. All dates are A.D. unless otherwise noted.
KOGURYO
1. Tongmyong 37. B.C.-19 B.C.
Founder, son of legendary Tangun. Family name Ko, given name Chu-mong.
2. Yuri 19 B.C.-18 A.D.
Son of Tongmyong, but took the family name Hae. In 3 A.D. moved the court to Kuknae-song, also called Puli-song, on the Yalu River.
3. Taemusin 18-44
Third son of Yuri, family name Hae.
4. Minjung 44—48
Son of Taemusin, given name Upchu.
5. Mobon 48-53
Elder brother of Minjung, given name Aeryu.
6. Kukjo 53-146
Also known as Taejo wang. The official history of the Later Han dynasty says, “No sooner did he leave his mother's womb than he opened his eyes and looked around him.” Abdicated late in life in favor of his mother's brother.
7. Ch'adae 146-165
Given name Su. Brother of Kukjo's mother. In 165 when Kukjo was 119 years old his two younger brothers were murdered by King Sindae.
8. Sindae 165-179
Given name Paekko or Paekku, See above.
9. Kogukch'on 179-197
Given name Namho or Imo. Posthumous title is the name of the place where he was buried.
Sansang 197-227
Tongch'on 227-248
Chungch'on 248-270
Soch'on 270-292
Given name Yakno or Yaku.
14. Pongsang 292-300
Also called King Ch'igal. Given name Sangpu.
15. Mich'on 300-331
Also called King Hoyang, given name Ulpul or Upul.
16. Kugwon 331-371
Also called King Kangsang, given name Soe or Sayu. Extended the city wall of P'yongyang. In 342 moved the court to Anshih-ch'eng (Wantu-ch'eng).