Samguk Yusa Read online

  Table of Contents

  SAMGUK YUSA PREFACE

  BOOK ONE I. Wonder I (the Founding of the Kingdoms)

  BOOK TWO II. Wonder 2. (United Silla)

  BOOK THREE III. The Rise of Buddhism

  IV. Pagodas and Buddhist Images

  BOOK FOUR V. Anecdotes of Renowned Monks

  BOOK FIVE VI. Miracles

  VII. Tales of Devotion

  VIII. Seclusion

  IX. Filial Piety

  Epilogue

  APPENDIX

  SAMGUK YUSA

  Ilyon

  This page copyright © 2006 Silk Pagoda.

  Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea

  PREFACE

  I

  Modern civilizations developed from the beliefs and customs of people in prehistoric times. It is thus essential, if we are to understand a civilization, to study these ancient practices. The difficulty is usually that source materials are very scarce, and most of our understanding of ancient times is based on the findings of archaeology.

  In the case of Korea we are fortunate to have two documents which, while by no means contemporary with the events they describe, rely on ancient sources which by now have mostly disappeared. The first of these, Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) was compiled by Kim Pu-sik (1075-1151), a high official of the Koryo court, as the officially sanctioned history of that ancient period. It has the faults of most official chronicles, forcing events into a framework pleasing to the government and omitting all matter thought to be embarrassing or indecorous.

  The second such document is the present work, Samguk Yusa (roughly, Legends of the Three Kingdoms) compiled by Ilyon (1206— 1289), National Priest (Pogak kukjon) of Koryo. One of the chief values of this book is that it includes a great deal of material omitted by the official history, so that through it we can gain an understanding of the beliefs and practices of the people of ancient times, if somewhat distorted by the author's Buddhist point of view.

  For that matter, the introduction of Buddhism itself dates from the Three Kingdoms period, and Buddhism has had a strong influence on Korean culture ever since. The book is thus also valuable in that it gives us an insight into the way this religion developed in the course of Korean history.

  The book was written at a time when Korea was under the domination of the Mongols, who at that time ruled all China and Central Asia.

  Ilyon makes hardly any mention of this fact, but the very writing of such a book at such a time is significant, and the author's love for his country shines through every page.

  Since the termination of the Pacific War (1941-1945) Oriental scholars have undertaken restudy of Samguk Yusa in order to discover historical developments of peoples in the East buried in mythology and the sagas such as Samguk Yusa. Both Korean and Japanese scholars naturally take special interest in the reinterpretation of the tales in the book as a part of Oriental studies in history, early poetry in archaic language, and customs in addition to large portions of the book on Buddhism and also interregional contacts between Korea and Japan.

  During the past year I had a booklet “Tales from the Three Kingdoms" published containing selected materials from Samguk Yusa, Samguk Sagi and some other old literature to give preliminary information on the Three Kingdoms, before I completed the unabridged translation of Samguk Yusa. If this volume can be of service to Western scholars and general readers interested in Korea and Korean culture I shall have attained my purpose.

  Like all such books of its time, Samguk Yusa was written in literary Chinese. In preparing this English version, I have been greatly aided by Mr. Yi Chae-ho's translation of the book into modern Korean, and by a similar work by Dr. Yi Pyung-do. I would also like to thank Dr. L. George Paik, President Emeritus of Yonsei University, who inspired me to undertake this work, and Mr. Grafton K. Mintz of the Korea Times for language of the manuscript and for his suggestions concerning the general arrangement of the book. Finally, I am deeply grateful to the Yonsei University Press for agreeing to publish the book and for its help and understanding during the preparation of the volume.

  Tae-Hung Ha

  October, 1971 Seoul, Korea

  II

  In preparing this version of the Samguk Yusa my chief care has been to make the text easily accessible to the reader. For this reason I have kept footnotes to a minimum and have supplied explanations in parentheses where necessary. Except where indicated, therefore, the material in parentheses has been added by me. It should be added that almost all this information is taken from the very full annotations made by Mr. Ha in his original manuscript.

  Ilyon, like his contemporaries, dates events in two ways, by the reigns of Chinese emperors and by the twelve-year cycle of the animals of the zodiac. Each succeeding emperor had an official name for the period of his reign, and sometimes he might have more than one for different periods. I have let these stand, though mostly in abbreviated form, and have added Christian-era dates in parentheses. All dates are A.D. unless otherwise noted.

  Certain suffixes occur rather frequently in place-names. I have explained them in the text, but for the convenience of the reader will also translate a few of the most frequent ones here. Thus sa means “temple” jon means “pavilion,” song means “wall or fortress,” and san means “mountain.” I should like to acknowledge here the kind cooperation of Mr. Ha and also of Professor Jun Hyung-kook, the director of the Yonsei University Press. Their cordial attitude and their toleration of my crochets about the English language have made my work on this book a joy. It is my hope that the reader will find equal pleasure in it.

  G. K. M

  INTRODUCTION

  FOR THE READERS

  Our knowledge of the ancient history of Korea is scanty. Contemporary documents are few, and consist mainly of Chinese writings which allude here and there to Korea. Other documents we know only by quotations in later writings, for wars and invasions destroyed the originals and they have not survived. During the Koryo dynasty (935-1392) two chronicles of Korea's earliest period were compiled. The first, Samguk Sagi, was written by Kim Pu-sik, a high government official, in the twelfth century. It followed the pattern of Chinese dynastic histories and the conventions of Confucian historiography, the idea being that one may learn from history by studying the virtues and vices of the rulers of the past.

  The Confucian tendency was to “humanize” the myths and legends of the past, to interpret them as early distortions of events that actually occurred, and thus much of what was actually mythology and folklore has been obscured by attempts to fit it into the framework of actual events. Thus the Samguk Sagi, while it contains considerable material that is obviously legendary, attempts to fit the legends of early Korea into the framework of Confucian attitudes.

  The second such document is the Samguk Yusa, the present work, Its author was a Buddhist priest who was interested in the early history of his country. The book had no official sanction and was thus not at the mercy of the official philosophy of history, While the writer subscribed to the Confucian idea of history to a great extent, he was also intelligent enough to see that history could not be forced into a predetermined framework and was content to set down the old stories as he found them, without much effort at interpretation.

  The title is difficult to translate. Yusa does not mean precisely legends, although that idea is implied by the word. It also carries the ideas of anecdotes, memorabilia and the like. It was not conceived as a set piece of scholarship but was written in the author's leisure hours as a kind of diversion. Its value is not so much historical in the strict sense of a chronicle of events as it is an account of the beliefs and folklore of medieval Korea, much of it dating back to earlier times. It is thus a valuable supplement to the officially sanctioned view
of history found in Samguk Sagi, and is of the highest value to the student of folklore and religion.

  The title of the book is somewhat of a misnomer, for it is not really an account of the histories of the three ancient kingdoms of Korea. It is concerned primarily with only one of them, Silla, which in time conquered the other two with the help of China. Moreover, it covers the period during which Silla ruled the peninsula down to its fall to the Koryo dynasty in 935.

  For a proper understanding of the book, a brief account of the events of the period it covers as modern history sees them is necessary. As we have mentioned, materials for this early period are scanty. Contemporary Chinese documents mention the Korean peninsula from time to time, and a region in the northeast was colonized during the Han dynasty and continued under Chinese rule until as late as 313, over a century after Han rule had collapsed in China proper.

  Three kingdoms developed on the peninsula, probably during the course of the first century A.D. The traditional founding dates are 57 B.C. for Silla, 37 B.C. for Koguryo and 18 B.C. for Paekje. These dates are unsupported by contemporary evidence, however, and most scholars think they are too early. In any case, these kingdoms were certainly in existence during the period of Chinese history known as the Later Han dynasty (25-220 A.D.) and afterwards.

  Koguryo was initially the largest and most powerful of the three. The tribes which originally composed it lived along the banks of the Yalu river, which forms the present northwestern boundary of Korea, and may have been related to the stock-breeding nomads of the central Asian steppes. They are known to have been excellent horsemen. When they emerge upon the scene of history we find them ruling an area which extended from south of the Han River across the present Korean boundary and far north into Manchuria and west to the Liaotung peninsula.

  The two kingdoms of the south are thought to have been founded by migrants from the north, since civilization was more highly developed there, mainly because of closer contacts with China. Paekje in the southwest is known to have been dominated by a northern tribe called Puyo, which had come originally from Manchuria and had been dominated for a time by Koguryo. Paekje played an important part in the transmission of Chinese civilization to Japan. Its rulers are frequently pictured as effete and dissolute, but this is probably because its history has been written mainly by its enemies.

  Silla in the southeast is given the earliest founding date, but this is probably because it conquered the others. In any case, there is clear evidence that it was the latest to develop. We are told that it was the last to set up Chinese-style institutions of government and the last to adopt the Buddhist religion.

  In addition to these three there was for a time a relatively small area in the south, on the coast and along the Naktong River, known as Kaya or Karak, which persisted as a kingdom until it was absorbed by Silla in 562 A.D. Little is known of it except that it was considerably influenced by Japan.

  The three kingdoms were in a state of more or less constant conflict throughout their existence, with frequent alliances of two of them against the third. In the earlier part of the three kingdoms period it was usual for Silla and Paekje to be in alliance against the more powerful Koguryo, and a rough balance of power was thus created. But during the latter part of the period Silla power grew and she began to expand at the expense of both her rivals. Of particular significance was the Silla seizure of the territory along the Han River, for this drove a wedge between her two rivals.

  Even so, Silla power alone might not have enabled her to conquer the whole peninsula. Events in China now began to influence Korea, however, and to these events we must now turn.

  After the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 A.D. China was divided into numerous states. There were frequent wars and revolts and consequent changes of boundaries and governments during a period of about three and a half centuries, and thus, while Chinese cultural influence continued, there was hardly any Chinese political or military intervention in Korea. In the year 589, however, China was once more unified under the Sui dynasty, and the rulers promptly began to concern themselves with subduing the “barbarians” on China's borders.

  One of the results of this policy was a series of attacks upon Koguryo. These were successfully beaten off, and their failure was one of the causes of the fall of the Sui dynasty in 618. But China was not to suffer another period of disunity. The T'ang dynasty immediately succeeded the Sui and ruled China for the next three centuries. This was the period of China's greatest cultural influence upon her neighbors, so much so that the word “T'ang” was used as a name for China long after the dynasty had perished.

  From the Chinese point of view the main problem of foreign relations was to prevent attacks by the nomadic tribes whose territories bordered China, particularly in the north. To this end it was Chinese policy to set up subordinate states in border areas which acknowledged suzerainty to the Emperor or, where possible, to conquer these areas and incorporate them into the empire.

  Observing that the Sui attacks on Koguryo along its northern borders in Manchuria had failed, the T'ang rulers entered into an alliance with Silla whose object was to subdue the entire peninsula and if possible bring it under Chinese rule. This policy succeeded to a certain extent. Coordinated attacks by T'ang and Silla troops destroyed Paekje in 663, and Koguryo finally fell in 668. In both instances the Chinese set up provincial governments and stationed military garrisons in the conquered territory, and when Koguryo had been conquered appeared ready to turn upon Silla.

  But even at this early date the Korean people had a long history of resistance to foreign rule and the Chinese found Silla unexpectedly difficult to conquer. Moreover, revolts broke out in the previously conquered territory, which Silla supported. Eventually an arrangement was worked out whereby the Silla dynasty ruled all of Korea but acknowledged the superiority of the Chinese Emperor. It became the custom for each succeeding Korean King to apply to the Chinese court for confirmation of his legitimacy, in token of which he received a golden seal from the Emperor. This practice persisted throughout the Korean monarchy.

  In practice there was little Chinese interference in domestic Korean affairs and the Korean government did pretty much as it liked, but Chinese cultural influence was profound. During the period when Silla ruled the peninsula, which roughly corresponded to the period of T'ang rule in China, Korean monks and scholars visited China in large numbers, and Korean social, political and religious institutions, while not slavish imitations, were organized largely along Chinese lines.

  The matter of language is an important case in point. When contact with Chinese civilization began Korea had not yet developed a system of writing her language. Naturally the script of the more highly developed Chinese civilization was taken over, but here a difficulty arose. Korean is a highly inflected language, verb suffixes being of particular importance. Chinese, on the other hand, resembles English in this respect, its inflections being few and simple. Moreover, Chinese was not written in a phonetic script but in ideographs, signs representing ideas rather than sounds. It was thus all but impossible to convey the Korean language in the Chinese script, and literacy became a matter of learning the Chinese language.

  In time a system was worked out, called Idu, of using some Chinese ideographs phonetically in order to represent the sounds of the Korean language, and a few songs and poems were thus preserved, some of which are quoted in the present volume. But this was clumsy and difficult to use, and in general Korean scholars wrote in Chinese. In time, of course, the Koreans gave their own peculiar pronunciations to the Chinese words, but what they wrote remained Chinese in syntax and vocabulary. All Korean writing down to the invention of Hangul, the Korean alphabet, in the fifteenth century, is therefore in the Chinese language. The same holds true for the literature of several other nations in the Chinese sphere of influence, including Japan and Vietnam.

  This led also, of course, to a massive influx of Chinese words into the Korean vocabulary, although there was no particular infl
uence on Korean grammar. This borrowing is somewhat comparable to the borrowing of Latin words by the English language.

  Another important result of Chinese cultural influence was the introduction of the Buddhist religion. The present work describes this as happening in the late fourth century, which corresponds well with other evidence. It seems unlikely, however, that Buddhism became really influential until well into the period of united Silla rule.

  Buddhism was already about eight hundred years old when it first reached Korea, and had changed a great deal from the austere doctrines of the original Buddha. The sect known as Mahayana had developed in north India in the religion's earlier centuries, and it was this sect which penetrated China, and subsequently Korea. Of particular importance was the doctrine of Bodhisattvas. These were supposed to be persons who had attained the state of enlightenment which made it possible for them to escape the eternal round of death and rebirth which is the fate of all creatures, but who chose rather to remain in existence in order to help others.

  Buddhism had, in other words, developed a doctrine of salvation by grace, whereas its founder had held that a person attained enlightenment and eventually Nirvana solely by his own efforts. This meant a vast increase in the religion's popular appeal and a multiplication of its deities. There were believed to have been a succession of Buddhas, one for each era of history, and there is even a Buddha of the future, Maitreya, who paradoxically also exists in the present.

  Another characteristic of Buddhism is its easy adaptation to local beliefs when it enters new areas. Buddhism is not an exclusivist, authoritarian religion like Christianity or Islam. Doctrinal purity is of far less importance, and various different sects live amicably side by side. In like manner, the gods and spirits of primitive religion were simply given the trappings of Bodhisattvas and adopted into the pantheon. Thus in the present work we find several allusions to the Mountain Spirit, a survivor of ancient Korean animistic beliefs. Even today this Mountain Spirit has a shrine in almost every Buddhist temple in Korea. He is always portrayed as an old man, and is usually accompanied by a tiger.