Kings Born from Eggs
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
Biryu and Onjo, two sons of Jumong, the founder of Goguryeo, went south. Biryu, the elder, chose the sea and failed to realize his ambitions at Michuhol, while his younger brother Onjo founded “Sipje” by the Han River, renamed it “Baekje,” and ruled until 28 CE.
Characters
He tells this story
from an egg at Najeong
Hyeokgeose’s queen
the sea in a chest
a golden chest in the forest
By the dates of the Samguk Sagi, before Baekje, and even before Goguryeo.
In a basin ringed by mountains in the southeast of the Korean Peninsula,
a kingdom was hatching from an egg.
HogongI am Hogong. I came from Wa, across the sea.
HogongWhen I first crossed the sea, I wore a gourd at my waist. So people called me “Hogong,” from 瓠 (ho), the character for “gourd.”
HogongWhen I reached this land, people told me an old tale.
People who had come from old Joseon lived scattered among the mountain valleys, forming six villages.
The Egg at Najeong
The story of Bak Hyeokgeose, as told in the Samguk Sagi and the Samguk Yusa
Looking south from high ground, they saw a glow like a flash of lightning stretching down to the earth beside Najeong, a well at the foot of Mount Yang.
A white horse was kneeling there, bowed low as if in homage.
When the people came near, the horse let out a long neigh and rose into the sky.
In its place lay a single large purple egg.
When they broke the egg open, a baby boy came out.
When they bathed him in the spring of Dongcheon, it is said, his body gave off light, and the birds and beasts danced.
HogongThe night I heard that story, I fiddled with the gourd at my waist for a long time.
HogongPeople here call a gourd (瓠) a “bak.” Because the great egg he came from was shaped like a gourd (瓠), they said, the child’s family name became “Bak” too.
In 57 BCE, the people of the six villages made the thirteen-year-old boy their king.
“Geoseogan” was the Jinhan word for a king, or for a person of high rank. Seonabeol, also called Seorabeol, would later become Silla.
In the first month of 53 BCE, it is said, a dragon appeared at Aryeong Well and gave birth to a baby girl from its side.
When she was bathed in the stream, the beak dropped right off. The child was named “Aryeong,” after the well.
Aryeong grew up to become queen. She was kind and virtuous, and a great help to the king.
In 41 BCE, the king and queen toured the six villages together, encouraging farming and the raising of silkworms.
In 28 BCE, Lelang troops invaded the border villages.
“They do not steal from one another. This is a land that follows the Way (道).” With those words, the Lelang troops withdrew.
In the west of the Korean Peninsula lay Mahan, a great power that held some fifty small states under it.
In the spring of 20 BCE,
I went to Mahan as an envoy.
HogongOnly because his courtiers held him back did I make it home alive.
The following year, the King of Mahan died.
HogongThat king had tried to kill me. Yet our king sent an envoy instead, to offer condolences on his death.
The Chest from Across the Sea
The story of Seok Talhae, as told in the Samguk Sagi and the Samguk Yusa
Across the sea in Dapana, the queen gave birth to a large egg after a seven-year pregnancy.
The queen could not bear to throw it away. She wrapped the egg in silk, placed it in a chest, and set it adrift on the sea.
The chest, which even the people of Geumgwan would not take in, drifted on and reached Ajinpo in Jinhan.
it’s a little boy!
Because a magpie (鵲) had followed the chest, he took the surname “Seok” (昔): the character for “magpie” (鵲) with its “bird” (鳥) part removed. And because he had come out by undoing the chest, he was named “Talhae” (脫解).
Talhae supported his mother by fishing. He never once showed a sign of laziness.
Talhae applied himself to learning and mastered many things, even the principles of the land (geography).
It is said that Talhae climbed Mount Toham, built a stone mound, and spent seven days looking for a place to live.
HogongOf all places, it was my house.
HogongThat night, someone was secretly burying something beside my house.
The next day, that boy insisted the house had belonged to his ancestors.
Dig up the ground and see!
HogongA whetstone and charcoal really did come out of the ground. The house became that boy’s.
That house site later became “Wolseong,” the palace of Silla.
In 4 CE, Hyeokgeose died, and his son Namhae took the throne.
King Namhae married his eldest daughter to the wise Talhae,
gave him the high office of “Daebo,”
and entrusted him with the affairs of state.
In 24 CE, before he breathed his last, King Namhae called for his son Yuri and his son-in-law Talhae.
When King Namhae died, each of the two men urged the throne on the other.
So Yuri became king, and the king was called “Isageum,” from “itgeum,” meaning tooth marks.
In 32 CE, Yuri Isageum renamed the six villages (the Six Bu),
and granted them six surnames: Yi, Choe, Son, Jeong, Bae and Seol.
That autumn, the women of the Six Bu split into two teams and competed at weaving for a whole month.
On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the losing team laid out wine and food to treat the winners. This feast, “Gabae,” is seen as the root of Hangawi (Chuseok).
In 57 CE, Talhae, at sixty-two, finally became king.
The following year, Talhae made me Daebo.
The very boy
who had tricked me out of my house.
The Golden Chest in the Forest
The story of Kim Al-ji, as told in the Samguk Sagi and the Samguk Yusa
HogongOne spring night in 65 CE, a rooster crowed in Sirim. At daybreak, the king sent me to that forest.
HogongWhen the chest was opened, a little boy of striking looks sat up inside.
The king took the child in and raised him. Because he was bright and clever, he was named “Al-ji,” and because he came from a golden chest, his surname was “Kim” (金).
Sirim, the forest where the white rooster had crowed, was renamed “Gyerim” (鷄林).
HogongI saw all three of them.
The king who came from an egg, the boy who took my house, and the child I found in the forest.
HogongEvery one of them came from somewhere else. Just like me, who crossed the sea with a gourd at my waist.
According to the Samguk Yusa, even after Al-ji became crown prince, he yielded the throne to Pasa.
In 262, his descendant Michu became the first king of the Kim clan.
Silla, led by kings of three clans, Bak, Seok and Kim,
lasted nearly a thousand years.
