Dorim, the Monk Who Played Go
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
In 427, King Jangsu of Goguryeo moved the capital from Gungnae Fortress to Pyongyang on the Taedong River. He took in Feng Hong, the king of Northern Yan, who had been driven out by Northern Wei, but in the end had him killed, and by the Namhan River a Goguryeo stele remained that called Silla’s king “the Maegeum of the Eastern Barbarians.” After living for ninety-eight years, King Jangsu died in 491.
Characters
Loves the game of go
Crosses over to Baekje
Eighty-two in 475
Sangjwapyeong (chief minister)
Originally from Baekje
Originally from Baekje
The story now goes back to 455. South of the Han River lay Hanseong, the Baekje capital.
Gyeongsa, eldest son of King Biyu, took the throne. This king, who loved go dearly, is known as King Gaero.
In 472, King Gaero sent envoys with a letter to Northern Wei, the great power of northern China.
both sprang from Buyeo.
we have spent all our wealth and strength.
The letter went on:
If you will swiftly send a single general
to rescue my kingdom,
I will send my daughter to sweep the floors of your inner palace.
速遣一將 來救臣國 當奉送鄙女 執箒後宮 — Samguk Sagi, Baekje Annals, 18th year of King Gaero
The ship carrying the envoys crossed the Yellow Sea, bound for Northern Wei.
The Northern Wei emperor received the envoys from afar generously. But he sent no troops.
Goguryeo has long served us,
and has never yet been at fault for defying our commands.
於國 未有犯令之愆 — Northern Wei’s reply, as recorded in the Baekje Annals of the Samguk Sagi
Northern Wei sent its envoy Shao An to Baekje to deliver the reply. Shao An tried to pass through Goguryeo territory.
are old enemies.
pass to the east.
Shao An and his party set out again by sea, but they were driven off course by the wind and never reached Baekje.
Resentful of Northern Wei, King Gaero finally stopped sending envoys there.
Meanwhile, in Pyongyang, King Jangsu
was secretly plotting to strike Baekje.
King Jangsu looked for someone to slip into Baekje as a spy.
but I wish to repay the kingdom’s grace.
I will not disgrace your command.
Catch him!
Pretending to be a criminal on the run, Dorim fled into Baekje.
Not long after, a monk who said he had fled Goguryeo after committing a crime came to see the king of Baekje.
and have grasped some of its subtleties.
a game at your side.
When the king called him in and played a game with him,
he truly had the finest skill in the land: a national master.
The king honored Dorim as a guest of the first rank and always kept him at his side. The two regretted that they had not met sooner.
meet sooner?!
One day, Dorim quietly spoke up.
and been of not the slightest use.
Now I wish to offer a word of advice.
that is just what I hope for from you, Master.
by mountains and hills, rivers and sea.
no neighbor dares to covet it.
Long ago, Onjo’s retainers had also called this land “a fortress sent down by Heaven.”
So Your Majesty ought to dazzle the eyes and ears of all
with lofty majesty and abundant wealth, and yet…
王當以崇高之勢 富有之業 竦人之視聽 — Samguk Sagi, Baekje Annals, 21st year of King Gaero
in a makeshift grave in the open,
keep collapsing in the floods.
I humbly hold this to be wrong.
I shall do it!
is made.
The king called up all the people of the kingdom. They steamed earth to build walls, and inside them built palaces, towers and pavilions.
Every one of them was grand and splendid.
Great stones were brought from the Ukriha (the Han River) to make a stone sarcophagus, and in it were buried the bones of his father, King Biyu.
Embankments were built along the river, too, from east of Saseong to north of Sungsan.
laid to rest as he deserves.
The state storehouses stood empty, and the people grew poor and weary.
and comes home…
The Samguk Sagi wrote that the kingdom was then in greater peril “than a stack of eggs.”
Once the kingdom’s coffers ran dry, Dorim slipped away and returned to Goguryeo.
Your Majesty.
Back in Pyongyang, Dorim reported to King Jangsu on the state of Baekje.
to sweep the board.
Delighted, King Jangsu placed troops under his generals’ command.
In the ninth month of 475, 30,000 Goguryeo troops swept down on Hanseong, the Baekje capital.
The troops were led by Daero Jeu, Jaejeung Geollu, Goi Mannyeon and others.
Geollu and Mannyeon were originally men of Baekje. They had committed crimes in Baekje and fled to Goguryeo.
I believed a deceiver’s words.
Who would fight for me now?
but there is no reason for you to die too.
and carry on the royal line.
Munju set off south with Mokhyeop Manchi and Jomi Geolchwi, to ask Silla for help.
I will come back.
The Goguryeo army split into four and pressed Hanseong from both sides. The king could only bar the gates; he could not go out to fight.
The Goguryeo army set fires on the wind and burned the gates.
After seven days, the North Fortress fell.
When the Goguryeo army moved on to the South Fortress (thought to be today’s Mongchon Earthen Fortress), terror gripped those inside.
has fallen!
With a few dozen horsemen, the king rode out through the gate and fled west.
The Goguryeo troops gave chase. The general Geollu and the others recognized the king, dismounted and bowed to him.
Then they spat in the king’s face three times and listed his crimes one by one.
Bound, the king was dragged to the foot of Acha Fortress, and there he lost his life.
Munju returned with 10,000 troops from Silla. But the Goguryeo army had already withdrawn.
The fortress had fallen and the king was dead. The Goguryeo army had gone home with 8,000 men and women as captives.
Munju took the throne. In the tenth month of that year, King Munju moved the capital south to Ungjin (today’s Gongju, South Chungcheong).
is not finished.
And so the go board by the Han River lost its master.
Baekje lost its capital on the Han River, held, it was said, since the days of Onjo.
But Baekje did not fall.
In Ungjin to the south, it waited for the day it would rise again.
