The Kingdom of Iron
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
Last time we met the young men of Silla. In 562, in the attack on Daegaya, the fifteen- or sixteen-year-old hwarang Sadaham charged through the gate first and raised a white banner, then set free all 300 captives he was given as a reward. Forty years later, Gwisan and Chuhang, who had received five teachings from the monk Wongwang, refused to retreat on the battlefield at Amak Fortress.
Characters
He composed twelve pieces
He made a twelve-string instrument
He summoned Ureuk
song and dance from Ureuk
In the Nakdong River basin in the south of the Korean Peninsula, there were a number of states called “Gaya.”
They were not one country bound together under a single ruler, but small states, each with its own king, living side by side.
This story begins among them,
in Daegaya at Goryeong.
Daegaya, at Goryeong. At this time it was the leader of the Gaya states.
Great royal tombs lined the ridge, and boats loaded with iron ingots came and went on the river.
The land of Gaya yielded iron.
to the boat!
People hammered iron into swords, armor and farm tools, and also made flat slabs of iron called “iron ingots.” From early on, Gaya’s iron ingots crossed the sea as far as Wa.
King Gasil of Gaya saw a Chinese instrument, the zheng.
The king had a new instrument made after its model and summoned the musician Ureuk.
how could their music be one and the same?
for this instrument.
after the twelve months of the year.
This instrument later came to be called the gayageum. The king had Ureuk compose twelve pieces.
Most of the titles of Ureuk’s twelve pieces appear to be the names of places in Gaya.
“Sanggarado” seems to have been a song about the Daegaya capital.
ringing out from one instrument.
it’s our town’s song!
The years went by.
In 522, the king of Gaya asked Silla for a marriage alliance and took as his bride the sister of the Silla Ichan Bijobu. But in 532, Geumgwan, on the southern coast, surrendered to Silla.
Caught between Baekje to the west and Silla to the east,
the Gaya states wavered.
The Samguk Sagi says that Ureuk’s country “was about to fall into chaos.”
stand against Silla!
going to Silla?
a traitor…
its songs are the first to be forgotten.
This sound, at least, must live on.
Ureuk took his instrument in his arms and went to Silla with his pupil Nimun.
In the third month of 551, while King Jinheung of Silla was staying at Nangseong on a royal tour, he heard that Ureuk and Nimun knew music well and summoned them specially.
the sound of Gaya.
Each of the two composed a new song and played it before the king at Harim Palace.
The king had Ureuk settle at Gugwon (today’s Chungju). In 552 he sent three men, Gyego, Beopji and Mandeok, to learn his music.
Beopji, song;
Mandeok, dance.
The Samguk Sagi also preserves the titles of three songs Nimun composed: “Crow,” “Rat” and “Quail.”
my songs too?
When their training was complete, the king had the three perform and rewarded them generously.
what I heard at Nangseong!
In the autumn of 562, in the ninth month, Gaya rose up against Silla.
King Jinheung of Silla ordered the Ichan Isabu to attack Gaya, and made the fifteen- or sixteen-year-old hwarang Sadaham his deputy.
That day, inside the walls of Daegaya.
Little Garam had long since become a grandmother, with a grandson of her own.
that dust?
Sadaham rode in ahead with 5,000 cavalry and charged through the Jeondan Gate.
Sadaham raised a white banner. The people inside the walls were terrified and did not know what to do.
When Isabu arrived with his army close behind, everyone inside the walls surrendered at once.
Daegaya had fallen. And so the Gaya states came to an end.
The king rewarded Sadaham, whose merit was the greatest, with 300 people of Gaya. Sadaham set them all free.
you are free people.
it’s our town’s song!
named Ureuk.
They say Daegaya has fallen!
how could their music be one and the same?
Gyego, Beopji and Mandeok, who had inherited eleven of the pieces, talked it over among themselves.
we can hardly call them proper.
down to five.
When Ureuk first heard of this, he was angry.
down to five?!
The three performed the five pieces before Ureuk.
When he had heard all five pieces, Ureuk wept and sighed.
Joyful, yet not overflowing;
sorrowful, yet not anguished;
this may be called proper.
樂而不流 哀而不悲 可謂正也 — Samguk Sagi, Treatises, Music
before the king.
King Jinheung was delighted when he heard the five pieces. Then a minister stepped forward to remonstrate.
It is not worth adopting!
what fault is there in the music?
The king made this music the kingdom’s great music, the daeak.
The kingdom was gone, but the sound of the twelve strings remained.
No record tells when Ureuk died.
Tangeumdae, on the banks of the Namhan River in Chungju, is said to take its name from Ureuk playing the gayageum there.
Gaya is gone, but the gayageum
still sounds today, more than 1,400 years on.
