The First Queen
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
Last time, we saw the end of Gaya. The Gaya musician Ureuk carried the twelve-string gayageum made by King Gasil to King Jinheung of Silla, and in 562 Daegaya fell to Silla. Ureuk’s songs were refined into five pieces and became Silla’s “Great Music” (daeak).
Characters
Her name was Deokman
Later King Taejong Muyeol
A Silla general
in Tang and came home
the council of nobles
In 562, Daegaya fell to Silla.
Decades later, in Seorabeol, the capital of Silla.
The king had no son.
Instead, he had a clever eldest daughter.
sent to us from Tang.
but they won’t have any scent.
and no butterflies, see?
bees and butterflies.
When the seeds were planted and the flowers bloomed, they truly had no scent.
The Samguk Sagi records that this was how Deokman “saw things before they happened.”
In the first month of 632, King Jinpyeong died without a son.
The people of the kingdom made his eldest daughter, Deokman, their ruler and gave her the title “Seongjo Hwanggo” (聖祖皇姑). She was Silla’s first queen.
In the tenth month of that year, the queen sent officials to look after those who could not get by on their own.
from Her Majesty!
for old folk like us.
The Samguk Sagi records that the queen was generous and kind, bright and quick-witted.
In the fifth month of 636, in summer, toads swarmed to Okmunji, the pond west of the palace.
swarmed here in droves!
are the look of soldiers.
kingdom be hiding in “Okmun Valley”
on our southwest border?
The queen at once gave troops to the generals Alcheon and Piltan and had them search the place.
Sure enough, the Baekje general Uso was hiding in Okmun Valley with 500 armored soldiers. He had been about to attack Doksan Fortress.
At them!
Alcheon fell upon them and wiped them all out.
During the queen’s reign, Bunhwangsa Temple (634) and Yeongmyosa Temple (635) rose in Seorabeol.
The Samguk Yusa says that in this ruler’s reign, stones were dressed to build Cheomseongdae.
The Samguk Yusa says that while the queen was in perfect health, she told her ministers this.
on such a day.
bury me in Doricheon.
where might that be, Your Majesty?
Kim Chun-chu. The queen’s nephew, he is described in the Samguk Sagi as a man of striking bearing who, from childhood, had resolved to set the world right.
Kim Yu-sin. The great-grandson of Kim Gu-hae, the last king of Geumgwan (Geumgwan Gaya), he became a hwarang at fifteen and made his name at the Battle of Nangbi Fortress in 629.
These were the two men who stood by the queen. Kim Chun-chu’s wife was Kim Yu-sin’s sister.
In the seventh month of 642, King Uija of Baekje led his army in person and seized more than 40 fortresses in western Silla.
In the eighth month, the Baekje general Yunchung
brought down Daeya Fortress.
has fallen!
and his lady too…
Gotaso, the wife of Pum-seok, lord of Daeya Fortress, was Kim Chun-chu’s daughter.
ask them for troops,
and take revenge on Baekje.
That winter, Kim Chun-chu set out for Goguryeo.
The king of Goguryeo said, “The land around Jungnyeong Pass was Goguryeo’s to begin with. Give it back first.”
When Kim Chun-chu refused, the king locked him up in a separate lodge.
When word came that Kim Yu-sin was on his way to rescue him at the head of men sworn to die,
the king of Goguryeo let Kim Chun-chu go.
In the third month of 643, the monk Jajang came home after studying Buddhism in Tang for seven years. The Samguk Yusa says that he had met a divine being (神人) on the shore of Taihe Pond in Tang.
She has virtue but not majesty,
so your neighbors look down on you.”
at Hwangnyongsa,
and your neighbors will submit.”
In the ninth month of 643, the queen sent an envoy to Tang to ask for help. Emperor Taizong of Tang offered three plans.
so you can catch your breath for a year or so.
red uniforms and banners,
so you can pass for my troops—
and strike Baekje directly. But your kingdom
is despised for having a woman as its ruler,
and guard him with my troops.
Which will you choose?
The envoy could not say a word in reply.
we will defend with our own hands.
In the third month of 645, Kim Yu-sin had just come back from the battlefield when another urgent report reached him.
rests on you alone.
Go and hold them back!
Once again Kim Yu-sin did not stop at home, but led his troops straight off to the west.
As he passed his house, his family came out of the gate in tears, but he did not look back.
About fifty paces on, Kim Yu-sin stopped his horse and had water brought from his house.
still tastes just as it always did.
how can we feel sorry for ourselves?
Seeing the spirit of the Silla army, the Baekje troops dared not come near and withdrew.
In the third month of 645, at Jajang’s request, the queen had a nine-story wooden pagoda built at Hwangnyongsa Temple.
Abiji, a famous master craftsman, was invited from Baekje, and the Ichan Yongchun led 200 craftsmen.
The Samguk Yusa tells this story. On the day the central pillar was to be raised, Abiji dreamed that his homeland, Baekje, was destroyed, and he laid down his work.
is going to fall?
Then the ground shook, and an old monk and a strongman appeared, raised the pillar and vanished. Abiji, it is said, changed his mind and saw the pagoda through to the end.
The nine-story wooden pagoda soared high into the sky over Seorabeol.
An old record quoted in the Samguk Yusa said that its nine stories would hold down nine neighboring nations.
In the eleventh month of 645, the queen made the Ichan Bidam her Sangdaedeung.
The Sangdaedeung led the council of nobles; it was the highest post among the ruler’s officials.
In the first month of 647, the Sangdaedeung Bidam and Yeomjong raised an army.
A woman ruler cannot
govern the kingdom well!
女主不能善理 — Samguk Sagi
Bidam’s band set up camp at Myeonghwal Fortress, and the queen’s forces at Wolseong.
The fighting did not end quickly.
On the eighth day of that month, the queen died.
The Samguk Yusa says it was the very day she had foretold.
The throne passed to the queen’s cousin Seungman: Queen Jindeok.
But the rebels at Myeonghwal Fortress
had not yet pulled back.
One midnight, on the tenth day of the fighting, a great star fell toward Wolseong.
blood is sure to flow!
It’s a sign the queen will lose!
As the roar shook heaven and earth, fear gripped everyone inside Wolseong.
people call them upon themselves.
a star’s portent is nothing to fear.
Kim Yu-sin made a straw figure, set it on fire, and tied it to a big kite.
Let it fly!
Riding the wind, the burning figure rose higher and higher. It looked just as if the fallen star were going back up into the sky.
The next day, Kim Yu-sin had people spread the word along every road.
went back up into the sky!
is on the queen’s side?
Kim Yu-sin rallied his officers and men and charged.
Bidam’s band broke and fled.
Bidam fled, but the soldiers who went after him caught him.
On the 17th day of the first month, Bidam was executed.
Thirty others were found guilty with him and executed.
Just as she had asked, the queen was buried south of Mount Nangsan.
In 679, Sacheonwangsa Temple was built on the slope below her tomb. In the Buddhist scriptures, Doricheon is the heaven directly above the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings.
Only then, it is said, did people realize that the “Doricheon” the queen had spoken of was that very spot.
The first queen, who guarded her kingdom for sixteen years.
The story of the two men at her side,
Kim Chun-chu and Kim Yu-sin, is only beginning.
