Kim Yu-sin’s Sword
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
In 648, Kim Chun-chu crossed the sea to Tang China and won a promise of troops from Emperor Taizong of Tang. On the voyage home, his follower On Gun-hae, sitting on deck in a tall hat and grand robes, was killed by a Goguryeo patrol that took him for Kim Chun-chu. Then, in 654, Kim Chun-chu took the throne. He was King Taejong Muyeol.
Characters
A general of Silla
Son of Kim Mu-ryeok
A daughter of Silla royalty
in the stone cave on Jungak
youngest sister
The future King Taejong Muyeol
In 648, when Kim Chun-chu went to Tang to ask for troops, Emperor Taizong is said to have asked him this.
What sort of man is he?
talent and wisdom.
can we ease the threat
from our neighbors.
A Silla general whose name, it is said, had reached even the emperor of Tang.
What kind of man was Kim Yu-sin?
The story goes back half a century, to around 595, when he was born.
Kim Yu-sin’s family was originally Gaya royalty.
In 532, Kim Gu-hae, the last king of Geumgwan (Geumgwan Gaya), surrendered to Silla. His youngest son, Kim Mu-ryeok, became a Silla general and crushed the Baekje army at Gwansan Fortress in 554.
Seohyeon, son of Kim Mu-ryeok, saw a young woman on the road and lost his heart to her.
Manmyeong was a granddaughter of Ipjong Galmunwang, father of King Jinheung. Without any go-between, the two gave their hearts to each other.
When Seohyeon became governor of Manno County and tried to take Manmyeong with him, her father, Sukheuljong, who only then learned of it, flew into a rage.
Lock her in
the outbuilding
and guard her!
To Manno
County!
While the lightning that struck the outbuilding’s door sent the guards into confusion, Manmyeong slipped out through a hole in the wall and left with Seohyeon for Manno County.
are coming down to me!
riding on a cloud…!
The Samguk Sagi records that Seohyeon dreamed of two stars, Mars and Saturn, coming down to him, and Manmyeong dreamed of a child in golden armor riding a cloud into the house.
In 595, it is said, Manmyeong gave birth to a son twenty months after she conceived.
the gyeongjin night
brought us this child.
“Yu-sin”!
Following the custom of not naming a child after a date (gyeongjin, 庚辰), he chose 庾 (yu), which looks like 庚, and 信 (sin), which sounds like 辰. The Samguk Yusa says the child had a pattern of seven stars on his back.
In 609, at fifteen, Kim Yu-sin became a hwarang.
higher!
People gladly followed him. His band was called the “Yonghwa Hyangdo.”
611. Goguryeo, Baekje and the Malgal invaded Silla’s land one after another. Seventeen-year-old Kim Yu-sin went alone into a stone cave on Jungak, the Central Peak.
and tigers, ravage our land.
lend me your strength!
He purified himself and made a vow to Heaven.
On the fourth day, an old man in rough hemp clothes came to him.
and wild beasts swarm here.
Why is a noble youth here alone?
May I ask your honored name?
My name is Nanseung.
to defend my country!
The old man said nothing. Weeping, Kim Yu-sin begged him again and again, six or seven times.
to unite the three kingdoms.
How admirable.
If you use it unjustly,
disaster will fall on you instead.
Having spoken, the old man left. When he had gone about two li, Kim Yu-sin ran after him and looked, but—
The old man was gone; only a five-colored light blazed above the mountain.
The next year, 612, as the threat from neighboring kingdoms grew fiercer, eighteen-year-old Kim Yu-sin took a treasured sword and went alone into a deep valley on Mount Yeolbak.
once more I pray…
He burned incense and prayed to Heaven again and again, as he had on Jungak.
On the third night, rays of light from two stars, Heoseong and Gakseong, shone brightly down.
disaster will fall
on you instead.
It is said the sword seemed to shake by itself.
Baekseok and the Three Guardian Spirits
An old tale from the Samguk Yusa
Among the followers of Kim Yu-sin, the gukseon (head hwarang), was a man named Baekseok. When Baekseok proposed that they secretly go and spy on the enemy kingdom, Kim Yu-sin set out with him by night.
Narim, Hyeollye and Golhwa.
is luring you away!
Three women he met along the way led him into the woods and revealed themselves as gods.
Using some papers he had left behind as an excuse, Kim Yu-sin returned home, tied Baekseok up and questioned him.
a man of Goguryeo…
to harm you.
Kim Yu-sin, it is said, punished Baekseok and offered a rite to the three gods with all kinds of food.
One morning a few years later, Kim Yu-sin’s sister Bohui began to tell of a dream. She had climbed the western mountain and relieved herself, and—
was under water!
that dream!
Munhui bought her sister’s dream for a silk skirt.
A few days later, while playing kickball (chukguk) with his friend Kim Chun-chu in front of his house, Kim Yu-sin stepped on Kim Chun-chu’s robe and tore off its tie.
My house is close by;
come in and have it sewn.
The Samguk Yusa says Kim Yu-sin did it on purpose.
Kim Yu-sin told his sister Bohui to sew the tie back on for their guest, but Bohui did not come out.
over such a trifle…
The youngest, Munhui, came out instead. Her makeup was light and her clothes were plain, but she was dazzlingly lovely.
According to the Samguk Yusa, when Munhui became pregnant, Kim Yu-sin made a show of spreading word that he would “burn his sister,” and on the day the queen climbed Namsan he made smoke rise from his yard.
Go quickly and save her!
Kim Chun-chu, his face flushing deeply, galloped off to deliver the queen’s command, and the two were married openly and honorably.
A few years after that.
In autumn 629, Silla attacked Goguryeo’s Nangbi Fortress.
General Seohyeon and his son, thirty-five-year-old Kim Yu-sin,
were on that battlefield.
When the Goguryeo army came out of the fortress to strike back, the Silla army lost many men, and even its will to fight.
Fall back!
Kim Yu-sin, commander of the Jungdang unit, went before his father and took off his helmet.
for loyalty and filial duty.
I cannot be a coward in battle.
and the fur coat hangs straight;
pull the headrope,
and the net spreads wide.
and that headrope!
Kim Yu-sin mounted his horse, drew his sword, leaped the trench and charged into the enemy ranks.
The Annals of the Samguk Sagi record that he went in three times and came out three times, each time cutting down a commander or seizing a banner.
Beating their drums, the Silla troops followed him in.
my son…
With more than 5,000 cut down and 1,000 taken captive, the people of Nangbi Fortress were terrified, and all came out and surrendered.
In 642, Baekje brought down Silla’s Daeya Fortress.
The governor, Kim Pum-seok, and his wife Gotaso lost their lives. Gotaso was Kim Chun-chu’s daughter.
Their bones were buried
in a prison in Baekje.
In 648, Kim Yu-sin, military governor of Amnyangju, spent month after month drinking and enjoying music.
are strong again.
and the general just lazes about!
The Biographies in the Samguk Sagi date this to the time when Kim Chun-chu was away in Tang.
we can fight. Let us avenge
Daeya Fortress.
a large one and falls into peril,
what then?
not on size, but on
the hearts of the people.
Kim Yu-sin faced the Baekje army outside Daeya Fortress, then, feigning defeat, fell back as far as Okmun Valley.
As the overconfident Baekje army rushed in, the hidden Silla troops struck from front and rear and captured eight Baekje commanders.
Pum-seok and his wife
lie buried in your prison.
for your eight commanders.
are of no use to us.
Let us send them back.
Baekje dug up the bones of Pum-seok and his wife and sent them back in a wooden chest.
when one leaf falls,
grow when one speck
of dust settles on it.
As promised, Kim Yu-sin let the eight Baekje commanders go home alive.
Kim Chun-chu returned from Tang.
are up to Heaven, and here I am,
back alive to see you again.
of Lord Pum-seok and his lady.
It was Heaven’s help, not mine.
And so the bones of Pum-seok and his wife came home.
Six years had passed since Daeya Fortress fell.
In 654, Queen Jindeok died.
Kim Yu-sin joined with the chief minister Alcheon to place Kim Chun-chu on the throne.
He was King Taejong Muyeol.
In the 1st month of 660, Kim Yu-sin became Sangdaedeung (chief minister). On the 26th day of the 5th month, King Muyeol and Kim Yu-sin led their army out of Seorabeol.
you have the will
to unite the three kingdoms.
The 130,000-strong army of Tang’s Su Dingfang was also about to cross the sea.
The sword said to have caught the starlight when he was eighteen.
The boy who once carried that sword, now a general of sixty-six, was heading for Baekje.
In the 7th month, at Hwangsanbeol, the Baekje general Gyebaek
was waiting with five thousand men sworn to die.
