From the Yalu to the Tumen
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
In the winter of 1443, Sejong, suffering from eye disease, made the twenty-eight letters. Memorials were submitted against them, and the king and queen went together to Chosu-ri to treat his illness. In the third month of 1446, Queen Soheon, who had shared thirty-eight years with him, died before him, and in the ninth month of that year the Hunminjeongeum was completed. Praying for the queen’s soul, the king composed songs in the new letters — songs of the moon shining on a thousand rivers, the Worin cheongang jigok.
Characters
In 1450, aged 54
Built the Six Garrisons along the Tumen
Crossed the Yalu to strike the Jurchens
The general who struck Tsushima
The old king’s longtime minister
The banks of the Tumen, the northern edge of Joseon.
The north wind blows through the treetops, the bright moon is cold upon the snow,
on the frontier walls ten thousand li away, I stand leaning on my long sword,
a long whistle, one great shout — nothing stands in my way!
— A sijo said to have been written by Kim Jong-seo
The riverbank where he stood leaning on his sword became the edge of the country we know today.
When Sejong’s reign was just beginning, the northern edge of Joseon had not yet been settled.
Many Jurchen tribes lived around the Yalu (Amnok) and the Tumen, and in the border villages the sound of hoofbeats never ceased.
In the southern seas, there were Japanese pirates.
In the sixth month of 1419, on the orders of the Retired King Taejong, 227 ships and more than 17,000 soldiers led by Yi Jong-mu crossed over to Tsushima, the lair of the Japanese pirates.
After that, there were far fewer Japanese pirates in the southern seas.
In the winter of 1432, Jurchen horsemen from across the Yalu swept down on the district of Yeoyeon in Pyeongan Province. Many people were killed or carried off.
In the fourth month of the following year, Choe Yun-deok, Military Commander of Pyeongan Province, led 15,000 troops across the Yalu and struck the Jurchens around the Pajeo River.
Along the upper reaches of the Yalu, four districts were set up one after another.
Yeoyeon, Jaseong, Muchang, Uye — the Four Commanderies.
The banks of the Tumen in the northeast were farther still, and colder. The king entrusted that land to Kim Jong-seo.
and settle the people there.
That is the edge of our land.
Kim Jong-seo went to the banks of the Tumen. For many years after that, he guarded that land.
Along the river he built fortresses and set up districts. Hoeryeong, Jongseong, Gyeongwon, Gyeongheung, Onseong, Buryeong — the Six Garrisons.
People of the south left house and home and moved to the snow-covered far north.
The Four Commanderies on the upper Yalu, the Six Garrisons along the Tumen.
The courses of the two rivers joined and became a single line.
The northern edge of the country we know today was drawn then.
The road away from home was long and cold. The king lightened the taxes and corvée labor of the people who moved north, and he also gave official posts to people of that land.
how much farther?
see the river.
The king is said to have spoken of Kim Jong-seo like this:
this work could not have been done;
even with Kim Jong-seo, without me
it could not have been pushed through.
While fortresses rose along the two rivers, the king grew old.
His eyes were so sore and inflamed that he could hardly see what was before him, and illness had sunk deep into many parts of his body.
And in the spring of 1446,
the queen who had shared thirty-eight years with him went on ahead.
The king buried the queen west of the tomb of his father, King Taejong. And beside her, he had one more chamber made, where he himself would lie.
Two chambers in one tomb. One of them was empty.
In the seventh month of 1448, the king announced that he would rebuild a small Buddhist chapel beside the palace. His ministers stood in his way, asking what such a thing was doing in a Confucian kingdom, and the students of the Seonggyungwan, the national academy, emptied their school and walked out.
According to a story handed down, when even the scholars of the Hall of Worthies (Jiphyeonjeon) had all walked out, the king called for his aged state councillor, Hwang Hui, and said to him:
have abandoned me and gone.
What am I to do now?
Hwang Hui, it is said, went to the scholars’ homes one by one and brought them back. That winter, the chapel was built after all.
At night, the old king would open a worn book. From between its pages, a folded sheet of paper slipped out.
17th day of the 2nd month, 1450.
The king closed his eyes at the home of his youngest son, Grand Prince Yeongeung. He was fifty-four.
He had been king for thirty-two years.
The historian wrote: “People of that time called him the Yao and Shun of the East.”
In the sixth month of that year, the king lay down in the empty chamber beside the queen.
For four years, that place had stood empty.
The moon rose.
Over the Yalu, over the Tumen — over the wall where Kim Jong-seo had stood leaning on his sword.
As the king had sung, one moon shone on a thousand rivers.
And over one tomb.
The king drew the edge of the country along two rivers.
And the end of his own life, he drew beside one person.
In 1469, their tomb was moved to what is now Yeoju in Gyeonggi Province. Beneath one mound, the two of them still lie side by side.
Twenty-eight years she lived as queen. Twenty-eight letters the king left behind.
In those letters, to this day,
we write a letter to someone.
