I would like to share with you a historical epic about the story of one Great King of Goguryeo (ancient Korea). He was the 19th King of Goguryeo. This historical epic interleaved with fantasies was made into a mini Korean TV series , called THE LEGEND. Its kind of challenging to relate the whole story based on the TV drama series which had 32 episodes. But I shall try.
The central figure in this TV drama was of course the would be King of Goguryeo, Dam-deuk. SUJINI was the heart warming character that added a flavour to the drama.
The original Korean title to this drama is actually "Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi. " Tae Wang " here means The Great King and " Sa Shin " means Four Gods or to be precise Four Guardians. Sa Shin are mythical creatures that possessed supernatural powers. They were however not deities but servants of god heaven. These mythical creatures were brought down from heaven to serve the first King of ancient Korea.
Hence the original title literally means The Story of the Great King and the Four Gods also The Story of the First King's Four Gods.
This Korean TV drama series unfolded with Sujini as a young orphan girl who lived in a village called Geomul. Hyeon Go a village elder looked after her and considered her his disciple. Sujini had led a hard live and since she lived among men in the village she developed a boyish traits.
When Hyeon Go was appointed as the new clan leader in the village, he was given the task to look for the new King of Goguryeo. He , therefore, set out with Sujini on a journey to a village in Goguryeo where the Star from Heavens was sighted 10 years ago. During the journey to this village in Goguryeo, Sujini wanted to know about the legend of the First King's Four Gods.
Hyeon Go then related to her about how Hwanung who came down from Heavens to make the world a better place.
According to Hyeon Go, the legend happened many centuries ago. The Tiger and the Bear tribes were fighting with each other endlessly. Due to this endless unrest Hwanung from Heavens wanted to help the earth people.
When Hwanung came down to earth he brought with him the three Gods of nature, Baek-Ho ( the White Tiger), Cheong-Ryong ( the Blue Dragon) and Hyeon-Mu ( the black Turtle -Snake). He befriended the Bear tribe and made a young brave woman, called Sae-oh to be their leader. Meanwhile the Tiger tribe had a new leader called Kajin. She was given the fire power when the old Fire Priestess died.
One day, Hwanung helped Kajin to heal her wound when she was wounded in a fight. Kajin soon grew to love Hwanung but her love was not reciprocated because Hwanung had already fell in love with Sae-oh.Their love gave birth to a son. When Kajin learnt about this she was raged with jealousy and turned her tribe against Hwanung. In the fight that ensued she stole Sae-oh's son. Tragedy struck when Kajin threw the baby down the cliff and this had made Sae-oh became angry and lost control.
Earlier to this, Hwanung had managed to take away Kajin's fire power and sealed it in a stone. Hwanung then gave this stone to Sae-oh. She wore it as a pendant around her neck. Sae-oh was also taught how to control the fire power.
When Sae-oh in a rage of anger, causing her to lose control, the stone turned into a Dark Joo-jak or the Black Phoenix. All hell broke loose. It was destroying everything in its path. Nothing could defeat the Dark Joo-jak. Finally, Hwanung shot the Joo-jak with the Heavenly Bow before it could further destroy the earth . The tragedy ended when Joo-jak was killed and so did Sae-oh. Kajin too died when she jumped off from the cliff. Hwanung, however, managed to save his son. The stone became the fourth Symbol /Guardian - the Phoenix or Joo-jak.
When earth was back to normal , Hwanung returned to Heavens. He left behind his son with the Three Gods/Guardians of nature and the stone that sealed with Fire Power that would turned into its real form, the Phoenix or Joo-jak. While on earth these Four Guardians took the form as non-living Symbols. Hwanung's son was named Tangun. This was how the Tangun legend started or The Story of the First King's Four Gods.
One night , many centuries later, villagers from Goguryeo saw a Heavens Star lighted up in the sky . This was the Joseon Star. According to their belief, when this Star appeared, a new King was born to rule the Kingdom of Goguryeo. At the same time the Four Symbols or Four Gods would came to life. However, there were two births that took place on that historical night.
In Hyeon Go's search to look for the new King, he took with him one of the Four Symbols that was being guarded by his previous leader. This symbol was the Turtle-like Snake called Hyeon- mu. It was said that this symbol would took its real form when the true King of Goguryeo was found. In order for this person to be a Great King he needed these Four Symbols.
As accounted in the legend, the Four Symbols that were left behind by Hwanung were being kept secretly by their respective guardians. So Hyeon Go went on a quest to look for the new King and the guardians of the other three symbols, i.e Cheong-ryong ( Blue Dragon), Baek-ho ( White Tiger) and Joo-jak ( Phoenix) with Sujini tagging along. However, Hyeon Go from Geomul was not the only clan leader who was interested in looking for the new King and the other three Symbols. Another evil clan , the Hwangcheon and its leader Daejangro was the other interested party. Daejangro wanted the Four Symbols all to himself to make him young again and to live for eternity.
While in search for this new King, Sujini had picked up some bad traits in the village at Goguryeo. She began to love money, wine and gambling. Though as a young girl she was always into mischiefs, she grew up to be a saviour to Dam-deuk, the would be King of Goguryeo, when he befriended her. Sujini soon turned into a sensitive and selfless person when she began to fall for Dam-deuk.
Legend has it that the soul of Hwanung was reborn in Dam-deuk. When Dam-deuk was a young boy, he befriended a girl from the village temple who was undergoing a training to become a priestess. The girl was Kiha, who happened to be Kajin reincarnate. She became Dam-deok's confidante and eventually his true love.
Sujini was of course Sae-oh reincarnate. Her life got accidently entangled with Dam-deuk. When Dam-deuk first befriended her she did not know his true identity. They became close and without realising it , she fell in love with him. She played a central role in Dam-deuk's life when he was still the Crown Prince. When Dam-deuk became the King she fought many battles alongside him.
The plot in the drama thickened when there was also another contender to this King title and he was Dam-deuk's cousin, Hogae. The main villain in this story was Daejangro, leader of the Hwancheon clan. This clan had the attributes of the Tiger Tribe and obviously its leader had dark powers. Daejangro's intention was to help Hogae's family so that Hogae would be made the King and he in turned obtained the eternal powers of the Four Symbols.
On the night the Joseon Star appeared , Daejangro's men went on a rampage to look for the Four Symbols. When they raided Kiha's house, they killed her parents and took Kiha with them when they saw a stone pendant - the Phoenix Symbol was on her. Unbeknownst to the men, Kiha's parents had her baby sister, hidden in a bean pot under the house. After the raid , men from the Geomul village who had the same intention of looking for the other three of the Four Symbols came in pursuit and found only a baby hidden under the floors of Kiha's parents' house.
Now that the Phoenix Symbol was in the hands of Daejangro he quickly used its power to tranform him to look younger. As Kiha was still a child when she was kidnapped by Daejangro's men it was easy for him to control Kiha's mind. As a result when she grew up she completely forgot about her baby sister.
On the other hand, Kiha's baby sister was found and saved by the Geomul clan. When they found the baby they saw the Dark Joo-jak mark on her. They believed that when the baby grew older and whenever she became angry and lost control she would turned into the Dark Joo-jak. The Geomul men then decided to give the baby's name SUJINI, meaning the mistress of the Dark Phoenix.
Incidentally, before the old leader of the Geomul clan died, he had instructed Hyeon Go to kill Sujini if this myth turned true. Hence Hyeon Go's duty was to take care of Sujini and kill her if she happened to turn into the Dark Joo-jak or Black Phoenix.
The road to kingship for Dam-deuk was full of obstacles and grief. When Dam-deuk's uncle, the reigning King died, his father became the next King. As a result he was made the Crown Prince at the age of 11. After his father died, Dam-deuk was made the King at the age of 17. But he had to fight his enemies within and outside the Palace.
As a young boy, Dam-deuk admired his cousin, Hogae who was courageous and skilled at martial arts. They became good friends. However, Hogae turned against Dam-deuk when he belived the Crown Prince killed his mother. Hogae wanted to relive his mother's dream to make him the King. In the meantime Hogae too developed feelings for Kiha.
While Dam-deuk was still the Crown Prince he used to creep out of the Palace and went into the village. It was during these secret outings, that he met Sujini in the village. When Sujini later developed feelings for Dam-deuk, she kept it to herself. She knew that Dam-deuk had only eyes for Kiha.
In one life threatening incident, where Hogae and his men wanted to kill Dam-deuk , Kiha managed to salvage him and brought him to the edge of the village to hide. On that night, they slept together for the first time. Unknowingly to Dam-deok, on that night, Kiha bore him a son.
The next morning, Dam-deuk found Kiha's note that she's going back for help. Instead, he found himself being attacked by a group of men. He managed to escape from his attackers and left his village with the help of Sujini , Hyeon Go and some of his loyal friends. However, while on the way, Dam-deok and his other followers were cut off from Hyeon Go and Sujini. They were being cornered by Hogae and his men. To avoid bloodshed, Dam-deuk surrended to Hogae but Hogae shot him with his arrow. At that instant the Turtle-like Snake Symbol in Hyeon Go's hand somewhat came to life and helped to protect Dam-deuk and those who were trapped with him. When the Turtle-like Snake Symbol came to life it emitted a strong bright light which blinded their enemies. They then stopped attacking Dam-deok and his men and fled from the scene. On witnessing this magical incident Hyeon Go realised that Dam-deuk was the true King of Goguryeo.
Dam-deuk and his followers managed to reach the Geomul village safely. When Dam-deuk had recovered from his wounds, Hyeon Go told him he was the true King of Goguryeo. He could not accept what he heard. All he ever wanted was to run away with Kiha and lived a life together. While at the Geomul village he received another shocking news that his father had been killed. He was grief stricken when he was told that Kiha was responsible for his father's death. Hence started the friction between him and Kiha. Daejangro's plan to make Kiha looked like the enemy was slowly working. Dam-deuk began to believe that Kiha was the enemy. When Dam-deuk totally rejected Kiha, she sought solace in Hogae though her love still remained for Dam-deuk. Unknown to Daejangro, Kiha had her own selfish dream that to be the Chief Priestess to the Palace. She knew from Daejangro that she was the Phoenix Mistress and had mystical powers. She used Hogae to achieve her plan.
When it was time for Kiha to deliver her baby, Saryang, Kiha's loyal guardian and Daejangro's right hand man, sought the help of Sujini. Saryang then explained to Sujini that Kiha was her elder sister whom he had kidnapped the night when the Joseon Star appeared. Saryang also told Sujini that Daejangro wanted the blood from the baby's heart for his selfish needs. Daejangro believed that the blood from the heart of Kiha's baby (the bloodline of the Goguryeo King) would gave him eternal life. When Sujini heard this , she could not but helped her sister and her baby. Saryang and Sujini agreed to tell Kiha that her child died on giving birth. Saryang then fooled Daejangro that Kiha's baby had been killed and gave another child's heart to him. Daejangro, however, was furious when he discovered later that Saryang had betrayed him and instantly killed him.
When Dam-deuk had became King, he still befriended Sujini. On knowing that she would turned into the Dark Joo-jak, Sujini made up her mind to leave the Palace and the King. The idea suited her as she had also agreed with Saryang to keep Kiha's baby safe from Daejangro. She left the village with Kiha's son and went into hiding.
Many years passed and Dam-deuk had reached his peak as the King of Goguryeo. He was known as Gwang Gae Toh Dae Wang. Gwang Gae Toh means broad expander territory. He had made himself the Great King of Goguryeo. But he still felt lonely without Sujini. He wanted her back in his life. When the King finally managed to track down Sujini , he found her with a small boy. He did not know it at the time that this young boy was his child with Kiha.
The epic ended with the confrontation of Daejangro, Kiha, her son, Sujini , and the King of Goguryeo. Kiha had earlier learnt from Sujini that her baby did not die that night and that Daejangro had kidnapped him. Kiha was still under Daejangro's spell and was not able to fight him off. She was being mind-controlled by Daejangro to kill her own son. Sujini who witnessed the life threatening incident was not able to stop her.
Finally when the King arrived at the scene, he managed to set Kiha free from Daejangro's control by killing Daejangro with the Heavenly Bow. Unfortunately, the King was too late to save Kiha who by then had turned into the Red Phoenix. He regretted that he did not believe Kiha's words when she tried to tell him the truth.
The King , on realising that the power of Heavens should not interfere with the lives of the people on earth, broke the Heavenly Bow.
So ended the lives of the guardians of the other three Symbols or Gods of the Great King of Goguryeo.....
