THE FOUNDATION MYTH- THE TANGUN LEGEND
The Kingdom of Kojoseon ( @ Gojoseon; @ Chosŏn) which comprised of Goguryeo to the north, Baek-je (@ Paekche), Silla and Kaya to the south.
Goguryeo was the northern most of the Three Kingdoms. Please see map above.
Goguryeo, Baek-je and Silla were historically known as the Three Kingdoms of Kojoseon ( Old Korea ) .
( Write-ups are excerpts from ' Sources of Korean Tradition ' - Peter H. Lee, Yôngko Ch'oe & William Theodore De Bary ).
Version 1
According to the Korean foundation myth, Lord Hwanung came down from Heavens to the world of man and married a she-bear who bore Tangun, ( @ Dangun ) the first ruler of the age of theocracy. The bear cult, the core of the Tangun legend, descends from the Paleolithic period and is still prevalent among the Ainu and some tribes in Siberia.
Many Koreans believed that Tangun was the founding father and the first King of the Ko or Go (old) Joseon. Kojoseon, meaning the old land of the morning calm was founded by Tangun in 2333BC. This walled- kingdom was near Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. It stretched across the peninsular and much of Manchuria.
Version 2
According to the version in the Rhymed Record of Emperors and Kings ( Chewang ungi ) by Yi Sûnghyu (1224-1300) , the great King Hwanung gave medicine to his granddaughter so that she could change into a human. She married the God of sandalwood tree and bore Tangun an indication that the Tangun legend originated in the north and was transmitted to the south where it absorbed tree worship.
In Iryŏn's Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, the account of the legend was based on the Wei Shu and Old Record (Kogi) while such Confucian historians as Kim Pusik ( 1035 - 1151 ) rejected the legend, Great Master Iryŏn's inclusion of it is evidence that Buddhism tried to absorb the autochthonous beliefs during its spread in the peninsular. But even Confucian scholars began to acknowledge the importance of their tradition, as experienced by Paek Munbo ( d. 1374 ) who pointed out that the year 3600 in the Tangun calendar ( 1267 ) marked a year of prosperity.
A more detailed account of the legend was also illustrated on the stone slabs in the Wu family shrine in Chia -hsiang hsien in Shantung, built in 147. The stones depict the content of the foundation myth - the Tangun legend as it is recorded in Iryŏn's Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, ( Samguk Yusa ).
The Wei shu tells us that 2,000 years ago, at the time of Emperor Yao, Tangun Waggŏm ( supposedly the son of Hwanung) chose Asadal as his capital and founded the state of Chosŏn @ Joseon.
The Old Record notes ( an extended version of Version 1 ) that in olden times Hwanin's son, Hwanung wished to descend from Heavens and live in the world of human beings. Knowing his son's desire Hwanin surveyed the three highest mountains and found Mount T 'aebaek most suitable place for his son to settle and help the humans. Therefore he gave Hwanung three heavenly seals ( i.e. three Guardians of Nature ) and despatched him to rule over the people.
Hwanung descended with 3,000 followers to a spot under a tree by the Holy Altar atop Mount T 'aebaek and Hwanung called this place the City of God. He was the Heavenly King Hwanung.
Leading the Earl of Wind, the Master of Rain, and the Master of Clouds , he took charge of some 360 areas of responsiblity, including agriculture, allotted lifespans, illness, punishment and good and evil, and brought culture to his people.
At that time a bear and a tiger living in the same cave prayed to Holy Hwanung to transform them into humans. The King gave them a bundle of sacred mugworts and twenty cloves of garlic and said , " If you eat these and shun the sunlight for 100 days, you will assume human form." Both animals ate the spices and avoided the sun.
After 21 days the bear became a woman, but the tiger, unable to observe the taboo, remained a tiger. Unable to find a husband, the bear- woman prayed under the altar tree for a child. Hwanung metamorphosed himself, lay with her and begot a son called Tangun Wanggŏm.
KING GWANGGAETO - THE GREAT KING OF GOGURYEO.
He was the 19th King of the Kingdom of Goguryeo.
( Write-ups are from Wikipedia on Gwanggaeto the Great )
King Gwanggaeto was born in 374 and died in 413. His birthname in Korean is Hangul, ( Hanja - chinese character ) and in revised romanisation version is Go Damdeok or An. His full posthumous name is Gukgangsang-gwangaetogyeong-
pyeongan-hotaewang. His posthumous name roughly means " Very Greatest King; Expander of Territory ; [bringer of ] Peace and Security; [ buried in ] Gukgangsang. His name is also abbreviated as Hotaewang or Taewang or spelt as Dae Wang. He selected Yeongnak as his era name and was called King Yeongnak The Great during his reign.
When his father King Gogukyang died in 391, he became the King at the age of 17. King Gwanggaeto or his birthname , Go Damdeok died of a disease at an early age of 39. His conquests are said to mark the high tide of Korean history.
Gwanggaeto was also given credit for establishing the reign titles that were recorded for the first time in Korean history, a symbolic gesture elevating Goguryeo monarchs as equal to their Chinese counterparts.
Today, King Gwanggaeto The Great is one of two rulers of Korea who were given the title ' Great ' after their name ( the other being King Sejong The Great of Joseon, who created the Korean alphabet ). He is regarded by Koreans as one of the greatest heroes of their history and is often taken as a potent symbol of Korean nationalism.
This is the Tomb of King Gwanggaeto at Ji'an in northeast of China ( formerly Manchuria ), alongside North Korea border.
This is the Stele of Gwanggaeto
The Gwanggaeto Stele, a 6 metre monument erected by his son, King Jangsu in 414, was rediscovered in Manchuria in 1875 by a chinese scholar. The stone had inscriptions about his reign.
The further legacy of Gwanggaeto is his immortalisation as the eponymous ITF Taekwon-Do Tul ( pattern ) created by General Choi Hong-Hi along with the creative influence of his right hand man, Nam Tae-Hi.
KWANG-GAE ( Gwang-gaeto ) is named after the famous Kwang- Gae - Toh - Wang, the 19th King of the Goguryeo Dynasty, who regained all the lost territories including the greater part of Manchuria . The diagram represents the expansion and recovery of lost territory. The 39 movements refer to the first two figures of 391 A.D., the year he came to the throne.
The pattern is performed as part of the testing syllabus for the level of 1st Degree black belt by the three former branches of the original ITF in addition to independent Taekwon - Do / Taekwon Do / Tae Kwan Do schools that regard themselves as
' traditional ' ITF Style.
No comments:
Post a Comment