During the middle period of the Goryeo Dynasty, there lived a man named Yun Kwon. He was told to find a place south of the Pakak Mountains, high and rocky, and plant some plum trees there.
[Koryo is the name of one of the kingdoms in Ancient Korea, which existed in the 10th - 14th centuries.]
The trees grew, became thick and spreading, and then Yun Kwon was ordered to trim the branches so that the inscription on one of the Baekak rocks would not be blocked. And that inscription was carved by Doson, a famous Buddhist monk of the Silla kingdom. And this is what he wrote: “The next king will be Li, and the capital must be moved to Hanyang.”
[Silla is the name of one of the kingdoms in Ancient Korea, existed in the 7th - 10th centuries.]
[Li - plum.]
[Hanyang is the ancient name of Seoul.]
And so it happened. General Lee overthrew the king and took the throne. But the king had many loyal people, and they forced Li to move the capital from Kaesong to another place. Then the general called to him the famous Buddhist monk Muhak, from the shrine in the Kodal mountains, and ordered him to find a new place for the capital.
Muhak set off on a journey, overcame the Pakak mountains, reached Tonya, the Eastern Field, south of the mountain, and thought: “Where to go?” When suddenly he hears a peasant shouting to his ox: “How stupid you are, like a fly, you always strive to go the wrong way!”
[Mukhak is ignorant, illiterate.]
The monk heard this and said to the peasant:
“You cursed your ox with a fly for being stupid.” And my name is Mukhak. Help if you can! I'm looking for a place for a new capital. It would be nice to build it right here on the field. What do you say to this?
The peasant advised the monk to go another ten li to the north. The field where the monk and the peasant met is now called Vansimni. They say that a stone was buried here on which these words were carved.
[Vansimni - lit.: “walk ten li.”]
The monk listened to the peasant and found a suitable place for the capital - Khanyan. There are steep cliffs on three sides, and the deep Han River on the fourth.
Here they decided to build a capital and erect high walls. They just didn’t know how to arrange them.
But then one night snow fell and formed a ring around the place chosen for the capital. So they decided to build the walls - in a ring. The capital was named Seoul. This word is said to come from the Chinese “xue” - “snow”, and the Korean “ul” - “hedge”.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru