That's when Korean women began to lead secluded lives.
One thousand five hundred years ago the famous Emperor O-shan-pu-on-kun reigned in Korea.
When he was sixteen years old, he went to school and heard from his comrades that all the women in Seoul were slutty. He therefore wished to test his wife and mother.
One day, when his wife was walking in the garden, he, in disguise, jumped out from behind the bushes, kissed her and ran away.
In the evening, his wife did not say anything, but was thoughtful.
Two more days passed. She stopped eating.
- Why don’t you eat anything? - the king asked her.
Then she cried and told him everything.
“Now I’m dishonored, and there’s only one thing left for me - to die, that’s why I don’t eat.”
Then the king hugged her and told her everything as it happened.
Regarding how to test his mother, the king thought for a long time and decided to resort to the following trick. He and his two companions were to appear, disguised as Buddha and his two angels, at the Buddhist monastery that then existed in Seoul, at a time when, on the occasion of the New Year, all the women of the city would be in the temple with the usual bowls of rice. Only the monk knew about the king’s plan, and everything was kept in the strictest confidence from the rest. Therefore, when suddenly, during the service, Buddha entered the temple with two angels, as they are depicted on the statues, the monks fell to the ground, shouting: “The great Buddha himself has descended to earth,” and all the women who were in the temple lost their heads from fear.
The imaginary Buddha, without wasting the right moment, said:
“I came to earth to take away your sins from you, come with your cups of rice to me and bring them as many as each lover has.” If she hides even one, she will be executed by me right there in the temple.
Then amazing things were revealed. Although the monks had stocked up a lot of rice bowls, they were not enough, and they ran to the market many times to get them. They did good deeds that day, and the king learned that of all his female subjects, only two were innocent: his wife and mother. The rest had two, three, or up to ten husbands. His angels recorded the women and their husbands, and the next day the king wrote and posted notices everywhere, in which he announced how many wives each of his ministers had and how many lovers each of them had.
And so that nothing like this could happen in the future, the king issued rules for them, by which the women of Korea still live.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru