[Tang Gong is the mythical founder of Ancient Korea.]
It was four thousand years ago, or maybe even earlier...
Our ancestors, hunters, began to gradually develop fertile lands or went to those regions where it was warmer, where the sun shone brighter. However, they did not give up hunting. They plow the land, sow seeds, and then go off into the mountains to hunt with bows and arrows.
The forests are teeming with tigers, bears, wolves, jackals, roe deer are walking in the fields, muskrats and hares are running. Phoenixes fly in flocks in the sky.
And that's what happened then.
There lived in the heavenly kingdom a spirit named Hwan Um with his son Hwan Un.
It is unknown why, but Hwan Un could not get used to his father’s heavenly abode; from childhood he was drawn to the world of people.
Father knew about this. And then one day he called his son to him and said:
“Do you really, my son, want to live in the human world?”
“You, father, are truly a clairvoyant,” Hwan Un answered without hesitation. -
All my thoughts are about this.
The father rejoiced and shouted:
“I won’t resist your desire.” From now on, live in the human world and you will become a ruler. I only ask one thing: make your subjects happy.
And the father ordered his son to become the ruler between Mount Kuwolsan and the present Mount Mehyansan, gave him a round seal, a symbol of the messenger of Heaven, and three thousand loyal subjects.
Hwan Un took his loyal subjects, got into a magic chariot drawn by five horses, and set off.
Hwang Un stopped on Mount Taebeksan, in the shade of a sandal tree standing alone on a hill, and founded the capital there.
Hwan Un established three hundred and sixty positions in his kingdom - Minister of Winds, Minister of Rains, Minister of Clouds. And there are many more ministers. Thus the kingdom of people was created, and it was ruled by the heavenly king Hwan Un. In those days, there lived on Mount Taebeksan a tiger and a bear, very old, and for a long time they dreamed of turning into people.
The animals heard that the son of the heavenly spirit Hwan Un had descended from the sky, they came running, began to cry and beg:
- Oh, heavenly king, we were born and raised on earth, we don’t have long to live, make sure that we turn into people, and then our cherished dream will come true.
Hwan Un took pity on them, gave each a bunch of grass, twenty heads of garlic and said:
“Go home and don’t eat anything for a hundred days, just grass and garlic, and don’t leave your lair into the light of day.” Do as I said and turn into people.
“Thank you, heavenly king,” the tiger and the bear said in one voice and left. They ate the grass and garlic and couldn’t wait for the hundred days to pass.
The tiger couldn't stand it.
“It’s good, of course, to be human,” he thinks, but I’m unlikely to live to see this, I’ll die of hunger if I don’t eat meat for a hundred days. So is it worth the risk? The tiger thought so and jumped out of his lair.
But the bear passed the test and turned into a person, only not into a man, but into a woman. The woman became bored alone and wanted a husband.
I toiled and toiled and decided to bow to Hwan Woon again so that he could find a husband. And she asked him so much, begged him so much, that the king took pity and took her as his wife. Ten lunar months later their son was born, and they named him Tang Gun.
Tang Gong grew up and founded the state of Joseon with its capital Pyongyang.
[Joseon - Land of Morning Freshness.]
Over time, Tang Gong moved the capital to Taebeksan, where sandalwood grew.
He ruled the country for one and a half thousand years, and in total he lived in the world for one and a half thousand and eight more years.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru