Once upon a time there lived two famous seekers of happy graves: Ni-Hassimi and Tengami.
One day they went together to look for a lucky mountain for themselves.
They came to the province of Hamgyendo and there, near the Fog, they found the happiest mountain in Korea.
But they had not yet precisely determined the happiest place on the mountain for the graves and, without deciding anything, they went to bed.
Waking up the next morning, they saw not far from them a small water bird shouting: “Simgedon.”
Having cooked the chumiz, they ate and got up, and as soon as they got up, the bird flew up and, shouting: “Simgedon, simgedon,” flew ahead.
So she called them until they came to one place on the mountain, where two completely identical old women were sitting and weaving canvas.
As soon as the travelers approached, the old women immediately disappeared.
“These, of course, are the happiest places,” said the seekers.
All that remained was to decide who would bury their ancestor where.
At night they both saw their ancestors, who told them:
“The one who buries his ancestor between the places where the old women sat, that family will be the first to reign, and that dynasty will last on the throne for four hundred and four years.” And whoever buries lower than his ancestor will replace this dynasty. Cast lots among yourselves.
This is what the seekers did, and the first place went to Ni-Hassimi.
However, in the Ni-hassimi family, the first four generations after that, all the freaks were born: lame, hunchbacked, blind, idiots, and only in the fifth generation was born smart and strong, from whom was born the famous Ni-shongi, the founder of the now reigning dynasty of Khon-dzong-ta-uan-ni-si.
These are the circumstances under which he was born.
His father, suspected of rebellion by the reigning emperor, stern and cruel, was almost executed and was saved from death only by taking refuge in the province of Hamgyendo, in the city of Ion-heung.
But even there, not feeling safe, he retired to the nearby mountains and lived there in the domain of a certain Khan-tsamboy.
One night Khan-tsamba dreamed that a blue dragon flew in and kissed his daughter.
In the morning, Khan-tsamboy went to inspect his possessions and came across a sleeping man.
Remembering the dream and seeing that this man was not married, Khan-tsamboy gave his daughter for him, and twelve months later she gave birth to the hero Ni-shongi.
As a hero, Ni-shongi was born without a trace and until the age of twenty-eight he grew up on the holy mountains, learning the military craft together with two named brothers Pak-khachun and Tun-duran.
Pak was the eldest, Ni was the second, and Tun was the youngest of them in years. When Ni was twenty-eight years old, his grandfather appeared to him in a dream and said [what was already said in the legend about Lee and Pak].
After this, all three heroes went to Seoul.
The then-reigning emperor reached the limit of his cruelty.
When people close to him warned him about the accumulated irritation among the people, he replied that a horse with horns would sooner be born and a magpie would grow a white comb on its head than the Korean people would be irritated.
But a few days later a magpie with a white crest flew to his palace, and a little later his best horse gave birth to a horned foal.
But the emperor replied:
“Before this cast-iron pillar bursts, before the patience of my people bursts.”
But at night there was an unprecedented frost, and the next morning the burst cast-iron pole lay on the ground.
That same morning, three heroes approached the capital with their troops, and the imperial army, abandoning the emperor, from whom the sky had turned away, came out of the city gates to meet the heroes.
Abandoned by everyone, the emperor fled to the mountains, where he died.
Three heroes entered the capital, and the people invited them, by agreement among themselves, to take the vacant throne.
Then, as the eldest, Puck wanted to sit down. But the two dragons that formed the seat of the throne came close to each other, and Puck could not sit down.
This continued up to three times, and the people invited Ni to sit down.
Neither sat down nor did the dragons move.
Ni became emperor, and Pak went to the province of Hamgyendo and hid there in a monastery.
Ni, fearing Pak, sent guards to this monastery and ordered:
- If Pak really entered the monastery and cut his hair, then leave him, otherwise kill him.
The guards came to the monastery and found Pak shorn.
Emperor Ni, while Pak lived, sent three hundred dans to this monastery every year [each dan contains fifteen measures of rice, which is about one and a half thousand of our poods].
After Pak's death, his image became sacred and is still preserved in the Shokhansa Monastery.
The second privilege of the monastery was to beat with rods any Korean who offended the monks of this monastery.
The monks of this monastery to this day enjoy the reputation of the most rude and daring people.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru