The Myth of The Birth of The First King in Shilla Dynasty

Every country has it’s myth relating to the beginning.
The myth must’ve been very effective way to keep the legitimacy of the country and integrate it’s people.

Like other you countries, Shilla also has it’s myth of the beginning and construction of Country.
In many case, the contents of the myths are mainly related to the birth of the first king.

Interest thing is that the myth of Shilla is composed of two parts, one was for the King, the other was the Queen.

In this posting, I’d like to introduce on the King’s birth myth.

The first king of Shilla dynasty was Park Hyeokgeose.

The myth told that the first king Park Hyeokgeose was born from the egg.
When the first king was born, Shilla was composed of 6 tribes and there was no king.

At first Shilla was composed of a union of 6 tribes.
One day a chief among 6 tribes heard a horse crying near his place.

As he got closer, he found a white horse kneed and was embracing the egg near the well, name of Na Jeong.

As the chief took the egg apart, there was a baby boy.

He was named of Park Hyeokgeose.
He became an originator of the family name ‘Park’
It is believed all people who have the family name of Park are the descendants of Park Hyeokgeose.

When he became 13 years old, all 6 tribes agreed Park Hyeokgeose as the first king.

The place where he was born in was located out side of Gyeongju city and it’s name was Na Jeong.

It took 30 minuets by Bus.
When I was get there, there was nothing special.
It was not easy to find where it was.

The explanation board told that Na Jeong had been excavated for several years ago.

Na Jeong was covered again after the excavation.

It was strange why there was not a building to memorize the birth of Shilla Kingdom.
Na Jeong must’ve been the very sacred place for Shilla dynasty.
There should be a building to memorize the birth of the First King.

The boad explained the result of the excavation of the place.
There had been four times of construction of some building in Shilla dynasty for memorizing the myth.

There was no other explanations on the relics found there.

One thing interesting is there were so many stories on the well in the myth of Shilla dynasty.
It’s hard to understand why scholars were not interested on the meaning of the wells which were related to the myth.

I was walking around Na Jeong slowly.
At the corner of the area, there were lots of stone parts which must’ve been used for the building.

I heard that this place was the center of Shilla dynasty when Park Hyeokgeose became a King.
The palace was said to be built near this place.
But there was nothing particular for estimating Na Jeong area as the Palace.

Later the palace was move near of Gyeongju city.
The moving of the palace usually meant the transfer of the political power of Kingdom.

There were 3 family names among Kings in Shilla dynasty.

First family names was Park
Second family name was Seok
Third family name was Kim
Except Seok, Park and Kim have their myth of family name originator.
Later Kim succeeded King’s reign regularly.

When King’s chair was transferred to Kim’s family, the Palace must’ve moved to the present place.

Leaving all but ruined sacred place, I realized our lives must be a short moment and all desires but a meaningless.