8 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
were already quite near him. Ikcho and his wife Lady Son galloped to the
northern hill on Chŏkto Island, but they could not cross the water, which
was almost 600 paces wide and of unfathomable depth. Besides, a boat that
was supposed to be ready was nowhere to be seen. All of a sudden, the tide
receded dramatically, making the water shallow enough to ford. Thus Ikcho
and his wife, riding a white horse, were able to cross the water and their
subordinates quickly followed them. When they finally crossed the water,
the enemy arrived but they were unable to advance because the tide rose fast
again. The people in the north still remember the incident, saying, “That
was the help from Heaven, not the strength of men.”
Ikcho made dugouts to live in. His camp can still be seen there today. The
people of Aldong later learned of his whereabouts and joined him. They
were so numerous that they looked like a band of merchants. They initially
resided on islands for a long time. Then, they felled trees on Chikto, Ch’udo,
and Ch’odo as well as other islands, using the timber to build ten boats. In
the twenty-seventh year (1290) of Zhiyuan, they crossed the river again and
returned to Ŭiju. As they settled down there, the people of Kongju
[Kyŏnghŭng] all came to join Ikcho. The land where Ikcho and his people
used to reside is still called Chŏkchŏn, because it was once occupied by the
former residents of Chŏkto Island.
Lady Son gave birth to two sons. The first one was Kyusu, and the second,
Pok. After she passed away, Ikcho married Lady Ch’oe, posthumously
referred to as Consort Chŏng (Chŏngbi), who was the daughter of Ch’oe
Kiyŏl, the community head of Tŭngju. Ikcho finally settled down in
Hyŏpch’on Village in Tŭngju (namely Anbyŏn),^37 cultivating the state-owned
fields granted to soldiers (yŏngŏpchŏn). He also had the people of thirty
households settle down 15 li west of Tŭngju, so the area occupied by those
people was later called the land of thirty households (samsipho p’yŏng).
After several years of marriage, he [Ikcho] was unable to have a son. So
he and his wife Lady Ch’oe prayed at Kwanŭm Cave on Naksan Mountain.
He had a dream in which a man dressed in monk’s robe appeared and said,
“Most certainly you will have a precious son, and you should call him
Sŏllae.”
Shortly thereafter, Lady Ch’oe indeed became pregnant and gave birth to
a son in Ŭiju. They named him Sŏllae, who is Tojo. Kwanŭm Cave is now- Tŭngju is an old name of Anbyŏn, which is located below Wŏnsan in South Hamgyŏng
Province.