10 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
Tojo had an audience with King Ch’ungsuk.^42 The king bestowed many
gifts on him, aiming to encourage his loyalty.
A man appeared to Tojo in a dream and said: “I am a white dragon. I am
now at a certain location, and a black dragon is trying to seize it. Please
come help me.” When Tojo woke up, he did not pay much attention to what
he had dreamt. Then the white dragon appeared in his dream again and said
earnestly, “Why did you disregard what I told you?” Then it mentioned a
specific date for taking action. Now thinking that the dream was indeed
strange, Tojo went to the designated place, armed with bow and arrows. He
arrived at a pond shrouded in dark clouds and mist and finally found the
white dragon engaged in mortal combat with its antagonist. Tojo shot an
arrow at the black dragon and killed it, and it sank into the pond. Later, Tojo
had another dream in which the white dragon appeared and expressed its
gratitude for saving him. Then it prophesied: “You will have much to cele-
brate in the future, thanks to your offspring.”
Sometime earlier, when Tojo was in the yard of his office, a pair of mag-
pies sat in a large tree. Tojo prepared to shoot the birds which were nearly a
hundred paces away, and his subordinate soldiers all said, “There is no way
he can hit the mark.” Nevertheless, Tojo shot them, and they both fell to the
ground. Then a large snake appeared out of nowhere and carried them in its
mouth to another tree without swallowing them. People thought it strange
and praised Tojo.
In the second year (1334) of Emperor Shun [of Yuan],^43 Tojo suffered
some paralysis, so he wanted to have [his first son] Tasibuhua inherit his
office. However, Lady Cho [his second wife] requested that Tojo allow her
own son Wanzhebuhua to inherit his office, instead.
Later, in the Chŏngch’uk year (1337) of Zhiyuan, the Secretariat
(Zhongshusheng) of Yuan sent an official and tried to repatriate the former
residents of Aldong, who had relocated to Hamju in the Kyŏngin year (1290).
Tojo, however, explained their situation through a report submitted to the
Secretariat, so he prevented the former residents of Aldong from having to
return to their old place of residence.- King Ch’ungsuk (1313–1330; 1332–1339): the 27th king of Koryŏ.
- Emperor Huizong (1320–1370) of Yuan. He is considered the last emperor of the
Mongol Empire. During the last years of his reign, Mongols lost effective control over China
to the Ming dynasty.