the accounts of milbon, hyet’ong and myÖngnang 283
before Milbon started reading the scripture, the boy’s disease was cured.
He could speak and move his body. Then he told his story. Because of
this [experience] Yangdo believed truly in Buddha. For the rest of his
life, he did not renounce [his faith in Buddha]. He decided to make
a statue of Maitreya with a bodhisattva to its left and right as the main
[ gure] of the O Hall 37 of the Hngnyun-sa. At the same time
he ordered a golden mural to be painted in the said hall.
Formerly, Milbon lived at the Kmgok-sa.^38 Kim Yusin
39 had a close friendship with an old hermit.^40 No one knew who
he was. Then, Such’ön ,^41 a relative of Kim Yusin, had been suffer-
ing for a long time from a malignant disease. Kim asked the hermit to
go and have a look at him. [At that time], the monk Inhyesa ,^42
an old friend of Such’ön happened to come from Chung-ak 43
to visit [the sick man]. When he saw the hermit, he said to him con-
temptuously, “Seeing your appearance [you look like] a foxy sycophant.
How can you cure his disease?” The hermit said, “I received the com-
mand of Kim, [so] I was obliged [to come].” Inhyesa said, “Look at
my supernatural power!” He held up an incense burner and said a
spell over the incense. Suddenly a ve-coloured cloud revolved around
his head and heavenly owers fell [to the ground]. The hermit said,
“Your supernatural power is wonderful. I also have a skill. Let us try it.
Stand in front of me!” Inhye obeyed. The hermit snapped his ngers.
[At that moment] the monk rose more than one chang 44 into the
(^37) According to Kim P. 1995, p. 514, n. 1, this is the “dharma-hall” (pöptang) of
the monastery. According to Grayson 2001, p. 224, n. 3, it is another name for the
lecture hall of a temple. Sørensen 2001, p. 277, n. 30: “This probably refers to a
Chinese type of hall, i.e., ‘O’ may be taken as a reference to Wu in Zhejiang.” ‘O’
is the Sino-Korean pronunciation of Wu, the name of an ancient kingdom and now
still used to describe a region roughly coinciding with the modern Zhejiang province
and the southern part of Jiangsu province.
(^38) A temple that was located about 20 ri (Chin. li, about 400 meters) north of
Kyöngju. See Yi 1996, pp. 83–84 s.v. Kmgoksa; Kim P. 1995, p. 437, n. 8. This
paragraph of the story is also included in Grayson 2001, pp. 208–209. 39
Famous Silla general and member of the hwarang or “Flower Boys”, an elite
youth corps. In a joint Silla-Tang attack he defeated Paekche in 660. See Pratt & Rutt
1999, p. 222 s.v. Kim Yusin; Vos 1954, 1955.
(^40) Probably Milbon is meant here. See also Kamata 1988, p. 144.
(^41) No information on Such’ön.
(^42) An otherwise unknown monk, see Yi 1993, p. 246 s.v. Inhye.
(^43) Chung-ak was one of Silla’s ve holy peaks. It is now called P’algong-san (1,192
m), and is located 22 km to the north of Taegu. It is the tallest mountain in the region.
See Nilsen 1988, pp. 305–306; KYIK, p. 537, n. 20; Kim P. 1995, p. 514, n. 2.
(^44) About 3 m. See Ogawa 1989, p. 1224.