16 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
When T’aejo was young, he climbed up a mountain to hunt down a wild
boar. As he was about to shoot an arrow at it, he suddenly found himself at
the edge of a bottomless cliff. He quickly jumped off his horse, just before
both the horse and boar fell off the cliff.
Another time someone told him that there was a huge tiger in the thicket.
Grabbing his bow and arrow, and putting an arrow in his belt, he began to
climb the hill behind it. At the same time, he had the people below chase the
tiger up to the mountain. Then he suddenly found a tiger quite close to him.
He immediately escaped from it by riding away on horseback, but the tiger
chased him furiously and jumped on the back of his horse. T’aejo pushed
the tiger off his horse with his right hand. The tiger fell to the ground, but
struggled to get back up, raising its head and looking at him. T’aejo turned
his horse around and shot the tiger dead.
Yi Talch’u ng,^67 provincial military commissioner (tosunmunsa)^68 of the
Northeast Region, arrived in Anbyŏn Prefecture during the inspection tour
of his district, and it happened that one of his officers accused T’aejo of
some offense. Talch’ung summoned T’aejo, but upon seeing him, Talch’ung,
without even realizing what he was doing, ran down the steps to greet T’aejo
and then entertained him with wine. He then advised his officer to be careful
not to try to compete with T’aejo. Hwanjo visited Talch’ung and expressed
his gratitude for the generous hospitality provided to his son.
When Talch’ung was summoned back to the royal court, Hwanjo held a
farewell banquet for him and saw him off in the field with his son T’aejo
standing behind. Hwanjo offered wine to Talch’ung after pouring it into a
cup, and Talch’ung drank it while standing. When T’aejo offered wine to
him, however, Talch’ung knelt down on his knees to receive it. Thinking
that it was strange, Hwanjo asked the reason, and Tal’chung replied, “Your
son is really an extraordinary person. I presume that even you can hardly
match his talent. The one who can make your family famous and prosperous
certainly will be that son of yours.” Then he asked T’aejo to remember his
descendants in the future.
At that moment, seven roe deer were seen standing on the hill on the
opposite side of the field. Talch’ung said, “How can we kill one of them and- Yi Talch’ung (?–1385): an official of late Koryŏ during the reign of King Kongmin. He
served as libationer of the National Academy, inspector-general, and concurrently minster of
taxation and provincial military commander of the Northeast Region. Talented in literature,
his two poems are included in the Anthology of Korean Literature (Tongmunsŏn). - The title of tosunmunsa was changed to tochŏlchesa (provincial military commis-
sioner) during the first year (1389) of King Kongyang’s reign. (Yongun Pak, 690)