General Introduction (Ch’ongsŏ) 17make a good dish for dinner?” So Hwanjo ordered T’aejo to shoot a deer
taking some of his soldiers with him. T’aejo had the soldiers chase the deer
on the mountain and flush them out. The startled deer immediately ran
down the slope. With five arrows, T’aejo downed five roe deer. As he was
ready to shoot another, he came across a large pond in front of him.
Incidentally, [the weather being cold] the pond was frozen, so T’aejo rode
across it on horseback, still chasing the running deer. He finally shot it
down, too, but then ran out of arrows.
Something like this also happened when T’aejo was hunting in Sansu of
Kangŭm District.^69 Discovering a herd of five roe deer, he chased them and
killed them all with just five arrows. This is not particularly surprising
because he used to shoot three or four roe deer in a row, and instances such
as this one are too numerous to be recorded. When he saw a pheasant hiding
in the grass, he always startled it so that it would fly up several feet into the
air. Then he would look up at it and shoot it down without fail.
T’aejo enjoyed using large whistling arrows (taech’omyŏngjŏk). The shaft
of such an arrow was made of bush clover, and arrow feathers from cranes’
feathers, which were broad and long. The nock was made from reindeer
horn, and it was as big as a pear. The arrow shaft was so heavy and long that
it looked different from ordinary ones, and the power of the bow was also
twice as strong as regular bows. When he was young, he often hunted
together with his father. One day Hwanjo drew out one of the arrows that
belonged to T’aejo and examine it. He said, “An arrow such as this is no
good for a man to use.” As he threw the arrow to the ground, T’aejo picked
it up and put it back into his quiver. At that moment, a roe deer jumped out,
and T’aejo ran to shoot it down with an arrow. Then another roe deer darted
out, and T’aejo did the same. The roe deer continued to appear as many as
seven times altogether, and T’aejo shot them all down. Hwanjo was quite
pleased and laughed.
T’aejo went out hunting with his father Hwanjo.Whenever he saw wild
animals, he chased after them on horseback over icy slopes. His arrows
always hit their target. Not a single animal managed to escape him. Watching
his incredible archery skill, Jurchens were greatly surprised and said to
him, “No one in the world will match your skill.”
Once a large leopard hiding in the reeds suddenly jumped out to attack
T’aejo when he was in the field. In such a life-threatening situation, T’aejo’s
- A district in Hawnghae Province. Sansu is located 12 li east of the district of
Kangŭm.