the accounts of milbon, hyet’ong and myÖngnang 293
in 716, that is to say half a century after Hyet’ong is supposed to have
left Tang.^114 Among the disciples of ubhkarasiha were the Uni ed
Silla monks Hyönch’o , Pulgasa i and possibly »irim
.^115 However, no Chinese source or biography of ubhakarasiha
mentions Hyet’ong.^116
Similar to Milbon, Hyet’ong is said in the Samguk yusa to have healing
skills in which he relied on spells or formulas to cure Tang and Silla
princesses. A new element here is the dragon, which is expelled from
the body of the Chinese princess. This Chinese dragon comes to Silla to
take revenge and even transforms into a bear spirit. In other words, this
local spirit turns into a demonic creature disturbing the people.^117
The Samguk yusa is the only source, which mentions Myöngnang.^118
The story of Myöngnang contains more “concrete” biographical ele-
ments than the two preceding. It relates that Myöngnang’s familiar
name or cha was Kugyuk, and that he was the son of Chaeryang, a high
of cial of Silla. According to this story, Chaeryang had three sons who
all became monks, namely Kukkyo, »ian and Myöngnang. His mother
was Namgan, a daughter of Murim, who was a high aristocratic of cial
of the third rank in the seventeen Silla of ce ranks. Except for Murim,
none of the aforementioned names appear in any other surviving
sources. According to the story, Myöngnang’s mother is a sister of the
renowned monk Chajang. In other words, the Samguk yusa tells us that
Myöngnang is a nephew of the great master Chajang. Unfortunately,
neither Myöngnang nor Chajang’s sister is found in the biographies of
Chajang. The biography of Chajang is found in Daoxuan’s Xu gaoseng
zhuan and in volume 4 of the Samguk yusa.^119 Chajang went to China in
636 or 638, returning in 643.^120 According to the Samguk yusa, Myöng-
nang was in Tang China from 632 and came back to Silla in 635, one
or three years before his maternal uncle Chajang made the journey.
Comparing these dates, the family relationship between these two monks
(^114) For a biography of ubhkarasiha, see Chou 1944, pp. 251–272.
(^115) For these monks, see Sørensen 1993, p. 82; Suh 1994, p. 263; Kamata 1987,
pp. 105–106.
(^116) The problem of Hyet’ong’s discipleship under ubhkarasiha is discussed in
Kamata 1987, p. 104.
(^117) See Inoue’s (1989, pp. 63–68) discussion and interpretation of the dragon’s
transformation in Hyet’ong’s story.
(^118) See Yi 1993, p. 84 s.v. Myöngnang.
(^119) See above, note 93.
(^120) See Lee 1969, p. 9, n. 47.