Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/483

 where at any time. But old Diamond Mountain carries as many tales of famous monks as it bears pines, and the shoulders of old Halla Mountain are shrouded in as heavy a cloak of Buddhist lore as of the driving mist from off the southern seas.

The style and make-up of the Buddhistic story are almost infinite in variety. What we may call the inner circle of Buddhist philosophy never appears in these tales, but through them is constantly heard the cry for the release from the bane of existence. The scorn of merely earthly honours is seen on every page. Well indeed might the women of Korea be willing, nay, long, to sink into some nirvana and forget their sorrows. Buddhism is consistent at least in this, that it acknowledges .the futility of mere existence and says to every man, "What are you here for?"

The plots of Buddhist stories are too long to give in extenso, but a few salient points can be indicated. The monastery is the retreat to which the baffled hero retires, and in which he receives his literary and military education, and from it he sallies forth to overthrow the enemies of his country and claim his lawful place before the King. Or, again, a monastery may be the scene of an awful crime which the hero discloses, and thus vindicates the right. There is no witch nor wizard nor fairy godmother in Korea. It is the silent monk who appears at the crucial point and stays the hand of death with a potent drug, or warns the hero of his danger, or tells him how to circumvent his foes. Now and again, like Elijah of old, a monk dares to face the King and charge him with his faults, or give enigmatical advice which delivers the land from some terrible fate. Often a wandering monk is shown a kindness by some boy, and in after years by his mysterious power raises the lad to affluence and fame.

In these days one never connects the idea of scholarship with a Buddhist monastery, but the folk-lore of Korea abounds in stories in which the hero retires to a monastery and learns not only letters but astrology and geomancy. Even military science seems to have been taught in these retreats. From no other