Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/99

 CHAPTER IV HE beginnings of Korean history are shrouded in mystery, in which legend and myth take the place of definite recorded fact. These tales go back to no mean antiquity, for tradition says the great Tangun appeared over four thousand years ago. His coming was in this wise: a bear and a tiger met upon a mountain side and wished that they might become human beings. They heard the voice of the Creator say, " Eat a bunch of garlic and retire unto this cave and fast for twenty-one days and you shall become men." They ate and sought the gloom of the cave; but ere the time was half up, the tiger, by reason of the fierceness of his nature, could no longer endure the restraint and so came forth ; but the bear, with greater patience, waited the allotted time, and then stepped forth a perfect woman. Whanung, the son of Whanin the Creator, asked his father to give him an earthly kingdom. The request was granted, and the spirit came on the wings of the wind to earth. It found the woman sitting beside a stream. It breathed about her, and she brought forth a son, and cradled him in moss beside the brook. In after years the wild people found him there beneath a paktal-tree, and made him their king. He taught them the rite of marriage, the art of building, and the way to bind up the hair with a cloth. He is said to have ruled from 2257 B. C. to 1122 B. C., with the town of Pyeng-yang as his capital.

Kija was a refugee from China at the time of the fall of the Shang dynasty in 1122. He was asked to take office under the new regime but refused, and secured permission to emigrate to Korea with five thousand followers. Whether he came by sea