movement. Still, he himself was Buddhist and while he did much to check the abuses of the religion he continued to practise it on a more modest scale. At his new capital he ended the first year of his rule, 918, with a famous festival of which we have a description.

PLATE VII
Geomantic Mast: Chung-ju [Page 6]

There was an enormous lantern, hung about with hundreds of others under a tent made of a network of silken cords. Music was an important element. There were also representations of dragons, birds, elephants, horses, carts and boats. Dancing was prominent and there were in all a hundred forms of entertainment. Each official wore the long, flowing sleeves, and each carried the ivory memorandum tablets. The king sat on a high platform and watched the entertainment. (Hulbert.)

You see he was very far from cutting loose from Buddhism. In reality, the religion flourished over the whole peninsula. When Wang-on died in 942, he left a written message for his son and successor. It contained ten rules of conduct for his guidance as king, which were numbered from one to ten. Three had to do with religion, and, of course, that religion was Buddhism. In the first rule he advised his son to continue to recognize Buddhism as the state religion. The second rule was that he should build no more monasteries. While it was a good thing to continue Buddhism, it was a bad thing to build more monasteries, as too much money had already been expended upon them. The sixth of the rules was for the establishment of an annual Buddhist festival of the same nature as the one he had celebrated at the end of his first year. So Wang-on did not destroy Buddhism but continued it.

In course of time the old religion regained much of its harmful and destructive influence. From history we may cull a few events that illustrate its power. About the beginning of the eleventh century there came from China a fuller development of Confucianism than had before existed. About 1026 this influence became very strong; the official class, as was natural, was Confucianist; it organized and directed governmental action; between the officials, Confucianists, and the priests, Buddhists, there grew up a deadly conflict which lasted on through all the centuries. In 1036 the king was devoutly Buddhistic. He “decreed that if a man had four sons one of them must become a monk; because of the Buddhist canon against the spilling of blood, the death penalty was changed to banishment; another great annual festival was instituted. The king also encouraged the custom of having boys go about the streets with Buddhistic books on their backs from which the monks read aloud as they went along, to secure blessings for the people.” (Hulbert.)

In 1046 it is said the king fed and lodged ten thousand monks in his palace. In 1056 or thereabouts one son out of three was compelled to become a monk. In 1136 it is said that thirty thousand monks were present at a single ceremony.

Under such circumstances, what would happen? When a religion had such a hold on the community—building splendid monasteries, erecting great temples, making idols into whose construction gilt of pure gold entered in quantity, making bells of metal that might have been better used for practical ends, draining the people of wealth by giving enormous properties eternally into the possession of religious establishments—a crash was bound to come. It came in Korea. The country had been drained; the people had been heavily burdened; the men who as monks and priests should have led in instruction and good living were notorious examples of profligacy and corruption.

At last, in 1392, a man arose who fought against the king. The excuse for his fighting was the fact that the government was given over to a corrupt religion. Just as before it was the successful general who became the founder of a new dynasty; in this case also he had been loyal at first to the deposed king. The man’s name was Yi, and his title Tajo, and he is commonly known in Korea as Yi-Tajo. He is revered as the founder of the dynasty which has just ended. In 1392 the old kingdom of Korai disappeared and with it the dynasty of Koryu, and in their place came the modern Chosen and the Yi Dynasty. Seoul became the new capital.

PLATE VIII
The Buddha: cave temple, Sukkul-am [Page 11]

Before we leave this period let me say something about miriok and printing-blocks. The word miriok has given me considerable trouble; I cannot learn whether it is a Korean or a Japanese word, or what was its first meaning, or whether it has anything to do with the word Miroku, the name of “the coming Buddha.” Anyway the name miriok is applied in Korea to a stone that is worshipped; it is sometimes a natural stone and sometimes artificially shaped to more or less of the form of a Buddha. There are thousands of them in Korea. There are big miriok and little. My belief is that they were at first simple, natural stones, with something about their shape which was suggestive. They might be natural pinnacles, or rounded forms. Probably the old Koreans, long before the days of Buddhism, worshipped such stones and chiefly in order that the family might be increased. It was probably barren women and childless men who went to miriok and prayed for children. Then came Buddhism and took over the stone-worship of the olden time. Later those miriok which were artificially shaped to human form—Buddha-like—came into being. Were there time, we would speak of various of the larger miriok in Korea, like the great pair at Paju and the couple at Ansung. Of the largest, however, that at Eunjin,[2] we will say something. There are many strange stories connected with it. It is apparently a natural pinnacle of rock, which has been carved into the shape of a Buddha; it is more than fifty feet high and can be seen from a great distance; it is more than nine hundred years old; in its present form it is even to-day worshipped by thousands of people; in the past there have been times when tens of thousands gathered at once to worship it. (Plate X.)

It is said that the stone suddenly appeared, pushing up from the ground and that it cried out with the voice of a boy; it was seen by a woman who was gathering ferns for eating; when she reported the miracle it was confirmed by an official inspection after which orders were given that it should be carved to its present form.