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The Legend of Myo Hwa

While in his teens, Uisang fell in love with a beautiful girl named Myo Hwa. However, before Uisang and Myo Hwa could announce their engagement, a search party acting on behalf of the king of Silla saw Myo Hwa and selected her as one of the virgins to be sent as a tributary gift for the T'ang emperor of China. Uisang and Myo Hwa were disconsolate but nothing could be done. After Myo Hwa was taken away from the village, Uisang vowed never to marry and became a monk.

During her journey to China, Myo Hwa considered her situation and decided that it was far better to end her life than be a concubine in the Chinese imperial household. While the party was traveling through the treacherous cliffs in Manchuria, she deliberately flung herself into a swollen river. The party leader, rather than risking a search in the treacherous waters, decided to assume that she had drowned and so did not make an extensive search. A nearby fisherman, however, had seen Myo Hwa fall into the river, and after the party had left the area, was able to fish her out of the waters. He cared for her during her recovery and adopted her as his own daughter.

Many years passed. One day Myo Hwa heard that two monks had arrived in her port of a town from Silla. She could not resist going out to see these monks. One can only imagine her joy and surprise when she saw that one of the monks was none other than Uisang. Now Myo Hwa wanted to return to Silla with her childhood sweetheart. But, as Uisang explained, his situation had changed. As a monk, he could not marry her. He had obligations to the Way of the Buddha and to the king of Silla who had sponsored his travel to China. His commitment now was to make Buddhism strong and popular in Silla. Uisang promised, however, that he would stop to see Myo Hwa on his way back from China.

Uisang's studies in China took ten years. During his return journey, he came to Myo Hwa's house to make the promised visit but she was not home. As his ship was about to leave the harbor, Uisang left a note for her saying he could not wait and that he was sorry to have missed her. While he was boarding the ship, Myo Hwa returned home and saw the note. All these years, Myo Hwa had been weaving a robe for her childhood sweetheart. Now she grabbed his robe and ran to the pier. By the time she reached there, the ship was already pulling away. Seeing Uisang sail out of her life, never to return, Myo Hwa decided that she did not want to live any longer. She put on the robe and jumped into the sea. As she hit the water, the robe spread out like wings and Myo Hwa turned into a dragon that followed Uisang’s ship back to Silla.

Upon his return in Silla, Uisang dedicated himself to the task of building a temple in the Taebaek mountains. From there he intended to disseminate the teachings of the Avatamsaka Sutra which he had studied in China. He selected a propitious site according to the principles of geomancy. But there was a problem. The area, especially a large cave, was being used by bandits as a base of operations. Myo Hwa, now in the form of a dragon, levitated a huge boulder to the roof of the cave where the thieves had their den. Frightened by this supernatural phenomenon, the thieves fled the area and Uisang was able to build his temple. After the temple was built, Myo Hwa crawled under the main hall to serve as an eternal protectress of the temple...


Mu Soeng, Thousand Peaks: Korean Zen - Tradition and Teachers (Cumberland, R.I.: Primary Point Press, 1991), p.47-49