The importance of both these figures long outlived the countries they are said to have founded. Tongmyŏng worship was widespread in both Koguryŏ (37 BCE-668 CE) and Paekche (18 BCE-660 CE), where kings regularly visited his ancestral shrine. Tongmyŏng was also the only founding ancestor of the Three Kingdoms honored with his own shrine in Koryŏ (918-1392).¹ In Chosŏn (1392-1897), Tongmyŏng was honored along with the other founders of the Three Kingdoms.² Kija worship dates back at least as far as Koguryŏ. In Koryŏ and Chosŏn, Kija was celebrated as a culture hero, who had introduced ritual etiquette, farming, sericulture, weaving, and the Eight Injunctions to Korea. The Koryŏ government established a shrine to Kija in 1102 and the land allocated to Kija’s shine in 1178 was more than three times that of Confucius, indicating his importance.³ In 1421, Sejong (r. 1418-1450) ordered the establishment of a shrine for Kija in Chosŏn.⁴ Chinese writings place Kija in a position of prominence above other Korean rulers, and viewed Koryŏ and Chosŏn as a successor states to Kija Chosŏn.⁵ During the Koryŏ period, Kim Pusik (1075–1151) placed Kija’s Chosŏn first in the chronology of the History of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk sagi).⁶ Iryŏn’s (1206-1289) Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa), Yi Sŭnghyu’s (1214-1259) Songs of Emperors and Kings (Chewang un’gi), as well as Kwŏn Kŭn’s (1352-1409) Brief History of the Eastern Country (Tongguk saryak) during the Chosŏn period all include Kija among their accounts of early Korean rulers, though Tan’gun is made the earliest ruler, with Kija as his successor.⁷ Neo-Confucian scholars of early Chosŏn took Zhou (1046 BCE-256 BCE) as a model for reforming their country’s customs according to ancient institutions. Kija was a direct link to Chinese antiquity, who had laid the foundations for a culture based on ancient Chinese customs.⁸ According to Chŏng Tojŏn (1342-1398), even the name Chosŏn was chosen to emphasize the association with Kija’s state.⁹

Given the prominence of these figures in later Korean states, the creating foundation myths for Koryŏ or Chosŏn according to the models of these earlier founders would have been a possibility. Certainly, depiction of many of the Wang and Yi ancestors as well as the founders themselves as great archers is reminiscent of the Chumong story. The Wang clan lacked an illustrious background and the Yi clan had usurped the previous dynasty, thus both needed to legitimize their rule through their founding stories. According to Michael C. Rogers a central theme in stories recounting the founding of a new dynasty is “the build-up of virtue and power in the persons of the dynastic founder’s ancestors. For without the latter’s continuing spiritual support the founder (for all the heroics attributed to him personally) could never have succeeded in the ‘great undertaking.’”¹⁰ Therefore, I will examine the foundation legends of the Wang and Yi dynasties with a particular focus on their ancestry and any foreign elements reminiscent of Sahlins’s stranger-king model.

The Dynastic Genealogy of Koryŏ (P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok), compiled by Kim Kwanŭi in the twelfth century during Ŭijong’s (r. 1146-1170) reign, is the earliest extant version of Koryŏ’s dynastic founding myth. The extant section has been preserved in the genealogy section of the Koryŏsa.¹¹ It recounts the lives of the six generations preceding Wang Kŏn (T’aejo, r. 918-943). For the Chosŏn founding myth I will consider two versions: the Introduction (ch’ongsu) to the Veritable Records of King T’aejo (T’aejo sillok) and the Song of Dragons Flying to Heaven (Yongbiŏch’ŏnga). The account in the Introduction to the T’aejo sillok follows the lives of the four Yi ancestors preceding the dynasty and follows Yi Sŏnggye’s (T’aejo, r. 1392-1398) life up to the founding of Chosŏn. The six dragons of the Yongbiŏch’ŏnga refer to the four Yi ancestors, T’aejo, and his son Yi Bangwŏn (T’aejong, r. 1400-1418), thus it also includes events after the founding of the dynasty, beyond the purview of this paper, which is primarily concerned with the ancestries of the founding monarchs.

This paper will first elaborate on the features of Sahlins’s stranger-king using the Kija and Chumong myths as examples. Then, I will argue that while the Koryŏ legend incorporates many elements of the the stranger-king model, despite not being a foreign dynasty, the Chosŏn legend avoids presenting the Yi family as foreign and instead reinforces its relationship with Koryŏ. Both legends seek to legitimize these dynasties through the geomantic qualities of their lands of origin and prophecies indicating that their rise to power was enacted through the will of Heaven.

Chumong

Though Korean histories treat Tongmyŏng and Chumong as the same person, in Chinese sources Tongmyŏng is the founder of Puyŏ, while Chumong is the founder of Koguryŏ. It is likely that the Puyŏ Tongmyŏng story was borrowed in the creation of the Koguryŏ foundation legend.¹² Various versions of the legend exist, the later examples generally being the more elaborate ones. The earliest extant version of the legend, recorded on the Kwanggaet’o Stele states that Chumong was born from an egg. His parents were the Heavenly Emperor and the daughter of the Lord of Water, Habaek. He went south from North Puyŏ, crossed the river Umri over a bridge of fish and terrapins, and established his kingdom in the valley of Biryu.¹³ The Lay of King Tongmyŏng (Tongmyŏng’wang pyŏn) by Yi Kyubo (1168-1241) follows the same general narrative, but presents a far more detailed account. Chumong’s father is Haemosu, the son of the Heavenly Emperor and his mother, Yuhwa, is the eldest daughter of the Sea God, Habaek, who is taken in by King Keumwa of East Puyŏ after being abandoned by Haemosu. Chumong is born from an egg and excels in everything, especially archery, surpassing Keumwa’s seven sons.

Crown Prince Taeso warns his father against Chumong, who is assigned to feed the horses. While escaping from Puyŏ, Chumong comes to the Umche river, which he is able to cross after fish and terrapins form a bridge for him, then plunge his pursuers into the water. He travels south and founds the kingdom of Koguryŏ. There he has a confrontation with King Songyang of Biryu, who demands Chumong become his subject. However, Chumong claims Songyang should follow him due to his heavenly lineage. Songyang is eventually forced to submit, after Chumong proves himself three times: (1) by besting Songyang with his archery skills, (2) by building a capital that appears older than Songyang’s capital, and (3) by beseeching the heavens to wash aways the capital of Biryu. At the age of forty, Chumong ascends to heaven, leaving the kingdom to his son Yuri.¹⁴ In the Paekche annals of the Samguk sagi, the king of Cholbonpuyo recognized Chumong’s gifts and allowed Chumong to marry one of his daughters, making Chumong his successor. The king of Cholbonpuyo likely corresponds to Songyang in the Tongmyŏng’wang pyŏn.¹⁵

Kija

Because the earliest records of Kija make no mention of Chosŏn and it was not until the Han dynasty that this association appeared, many modern scholars have questioned the veracity of the Kija story.¹⁶ However, regardless of the story’s accuracy, Kija was celebrated as a founding ancestor in Korean kingdoms for more than a thousand years. According to the Analects, Kija was one of three virtuous men in Shang who was made a slave after protesting the actions of the last king. In other versions rather than slavery he faces imprisonment or secludes himself while feigning madness. The account in the Book of Documents (Shangshu) states that the Zhou King Wu sought out Kija’s advice on how to rule. In the Great Tradition of the Book of Documents (Shangshu dazhuan) Kija goes into exile in Chosŏn after being released from prison by his enemy, King Wu, who enfeoffs Kija as the ruler of Chosŏn. The Book of Han (Hanshu) elaborates on the cultural and technological knowledge that Kija brought to Chosŏn.

Chumong and Kija as stranger-kings

Sahlins describes the most pertinent elements of the stranger-king as follows:

In the prototypical stranger-king traditions, the heroic founder of the dynasty comes from some fabled homeland, terrestrial or celestial, actual or legendary. Commonly, he is the son of a powerful king in a realm of great repute who failed to succeed his father, perhaps because he was bested by a fraternal rival, perhaps for some fault that led to his banishment. Or in a higher register, the dynastic founder is the offspring of the gods, perhaps expelled from their presence by some similar conflict or offence, who descends upon an autochthonous people from the heavens—always a good address for persons with royal ambitions. In a common topos, the hero undertakes an arduous journey to his future kingdom, mastering both natural and human forces along the way, thus demonstrating his transcendent powers and prefiguring the royal gifts of fertility and victory he will bring to his native subjects. $\dots$ $…$ The hero is often known as well for more sinister exploits such as fratricide, parricide, incest, or other crimes against common morality, which likewise puts him above and beyond ordinary society and proves he is stronger than it. $\dots$ $…$ Endowed with cosmic potency and stronger than society, the stranger-king is in a position to reorganize it. The advent of the foreign hero is a civilizing mission, bringing the aboriginal people out of their original state of naked savagery.¹⁷

With the exception of the “sinister exploits,” each of these elements can be found in either the Chumong or Kija myths. Depending on the source, Chumong’s origin is alternately defined as Puyŏ, East Puyŏ, or North Puyŏ. Moreover, his parentage is divine and his step-father is a king. He heads south to found his own kingdom due to rivalry with his step-brother, Taeso. Chumong is, thus, a divine prince banished due to fraternal rivalry. Kija, though not divine, comes from China and is enfoeffed by the king of Zhou. This is congruent with “cultural superiority” that frequently characterizes the origin of the stranger-king and also relates to the “civilizing mission” of the stranger-king, since Kija is most remembered for his role in introducing Chinese culture and technology to Korea, thus elevating the culture.¹⁸ Though less explicit there is an element of this in the Chumong myth as well. The Chumong myth reflects the southeast movement of northeast Asian peoples and may have been composed based on a migration of technologically superior group southward.¹⁹ That Yuhwa sends barley seeds with Chumong may be an indication of some agricultural import.²⁰ As for the journey to the future kingdom, this takes a rather miraculous form in the Chumong myth when he escapes his pursuers through the aid of the fish and terrapins forming a bridge.

Another major event that frequently accompanies the stranger-king is

the marriage of these powerful foreigners with native women—in the paradigmatic case, the union of the original stranger-king with the daughter or daughters of the autochthonous ruler—an alliance that is in effect the fundamental contract of the new society. Sovereignty here is embodied in and transmitted by women of rank. In the sequel, the union of the native woman with an immigrant prince engenders a succession of kings who combine in their own persons the essential components of the new regime: foreign and indigenous, celestial and terrestrial, masculine and feminine—each component incomplete in itself, but taken together they make a reproductive totality.²¹

Chumong’s marriage to the daughter of the king of Cholbonpuyo is such a marriage. There is also one more union that can be considered here, namely that of Chumong’s parents, particularly because Sahlins writes that the male immigrant sovereign is “often associated with the sun and the heavens,” and the indigenous woman “with the powers of earth and underworld,”²² Yuhwa conceives after being hit with sunlight, thus Haemosu is both literally sun and son of Heaven, descending to earth. Yuhwa, though not associated with the underworld, represents water and earth. Thus, this union exemplifies the Heaven-Father Earth-Mother model, linking the people “to both heaven and earth through their founder.”²³ Chumong himself is a combination of the “celestial and terrestrial,” while his own marriage is one between “foreign and indigenous.”

P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok

The account of Wang Kŏn’s illustrious ancestors begins with Hogyŏng, a holybone (sŏnggol) general of Silla (57 BCE-935 CE), who travels from Mt. Paektu to Mt. Puso and becomes a semi-divine figure after his marriage to the Pyŏngna mountain spirit.²⁴ Hogyŏng’s son by his first wife, Kangch’ung, while living at Maga Cape on Mt. O’gwan, receives a prophecy from the geomancer P’arwŏn:

If you will move the $Puso$ $Puso$ commandery seat to the south of the mountain and plant pine trees on it so that its rock formations are not exposed, then the resulting auspices will be such that he who will bring the Three Han together under his rule will come forth from here.²⁵

Kangch’ung does this and renames the commandery Song’ak (Pine Hill).²⁶ Kangch’ung’s younger son, Poyuk, receives two prophecies. The first comes from his older brother, Ijegŏn, who remarked that he “will certainly beget a heaven-supporting pillar” after hearing that Poyuk had dreamt that while urinating on Kongnyŏng his urine “inundated the mountains and rivers of the Three Han, which were thereby changed into a sea of silver.”²⁷ The second prophecy comes from a Silla adept who foretells that the Great T’ang Son of Heaven will become Poyuk’s son-in- law if he continues to live on Maga Cape. This comes to pass after his younger daughter Chinŭi also has a urination dream and Su-tsung (r. 756-762) stays with her for a month at Poyuk’s residence. She becomes pregnant and before leaving he gives her a bow and arrows for their son, Chakchegŏn.²⁸ While standing on Kongnyŏng, Su-tsung also predicts that “This place $Son{g}^{\prime }akCommandery$ $Song’ak Commandery$ is certain to become the capital of a state.”^29 Chakchegŏn decides to seek out his father and sets out by sea. During the voyage he meets the Dragon King, who tells Chakchegŏn, “Wait for the third Kŏn among your descendants, and your rule over the Eastern Land is certain.”²⁹ Rather than continuing to T’ang (618-907), Chakchegŏn returns with the Dragon King’s daughter, Chŏminǔi, as a wife as well as gifts from the Dragon King. He builds a palace in Yŏng’an, but after a year they relocate to Song’ak, moving back a forth between the two.

Their eldest son, Yong, meets a woman, who he had seen in his dream, on the road between Yŏng’an and Song’ak and marries her. Her origins were unknown, but she is said to be the mother of the Three Han.³⁰ Later, Yong meets Tosŏn, who returned after learning geomantic methods in T’ang. They investigate the land together from Kongnyŏng and Tosŏn instructs Yong to

“build a palace with six-times-six compartments. In this way you will respond exactly to the great destiny ordained by heaven and earth, and next year you will certainly produce a holy child, whom you should name Wang Kŏn $\dots$ $…$ His Excellency the Lord Taewon, Ruler Who Will Unify the Three Han.”³¹

The ends the account of Wang Kŏn’s ancestors ends with his birth.

The most prominent element of the stranger-king to be found in this story is Su-tsung, the heir to T’ang, which offers a “foreign and exotic” contrast to the peninsular lands,³² who forms a union, albeit a brief one, with the daughter of a local ruler, Chinŭi. Koryŏ was not alone to invoke such a linage.³³ In fact, Sahlins even cites the example of local rulers on China’s southwestern frontier taking Chinese names to claim Chinese ancestry as an example of how stranger-kingship intersects with the concept of the “galactic polity.”³⁴ The central state, or “galactic polity,” serves as a source of rulers for the surrounding lesser states, who also derive their legitimacy from the central state. In some cases, “$r$ $r$ ather than strangers becoming native kings, native kings sometimes become strangers: that is, they take on the identities of legendary world-historical rulers.”³⁵ Given that the inclusion of Su-tsung in the Wang lineage is not particularly credible, this is the case with the Koryŏ royal house. The foundation legend presents a native dynasty with foreign ancestry to enhance its prestige.

However, Su-tsung’s place in the Wang lineage was not without issue, because it does not accord with the genealogical entry that proceeds the P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok and results in tracing the lineage back through the maternal line, making Poyuk’s title, National Ancestor (kukcho), inappropriate for his position as the father-in-law of Wang Kŏn great-grandfather.³⁶ While the presence of Su-tsung and shift to the maternal line may cause some issue with assigning ancestral titles according to a patrilineal Chinese system, the incident of maternal descent may not have be terribly problematic otherwise. Despite a patrilineal bias, due to the import of Chinese models, Koryŏ ancestry was somewhat bilineal. Maternal grandparents were recorded in genealogies and adopting a son-in-law as heir was not an uncommon practice.³⁷ Therefore, tracing Wang Kŏn’s linage back through Chinŭi was not actually an exceptional departure from common practice. In any case, it seems the prospect of illustrious T’ang ancestry was too appealing to pass up.³⁸ In the P’yŏnnyŏn kangmok Min Chi (1248-1326) questioned the veracity of the this account, but rather than eliminate the T’ang ancestry from the Wang lineage, he suggests that Su-tsung had been confused with Hsüan-tsung (r. 847-59), which seemed to him more plausible given that Hsüan-tsung had traveled in the provinces during his youth.³⁹

Regardless of its veracity or contradictions with over versions of the Wang genealogy, the inclusion of Su-tsung actually accords quite well with the model of the stranger-king if we recall that Sahlins considers native women to be the transmitters of sovereignty. Examining some of the other marriages detailed in the P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok, the prominent role the maternal ancestors play in sacralizing the royal line becomes quite evident.41 Hogyŏng marries a mountain spirit, Chakchegŏn the daughter of the Dragon King, and Yong a woman said to be the mother of the Three Han. The rumored identity of Wang Kōn’s mother seems particularly notable given that he is destined to unite and rule the Three Han. Thus, like Yuhwa, each of these women is associated with earth or water. Moreover, Chinŭi is associated with water through her urination dream. Such dreams appear in other Silla and Koryŏ legends and are usually associated with females. Poyuk’s dream in the P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok is an exception in which a male has such a dream.⁴⁰ Each of these women are associated with some magical event, if not divine themselves.

It is in large part through the mystical events associated with these women that the Wang lineage gains legitimacy as rulers preordained by Heaven. Thus, though only one of Wang Kŏn’s male ancestors could be considered a stranger-king, the pattern of gaining legitimacy through a union with a female representing the earth and native land is quite consistent with other examples of stranger-kings. Rogers regards the Dragon King Chakchegŏn meets as a reference to Silla.⁴¹ Thus, Chakchegŏn’s decision to give up the quest for his T’ang father to marry the Dragon King’s daughter and “rule the Eastern Land” “scorn$s$ $s$ the fictive familiar relationship of the multistate system” and “repudiates T’ang as $a$ $a$ nurturing influence,” asserting Koryŏ’s self-sufficiency.⁴² It is also notable that Su-tsung does not bring anything to the future Koryŏ other than a bow and arrows. Unlike Kija, he is not portrayed as a civilizing force. This might support Rogers's claim of Koryŏ’s self-sufficiency, especially when considering that the import of superior culture or technology is a common feature of stranger-kingship.

However, given the larger context and the prominence Kija held in Koryŏ, the addition of such elements to the P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok was likely unnecessary. By the time the P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok was written, Kija’s role as a culture hero who had transmitted Chinese practices and technology to the Korean kingdoms, was well established. Though Koryŏ began with its founder, Wang Kŏn, it also imagined itself as the continuation of Samhan. Breuker notes that this myth presents a justification for the Wang family’s rule, but does not touch on the origin of the land or people.⁴³ Moreover, the story focuses on identity and origin of the ruler and does not explicitly define the people or country that the Wang family would rule over. It “seems to presume that the people of the Three Han—which still had to be unified—were meant to form an enduring political and cultural community” and that this would be self-evident to the reader.⁴⁴ Breuker argues that during the eleventh and twelfth centuries a supradynastical notion of a historical community located on the Korean peninsula came into being. In addition to denoting specific historical entities, Samhan came to signify the peninsula and its inhabitants. The Koryǒ dynasty ruled over this community, but Koryŏ is neither the origin nor the end of this entity.⁴⁵ This is why P’arwŏn and Tosŏn’s prophecies foretell the Unification of the Three Han. Due to this historical memory in Koryŏ, the stranger-king’s role as a civilizing force had already been fulfilled by Kija, thus it would be redundant for Su-tsung to play the same role. Koryŏ may have seen itself a relative equal to T’ang given that they also were an inheritor of ancient Chinese culture through Kija, and a successor to Silla, which had managed to push the T’ang out of their territory.

Yet the prominence of the T’and in the P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok, should not be dismissed. In addition to direct Tang ancestry through Su-tsung, Tosŏn’s travels also invoke T’ang as a source of legitimacy. I-hsing lived two centuries prior to Tosŏn, thus Tosŏn could not have studied with him, as the P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok states. Furthermore, it is doubtful wether Tosŏn ever actually traveled to T’ang.⁴⁶ Despite this, his travels to study with I-hsing are included in the narrative, presumably because this lends some additional authority to his predictions. The appearance of T’ang multiple times as a legitimizing factor suggests that it undoubtedly still held a position of prestige.

T’aejo sillok and Yongbiŏch’ŏnga

Though expressed in different forms, the basic narratives of the T’aejo sillok and the Yongbiŏch’ŏnga are similar. The account found in the T’aejo sillok begins by tracing the Chŏnju Yi family’s lineage back to Silla. The detailed account of Yi Sŏnggye’s ancestors begins with Yi Ansa (Mokcho), who, due to a conflict over a kisaeng, was forced to move to Samch’ŏk in Kangnŭng Province and then Ŭiju in the Northeast Region, where he was appointed as a military commander. After an initial resistance, he surrendered to Yuan (1271-1368) and gained the friendship of Grand Prince Sanji. He was made chief chiliarch in Namgyŏng and then later chiliarch of Aldong⁴⁷

The account that follows details the various accomplishments and positions held by Yi Haengni (Ikcho) in service of Yuan. He is quite successful, leading other chiliarchs to seek to overthrow him. Ikcho escapes with his wife and followers to Chŏkto Island.⁴⁸The description of their escape is rather reminiscent of Jumong’s escape from from Puyŏ.

All of a sudden, the tide receded dramatically, making the water shallow enough to ford. Thus Ikcho and his wife, riding a white horse, were able to cross the water and their subordinates quickly followed them. When they finally crossed the water, the enemy arrived but they were unable to advance because the tide rose fast again. The people in the north still remember the incident, saying, “That was the help from Heaven, not the strength of men.”

Yi Ch’un’s (Tojo) birth was foretold by a monk who came to Ikcho in a dream. Tojo relocates to Hamju, since many of his people had moved south. The most elaborated event in the account of his life is the slaying of a black dragon. He was entreated to do so in his dreams by a white dragon, who shows its gratitude towards Tojo by prophesying that he “will have much to celebrate in the future, thanks to $his$ $his$ offspring.”⁴⁹ A succession dispute follows Yi Ch’un death, which is resolved when Taejo’s father, Yi Chach’un (Hwanjo) took Yi ch’un office.⁵⁰ He serves Kongmin and helps to reclaim many northern fortresses and territories for Koryŏ from Yuan, after which he is given a house in the capital and promoted multiple times.⁵¹ After his father’s death the account turns its focus to Yi Sŏnggye’s early life and rise to power. This account is similar to the preceding ones except more detailed and extensive. Significant focus is given to T’aejo’s skill in archery and horsemanship as well as his military prowess. Multiple anecdotes of his excellent aim and hunting skills are included throughout the narrative, often described in detail to the extent that even the type of arrows is sometimes specified.⁵² His military exploits are similarly detailed in recounting how the battle progressed and how Yi Sŏnggye valiantly vanquished his enemies.

Though the Yi family, who spent multiple generations in service to Yuan, arguably has more claim to being a foreign dynasty than the Wang family, the Chosŏn foundation story entirely forgoes the stranger-king narrative. Quite the opposite of seeking legitimacy in a foreign power, these accounts illuminate their Silla ancestry and seek to demonstrate a continuous loyalty to Koryŏ. Ikcho, Tojo, and Hwanjo are all said to have had audiences with Koryŏ kings. Ikcho apologizes for his father’s defection when he speaks with Chungnyŏl and insists it was not intended as a betrayal, rather that Mokcho only hoped to “escape from the mouth of a ferocious tiger.”⁵³ Chunghyŏl responds by noting the Yi family’s sincerity. Kongmin echoes this when he meets with Hwanjo and says, “Your grandfather was loyal to our royal family deep in his heart even though he didn’t directly work for us. So my late grandfather favored him and commended his loyalty. If you follow the example of your grandfather, I will make you quite successful in time.”⁵⁴ Thus, while the account makes no attempt to erase their service to Yuan, it also seeks to highlight a constant relationship with Koryŏ and the approval of Koryŏ’s kings. By the time this account was compiled, the Yuan dynasty had fallen to the Ming (1368-1644), to which Chosŏn now expressed allegiance. Moreover, even before the fall of Yuan, Yi Sŏnggye has supported the faction that hoped to ally Koryŏ with the Ming. The Neo-Confucian reformers of the early Chosŏn period hoped to adopt the institutions of the ancient Chinese sage-kings, thus a connection with the Mongols would not have carried the same cultural prestige as a Han Chinese dynasty like the T’ang.⁵⁵

The narrative choices of the Yongbiŏch’ŏnga seem to support this reasoning. It recounts some of the Yi family’s relocations, but glosses over the family’s service to Yuan, instead drawing a connection to the Zhou dynasty by paralleling each element of the the Yi dynasty’s account to an event in Zhou history.⁵⁶ Thus there seems to be an attempt to associate the Yi dynasty with Zhou rather than Yuan, though they never claimed direct descent from either. Given that the Chosŏn historians who compiled the Koryŏsa were skeptical of the “spurious” contents of the P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok, fabricating a lineage to a desirable dynasty, such as Zhou, may have been out of the question.⁵⁷

Instead of using foreignness to distinguish the dynasty from their subjects, the Chosŏn legend establishes the dynasty’s legitimacy through Heaven’s will. This is an element it shares the the Koryŏ foundation legend. Though the T’aejo sillok is generally less replete with mystical events than the P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok, there are an number of prophecies or miraculous events that indicate a Heaven ordained destiny for the Yi clan, most notably Ikcho’s river crossing and Tojo’s encounter with the white dragon that foretells a bright future for his offspring. That the Yi dynasty’s power is willed by the Heavens is made even more blatant in the first stanza of the Yongbiŏch’ŏnga, which states, “Their works all have the favor of Heaven.”⁵⁸

David R. McCann argues that Sejong, who oversaw the composition of the Yongbiŏch’ŏnga and the final compilation of the Koryŏsa, where Wang Kŏn’s Injunctions are recorded, probably intended that a connection be drawn between the two. According to Wang Kŏn’s Eighth Injunction, the geomantic features of Kyŏnghŭng were such that should people from that region gain power, it should spell disaster for Koryŏ. Thus, by indicating that the ancestral home of the Yi family was in Kyŏnghŭng, the Yongbiŏch’ŏnga implies that this change of dynasty was long fated. Wang Kŏn’s admonition takes on the quality of a prophesy and the numerous relocations of the Yi family become a progression along a path predestined by Heaven, something which could also help to justify the less honorable deeds that helped facilitate their rise.⁵⁹

The P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok also has prominent discussions of location, significant elementsof geomancy, and indications that the land itself can imbue those who reside there with some destiny. The first prophecy given to Kangch’ung specifies the origin of the ruler of the Three Hans in terms of geography rather than lineage and required that Kangch’ung move his capital to the south of Mt. Puso and plant pine trees there.⁶⁰ This suggests a belief that landscapes could be moulded to certain purposes and that these landscapes could produce a certain people.⁶¹ When Chakchegŏn returns from his encounter with the Dragon King, he settles in Yŏng’an. However, the pig they had returned with, one of the gifts from the Dragon King, refused to go into his pen for an entire year. Realizing that this is an indication they perhaps should not live in Yong’an, they follow the pig, who lays down after reaching the southern slope of Song’ak, thus returning Kangch’ung’s descendants to the prophesied location.⁶²

Rogers notes that other ancient accounts, such as Yuri of Koguryŏ’s decision to move his capital to Kungnae after being led there by an escaped sacrificial pig, suggest a belief that sacralized pigs had some natural abilities in p’ungsu.⁶³ Thus, though the Chosŏn foundation legend does not follow previous foundation myths in characterizing the founder as a stranger-king, it does share a number of elements with the Koryŏ foundation myth, particularly in how geography and prophecy are used to indicate that the dynasty’s rise to power happened in accordance with Heaven’s will.

Conclusion

Jumong, a divine prince, who, due to a conflict with his step-brother, undertakes an arduous journey south, where he marries the daughter of a local ruler and founds his own country is a prototypical example of Sahlins’s stranger-king. Even the union of his parents, Haemosu and Yuhwa, align symbolically the common association of the male with the sun and the female with water and the earth. The earth and water association of the female is found again in the mystical maternal ancestors of the Wang dynasty in the P’yŏnnyŏn t’ongnok, making Koryŏ’s kings descendants of spirits of the land they are destined to unify. This emphasis on the land is echoed by the geomantic prophecies in both the Koryŏ and Chosŏn legends. Even the Yi dynasty’s usurpation is justified through the implication that Koryŏ had always been destined to fall to a family with an ancestral seat in Kyŏnghŭng. Heaven’s blessing is evident in all these myths. For Chumong it takes the obvious form of his parentage and his miraculous escape over a bridge of terrapins. Yi Haengni makes a similarly miraculous escape, and the ancestors of both the Wang and Yi dynasties receive multiple prophecies about their line’s future prosperity. The Wang dynasty also claims descent from Su-tsung of T’ang, an ancestor, that like the sŏnggol general, is certainly fabricated. While Su-tsung does not place a role as a civilizing stranger-king like Kija, this represents an instance of a native dynasty legitimizing itself through the construction of a foreign ancestry from a greater state. In contrast, the Yi dynasty attempts to emphasize the continuity of their relationship with Koryŏ and downplays their service to the foreign Yuan dynasty in the Yongbiŏch’ŏnga. This is likely because there was little to be gained by association with a fallen Mongol state. Instead the Yongbiŏch’ŏnga compares them with the leaders of Zhou, the ancient Chinese state whose institutions the new dynasty sought to adopt. The Yongbiŏch’ŏnga, thus aims to invoke the prestige of Zhou without fabricating a lineage that might be dismisses as lacking credulity.

In these foundation legends there is a clear sense of a succession of states that share a common heritage going back to Kija, the original civilizing hero and stranger-king who brought Chinese culture to Korea. Chinese dynasties continue to offer prestige to the Koryŏ and Chosŏn royal families, though both had native origins. Similarities to the Chumong myth can be found in the characterization of the heroes and their miraculous feats. Ultimately, both the Koryŏ and Chosŏn founding myths present the dynasty’s rise as a series of deeds and travels that unfold as predestined by numerous prophecies and the will of Heaven.