Lady Saso facts for kids

Lady Saso (Hangul: 사소부인; Hanja: 娑蘇夫人) is said to be the mother of Hyeokgeose of Silla. Also known as the Sacred Mother of Mt. Seondo (Hangul:선도산), legends say she was a princess from the Chinese royal family. Having coming from China and settling upon the Jinhan Confederacy, she gave birth to Hyeokgeose of Silla. Later, she was honored as great king (queen regnant) by King Gyeongmyeong.

Nonetheless, Korean historians have long questioned her origins noting the case of Kim Bu-sik, the Goryeo bureaucrat whom authored the Samguk Sagi, having been clueless about these "tales and rumors" as he puts it. The Chinese guide Wang Fu (Traditional Chinese: 王黼) of the Song dynasty explained to Kim Bu-sik who saw the statue of a woman in Wuxingwan (Traditional Chinese: 佑神館) as someone who was "the goddess of your country who was a daughter of an old Chinese Emperor that fled East after being suspected of being pregnant without her husband." Kim Bu-sik thought these descriptions strange enough he nor the Korean people back then ever heard of such tales. There is also criticism that these tales are no different from old deifications related to Sinocentrism, claiming false Chinese or unidentified individuals as supposed ancestors as the practice were frequent back then. On the other hand, under the pretext that she is in fact a long lost Chinese princess, some suspect her to be from either one of the dynasties during the Warring State Period; Qin, Yan, and Wei being likely candidates. Others presume she was the princess of the Qin Dynasty due to the passage in the Book of Jin quoting, "Qin(秦)'s old immigrants fled to Jinhan to avoid harsh labor."

When Il-yeon built Samguk yusa in the future, he wrote a legendary addition to the story of Lady Saso, paying attention to Kim Bu-sik's story.

Outline

The following description is from the Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the three Kingdoms), volume 5, clause 7.

神母本中國帝室之女。名娑蘇。早得神仙之術。歸止海東。久而不還。父皇寄書繫足云。隨鳶所止為家。蘇得書放鳶。飛到此山而止。遂來宅為地仙。故名西鳶山。神母久據茲山。鎮祐邦國。靈異甚多。

The Sacred Mother was called SaSo and she was born in the Chinese royal family. She got sacred power and came to Hae Dong (Hangul:해동/Korea), lived there and stayed there for long time. She tied a letter to the foot of a kite saying “Let’s build a house where the kite stops”. Once she wrote the letter and released the kite, it flew to Mt. Seondo (West mountain of Gyeongju/慶州) and stopped there. She decided to live there and became Xian (仙) of the land. That mountain was named as West Kite mountain and the Sacred Mother SaSo stayed there as her base for quite a long time and protected the country. There are a lot of miracles around that mountain as well.

其始到辰韓也。生聖子為東國始君。蓋赫居閼英二聖之所自也。故稱雞龍雞林白馬等。雞屬西故也。嘗使諸天仙織羅。緋染作朝衣。贈其夫。國人因此始知神驗。

She came to the Jinhan confederacy in the beginning, gave birth to sacred children and became the first king of the eastern country. Probably those children were Aryeong and Hyeokgeose of Silla. That’s why they are called Gye-Nong (Hangul:계농), Gye-Rim (Hangul:계림), Baek-Ma (Hangul:백마) and so on: because Gye (Hangul:계) belongs to west side. One day, SaSo made a fairy of the heavens weave silk cloth, dye it in scarlet and make a Korean garment. She sent this garment to her husband. This was the first time people in the country knew of her miracles.

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