King Michu and the Bamboo-Leaf Army未鄒王竹葉軍

King Michu and the bamboo-leaf army.

Michu Ijilgeum, the thirteenth king,〔Also called Mijo or Migo.〕 was the seventh-generation descendant of Gim Alji.

His family shone in office for generations, and he had holy virtue. He received the throne from King Ihae (理解王) and was the first of his clan to ascend the royal throne.

〔Now this king's tomb is called the Founder's Hall. This is because he was the first of the Gim clan to ascend the royal throne. So it is fitting that the later kings of the Gim clan all take Michu as their founder.〕

After twenty-three years on the throne he died. His tomb is east of Heungnyun Temple.

In the reign of the fourteenth king, King Yuri, people of the state of Iseo came and attacked Geumseong.

Silla raised a great force to hold them off, but for a long time could not withstand them.

Suddenly a strange army came to help, and every one of them wore bamboo leaves in his ears.

They joined forces with the Silla army, struck the enemy, and broke them.

After the army withdrew, no one knew where it had gone.

They only saw bamboo leaves piled up before the tomb of King Michu, and then they knew that the former king had secretly given his help.

Because of this the tomb was called the Bamboo Tomb (竹現陵).

Thirty-seven reigns later, in the reign of King Hyegong, in the fourteenth year of Dali, a gimi year, in the fourth month, a whirlwind suddenly rose from the grave of Lord Gim Yusin.

In it a man rode a fine horse, like a general, and some forty men in armor and bearing weapons followed him. They came and entered the Bamboo Tomb.

Soon from within the tomb came a sound like shaking, and weeping, and at times something like the sound of a plea. The words were these.

"In my life I had the merit of aiding the times, rescuing the state from trouble, and setting it right and uniting it.

Now, even as a spirit, my heart to guard the state, drive off disaster, and rescue it from calamity has not changed for a moment.

In the past gyeongsul year my descendants were put to death without guilt, and neither ruler nor ministers thought of my merit.

I wish to move far away to another place and toil no more. I beg the king to allow it."

The king answered, "If you and I do not guard this state, what will become of the people? Please strive again as before."

He asked three times, and three times it was refused. Then the whirlwind went back.

When the king heard of this he was afraid. So he sent the minister Gim Gyeongsin to go to Lord Gim's tomb and apologize for the wrong.

For the lord he set up thirty gyeol of merit fields at Chwiseon Temple to aid his blessings in the world beyond. This was because the temple was the place Lord Gim had founded to plant merit after he attacked Pyongyang.

Had it not been for the spirit of King Michu, the anger of Lord Gim could not have been stayed. So the king's guarding of the state cannot be called small.

For this reason the people of the state, mindful of his virtue, did not cease to sacrifice to him together with the three mountains. They raised his rank above the Five Tombs and called it the Great Shrine (大廟).