Gyeongju: Queen Seon Deok

I did not plan to visit Gyeongju initially. Most travel guides describe it as the “museum without walls” and an important centre of Korean Buddhism, with an impressive list of UNESCO heritage sites. To me, that means ruins and static objects.

I changed my mind after watching K-Drama “Queen Seon Deok”. The drama was a fascinating introduction to the ancient kingdom of Shilla, the capital of which was Gyeongju.

According to history, Queen Seon Deok was the first of three female rulers of Shilla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Her reign was a difficult one, but she kept the kingdom together and laid the ground for the unification of the Korea Peninsula. The drama portrayed her as one who used her wits and courage to bring dissenting factions together, and one whose vision inspired those after her to bring about an unified Korea.

General Kim Yu Shin, the other main character in the drama, is regarded as the driving force in the unification of the Korean Peninsula by Shilla, and the most well known of all the generals in the unification wars. He was also a leader of the elite Hwarang corps, a military cadet of youths from the aristocratic class, established and flourished during the Shilla period. In the drama, he was depicted as loyal, persevering and selfless.

The legends and drama surrounding the lifes of Queen Seon Deok and the Hwarangs in the TV series were probably just that - myths and fabricated drama. However the spirit portrayed by the protagonists were inspiring and the stories fascinating enough to entice me to visit Gyeongju to see what’s left of Shilla. In particular, I wanted to visit the tombs of Queen Seon Deok and General Kim Yu-Shin.

We had the good fortune to meet a guide who has great interest in Shilla history at the Gyeongju National Museum. We understand from her that the drama script was based on an alleged Hwarang Segi manuscript discovered in Gimhae in the late 1980s, and some of the plots were fabricated to make them more dramatic. What is more interesting is that till this day, some scholars regard the manuscript as a forgery, a few thought otherwise and the debate continues. She has personally attended many talks by many scholars on this subject and is beginning to find those evidences put forth by supporters of the late 80s manuscript convincing. She told us who the main supporter of this manuscript is and suggested we write him if interested. Um… interesting, intriguing and additional motivation to master Korean if I want to read those manuscripts.