Sea Dragon of King Munmu
Mythological Narrative
The great dragon of the East Sea that King Munmu of Silla vowed to become after death to protect his kingdom, and who gave his son the bamboo for the flute Manpasikjeok.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## A king's vow
The *Samguk Yusa* reports that King Munmu of Silla (r. 661-681), who completed Silla's unification of most of the Korean peninsula, told the monk Jiui that he wished after death to become a great dragon, to guard the state and honor the Buddhist law, and asked to be buried in the East Sea. The *Samguk Sagi* records his last instruction to be cremated and his remains placed in the sea.
## The dragon's treasure
In 682, the *Samguk Yusa* says, a floating mountain brought a bamboo to Gameunsa, the temple his son King Sinmun had completed for him, and a dragon appeared to Sinmun with a belt of black jade, explaining that the late king had become a great dragon of the sea and the general Kim Yu-sin a god of heaven, and that they sent the bamboo for a flute to keep the world at peace.
## Dragons in Korea
Korean dragons (*yong*) are generally benevolent powers of water and rain, living in underwater palaces and associated with kingship. Munmu's story made the East Sea dragon a guardian of the nation, and Daewangam, the rock traditionally identified as his tomb, remains a site of pilgrimage and shamanic rites.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Sea Dragon of King Munmu.
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