When Păk-jong ascended the throne of Sil-la in 570 the Buddhistic tendencies had begun to bear their legitimate fruits. The king was so given over to it that he became a monk and the queen became a nun. All thought of progress seems to have been given up and the revenues were squandered in sending useless embassies to China. The style of Buddhism prevalent in Sil-la is illustrated by the fact that in the second year of this reign the minister of war took the king severely to task for spending so much time in the chase, though the killing of animals is the first prohibition of the Buddhist law. Tradition says that this faithful minister, Hu-jik, plead in vain, and finally, when dying, asked to be buried near the road the king usually took when going to hunt. It was done and the king when passing the grave heard a noise of warning proceeding from it. When he was told that it was the faithful but neglected Hu-jik, the king determined on the spot that he would reform, and so the faithful minister did more by his death than by his life.
It was in the year 586 that Ko-gu-ryŭ again moved her capital northward to the old place near the present Eui-ju. Soon after this the Tsin dynasty in China fell before the victorious Sui, and Ko-gu-ryŭ, who had been friendly with the Tsin but had never cultivated the Sui, was left in an extremely delicate position. She immediately began preparations for repelling a Sui invasion. The Emperor however had no such intentions and sent a swift messenger chiding the king for his unjust suspicions and opening the way for a friendly understanding. This seemed a little strained to the king and he feared treachery; so, while he greatly desired to send an envoy, he hardly ventured to do so.
One of the famous traditions of Korea centers about this king. His daughter when of tender years cried so much that on one occasion the king impatiently exclaimed “When you grow up you cannot marry a man of the nobility but we will marry you to an _ondali_.” Now an _ondali_ is a very ignorant, foolish fellow, a boor. When the girl reached a marriageable age the king who had forgotten all about his threat was for marrying her to a high noble but the girl called to his remembrance the words he had spoken and said she would marry no one but an _ondali_. The king bound ten golden hairpins to her arm and drove the away from the palace. She fled to the hut of an _ondali_ on the outskirts of the town but he was away in the hills gathering elm bark to eat. His mother, old and blind, said “You smell of perfume and your hands are soft and smooth. My boy is only an ignorant _ondali_ and no match for you.” Without answering, the maiden hastened to the hills and found the boy, but he thought her a spirit and took to his heels and ran home as fast as he could go. She followed and slept before his door that night. At last the youth comprehended the situation and accepted the hand of the princess. With the ten golden hairpins she set him up in the horse-raising business. He bought the broken-down palace ponies and by careful treatment made them sound and fleet again. In the chase he always led the rout and when the King asked who he might be the answer was “Only an _ondali_.” From this the youth advanced until he became a famous general and had the honor of defeating a Chinese army in Liao-tung. He was killed during an invasion of Sil-la but no one was able to lift his dead body till his wife came and knelt beside it saying “The dead and living are separated.” Then it was lifted and carried back to Ko-gu-ryŭ.