The Aqueduct, the Temple, and the Making of a Goddess
It seemed like some kind of tribal confederation?
The Great Aqueduct was magnificent.
It had truly been a monumental undertaking. A waterway twenty of my paces wide, built up from stone and yellow concrete.
Judging by scale alone, I'd say it rivaled the pyramids of Egypt.
Still, the aqueduct project taught us a great deal of construction know-how. Yellow concrete began seeing active use in buildings, city walls, even roads.
Wasn't this what the cities of ancient Rome were like?
"There are so many people swarming around."
All of this had been made possible by food, in the end. I never expected the potato to become such an outstanding food source.
With enough food, a population can grow exponentially.
Bomi and Cheol had grown into adults before I knew it, and were pulling their own weight.
Today, Garungda came to visit for the first time in a while.
Wrinkles were starting to form even on the smooth, unlined face he'd had when we first met.
"Hello, Garungda~"
"And to you, Haneul-nim."
Garungda was dressed in splendid, fluttering clothes. These days they made clothing from soft fabric.
Wrapping himself in fur pelts like the old days was now purely a winter fashion statement.
"So, what's up?"
"We're thinking of building a house for you, Haneul-nim."
My house? It's a bit old, sure, but it's perfectly fine, isn't it? Well, compared to the houses my friends build out of yellow concrete, maybe it's a little lacking?
I still live in the ondol house I built the second time around. Just me and Dambi. The leopard friends stopped coming around once the city grew so big.
"Is my current house a bit shabby?"
But my friends decorated it plenty, so I think it's fine? The bear pelt spread across the floor looks great, and that tiger pelt chair especially — I love it.
"We're planning to build a much, much bigger house."
"I live alone, you know?"
"It will become a place where many others come and go as well."
You mean like a village community hall? Since I'm basically a living totem, I suppose they want a place to enshrine me.
"Don't overdo it. Be careful."
"Of course. No one must get hurt."
Hmm? What's going on here? You're worried about safety? The same friends who've been falling off the city walls and injuring themselves day in and day out?
That's impossible. This is.
"You guys get hurt all the time, don't you? Just yesterday someone fell off the wall."
"This is different from that."
Hmm... what is this? I feel a little dizzy, actually.
"Fine. Work hard."
The problem is these friends work too hard. I'll have to wait and see what they're up to.
Our friends started construction immediately. Looking closely, it wasn't just our village. People seemed to have come from every village around.
Some wore headbands across their foreheads, some decorated themselves with feathers — every village had its own distinctive style of dress.
"Wow... how many people are here? Hundreds? Thousands?"
This was the first time I'd seen such a crowd since the aqueduct construction.
Truly a swirling mass of people. Just how big were they planning to build this thing?
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Eh-he-ya~ Di-ya~ A-rung! Da-ri~"
The friends' work songs had changed a lot since writing was invented. Something about them had become rounder, softer.
They tamped the ground together while singing their labor songs. Several of them would heft a thick log up and bring it crashing down. Or was it just my imagination that they looked like they were having fun?
The foundation was still yellow concrete, poured out without the slightest restraint. And in the distance, a steady line of stones being hauled in.
They raised pillars and walls, and brought in beautifully colored stones from somewhere to decorate with.
Where had I seen something like this before? The ceilings were so high too — was it a temple?
"Heh heh... where am I supposed to go?"
I was becoming a full-fledged totem.
A full-body statue of me, carved from stone, had been erected too. So that's what I look like...
Without mirrors, I'd only ever seen myself reflected in water — but there was my straight nose, my large eyes, my lips neither too full nor too thin. I really was pretty.
Oh wow, but wait. With no color in my pupils, I look pale and a little terrifying.
"If someone slept here, wouldn't ghosts show up in their dreams?"
With so many people working on it, the building rose at astonishing speed.
And then time passed, and the day arrived. The completion ceremony. They're going to do something again, I just know it...
That suspicious enormous round table sitting in the center.
"This is your seat, Haneul-nim."
Apparently the slightly elevated chair facing the entrance was mine.
Whoa... this is the seat of honor, isn't it. I can probably just sit here and do nothing, right?
Ugh, whatever. Sure, I'll sit. Sitting.
Then, for some reason, people who'd all washed up nicely and dressed in all sorts of different clothes gathered around the table.
They were all from different villages. Each village's clothing was a little different.
"We! Here! Swear an oath today!"
"We swear!"
The ceremony began with Garungda's shout.
Since when did we do call-and-response? Is this the army?
"We become brothers and serve Haneul."
"We serve!"
Me? Are you talking about me right now? Something about this... seems to be going wrong? My head is spinning.
I don't want to be a king!
Can't you all just live well together on your own?
"..."
This is overwhelming. Countless people staring at me in silence, piercingly, without a word.
What, am I supposed to say something? You should have told me in advance and written a speech out for me! You can't just spring it on me like this!
Oh, whatever. I'm sorry, Dangun.
"Let us broadly benefit all humankind."
Shouldn't someone fetch a bear-woman too, or something?
"Ohhh!"
"Goodness for everyone!"
"As expected!"
Kids, do you actually understand 'broadly' and 'benefit'? Look at those blank faces. This is driving me crazy. They don't get it, do they?
"This means we do everything together, in joy and in sorrow!"
Surely they get this one? It means let's all live together in harmony.
"OOOOHH!"
This time the rising roar made it clear they'd understood.
"Let us bring joy and sorrow to all!"
"Let's go!"
"Let's go fight!"
"Let's take them all in!"
"Together, brothers!"
Huh? Something weird slipped in there in the middle! It'll be fine, right?
I have a bad feeling something terrible is about to happen.
The ceremony wrapped up quickly, and the excited friends were all eating, drinking, and having a wonderful time.
Garungda sidled up beside me and murmured quietly.
"That thing you said earlier — 'broadly benefit all humankind' — what does it mean?"
I knew it, he didn't understand. If Garungda doesn't get it, then nobody does.
"Right. It means striving to understand other people, and helping those who've run into hard times."
It means everyone living together in harmony — not going out to find the weak, take their stuff, and kill them.
"Just... helping them? That's all?"
"Well, if you help someone, they'll repay you on their own, won't they?"
"Isn't that a loss?"
Garungda's face clouded over somehow.
"Give them a hand and then take care of the rest yourself."
If they're hungry and you give them food, they'll offer treasure or something in return, won't they? Or at least they'll pick up stones for you around the area.
Trying to explain the whole Hongik Ingan philosophy in detail would just go over his head anyway...
But when I simply told him to take care of himself, Garungda flashed this sly little grin. He's a straight-up Joker.
Yikes. This is unsettling. What could he be thinking?
"Hmm. Now that I think on it, it's a fine principle."
"Right? The spirit of it is really good."
It's humanism and altruistic philosophy, after all.
"I must spread it to everyone. Eheheh."
Why is it that this reminds me of the Gandhi from a certain famous game?
I have a feeling he'd be handing out potatoes while saying, "If you join us peacefully, no bloodshed need occur"...
And so I came to live in the temple. As a totem, I occasionally meditated disputes, and sometimes went out to play.
After the aqueduct, the people suffered a few floods and came to understand the power of waterways. They were in full swing with flood control and road construction.
The water really did drain away beautifully.
"Garungda, how far are you planning to build these roads?"
"We must reach those mountains."
Whoa... the northern mountains? There are friends out there too?
"There are friends out there?"
"The whole world will become our friends."
Hmm? Not that they are friends — that they will become them?
"Are you planning to fight?"
"What? No. There are many people on these plains who are starving and in need of help."
Ah. So he means they'll bring in those friends who are still knapping stone tools and the like.
Sounds like the "helping" is going well, judging by how far they're traveling.
"Are the horses Akum brought helping?"
"That small creature — I was astonished by how strong it was."
"Good to hear."
That fellow is probably the Mongolian wild horse that Genghis Khan rode across Europe striking terror into it, right?
Our friends won't end up doing the same thing later... will they?
"If the land keeps growing, you should make maps."
"Maps?"
"Yeah. You draw the shape of the land on paper. Then you can mark what's where, and who lives where. Very useful."
"That would be no small task, would it?"
Exactly. Maps aren't easy. It takes many people working together. Huh? Many people? Ah — length!
"If you're going to do it, standardize a unit of length. Not footsteps or anything like that."
"Ah! Of course!"
If you actually measured by footsteps, everyone's stride would be different and you'd just end up with a chaotic mess of a map.
And so... my height was immortalized.
They decided to use my height as the standard. They even made a measuring rod out of iron matched to my height. Who knows, it might remain in history forever.
But good things came of it too. From clothes and shoes to the widths of roads and the heights of buildings, everything began to share a unified standard.
.
.
.
Time flowed on, indifferent. Garungda, still young-looking in my memory, passed his position to his son and retired.
These days he tends to the temple.
"Garungda, you've gotten so old."
"And you remain unchanged, Haneul-nim."
"I might even live to see the end of this city, you know."
Thinking about it left me a little lonely. Everyone I'd known had lived far from war. What would we do if a real conflict ever came?
"This city will never vanish."
No, my friend. No one thought the Roman Empire would fall, either.
"Nations have their rise and their decline. It won't be easy."
"Nations?"
"Yeah. Countries. Where the tribes truly unite into one, forming a single great collective."
"That sounds wonderful."
A wistful expression, like a man lost in a dream.
It seemed we'd laid the framework of a tribal state, but perhaps that was a little disappointing to him.
"Haneul-nim. Do not worry."
"It's not worry, it's wistfulness."
Ugh, I don't like this. I can feel myself getting melancholy.
"Even if a thousand cold winters pass, and ten thousand, this place where you dwell shall know an age of peace."
Garungda bowed before me and pressed his forehead to the top of my foot.
"Ha ha, what are you doing? That's creepy~"
When he raised his head, Garungda's face was brimming over with an inexplicable smile of joy.
"From the day we first met until this very moment, I have witnessed every miracle you have worked."
Huh? Hey? You're acting strange! Garungda's eyes seem a little... off?
"All who live upon this land shall serve you."
Oh no... is this... fanaticism?
Over the next three years, Garungda began writing something in enormous volume. He carved it into stone tablets and made books as well.
The tablets were moved to some archive within the temple, and the books — even today, crowds of people gather to copy them out by hand.
And this. What is he doing, gathering all these people together?
"I still remember the day you descended to us, together with the great tree... (abridged)... You brought us the potato, and you brought us wisdom."
Huh? Wait, this looks familiar! It's just like what priests do at church!
Day by day, the temple filled with more people.
Then they built some grand annex beside it, but with so many people it was still packed to bursting.
Eventually people were laying out spots all the way into the front courtyard.
Sometimes when I flew back from an outing I had to cross the sky right over them, and every single pass caused an uproar.
"Ohhh! Haneul-nim has come!"
"Sob."
"Do you believe?"
"We believe!"
I had no choice but to give an awkward smile and a wave as I passed. If I just flew by, everyone would get all weepy about how Haneul-nim was displeased or some such.
Still, the city had taken on a quiet, orderly feel. I was starting to think of it as a sort of ethics class.
The number of people doing bad things had visibly dropped, and more and more people wore happy smiles.
So this is how a religion gets made, huh? Religion has plenty of positive sides — please let that be all they see.
I just hope I never hear the words heresy or holy war.