Definition Summary

Seondeok: Queen of Silla (one of the three kingdoms of Korea) who could tell the future & built the very first recorded observatory “Star-Gazing Tower”.

So this must be the story of the 3 Queens right? Nah not really.

Queen Seondeok (Sondok) ruled the ancient kingdom of Silla from 632 to 647 CE and was the first female sovereign in ancient Korea. Silla was on the verge of dominating the whole of the Korean peninsula and Seondeok helped progress her kingdom towards this goal. During Queen Sondok’s reign, Buddhism flourished and the oldest standing astronomical observatory in Asia “Cheomseongdae” was built.

She was chosen due the main ranking system, because there was no male heir, the next highest social level was the sacred bone class. Her father king Jinpyeong believed she was destined to be heir because of her first vision of the future.

First Vision

She looked at a gift given to her father of peony seeds and a painting of what the flower would look like when grown, stating “these will have no smell“. Having not known of these flowers before, this foresight came true when the flowers grew and gave off no scent (because peony flowers do not have one).

Second Vision

She overheard a horde of white frogs croaking by the Jade Gate pond. This was interpreted as an impending attack from the rival Baekje Kingdom coming from the Women’s Valley. She interpreted the croaking frogs as angry soldiers, with their white coloration symbolizing the West (in astronomy). This pointed to the attack coming from the Women’s Valley, where the Jade Gate is also associated with women. Seondeok sent her generals to the Women’s Valley to inspect her suspicions, which led to the capture of two thousand Baekje soldiers secretly waiting there.

Third Vision

Before she died, she passed the order of a very specific burial for herself: “When I die, bury me near the Dori-cheon (Heaven of Grieved Merits)”. Decades after her death, the 13th king, Munmu of Silla, constructed the “Temple of the Four Heavenly Kings” inside her tomb, there they found one of the Buddha’s sayings, “Dori-cheon is above the Sacheonwang-cheon”, which is believed to have been done by the Queen.

Seondeok was succeeded by another queen, named Chindok, who followed in her cousin’s footsteps and helped Silla dominate the Korean peninsula, but that’s another story about another queen…