Manpasikjeok

The bamboo of the floating mountain

In the Samguk Yusa, a small turtle-shaped mountain floats toward the temple of Gameunsa in 682, and on it grows a bamboo that is two stalks by day and one by night. A dragon tells King Sinmun that the bamboo, like two hands clapping, makes sound only when joined, and that a flute made from it will bring peace to the world, a gift from his father, King Munmu, now a sea dragon, and the general Kim Yu-sin, now a heavenly god.

The flute's powers

When the flute was played, the text says, enemy soldiers retreated, disease was healed, drought ended in rain and floods cleared, and wind and waves grew still, so it was called 'the flute that calms ten thousand waves'. It was kept in the royal treasury, and the Samguk Yusa tells how in a later reign it was lost and recovered and given a longer title.

Legacy

Manpasikjeok has become a symbol of harmony and national peace in Korea. Traditional Korean transverse bamboo flutes (daegeum) are sometimes linked with it in popular tradition, though the historical instrument's form is unknown.