Lucky Hertz_Yulmokjae Ridge (Destiny), 2025, speaker, sound (stereo), 2 min. 14 sec.
♧The vibration of the earth containing the power of connection, the sound of trees moving to protect each other’s side
Local legend related to Yulmokje Ridge
Yi I (Yulgok), one of Korea’s most revered scholars, was studying at YiSungDae in the NoChoo mountain when he came across a passing guru who ominously said to him: “You are destined to be killed by a tiger.”
Worried Yi I asked the guru how he could change his fate, and the guru advised him to plant a thousand chestnut trees if he wants to extend his life. Following the instruction, he planted a thousand chestnut trees. When the guru returned to ask Yi if he had done what he had been hold to, Yi answered that he did. However, after counting the trees, the guru could only count 999 trees. He, then, turned to Yi and said, “There is one tree short, which means you broke your promise,” said the guru as he transformed into a tiger to take Yi I’s life. Just then, a lone chestnut tree spoke up: “I, too, am a chestnut tree.”
Thanks to this tree’s intervention, Yi I was spared according to the legend.
“Yulmokchi and the Neodobeam Tree (Chestnut Tree, meaning ‘You, too, are a chestnut tree’ in Korean)”
(A folktale recounting that Yulgok Yi I planted a thousand chestnut trees. This story was recorded in July 1986 from Lee Gyu-saeng, a 71-year-old resident of Daegi-ri, Wangsan-myeon.)
[Source] Academy of Korean Studies – Digital Encyclopedia of Native Culture (향토문화전자대전) (http://aks.ai/GC00300609)
