Hwarang Made a State Institution; Five Precepts for Secular Life

Also called: Hwarang

King Jinheung abolished the wonhwa and made the hwarang a state institution; later the monk Wongwang gave the hwarang the Five Precepts for Secular Life.

The hwarang grew out of youth groups of clan society. According to the Samguk sagi, in 576 Jinheung abolished the female leaders called wonhwa (Nammo and Junjeong) and had noble youths chosen as hwarang. Many followers (nangdo), from nobles to commoners, served under each hwarang, easing tension between classes; they trained by travelling among mountains and rivers and went to war. Kim Dae-mun’s Hwarang segi says that "worthy ministers and loyal subjects came forth from it, and fine generals and brave soldiers were born of it." Choe Chi-won, in his preface to the Nallang stele, linked the hwarang to an indigenous "pungnyu" way that embraced Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism.

The monk Wongwang, who studied in Sui China and returned around 600, gave Gwisan and Chuhang, who asked for his teaching, the Five Precepts: serve the king with loyalty, serve parents with filial piety, be faithful to friends, never retreat in battle, and be discriminating in taking life. Both died fighting at Amak Fortress in 602. The Imsin Oath Stone, in which two youths vowed loyalty and study of the Confucian classics, reflects the same spirit (the imsin year is read as 552 or 612). Hwarang such as Sadaham and Kim Yu-sin won fame in the wars of unification.