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The Princess Six Million Koreans Call Grandmother

A sixteen-year-old sailed from a kingdom called Ayuta to marry a Korean king, and would not take his name for her children.

In Gimhae, in the south-east of South Korea, there is a tomb. The woman in it is said to have arrived by sea in the year 48, from a country the Korean text calls Ayuta.

The account

The story is told in the Samguk Yusa, compiled in the thirteenth century by the monk Iryeon.

It is a collection of the legends and histories of the Korean kingdoms.

Suro was the founding king of Geumgwan Gaya, a small maritime state on the southern coast. His counsellors pressed him to marry from among the local nobility. And he refused.

He said that heaven had already appointed his queen. And that she would come.

And a boat arrived, with red sails and a red flag.

On it was a girl of sixteen. She came ashore, and told the king who she was.

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