(Translation) 2019 率居

Original Script

率居, 新羅人, 所出微, 故不記其族系, 生而善畫, 嘗於皇龍寺壁畫老松, 體幹鱗皴, 枝葉盤屈, 烏鳶燕雀, 往往望之飛入, 及到, 蹭蹬而落, 歲久色暗, 寺僧以丹靑補之, 烏雀不復至, 又慶州芬皇寺觀音菩薩晉州斷俗寺維麾像, 皆其筆蹟, 世傳爲神畫. 《三國史記.卷48》

Translation

Student Translation : Hector Sanchez

Solgŏ was a man from Silla. His place of origin is insignificant. Thus, [we] do not record his family history. Since birth, he was good at painting. In the past, at the walls of Hwangnyong temple, he painted an old pine. The trunk was scaly and chapped. The branches and leaves were entwined and twisted. Crows, kites, swallows, and sparrows often looked at it and entered [the temple] flying. When they arrived, flouncing and floundering they fell. After a long time had passed, the colors faded. Monks from the temple, by means of cinnabar and ch’ŏng [pigments,] restored it. Crows and sparrows did not come afterwards. Moreover, the Kwanŭm bodhisattva at Punhwang temple in Kyŏngju and the image of Vimalakīrti at Tansok temple in Chinju, were both painted by his brush. Generations passed down [the practice of] taking them to be divine paintings.

From the Samguk sagi, fascicle 48.

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