In October of that winter, Queen Song passed away. The king, Yuri, found two women and took them into his service. One of them, the royal concubine Hwa, was the daughter of someone from Kolch’ŏn, while the other, Ch’i, was the daughter of a Han (Chinese) man. The two were jealous, and relations between them were not good.
It happened that the king went out to Kisan and for some time did not return. The jealous feelings between the two did not improve in the interval. At one point, in her anger, Concubine Hwa taunted Ch’i, saying “You are nothing but a Han house slave turned concubine. That’s all you are!” Ch’i was mortified. Unable to bear the resentment she felt, she returned to her home.
The king heard of this and tried to get her to change her mind, but Ch’i could not forget her sense of humiliation and did not return.
The king happened to be resting by a tree and noticed the orioles fluttering around each other affectionately. He composed a song about his feelings. The song was as follows:
Fluttering, the orioles
male and female together, so.
Reminded of my loneliness;
with whom will I ever go?