THE EVER WHITE MOUNTAIN translated and edited by Inez Kong Pai. 175 pages. Tuttle. $4.95.
Korea in 1392, as in 1965, was a nation violently divided. The Koryo dynasty was challenged by the House of Yi, and civil war was in the air. At this dangerous juncture Jong Mong-ju, a minister loyal to the old dynasty, paid a courtesy call on King Taejo, the father of Yi Bang-won, the leading strategist of the opposition. His host's son, in salutation, took up a harp and sang this sinister and seditious ditty:
What difference does it make,
this way or that?
The tangled vines of Mansu San
in...
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