A Boy: Part III

Keum wakes up at four in the morning.
Keum folds a blanket and a mattress four times into neat square shapes and put them in a closet.
Keum goes to the outhouse.
Keum runs four kilometer along the small path of the mountain.
Keum sweeps the backyard of the house.
Keum washes himself with cold water of the stream running by the house.
Keum fires the woods for agungi, a fire-entrance for heating and cooking facility in traditional Korean houses.
Keum has his breakfast at six: a bowl of rice with barley, a clear soup with fresh bean sprout, and kimchi, traditional Korean pickled cabbage and gosari namul,** Fernbrake salad.
Keum washes the rice bowl, spoon and chopsticks and small dishes after the meal.
Keum sits down at an old beaten badukpan and replays the games of old masters from a book for next 4 hours.
Keum goes into the forest nearby, gathers dried tree branches for agungi.
Keum runs four kilometers.
Keum eats the lunch at twelve: a bowl of cold noodle soup made of buckwheat and kimchi.
Keum washes the bowl, chopsticks and the dish.
Keum takes the cow named munsan (distant mountain) to the hill to feed.
Keum sits down at the badukpan again and studies games of old masters for four hours.
Keum goes out and joins Tae-Kwon-Do (traditional Korean martial art) and Gum-Do (traditional Korean swordsmanship) training at the front yard.
Keum eats dinner at six thirty: same menu as breakfast with gosari namul replaced with steamed tofu.
Keum washes the bowl, spoon and chopsticks, and dishes.
Keum joins the classes of meditation, Korean and Chinese language, mathematics, calligraphy, science and Danso lesson of Korean traditional flute.
Keum washes himself with cold water of the stream running by the house.
Keum takes out the blanket and mattress from the closet, unfolds them.
Keum goes to sleep at eleven at night.
And Kuem dreams his mother in his dream.

For six years, at this remote Buddhist temple, deep inside of So-Baek-San in Choong-Chung Province,
Keum changed from a quiet small boy to a quiet, tall and handsome young man.

The temple was run by this old monk who was the head of crime organization when Korea was under the government of Rhee Syng-Man.*** After the military coup d’état by Park Chung-Hee**** he was sentenced to death and then later got a reduced term of twelve years in prison. He converted himself into a Buddhist while in prison. After he got out, he came to the mountain, built a small temple all by himself and stayed there ever since. He was master of martial art. Keum heard that the monk had wife and a daughter but he never saw them. The temple had no visitors except the pro that Keum met at the tournament.

The pro visited the temple four times a year for those six years, each time he brought books for students and bottles of wine for the monk. He spent few days playing Baduk with students and it was the only time students could play real games since students were not allowed to play Baduk against each other. Each time he took a few students with him when he left, the few the pro believed didn't have enough talent in Baduk. There were twenty six boys when Keum was brought in, but at the end of sixth year, only two survived including Keum.

It was in the middle of January, and for last few days it snowed so much all main roads were closed down. That was when the pro showed up at the temple. His face was bright red from walking so long through the heavy snow, and his whole body produced steam like a chimney of the public bathhouse where mother used to take Keum to when he was small. This time the pro didn't have any books with him. As soon as he had few words with the monk, the pro summoned the two to play Baduk immediately. Baram played first at the request of the pro with two handi. The game was played somewhat in fast mode, and at the end of middle game, Baram made a huge mistake so the game ended by resign from Baram. Baram was angry and disappointed. He ran out without saying 'Gomapsumnida': Thank you in Korean, crying out loud. The pro said nothing. He showed no emotion.

Now it was Keum's turn.
He sat down in front of the Badukpan, closed his eyes and breathe deeply.
He thought about last six years of his life here at the temple.
He thought about his mother.
He thought about the strange man at the graduation.
He thought about Mrs. Paik and the library and the Baduk book.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the pro's right hand was holding handful of white Badukdols (Go stones).
Keum, who played with 9 stones handi at the first game with the pro, and lost by more than 80 points, has reduced the handis on each of the pro's visit. The pro, now, was asking for even game by doing Nigiri.†
Keum reached the bowl of black stones and slowly put two on top of the Badukpan.
The pro opened his hand and counted. He was holding 18 stones.
Keum was to play with black.

Keum opened the game with So-mok (3.4) on upper right corner answered by pro's upper right's Hwa-jum (4.4). Keum played at cross board So-mok, the pro followed with his own So-mok. Opening was smooth and flawless and steady. When the Po-suk (Fuseki) was done, the board looked well balanced at first sight. Except, if you know what Baduk is, you would also see it resembled the quietness before the storm on the open sea.

At move 118, the pro tried to build a large territory on the bottom, and Keum immediately invaded the territory. The move resembled a lone parachutter jumped deep into the enemy's land. At move 138, the pro was sweating. At move 159, Keum smiled a ever so faint smile.

At 172nd move, the pro said, 'Jutumnida.' 'I lost' in Korean.

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** http://www.cookbookwiki.com/Gosari_namul_(Fernbrake_salad)

*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngman_Rhee [Syngman Rhee or Yi Seungman (March 26, 1875 – July 19, 1965) was the first president of South Korea. His presidency, from August 1948 to April 1960, remains controversial, affected by Cold War tensions on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere. Rhee was regarded as an anti-Communist and a strongman, and led South Korea through the Korean War. His presidency ended in resignation following popular protests against a disputed election. He died in exile in Hawaii.]

**** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung-hee [Park Chung-hee (November 14, 1917 – October 26, 1979) was a former ROK Army general and the leader of the Republic of Korea from 1961 to 1979. He has been credited with the industrialization of the Republic of Korea through export-led growth, but is also heavily criticized for his authoritarian way of ruling the country (especially after 1971), sending troops to support the United States in the Vietnam War, and alleged pro-Japanese activities as a Chinilpa. He was named one of the top 100 Asians of the Century by Time Magazine (1999).]

† http://senseis.xmp.net/?Nigiri [Nigiri is a Japanese go term (from the Japanese, lit. "grab", "grasp", "squeeze") adopted into English, referring to the procedure common in Japan at the beginning of an even game to decide who will play the black stones; the equivalent of flipping a coin to determine who kicks off a game of football. The steps are:
1. The first player grabs (hence the name) a handful of white stones without showing them to the other player.
2. The second player states his guess as to whether the number of stones is "odd" or "even" by placing one or two black stones on the go board. (In Japanese, 奇数先 or kisuu-sen for odd, or 偶数先, guusuu-sen for even).
3. The first player then places the white stones in his hand on the go board, arranging them in pairs to make it easy to see whether the number is odd or even.
If the second player has guessed correctly, he takes Black.]