HYE YUN

Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the surname Yun. Although some records indicate the existence of 149 clans, only ten can be documented. Each descends from a different ancestor. The largest, that of P'ap'yŏng, descends from a man named Shin Tal. According to legend, an old woman named Yun On, who lived in P'ap'yŏng, saw a rainbow over a lotus pond in the mountains. When she went to investigate, she found a boy in a box. The boy had scales under his arm and seven dark birth marks on his body. She raised him as her own and gave him the surname Yun. The oldest Yun clan, that of Tamwŏn, descends from a man named Shi-yŏng, who lived during the reign of the Shilla King Muyŏl (654–661).