One well known anecdote regarding Choe in these years regards a putative piece of verse he dispatched to Wang Geon, the founder of the Goryeo. Apparently convinced by the greatness of Wang Geon, notably by the promulgation of his Ten Injunctions, Choe came to believe that Wang Geon had inherited the Mandate of Heaven to succeed the declining Silla dynasty as the ruler of the peninsula. Reflecting this, he secretly sent off a prophetic verse reflecting his support of the new dynasty: “The leaves of the Cock Forest [Silla] are yellow, the pines of Snow Goose Pass [Goryeo] are green.” (계림황엽 곡령청송, 鷄林黃葉 鵠嶺靑松). Cock Forest (Gyerim) being an ancient sobriquet for Silla and Snow Goose Pass (Gongnyeong) being the ancestral home of Wang Geon, and by association the Goryeo Dynasty. However, this anecdote first appeared in the 12th century Samguk Sagi, long after Choe had died and some modern scholars concur that Choe, a native and ardent supporter of Silla, never penned it but that it was attributed to him by a young Goryeo dynasty to buttress its legitimacy and win over the support of young Silla scholars to its enterprise.Yi Byeongdo, "Studies of the History of Goryeo". Hanguk munhwa chongseo 4 (1948), 6.
