The Chinese characters behind sadon are, surprisingly, "sa" (査, tree stump) and "don" (頓, to bow the head). The best-known story dates to King Yejong's reign in Goryeo and concerns the great general Yun Gwan and his deputy commander Oh Yeon-chong. The two married off their children and so became sadon, and after retirement they lived on opposite sides of a stream, calling on each other whenever the wine had ripened. One day the stream swelled too high to cross, so each man sat astride a tree stump (査) on his bank and, bowing his head (頓), called out "Do have a cup" — whereupon the other raised his cup and bowed in kind. From that affectionate exchange, the story goes, came the word sadon. That said, this is likely a later tale fitted to the characters, and scholars also take seriously the theory that it derives from the Manchu word "sadun" (a relative by marriage). Either way, sadon names the most courteous of bonds — one tied not by blood but by a promise.