Baekje百濟

The state of Baekje was also in origin a separate branch of Buyeo, and it was once the old land of Mahan. It lies six thousand two hundred li east of the capital, north of the great sea and south of the small sea. To the northeast it reaches Silla; westward across the sea it reaches Yuezhou; southward across the sea it reaches the state of Wa; northward across the sea it reaches Goryeo. Where the king lives there are two fortresses, east and west.

Of the inner offices they set up these. The naesin jwapyeong has charge of issuing and receiving the king's commands. The naedu jwapyeong has charge of the storehouses. The naebeop jwapyeong has charge of rites and ceremony. The wisa jwapyeong has charge of the guard troops. The jojeong jwapyeong has charge of punishments and prisons. The byeonggwan jwapyeong has charge of the troops and horses outside. Outside they also set up six Daebang (帶方), each governing ten commanderies. In their use of law, one who rebels is put to death and his household is confiscated; one who kills a man redeems his crime with three slaves; an official who takes a bribe or steals pays back three times the amount and is barred from office for life. All their taxes and the products of their land are for the most part the same as in Goryeo.

The king wears a purple robe with wide sleeves and trousers of blue brocade, a cap of black silk gauze adorned with gold flowers, a plain leather belt and black leather shoes. The officials all wear crimson and adorn their caps with silver flowers. Commoners may not wear crimson or purple. Through the seasons they keep the dog days and the winter sacrifice as they are kept in China. Among their books are the Five Classics, the philosophers and the histories, and their memorials and petitions all follow the forms of China.

In the fourth year of Wude the king, Buyeo Jang, sent an envoy who presented gwaha horses (果下馬). In the seventh year he again sent a great minister who bore a memorial and brought tribute. Gaozu praised his sincerity and sent an envoy to invest him as King of Daebang Commandery and King of Baekje. From this time he sent tribute year by year, and Gaozu comforted and rewarded him very generously. He then complained that Goryeo had closed the roads and would not let him come through to China, and by edict Zhu Zishe was sent to make peace between them. Baekje and Silla had also been enemies for generations, and they invaded each other often.

In the first year of Zhenguan Taizong bestowed on the king a letter under the seal, saying: "The king has been lord and chief for generations and has held and comforted the eastern march. The corner of the sea is far and wide and wind and waves are hard and blocking, yet your loyalty is utmost and your tribute follows one upon another. When I think of your fair conduct, I am much pleased and comforted. Since I reverently received the favoured mandate (寵命) and came to rule over the world, I have thought to widen the kingly way and to cherish and rear the people. Wherever boat and cart go through, wherever wind and rain reach, I hope each may fulfil its nature and all be brought to peace. Kim Jinpyeong, the king of Silla, is my vassal of the marches and the king's neighbouring state. Every time I hear of it, you are sending out armies and do not cease from chastising. To rely on arms and take ease in cruelty goes much against what I look for. I have already, before the king's nephew Sinbok and the envoys of Goryeo and Silla, fully commanded that peace be opened, and all have agreed to be in concord. The king must forget those old grudges, know my true mind, make the feeling between neighbours firm together, and at once put down arms and armour." Jang then sent an envoy bearing a memorial to beg pardon; but though outwardly he said he obeyed the command, within he was in truth at enmity as before. In the eleventh year he sent an envoy to court who presented iron armour and a carved axe. Taizong rewarded him generously and bestowed three thousand lengths of coloured silk, and brocade robes and other things.

In the fifteenth year Jang died, and his son Uija sent an envoy bearing a memorial to announce the mourning. Taizong put on plain white and wept for him, granted him the posthumous office of Grand Master for Splendid Happiness, and sent two hundred lengths of goods for the funeral. He sent an envoy to invest Uija by command as Pillar of State and to enfeoff him as King of Daebang Commandery and King of Baekje.

In the sixteenth year Uija raised troops and attacked more than forty fortresses of Silla, and he sent out troops to hold them. He made peace and friendship with Goryeo and plotted to take the fortress of Danghang so as to cut off Silla's road to court. Silla sent an envoy to report the danger and ask for rescue. Taizong sent Xiangli Xuanjiang, assistant of the court of agriculture, bearing a letter to admonish the two marches and to show them fortune and ruin. When Taizong went in person against Goryeo, Baekje held two minds, and taking the empty moment it struck and broke ten fortresses of Silla. In the twenty-second year it broke more than ten fortresses again. Within a few years the tribute ceased altogether.

When Gaozong took up the succession, in the second year of Yonghui, Baekje for the first time sent an envoy with tribute again. When the envoy went back, a letter under the seal was sent down to Uija.

"As for the three states east of the sea, they opened their foundations long ago, their borders lie side by side, and their lands are truly locked together like a dog's teeth. In recent ages they have come to weave suspicion and rifts. Wars rise one after another and there is hardly a peaceful year. So the common people of the Three Han have their lives hung on the block and the knife, and they seek out spears and give rein to their anger, morning and evening without end. I govern all things in heaven's stead, and I pity them deeply. Last year the king's envoys and those of Goryeo and Silla all came together to court, and I commanded that this hatred be loosed and that goodwill and concord be made firm again. Kim Beommin, the envoy of Silla, sent up a writing: 'Goryeo and Baekje lean on each other as lips and teeth. They vie in raising arms, and their invasions press in by turns. Great fortresses and heavy garrisons have all been swallowed by Baekje; our borders shrink day by day and our strength fails with them. We beg that an edict go to Baekje bidding it give back the fortresses it has taken. If it does not obey the edict, then we shall raise troops ourselves and take them by force. Once we have our old land we shall ask for peace.' Because his words were reasonable, I could not but allow them. Of old Duke Huan of Qi, a feudal lord with lands allotted to him, still preserved a state that was perishing. How much more shall I, lord of ten thousand states, not care for a march in danger! The fortresses of Silla that the king has annexed should all be given back to their own state, and the Baekje captives that Silla has taken shall likewise be sent back to the king. After that, trouble will be undone and strife let go, spears will be sheathed and armour laid down; the people will gain the rest for their shoulders that they wish for, and the three marches will have no toil of war. Set beside blood flowing at the border posts, corpses heaped on the battlefields, ploughing and weaving alike abandoned and men and women left without means, how can the two be spoken of in the same breath! If the king does not follow my direction, I have already granted what Beommin asked and shall leave him free to fight it out with the king. I shall also bind Goryeo and not allow it to send help from afar. If Goryeo does not receive the command, I shall order the Khitan and the other marches to cross the Liao marshes and go in to plunder. The king may think deeply on my words, seek much blessing for himself, and consider good plans with care, and leave no regret behind."

In the sixth year Kim Chunchu, the king of Silla, again sent up a memorial saying that Baekje, with Goryeo and the Malgal, had invaded his northern border and that more than thirty fortresses had already fallen. In the fifth year of Xianqing Su Dingfang, Grand General of the Left Guard, was ordered to lead troops and chastise it, and he broke that state greatly. Uija, the crown prince Yung, the lesser king Hyoyeon and fifty-eight of their generals and the rest were taken captive and sent to the capital, and the emperor rebuked them and pardoned them. That state was of old divided into five bu, ruling thirty-seven commanderies, two hundred fortresses and seven hundred and sixty thousand households. Now its land was divided and five governor-generalships were set up, Ungjin, Mahan, Dongmyeong and the rest, each ruling prefectures and districts, and their chiefs were set up as governors-general, prefects and district magistrates. Wang Wendu, Commandant of the Right Guard, was ordered to be governor-general of Ungjin and to take charge of the troops and hold it. Uija was known for filial conduct in serving his parents and was loving toward his brothers, and the men of the time called him "the Zengzi and Min Ziqian of the east." When he reached the capital he died after a few days. He was granted the posthumous offices of Gold and Purple Grand Master for Splendid Happiness and Chamberlain for the Palace Garrison, and his old ministers were specially allowed to go and wail for him. He was sent to be buried beside the tombs of Sun Hao and Chen Shubao, and a stele was raised for him as well.

Wendu died while crossing the sea. Dochim, a monk of Baekje, and Boksin, a former general, led a host and held the fortress of Juryu in revolt. They sent envoys to the state of Wa and brought back the former prince Buyeo Pung and set him up as king, and their western bu and northern bu both turned their fortresses over and answered them. At that time Liu Renyuan, a commandant, was left to garrison the headquarters fortress of Baekje, and Dochim and the others led troops and surrounded it. Liu Rengui, prefect of Daebangju, took over the host in Wendu's place; by the shortest road he called out Silla troops to join with him and go to Renyuan's rescue, and he fought his way forward, and wherever he turned all fell. Dochim and the others set up two stockades at the mouth of the Ungjin river to hold off the imperial army. Rengui and the Silla troops struck them from all four sides; the rebel host drew back and fled into the stockades, but the water blocked them and the bridge was narrow, and more than ten thousand fell into the water or died in the fighting. Dochim and the others then loosed the siege of Renyuan and drew back to hold the fortress of Imjon. The Silla soldiers, their grain gone, led their men home. This was in the third month of the first year of Longshuo.

Thereupon Dochim called himself General Commanding the Army and Boksin called himself General of Sangjam, and they drew in the rebels and the runaways, and their power grew greater. They sent a man to tell Rengui: "We hear that Great Tang has sworn an agreement with Silla that the people of Baekje, old and young alike, shall all be killed, and that the country shall then be handed over to Silla. Rather than take death, is it not better to die fighting! That is why we gather and hold fast on our own." Rengui wrote a letter setting out fortune and ruin in full and sent a man to admonish them. Dochim and the others, trusting their numbers, were proud and haughty, and they put Rengui's envoy in an outer lodge and sent word to him, saying: "The envoy's office is low. I am the great general of a whole state, and it is not fitting that I meet him myself." They sent him back without answering the letter. Soon after, Boksin killed Dochim and took his troops into his own, and Buyeo Pung only presided over the sacrifices and nothing more.

In the seventh month of the second year Renyuan and Rengui and the others led the garrison troops and greatly broke what was left of Boksin's host east of Ungjin. They took his fortress of Jira and the stockades of Yunseong, Daesan and Sajeong, and those killed and taken were very many; and they divided the troops to hold and guard the places. Boksin and the others, because the fortress of Jinhyeon looked over the river and was high and steep and stood at a vital point, added troops and held it. Rengui led the Silla troops and came up to the fortress by night; from all four sides they climbed the battlements, and by daybreak they had entered and held the fortress and had cut off eight hundred heads. So the road by which Silla carried grain was opened. Renyuan then sent up a request for more troops, and by edict seven thousand men of Zi, Qing, Lai and Hai were called out, and Sun Renshi, General of the Left Awesome Guard, was sent to lead the host across the sea to Ungjin and add to Renyuan's numbers.

By then Boksin held the military power alone, and he and Buyeo Pung grew suspicious of each other by degrees. Boksin gave out that he was ill and lay in a cave chamber, meaning to wait until Buyeo Pung came to ask after his sickness, and plotted to fall upon him and kill him. Buyeo Pung became aware of it, led his close and trusted men, fell upon Boksin and killed him, and then sent envoys to Goryeo and to the state of Wa to ask for troops to hold off the imperial army. Sun Renshi met them on the road and struck and broke them, and he then joined with Renyuan's host, and the strength of their arms was greatly stirred. Thereupon Renshi, Renyuan and Kim Beommin, the king of Silla, led the land army forward, while Liu Rengui, the separate commander Du Shuang and Buyeo Yung led the naval force and the grain ships from the Ungjin river to the Baek river to meet the land army, and together they hurried to the fortress of Juryu. Rengui met Buyeo Pung's host at the mouth of the Baek river, and in four battles he won them all. He burned four hundred of their ships; the rebel host broke to pieces, and Buyeo Pung slipped away and fled. The false princes Buyeo Chungseung and Chungji and the rest led the men and women and the host of Wa and all surrendered, and the fortresses of Baekje all came back and submitted. Sun Renshi and Liu Renyuan and the others set their army in order and went back, and by edict Liu Rengui took Renyuan's place, leading troops and holding the garrison. Buyeo Yung was then given the post of governor-general of Ungjin and sent back to his own country, to make peace and friendship with Silla and to call in and settle what was left of his people.

In the eighth month of the second year of Linde Yung came to the fortress of Ungjin and swore an oath with Beommin, the king of Silla, killing a white horse. First they sacrificed to the gods of heaven and earth and to the gods of the streams and the valleys, and after that they drank the blood. The words of the oath were these.

"In days past the former king of Baekje was blind to what goes against right and what goes with it. He did not make friendship with his neighbours firm, nor live in concord with his kin by marriage. He bound himself to Goryeo and had dealings with the state of Wa, and together they did cruel and violent things, invading Silla and cutting it away, breaking its towns and slaughtering its fortresses, so that there was hardly a peaceful year. The Son of Heaven pitied that even one thing should lose its place and had compassion on the people who were without guilt, and again and again he charged his envoys to urge peace and friendship. But the king leaned on his strongholds and trusted his distance and made light of the constant way of heaven. The emperor blazed in anger at this and reverently carried out the work of condoling and chastising, and where the banners pointed, one stroke of arms brought a great settling. It would indeed have been right to turn his palace into a pool and his house into a marsh as a warning to the generations to come, to block the spring and pull up the root and hand down a lesson to those who follow. Yet to cherish the yielding and strike the rebellious is the fair rule of the former kings, and to raise up the fallen and continue what has been cut off is the common law of the sages of old. That affairs must take the ancients for master is handed down in the books of former days. Therefore Buyeo Yung, the former crown prince of Baekje and chief minister of the Court of Husbandry, is set up as governor-general of Ungjin, to keep its sacrifices and preserve its native soil. Let him lean upon Silla and be an allied state with it for long, and let each put away old rancour and join in friendship and peace. Let him reverently receive the imperial command and be a march subject forever. Accordingly the envoy Liu Renyuan, General of the Right Awesome Guard and Duke of Lucheng District, is sent to come in person and urge them, to set out the settled will in full, to bind them by marriage and to make it sure by oath. Let them kill the victim and drink the blood, and make firm together the beginning and the end; let them share disaster and relieve each other's troubles, with kindness as between younger and elder brother. Let them reverently uphold the imperial word and not dare to let it fall, and after the oath is sworn let them keep together the steadfastness of the pine in the cold of the year. If there be any who cast away faith and are not constant, who make their virtue now this and now that, who raise troops and move hosts and invade the borders, the bright gods will look upon it and send down a hundred calamities. Their sons and grandsons shall not prosper, there shall be none to keep their altars of soil and grain, their sacrifices shall be worn away and nothing shall be left. Therefore a writing in gold and a tally of iron (金書鐵契) are made and stored in the ancestral shrine, that for ten thousand generations of sons and grandsons none may dare to break it. Gods, hear it. Receive the offering and grant blessing."

These were the words written by Liu Rengui. When the drinking of blood was done, the offerings of silk were buried in an auspicious spot below the altar, and the writing of the oath was stored in the ancestral shrine of Silla. When Renyuan and Rengui and the others had gone back, Yung feared Silla and soon returned to the capital.

In the second year of Yifeng he was appointed Grand Master for Splendid Happiness and Supernumerary Chamberlain of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and also governor-general of Ungjin and King of Daebang Commandery, and he was ordered to go back to his own march and settle what was left of his people. But by that time the homeland of Baekje was laid waste and had little by little been taken by Silla, and Yung in the end did not dare return to his old country, and he died.

His grandson Gyeong succeeded to the fief of King of Daebang Commandery in the court of Zetian and was given the office of Chamberlain for the Palace Garrison. From this time its land was divided between Silla and the Balhae Malgal, and the stock of Baekje was at last cut off.