The Suksin肅慎氏

The Suksin are also called Eumnu. They lie north of Mount Bulham, about sixty days' journey from Buyeo. On the east they come down to the great sea, on the west they border the state of Koumanhan, and on the north they reach the Ruo River. Their territory is several thousand li across. They live in deep mountains and remote valleys, and their roads are steep and blocked, so that carts and horses cannot pass. In summer they live up in the trees, and in winter they live in caves. Father and son become chiefs generation after generation.

They have no writing and take the spoken word for their bond. They have horses but do not ride them, and keep them only as property. They have no oxen or sheep, but they raise many pigs; they eat their flesh and wear their hides, and they spin the hair into cloth. There is a tree called nakssang (雒常), and it is said that when a holy emperor newly takes the throne in China this tree grows bark that can be made into clothing. They have no wells and no kitchen stoves; they make earthen pots that hold four or five pints and eat from them. When they sit they stretch out their legs, and they grip the meat between their feet to eat it, and when they get frozen meat they sit on it to thaw it. There is neither salt nor iron in their land, so they burn wood into ashes and pour water on them and take the liquid to eat with.

By their custom they all braid their hair, and they make an apron of cloth somewhat more than a foot wide to cover themselves front and back. When a man is to marry he puts a feather in the woman's hair, and if she agrees he takes her home with him and only then meets her with the proper rites. The wives are chaste and the unmarried girls are wanton; they honor the young and despise the old. When someone dies they bury him in the open country that same day. They cross timbers to make a small outer coffin, and they kill pigs and pile them on top of it as food for the dead. They are fierce and harsh by nature, and they esteem one another for having neither worry nor grief; so when a father or a mother dies the men do not weep, and one who weeps is said to be unmanly. Whoever steals is put to death, be it much or little, and so, though they live in the open country, they do not trespass against one another.

They have stone arrowheads and armor of hide and bone. Their birchwood bows are three feet five inches long, and their hosi arrows (楛矢) are a foot and eight inches long. In the northeast of that country there is a mountain that yields a stone so sharp that it pierces iron, and when they are about to quarry it they must first pray to the spirits.

In the time of King Wu of Zhou they presented their hosi arrows (楛矢) and stone arrowheads (石砮). When the Duke of Zhou was helping King Cheng they sent envoys again with their congratulations, but for more than a thousand years after that, even in the greatness of Qin and Han, no one could make them come. When Emperor Wen, that is Sima Zhao, became chancellor, at the end of the Jingyuan years of Wei they came and offered hosi arrows, stone arrowheads, bows and armor, sable furs and the like. The emperor of Wei ordered by edict that these be turned over to the chancellor's office, and he bestowed on their king Nokgye felted brocade and silk floss.

At the beginning of the Yuankang years under Emperor Wu they came again and presented tribute. When Emperor Yuan restored the dynasty they came once more, this time to the lands south of the Yangtze, and offered their stone arrowheads. In the time of Emperor Cheng they sent tribute to Shi Jilong, that is Shi Hu of the Later Zhao, and it took four years to arrive. When Jilong asked them about it they answered, "For three years we have watched the oxen and horses sleeping with their heads toward the southwest, and by this we knew where the great country lay, and so we came."