Baekje百濟

Baekje — its forebears were, it seems, a dependent state of Mahan and a separate branch of Buyeo. There was one Gutae (仇台) who first founded a state at Daebang. So its borders reach Silla in the east and touch Goguryeo in the north, and on the west and the south they are bounded by the great sea. It is four hundred and fifty li from east to west and more than nine hundred li from north to south. It has its seat at Goma fortress (固麻城), and outside that there are five bang (方) besides. The middle bang is called Gosa fortress, the east bang Deugan fortress, the south bang Gujiha fortress, the west bang Doseon fortress, and the north bang Ungjin fortress.

The king's surname is Buyeo. He is styled eoraha (於羅瑕), and the people call him geongilji (鞬吉支); in the speech of China both mean king. The king's wife is styled eoryuk (於陸), which in the speech of China is consort.

The offices have sixteen ranks. The jwapyeong, five men, are the first rank; the dalsol, thirty men, the second rank; the eunsol the third rank; the deoksol the fourth; the hansol the fifth; the nasol the sixth. Those of the sixth rank and above ornament the cap with a silver flower. The jangdeok is the seventh rank, with a purple belt; the sideok the eighth, with a black belt; the godeok the ninth, with a red belt; the gyedeok the tenth, with a blue belt; the daedeok the eleventh and the mundok the twelfth, both with yellow belts; the mudok the thirteenth, the jwagun the fourteenth, the jinmu the fifteenth, and the geugu the sixteenth, all with white belts. From the eunsol down, the offices have no fixed number of holders, and each has its own busa (部司), which divides the many duties among them.

Among the inner offices there are the jeonnaebu, the gokbu, the yukbu, the naeryakbu, the oeryakbu, the mabu, the dobu, the gongdeokbu, the yakbu, the mokbu, the beopbu, and the hugungbu.

Among the outer offices there are the sagunbu, the sadobu, the sagongbu, the sagubu, the jeomgubu, the gaekbu, the oesabu, the jubu, the ilgwanbu, and the dosibu. In the capital there are ten thousand households, divided into five bu, called the sangbu, the jeonbu, the jungbu, the habu, and the hubu, and each bu commands five hundred soldiers. Each of the five bang has one bangnyeong, and a dalsol is made bangnyeong; there are three gunjang (郡將), and a deoksol is made gunjang. A bang commands twelve hundred soldiers at most and seven hundred at least. The people inside and outside the fortress, and the lesser fortresses besides, are all divided up and made subject to them.

In clothing the men are much the same as those of Goryeo. At court audiences and at sacrifices they add wings to both sides of the cap, but not in matters of war. In the rite of bowing and presenting themselves, they take it for respect to set both hands on the ground. The women's clothing is like a robe, but the sleeves are a little wider. A girl still at home braids her hair and coils it on her head, letting one strand hang down behind for ornament; when she marries she parts it into two strands.

For weapons they have bows, arrows, swords, and lances. Their custom holds riding and archery in high regard, and they love the classics and the histories as well. The outstanding among them know something of composing prose, and they also know the yin and yang and the five phases. They use the Yuanjia calendar of Song and take the month of yin (寅月) as the head of the year. They know medicine too, and divining by milfoil and by tortoise shell, and the art of reading faces. They have tuho, jeopo, and other games, but they prize baduk above all. Monks and nuns and temples and pagodas are very many, but there are no Daoist priests.

Taxes are in cloth, silk, thread, hemp, rice, and the like, graded by the measure of the year's plenty or want. Their punishments are these. Those who rebel, those who fall back in battle, and those who kill a man are beheaded. A thief is banished and pays back twice the worth of what he took. A woman who commits adultery is taken into her husband's house as a slave. The rites of marriage are much the same as the customs of the Hua. When parents or a husband die, they keep mourning for three years; for other kin they take it off once the burial is done.

The soil is low and damp, and the climate is warm. The five grains, all the fruits and vegetables, and wine, sweet ale, dishes of food, and medicines are mostly the same as in the inner land. Only there are no camels, donkeys, mules, sheep, geese, or ducks. In the middle month of each of the four seasons the king sacrifices to heaven and to the spirits of the five emperors, and every year he sacrifices four times at the shrine of his first ancestor Gutae.

Ever since Jin, Song, Qi, and Liang held Jiangzuo and the Later Wei settled in the Central Plain, it sent envoys to them alike, called itself their vassal, and received investiture from them. When the house of Qi, the Northern Qi, took the eastern Xia for itself, its king Yung (King Seong) also opened relations by envoy. Yung died and his son Chang (King Wideok) ascended the throne. In the sixth year of Jiande, when Qi was destroyed, Chang first sent an envoy to present the products of his land, and in the first year of Xuanzheng he sent an envoy again to present gifts.