Queen Jindeok眞德王

Queen Jindeok ascended the throne. Her name was Seungman (勝曼), and she was the daughter of Gukban the Galmunwang, the younger brother of King Jinpyeong by the same mother. Her mother was Lady Wolmyeong of the house of Bak. Seungman was full and fair in form and in nature, seven cheok tall, and when she let her hands hang they passed below her knees.

In the first year, on the seventeenth day of the first month, Bidam was put to death, and those who fell with him and died were thirty.

In the second month Alcheon, of the rank of ichan, was made sangdaedeung, and Suseung, of the rank of daeachan, was made gunju of Uduju. Taizong of Tang sent an envoy bearing the tally, and gave the former queen after her death the title of guanglu dafu, and then by edict invested the queen as Pillar of State and enfeoffed her as King of the Commandery of Lelang.

In autumn, the seventh month, an envoy was sent into Tang to give thanks for the favor, and the reign title was changed to Taehwa (太和). In the eighth month a comet appeared in the south, and the host of stars flowed northward. (sixteen characters are missing)

In winter, the tenth month, the troops of Baekje surrounded the three walled towns of Musan, Gammul and Dongjam, and the queen sent Yusin to hold them off with ten thousand foot and horse. They fought bitterly until their strength was spent, and then Biryeongja (丕寧子), a man under Yusin, and his son Geojin (擧眞) went into the ranks of the enemy and struck hard and died there, and the whole host rose up and struck, and took more than three thousand heads. In the eleventh month the queen sacrificed in person at the Singung.

In the second year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent to Tang with tribute.

In the third month Uijik, a general of Baekje, raided the western border and took more than ten walled towns, Yocha and the rest. The queen was troubled by it and commanded Yusin, the governor of Amnyangju, to plan against them. Yusin then trained and urged on his soldiers, and was about to set out when Uijik barred the way. Yusin divided his army into three roads and struck them from both sides, and the troops of Baekje were beaten and fled. Yusin chased the fleeing men and killed almost all of them. The queen was glad, and gave rewards to the soldiers, each according to his case.

In winter, Hanjilheo was sent as envoy to the court of Tang. Taizong sent down a command to a censor to ask, "Silla serves the great court as its subject. Why then does it call a reign title of its own?"

Hanjilheo said, "The court of heaven had never handed down its calendar, and so from our forefather King Beopheung onward we have kept a reckoning of years privately. Had there been a command from the great court, how would a small state have dared to do so?" Taizong held his words to be right.

Kim Chunchu, of the rank of ichan, and his son Munwang were sent to the court of Tang, and Taizong sent Liu Heng, the guanglu qing of the court of the imperial household, to meet them and comfort them outside the city. When they came, he saw that the bearing and the look of Chunchu were fine and noble, and he treated him generously.

Chunchu asked to go to the state academy and see the sacrifice to Confucius and the expounding and discussion there, and Taizong allowed it, and then gave him the Wentang stele and the Jinci stele that he had written himself, and the newly made Jin shu. Once he called him in to a feast and gave him gold and silk more generously still, and asked, "Have you something in your heart?"

Chunchu knelt and said, "The country of your servant lies off in a corner of the sea, and it has bowed and served the court of heaven for many years. Yet Baekje is strong and crafty, and raids us and tramples us without restraint. Last year above all it rose in great force and came deep in, and struck and took dozens of walled towns, and so blocked the road by which we come to court.

If Your Majesty does not lend us the troops of heaven and cut away this evil, the people of our poor country will all be taken captive, and we shall never again hope to bring our tribute by ladder and by ship."

Taizong held this to be deeply right, and allowed that an army be sent out.

Chunchu asked further that their robes and their caps be changed to follow the rule of China. So rich garments were brought out from within and given to Chunchu and to those who followed him. By edict Chunchu was given the rank of tejin, and Munwang was made general of the Left Guard of the Army.

When he was to return to his country, an edict was given that all of the third rank and above should hold a feast and see him off, and the courtesy shown him was very full. Chunchu said, "Your servant has seven sons. He wishes that they may not leave the side of the sage and enlightened one, but serve there in the guard." So his son Munwang and a daegam were commanded to go back with him.

Chunchu was coming home when he met a patrol of Goguryeo at sea. On Gunhae (温君解), who followed Chunchu, put on a tall cap and a great robe and sat on the deck of the ship, and the patrol saw him and took him for Chunchu, and seized him and killed him. Chunchu came to his country in a small boat. The queen heard of it and grieved, and gave Gunhae after his death the rank of daeachan, and rewarded his sons and his grandsons generously.

In the third year, in spring, the first month, the robes and the caps of China were worn for the first time.

In autumn, the eighth month, Eunsang, a general of Baekje, led a host and came, and struck and took seven walled towns, Seokto and the rest. The queen commanded Yusin, the great general, and the generals Jinchun, Jukji, Cheonjon and others to go out and hold them off. They fought moving from place to place for ten days and more, and it was not settled, and so they went forward and camped below Dosalseong.

Yusin said to his men, "Today men of Baekje will surely come to spy. You are to feign that you do not know it, and do not dare to challenge them." Then he had word passed round the camp. "Hold the walls fast and do not move. Tomorrow we wait for the relieving army, and after that we give battle."

The spy heard it and went back and told Eunsang. Eunsang and the rest thought that more troops were coming, and could not but doubt and fear. Then Yusin and the others went forward and struck them and broke them utterly, killing and taking a hundred officers and men, cutting off eight thousand nine hundred and eighty heads of the common soldiers, and taking ten thousand war horses. As for the arms, they could not be counted.

In the fourth year, in summer, the fourth month, a teaching was sent down that those of the jingol who held office should carry the ivory tablet.

In the sixth month an envoy was sent to Tang to tell of the breaking of the host of Baekje. The queen wove silk and made a Taepyeongsong (太平頌), an Ode of Great Peace in five-character lines, and sent Beommin, the son of Chunchu, to present it to the emperor of Tang. The words of it are these.

"The great Tang opens a vast work / lofty and high, the design of the emperor flourishes / the spear is stayed and the might of arms is settled / letters are cultivated and a hundred kings are followed / he rules heaven and honors the sending of rain / he orders all things and holds their brightness within / his deep kindness stands level with the sun and the moon / he soothes the turning of fate and goes beyond the peace of the age / how brightly the banners shine / how loudly the gongs and the drums sound / those of the outer tribes who break his command / are cut down and overturned and meet the wrath of heaven / a pure wind gathers in the hidden and the open / far and near they vie to offer good omens / the four seasons are even as the jade candle / the seven lights go round the ten thousand quarters / the mountains send down ministers of state / the emperor gives his charge to the loyal and the good / the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors have made one virtue / and they light our imperial house of Tang."

Gaozong was pleased with it, and made Beommin taifu qing of the court of the treasury and sent him back. In this year the reign title Yonghui (永徽) of China was used for the first time.

Kim Busik comments.

The three dynasties changed the calendar and the later ages called reign titles, and all of this was to make the realm one great whole, and to make new what the people saw and heard.

Therefore, unless a state rises alongside another in its time and the two stand and contend for all under heaven, or unless a crafty hero rises in a gap and covets the sacred vessel, a small state set off in one corner and subject to the land of the son of heaven may truly not name its years privately.

A state such as Silla served China with a single heart, and the ships of its envoys and the baskets of its tribute followed one another along the road, and yet King Beopheung called a reign title of his own, and this was a delusion. Afterward the fault was carried on and the error inherited for many years, and even when the reproach of Taizong was heard they still went on as before, and only when it came to this time did they take up and use the reign title of Tang. Though it came of necessity, it may yet be said that they erred and were able to mend it.

In the fifth year, in spring, on the first day of the first month, the queen went to Joweonjeon and received the New Year greeting of all the officials. The rite of greeting the New Year began from this.

In the second month the Pumju was changed to the Jipsabu (執事部), and Jukji, of the rank of pajinchan, was made jipsa jungsi and given charge of secret and confidential business. Silla sent Kim Inmun, of the rank of pajinchan, into Tang with tribute, and he stayed on there to serve in the guard. (characters are missing)

In the sixth year, in spring, the first month, Cheonhyo, of the rank of pajinchan, was made jwaibangburyeong, the head of the left office of law, and an envoy was sent to Tang with tribute. In the third month there was a great snow in the capital, and the south gate of the royal palace fell of itself without cause.

In the seventh year, in winter, the eleventh month, an envoy was sent to Tang and presented geumchongpo (金緫布), a cloth worked with gold.

In the eighth year, in spring, the third month, the queen died. Her posthumous name was given as Jindeok (眞德), and she was buried in Saryangbu. Gaozong of Tang heard of it and held the rite of mourning for her at Yongguangmen, and sent Zhang Wenshou, the taichang cheng of the court of sacrifices, bearing the tally, to condole and to sacrifice for her, and he gave her after her death the title of kaifu yitong sansi, and bestowed three hundred rolls of colored silk.

The people of the state said that from the founder Hyeokgeose down to Jindeok, twenty-eight kings in all, these were called seonggol (聖骨), and that from Muyeol down to the last king these were called jingol (眞骨). The Xinluo ji, the record of Silla by Linghu Cheng of Tang, says, "The royal house of that state is called the first bone, and the rest of the nobles the second bone."