King Munmu, Part Two文武王下

In the eleventh year, in spring, the first month, Yewon of the rank of ichan was made jungsi. Troops were sent out to raid Baekje and fought south of Ungjin, and Bugwa the dangju died there.

Malgal troops came and surrounded Seolguseong, and when they could not take it and were about to draw back, troops were sent out and struck them, and more than three hundred men were cut down and killed. The king heard that the troops of Tang meant to come and rescue Baekje, and he sent Jingong of the rank of daeachan and (characters are missing) of the rank of achan to guard Ongpo with (characters are missing) troops. A white fish leaped in (characters are missing) one chi.

In summer, the fourth month, lightning struck the south gate of Heungnyunsa.

In the sixth month General Jukji and the others were sent to lead troops and trample down the standing grain of Garimseong in Baekje, and then they fought the troops of Tang at Seokseong and cut off five thousand three hundred heads and took two generals of Baekje and six gwaui of Tang.

In autumn, the seventh month, on the twenty-sixth day, Xue Rengui the chonggwan of Great Tang sent a letter by Imyun the master of the law, saying:

"Xue Rengui, chonggwan of the marching army, sends a letter to the king of Silla.

The clear wind runs ten thousand li and the great sea three thousand. The command of Heaven has its appointed time, and I have marched and come to this border. I hear that a scheming heart is slowly stirring and that arms are pressed to the utmost against the border walls. This is to cast away the single word of Zilu and to lose the one promise of Hou Sheng. The elder brother has become the head of the rebels and the younger brother a loyal subject. The shade of the flower and its calyx is parted far, and the moon of longing shines in vain. When I would speak of this side and that, my sighing only grows.

Your late king opened his office and planned for a whole country, and he moved about among a hundred walled towns, fearing the raids of Baekje in the west and guarding against the robbery of Goguryeo in the north. His land was a thousand li square, and in many places the blades were crossed. The women who raised silkworms could not meet the time of the mulberry, and the men who hoed lost the order of their fields.

He was near sixty and the light of the elm was creeping in day by day, yet he did not fear the danger of the sea and the ship. He went far over the perils of the great waves, poured out his heart in the land of China and bowed his head at the gate of the Son of Heaven, setting forth in full how alone and how weak he was, and making plain the raids and the troubling of his country. To hear how his feeling was laid bare, one cannot bear the sorrow of it.

The Emperor Taizong Wen was mighty in spirit over all under Heaven, and his divine power flourished through the universe. He was like Pangu in his nine changes and like Juling with one stroke of his palm. In upholding what was falling and rescuing what was weak, the days were not enough for him. He took in your late lord with pity and gathered up what he asked with compassion, and light carriages and swift horses, beautiful robes and choice medicines came within a single day, so that again and again your late lord met with a favor set apart for him.

Having received that grace, he answered and set forth the business of war, and their joining was as fish and water and their clearness as metal and stone. Within the phoenix locks of a thousand folds and the crane gates of ten thousand houses he lingered in the virtue of wine, and on the golden steps they feasted and laughed and took counsel together over troops and horses.

Times were divided and voices joined in support, and in one morning a great host was raised and blades were crossed by water and by land. At that time the grasses of the frontier parted into flower and the star of the elm put forth its pods. At the battle of Zhubi the Emperor Wen went in person, mourning the people and caring for those who were hidden, and deep was his righteousness.

Then the mountains and the sea took other shapes and the sun and the moon turned and drew near. The sage handed down his arms and the king too carried on his house. As rock and vine lean upon each other, their voice and their dust were raised together, and they washed their weapons and combed their horses and all followed the will of him who went before.

For some tens of years the Middle Kingdom was worn out. The treasuries were opened from time to time and fodder was flown in day by day. For the land of the blue island the troops of the yellow capital were raised. This was to hold dear what is profitable, not to covet what is useless. How could we not know when to stop? We feared to lose the trust of your late lord.

Now the strong robbers have been cleared away and the enemy has lost his country, and soldiers and horses, jade and silk, the king has these as well. He should be unmoved in heart and in backbone, so that inner and outer help one another, and he should melt down the arrowheads and turn to teaching and make an empty room of his heart. Then of himself he would hand down his plans to his grandsons and shelter his children under his wings. Would not the praise of a good historian be a fine thing?

Now the king leaves the ground of his safety and wearies of the plan he has always kept. Far off he goes against the command of Heaven, and near at hand he casts away the word of his father. He makes light of the season of Heaven and does violence to it, and he raids and deceives his good neighbor. From one corner of land, a crooked and out-of-the-way nook, he levies soldiers house by house and lifts the axe year after year, and widowed women haul the grain and little children work the garrison fields. In defense he has nothing to hold with, and in advance he cannot withstand.

Seeking help he gets loss, and seeking to keep what he has he adds to what is gone, so that great and small are not matched and the order of going against and going with is broken. It is like a man who goes out with a pellet bow and is blind to the danger of the dry well, or who goes forward to catch the cicada and does not know the trouble of the yellow sparrow. This is where the king does not know how to measure.

While your late king was alive he early received the care of Heaven, yet, when one looks closely, he harbored a dangerous and crooked heart and borrowed the forms of opening his sincerity. He followed his own private desire and coveted the highest merit of Heaven, and hoping meanly for the favor already given he planned the treachery that came after. In this your late lord was not what an elder should be.

Surely the oath that the river should shrink to a belt still stands, and the parting of righteousness is like frost. To go against the command of one's lord is not loyalty, and to turn one's back on the heart of one's father is not filial duty. With two names in one body, how can a man be at peace in himself?

That the king and his father rose and stood in a single morning was all because the feeling of Heaven reached far and its majesty and its strength upheld them, so that the four-square provinces and the joined districts became at last like tangled roots. From that time he received the letters of investiture and bowed and called himself a subject.

He sits and orders the classics and knows the Odes and the Rites in full, and yet he hears righteousness and does not follow it, and sees goodness and makes light of it. He listens to the talk of the wandering persuaders and troubles the spirit of his ears and eyes; he makes little of the ground of a high gate and draws upon himself the reproach of the spirits that look down. Holding the great work of his late lord, he plans another thing. Within he breaks down the subjects he suspects, and without he calls in strong ranks. How can this be called wise?

Again, Anseung of Goguryeo is still young in years. In the valleys that are left and the broken walls the living are halved, and he himself carries the doubt of going or staying and cannot bear the weight of collar and belt. The tower ships of Rengui spread their sails to the wind at last and went along the northern shore with banners joined, and yet, in pity for a bird whose feathers were wounded by the arrow of former days, I could not bring myself to send troops against him. To lean upon such a man for help from outside, what a mistake this is!

The virtue and the bounty of the Emperor are without shore and the wind of his benevolence reaches far. His love is like the light of the sun and his shining like the flowers of spring.

He heard the news from afar and was troubled and did not believe it, and so he commanded a lesser subject to come and see the cause of it. Yet the king has sent no man to ask after us and has not cheered the army with oxen and wine. Instead he has hidden armor at the Sparrow Pond and concealed troops at the river mouth, creeping through the woods and thickets and panting on the weedy hills. He secretly puts out a blade that will kill himself, and he has no breath left to hold out against us.

The great army has not yet come out, and already the roving troops go everywhere. They look upon the sea and float on the river, and the fish are startled and the birds hide. From a state such as this the affairs of men may be measured. Sunk in confusion and wild with error, he should be glad to know when to stop.

He who raises a great matter does not covet a small gain, and he who leans upon a high resolve rests upon what is outstanding and rare. If indeed the phoenix will not be tamed and the wolf and the jackal still look back, then the Han horsemen of General Gao, the frontier troops of Li Jinxing, the boat-song men of Wu and Chu and the fierce young men of Youzhou and Bingzhou will gather like clouds on all four sides and come down with their boats abreast, and they will build their garrisons against the steep places and open the ground and till the fields. This is the king's sickness beyond cure.

If the king would sing as a man worn with toil sings, and would stretch himself out only after the matter is bent, then let him set out the causes in full and make plain this side and that. Rengui long attended the great carriage and received his charge in person, and if he writes down the case and reports it, the matter will surely come back into the light. Why hurry in bitterness and tangle and trouble himself?

Alas. Once he was loyal and righteous, and now he is a rebel subject. It is bitter that the beginning was fortunate and the end is ill, and it is a grief that the root was one and the tip is different. The wind is high and the air is keen, the leaves fall and the year is sad, and when I lean on the mountain and look far off my heart is wounded.

The king's wit and wisdom are clear and bright and his bearing and his spirit are fresh and fine. Let him return to the righteousness that lets modesty flow and abide in a heart that follows and goes forward, so that the blood offerings keep their season and the mat of thatch is not changed. To take hold of what is good and to receive blessing, this is the king's best plan. Even between sharp blades, envoys come and go. Now I send Imyun, a monk of the king's own following, with this letter, and I wait for a word or two in return."

The great king sent an answering letter, saying:

"My late king, in the twenty-second year of Zhenguan, went into the court and received in person the gracious edict of the Emperor Taizong Wen.

'I strike Goguryeo now for no other cause than this. I pity you of Silla, caught between two countries and suffering raids and insults, so that you have no year of peace. Mountains and rivers and land are not what I covet, and jade and silk and sons and daughters are already mine. When I have settled the two countries, I shall give the land of Baekje south of Pyongyang to you of Silla, that you may be at ease forever.'

So he handed down the plan and appointed the time for the troops. The people of Silla heard the gracious edict in full, and every man stored up his strength and every house waited to be used.

Before the great matter was ended the Emperor Wen died first, and the present Emperor came to the throne and carried on the former grace, so that we met his kindness again and again, more than in the days before. Brothers and sons wore the gold at their breasts and trailed the purple cords, and such a height of glory and favor has not been from of old. Though our bodies were ground to powder and our bones broken, we hoped to spend ourselves in running at his service; though our livers and brains were smeared upon the plain, we looked to repay one part in ten thousand.

In the fifth year of Xianqing the Sage above felt that the will of the late Emperor was not finished and would complete the thread left from former days, and he floated the ships and commanded his generals and raised a great fleet. My late king was worn in years and weak in strength and could not bear the march, yet he felt again the grace of former days and forced himself as far as the head of the border, and he sent me to lead the troops and meet the great army. East and west called and answered and water and land went forward together. The fleet had but entered the river mouth when the land army had already broken the great robbers. The two armies came together to the royal capital and settled the whole country between them.

After the settling, my late king took counsel with Su the daechonggwan and left ten thousand Han troops there, and Silla also sent my younger brother Intae with seven thousand troops to hold Ungjin with them.

After the great army had gone back, the rebel subject Boksin rose west of the river and gathered up the embers that were left and pressed hard upon the walled town of the governorate. First he broke the outer palisade and took away all the stores of the army, and then he attacked the town again until it was all but fallen. He also built forts in four places near the town and kept watch around it, so that none could go in or out of the town.

I led troops and went to its relief and raised the siege, and I broke down all the rebel forts on the four sides. First I saved it from its danger and then I carried grain in again, so that in the end the ten thousand Han troops were spared the peril of the tiger's jaws, and the starving garrison that stayed there did not come to trading children and eating them.

By the sixth year the followers of Boksin grew more and more and raided and took the land east of the river, and a thousand Han troops from Ungjin went to strike the rebel band and were broken by them, and not one man came back. From that defeat onward the calls from Ungjin for troops followed one another day and night. There was much plague in Silla and we could not call up troops and horses, yet it was hard to refuse so bitter a request, and so we sent out a host and went and surrounded Juryuseong. The rebels knew our troops were few and at once came out and struck, and we lost troops and horses heavily and came back without profit.

The walled towns of the south all revolted at once and went over to Boksin, and Boksin rode his victory and surrounded the town of the governorate again. With that the road to Ungjin was cut and their salt and bean paste ran out, and so we gathered strong men and sent salt by a stolen road and relieved their want and their hardship.

In the sixth month my late king died, and the burial was scarcely over and the mourning dress not yet put off, so that we could not answer the call, when an edict bade us send out troops and go north. Liu Demin the chonggwan of the Hamjado and the others came, bearing an edict that Silla should carry and supply the army grain for Pyongyang.

At this time a man came from Ungjin and told us in full how alone and how endangered the town of the governorate was. Chonggwan Liu took counsel with me and said of himself, 'If the army grain for Pyongyang is sent first, I fear the road to Ungjin will be cut, and if the road to Ungjin is cut, the Han troops of the garrison will fall into the hands of the rebels.' So Chonggwan Liu went along with me and we struck Ongsanseong first. When Ongsan had been taken, we built a fort at Ungjin as well and opened the road to Ungjin.

By the twelfth month the grain at Ungjin was gone. To carry it to Ungjin first was to fear that we broke the edict, and to send it to Pyongyang was to fear that Ungjin would be left without grain. Therefore we chose out the old and the weak and sent them carrying to Ungjin, and the strong and chosen troops went toward Pyongyang. Those who carried the grain to Ungjin met the snow on the road, and men and horses died to the last, and not one in a hundred came back.

In the first month of the second year of Longshuo, Chonggwan Liu together with Kim Yusin the chonggwan of the Yanghado of Silla and the others sent the army grain to Pyongyang. At that time cloud and rain lasted a month on end and the wind and the snow were bitterly cold, and men and horses froze to death, so that we could not bring through the army grain we carried. The great army at Pyongyang too wished to turn back.

The troops and horses of Silla too turned back when their grain was gone. The soldiers were hungry and cold and their hands and feet were frostbitten, and those who died on the road were beyond counting. When they came to the Horoha, the troops and horses of Goguryeo followed after them and drew up their ranks on the bank. The soldiers of Silla had long been worn and spent, yet they feared that the enemy would pursue them far, and before the enemy had crossed the river they crossed first and crossed blades. The van had scarcely met when the rebel band fell apart like tiles, and so they gathered their troops and came home.

These troops had not been home a month when the town of the governorate at Ungjin asked again and again for seed grain, and what was sent first and last was some tens of thousands of seok. Carrying south to Ungjin and supplying north to Pyongyang, little Silla divided its supply between the two places. The strength of the people was spent to the end and the oxen and the horses all died. The tilling lost its season and the grain of that year did not ripen, and even the store in the granaries was shipped away and gone. The people of Silla had not grass roots enough, while the Han troops at Ungjin had food to spare.

Again, the Han troops of the garrison had long been away from home and their clothes were worn to pieces and they had not a whole coat upon them, and so Silla urged and assessed its people and sent them clothing for the season. Liu Renyuan the doho held a lone town far off with rebels on all four sides, and he was forever under the raids and the sieges of Baekje and forever relieved by Silla. Ten thousand Han troops were clothed and fed by Silla for four years. From Renyuan down to the common soldiers, their skin and bones were born in the land of Han, but their blood and flesh are all of Silla. Though the grace and bounty of your country are without shore, the loyalty that Silla has offered is also worth some pity.

In the third year of Longshuo, Chonggwan Sun Renshi led troops and came to relieve the town of the governorate, and the troops and horses of Silla also set out and went with them and came to the foot of Juryuseong. At this time the ships and men of the country of Wa came to help Baekje, and a thousand ships of Wa lay at Baeksa, and the chosen horsemen of Baekje guarded the ships from the bank. The swift horsemen of Silla were the van for the Han troops and broke the ranks on the bank first, and Juryu lost heart and at once came down and surrendered.

When the south was settled the army turned back to strike the north, but Imjon alone held to its error and would not surrender. The two armies joined their strength and struck that one fort together, but it held fast and resisted and could not be taken. Silla wished to turn back, and Du the daebu said, 'By the edict, after the settling is done we are to meet and swear together. Though Imjon alone has not come down, we may still swear the oath together.'

Silla thought thus. By the edict we were to meet and swear together after 'the settling is done'; Imjon had not surrendered, and so it could not be said that 'the settling is done.' And Baekje is crafty and false in a hundred ways and turns this way and that and is never constant, so that though we met and swore together now, we feared there would be the grief of biting one's own navel afterward. So we reported and asked that the oath be stayed.

In the first year of Linde a stern edict came down again, blaming us for not swearing, and so we sent men to Ungnyeong and built an altar and met and swore together. The place of the oath was then made the border between the two. The meeting and the oath were not what we wished, yet we did not dare to go against the edict.

Again, an altar was built at Chwirisan, and facing Liu Renyuan the envoy of the edict we drank blood and swore together, taking the mountains and the streams to witness. We drew the border and set up the mounds and made it the bound of our lands forever, and the people settled there and each carried on his own living.

In the second year of Qianfeng I heard that the great chonggwan the Duke of Ying was striking Liaodong, and I went to Hanseongju and sent troops to gather at the head of the border. The troops and horses of Silla could not go in alone, and so we sent spies three times and sent ships one after another to look for the great army. The spies came back and all said, 'The great army has not yet reached Pyongyang.'

We also struck Chiljungseong in Goguryeo to open the road, and waited for the great army to come. When the fort was on the point of falling, the Duke of Ying sent a man, Gangsim, to say, 'I have the order of the great chonggwan. The troops and horses of Silla need not strike the fort, but should go early to Pyongyang, and the army grain will be given there.' We were bidden to go and join them, and on the way we came to Sugokseong and heard that the great army had already turned back, and so the troops and horses of Silla drew off and came home too.

In the third year of Qianfeng we sent Kim Boga the daegam over the sea to receive the going and the halting of the Duke of Ying. The order we received was that the troops and horses of Silla should go and gather at Pyongyang. In the fifth month Liu the right chancellor came and raised the troops and horses of Silla and went with them to Pyongyang. I too went to Hanseongju and inspected the troops and horses. At this time the frontier troops and the many Han armies all gathered at the Sasu, and Namgeon sent out troops to settle it in one battle.

The troops and horses of Silla alone were the van and broke the great ranks first, and within the walls of Pyongyang the blades were blunted and the spirit shrank. Afterward the Duke of Ying took five hundred more of the swift horsemen of Silla and sent them in at the gate of the city first, and so Pyongyang was broken and the great work was done.

At this all the soldiers of Silla said, 'Nine years have passed since we went out to war and the strength of men is spent, but at last the two countries are settled. The long hope of many generations is fulfilled this day. Surely the country will receive the grace due to those who gave all their loyalty, and every man the reward due to those who gave their strength.'

But the Duke of Ying let fall these words: 'Silla broke the appointed time for its troops before, and this too must be reckoned and settled.' When the soldiers of Silla heard this, their fear grew. Moreover the officers who had won merit were written down and sent to the court, and they had already reached the capital when it was said, 'Now Silla has no merit at all.' When the officers came home, the people feared all the more.

Again, the fort of Biyeol was Silla's from the first, and Goguryeo took it and held it some thirty years, and Silla got this fort back and moved its people in and set officials to hold it, and this fort too was taken and given back to Goguryeo. And from the settling of Baekje to the settling of Goguryeo, Silla gave all its loyalty and all its strength and did not fail your country, and without knowing what its crime was it was cast aside in one morning. Yet with wrong and injustice such as this upon us, we have never had a heart to turn against you.

In the first year of Zongzhang, Baekje moved the mounds and changed the marks at the place of the oath and raided and took our fields and our land, and they lured away our slaves and enticed our people and hid them in the inner country. We asked for them again and again, and to the end they were not given back.

Word was passed about as well, saying, 'The repairing of the ships by your country is in name a strike against the country of Wa, but in truth they mean to strike Silla.' The people heard it and were startled and afraid and had no peace.

Again, a woman of Baekje was married to Bak Doyu the governor of Hanseong in Silla, and they plotted and laid their plans together to steal the weapons of Silla and fall upon the land of one province. By good fortune the matter came to light and Doyu was beheaded at once, and what they had planned came to nothing.

In the sixth month of the first year of Xianheng, Goguryeo plotted revolt and killed all the Han officials. Silla was about to send out troops, and first sent word to Ungjin, saying, 'Goguryeo has revolted and cannot be left unpunished. This side and that are both subjects of the Emperor, and by right we should strike the fierce rebels together. The sending out of troops must be talked over, and we ask you to send an officer here to plan and gather with us.'

Ye Gun the sama of Baekje came here, and we talked it over together, and he said, 'After the troops are sent out, I fear that this side and that will come to suspect each other. The officers of the two places should exchange hostages with one another.' So we sent Kim Yudon, with Sumi and Janggwi the jubu of Baekje in the walled town and the others, to go to the town and discuss the exchanging of hostages. Baekje allowed the hostages, and yet gathered troops and horses in the town, and when our men came to the foot of that town they came out and struck them by night.

In the seventh month Kim Heumsun and the others, who had gone into the court, arrived, and being about to draw the line of the border they looked at the map and opened out the old land of Baekje and had it all cut off and given back. The Yellow River has not yet become a belt and Mount Tai has not yet become a whetstone, and within three or four years it is given once and taken once, so that the people of Silla all lost what they had hoped for from the first and all said, 'Silla and Baekje are deep enemies of many generations. Now we see the state of Baekje, and it will set itself up as a country apart, and a hundred years hence our children and grandchildren will surely see themselves swallowed up.

Silla is already a province of your country and cannot be divided into two countries. Let us be one house, that there be no trouble hereafter.'

In the ninth month of last year we wrote down the state of the matter in full and sent an envoy to report it, but he was driven back by the wind. We sent another envoy, and he too could not get through. After that the wind was cold and the waves were swift and we could not report at all. Baekje framed a report and said, 'Silla has revolted.'

Silla first lost the goodwill of a noble officer and then suffered the slander of Baekje, and going forward or drawing back it was found at fault and could not lay open its loyal heart. Slanders that seem to be true pass the sage ears every day, while a loyalty with no second thought has never once got through.

The envoy Imyun has come and I have received your letter, unworthy as I am, and I know that the chonggwan has braved wind and wave and come far beyond the sea. By right I should have sent men to meet you outside the walls and offered you oxen and wine, but I live far off in another town and could not pay you that courtesy, and at times I have failed to receive you. I ask you not to think it strange.

I have opened and read the letter the chonggwan sent, and in it Silla is held to be already a rebel and a traitor. This was never in my heart, and I was startled and afraid. To count up my own labors is to fear the reproach of shame such as this, and to shut my mouth and take the blame is to enter the number of those who cannot be mourned, and so I now set out my wrong and my injustice in outline and write down in full that there has been no revolt.

Your country has not sent down one single envoy to ask the cause of it, but sends a host of tens of thousands at once to overturn our nest and our burrow. The tower ships fill the blue sea and stem and stern are joined at the river mouth, and you reckon with that Ungjin in order to strike this Silla.

Alas. When the two countries were not yet settled, we were driven and used wherever the trail was pointed. Now that the wild beasts are gone, we see instead the pressing of the pot and the carving knife.

Baekje, that was left as a robber, receives instead the reward of Yong Chi, and Silla, that died for Han, has already seen the beheading of Ding Gong. Though the shining of the great sun does not turn its light this way, the heart of the sunflower still keeps its turning toward the sun.

The chonggwan has by nature the choice spirit of a hero and holds the high timber of a general and a minister, and the seven virtues are complete in him and he has ranged over the nine schools of learning. Carry out the punishment of Heaven with reverence, but do not lay it recklessly upon what is not a crime. Before the soldiers of Heaven come out, ask first for the cause.

By this letter I make bold to set out that we have not revolted, and I ask the chonggwan to look into it and weigh it for himself, and to write down the case in full and report it.

Grand governor of Gyerimju, general-in-chief of the Left Guard, gaebu-uidong-samsa, sangjuguk and king of Silla, Kim Beommin, makes this report."

Soburiju was set up, and Jinwang of the rank of achan was made its governor.

In the ninth month Gao Kan the general of Tang and the others led forty thousand frontier troops to Pyongyang, and they dug their ditches deep and raised their ramparts high and raided Daebang.

In winter, the tenth month, on the sixth day, more than seventy grain ships of Tang were attacked, and Qian'er Dahou the nangjang and more than a hundred soldiers were taken. Those who sank and drowned were beyond counting. Dangcheon of the rank of geupchan was first in merit, and he was given the rank of sachan.

In the twelfth year, in spring, the first month, the king sent a general to attack Goseongseong in Baekje and took it. In the second month he attacked Garimseong in Baekje and did not take it.

In autumn, the seventh month, Gao Kan the general of Tang with ten thousand troops and Li Jinxing with thirty thousand troops came to Pyongyang at one time and made eight camps and stayed there. In the eighth month they attacked Hansiseong and Maeupseong and took them, and they pushed their troops forward and made a camp some five hundred paces from Baeksuseong. The troops of Silla met them in battle together with the troops of Goguryeo and cut off several thousand heads. When Gao Kan and the others drew back, they pursued them to Seokmun and fought there, and the troops of Silla were heavily beaten. Hyocheon of the rank of daeachan, Uimun and Sanse of the rank of sachan, Neungsin and Duseon of the rank of achan, and Annaham and Yangsin of the rank of ilgilchan died there.

Jujangseong was built at Hansanju, four thousand three hundred and sixty paces around. In the ninth month a comet appeared seven times in the north.

Baekje had gone to Tang before this and complained and asked for troops to raid Silla, and the state of things was so urgent that the king had sent out troops and struck them without being able to report it. For this he had offended the great court, and so he sent Woncheon of the rank of geupchan and Byeonsan of the rank of nama, together with those he had held from the warships, Qian'er Dahou the nangjang, Wang Yi the sama of Laizhou, Wang Yi the jangsa of Bonyeolju, Ye Gun the sama of the governorate of Ungju, Facong the sama of Jeungsan and a hundred and seventy soldiers, and he sent up a memorial begging pardon for his crime, saying:

"Your subject, a man deserving death, speaks with reverence. In days past, when your subject was in peril and his affairs were as of one hung upside down, he received rescue from afar and was spared destruction.

Though my body were ground to powder and my bones to meal, it would not be enough to repay so great a grace above, and though my head were crushed to ash and dust, how could I look up and answer your kind making?

Yet Baekje, my deep enemy, has pressed close upon your subject's border and has called in the soldiers of Heaven to destroy your subject and wash away its own shame. Your subject, in haste lest he be broken and destroyed, sought only to stay alive, and so came wrongly under the name of a fierce rebel and fell at last into a crime hard to pardon.

Your subject fears that he may follow the punishment before the meaning of the matter is set forth, and become a subject who defied his orders while he lives and a ghost who turned his back on grace when he is dead. With reverence he writes down the state of the matter and reports it at the risk of death, and he prays, bowing low, that you let down your divine hearing a little and look clearly into the cause of it.

Your subject, from the generations before him, has never broken off his tribute, but of late, because of Baekje, he has twice marred the tribute of his office and so has made the sage court speak out and command its generals to punish your subject's crime. Death would leave punishment still owing. The bamboo of Nanshan is not enough to write your subject's crimes upon, and the forest of Baoxie is not enough to make your subject's fetters from. Though you make a pond of his ancestral shrine and his altar and tear his body apart, he will hear the judgment of your edict and take the beheading gladly.

Your subject keeps the cart with his coffin at his side and the mud is not yet dry upon his brow, and he weeps blood and waits upon the court and bows low to hear the word of his punishment.

Bowing low, I think that Your Majesty the Emperor is bright as the sun and the moon, so that all that takes the light receives your bending rays, and your virtue matches Heaven and Earth, so that what moves and what is planted are all nourished by you. The virtue that loves life reaches far, down to the insects, and the benevolence that hates killing flows out even to what flies and what swims. If you would send down the pardon that strips off the robe and lets a man go, and grant the grace that keeps his waist and his neck whole, then even the year of his death would be as a day of his life.

This is not what I dare hope for, yet I make bold to set out what is in my heart, and I cannot master the will to fall upon my sword.

With reverence I send Woncheon and the others to bear up this memorial and beg pardon for my crime, and I bow low to hear your edict. Your servant bows his head, bows his head. A crime deserving death, a crime deserving death."

He also presented thirty-three thousand five hundred bun of silver, thirty-three thousand bun of copper, four hundred needles, a hundred and twenty bun of ox bezoar, a hundred and twenty bun of gold, six pil of forty-sae fine cloth and sixty pil of thirty-sae cloth. In this year grain was dear and the people went hungry.

In the thirteenth year, in spring, the first month, a great star fell on Hwangnyongsa, within the walls of the city. Gangsu was made sachan and given two hundred seok of grain a year. In the second month Seohyeongsanseong was built up higher.

In summer, the sixth month, a tiger came into the courtyard of the great palace, and it was killed.

In autumn, the seventh month, on the first day, Yusin died. Daeto of the rank of achan plotted revolt and would have gone over to Tang, but the matter leaked out and he was put to death, and his wife and children were made slaves.

In the eighth month Cheongwang of the rank of pajinchan was made jungsi. Sayeolsanseong was built up higher.

In the ninth month Gugwonseong, Bukhyeongsanseong, Somunseong and Isanseong were built, and Juyangseong in Suyakju, Jujamseong in Dalham-gun, Manheungsasanseong in Georyeolju and Goljaenghyeonseong in Samnyangju. The king sent Cheolcheon of the rank of daeachan and others to lead a hundred warships and guard the western sea.

The troops of Tang came with the troops of the Malgal and the Khitan and raided the northern border, and there were nine battles in all, and the troops of Silla won them and cut off more than two thousand heads. Of the troops of Tang, those who drowned in the two rivers Horo and Wangbong were beyond reckoning.

In winter the troops of Tang attacked Ujamseong in Goguryeo and made it surrender. The troops of the Khitan and the Malgal attacked Daeyangseong and Dongjaseong and destroyed them.

For the first time oesajeong were set up, two to a province and one to a district. At the first, King Taejong had destroyed Baekje and disbanded the garrison troops, and now at this time they were set up again.

In the fourteenth year, in spring, the first month, Deokbokjeon of the rank of daenama, who had gone into Tang to serve in the guard, came back from studying the art of the calendar, and the new calendar was taken up in its place.

The king took in the rebel people of Goguryeo and also held the old land of Baekje and set men to guard it. Gaozong of Tang was greatly angered, and by edict he stripped the king of his office and rank and set up the king's younger brother Inmun, who was in the capital, as king of Silla and sent him back to his country. Inmun was general-in-chief without establishment of the Right Valiant Guard and duke of Imhae-gun. Liu Rengui was made daechonggwan of the Gyerimdo, and he was jwaseoja and dongjungseomunha-sampum. Li Bi the wiwigyeong and Li Jinxing the general-in-chief of the Right Guard Army were made his seconds, and troops were sent out to punish Silla.

In the second month a pond was dug and a hill raised within the palace, and flowers and grasses were planted and rare birds and strange beasts were kept.

In autumn, the seventh month, a great wind tore down the Buddha hall of Hwangnyongsa. In the eighth month there was a great review below Seohyeongsan.

In the ninth month Uian the master of the law was made daeseoseong, and Anseung was invested as king of Bodeok (報德王). In the tenth year Anseung was invested as king of Goguryeo, and now he is invested again; it is not known whether the word 'Bodeok' is the same as gwimyeong (歸命) or whether it is the name of a place. The king went to the road in front of Yeongmyosa and reviewed the troops and watched the six-formation tactics of Seol Sujin of the rank of achan.

In the fifteenth year, in spring, the first month, seals for the many offices and for the provinces and districts were cast in copper and given out.

In the second month Liu Rengui broke the troops of Silla at Chiljungseong. Rengui led his troops back, and by edict Li Jinxing was made great commissioner of pacification for Andong and set to govern the land. The king then sent an envoy to bring tribute and beg pardon, and the Emperor forgave him and gave back his office and rank. Kim Inmun turned back on the road and was invested instead as duke of Imhae-gun. Yet Silla took much of the land of Baekje and made provinces and districts of it as far as the southern border of Goguryeo.

Hearing that the troops of Tang were coming to raid together with the troops of the Khitan and the Malgal, the king sent out the nine armies and waited for them.

In autumn, the ninth month, Xue Rengui, because Kim Jinju the father of Punghun the student of the guard had been put to death in his own country, drew Punghun in as his guide and came to attack Cheonseong. Munhun the general of Silla and the others met them in battle and beat them and cut off one thousand four hundred heads and took forty warships. Rengui raised the siege and fled, and a thousand war horses were taken.

On the twenty-ninth day Li Jinxing led two hundred thousand troops and camped at Maechoseong, and the troops of Silla struck them and drove them off and took thirty thousand three hundred and eighty war horses, and the other weapons in like number.

An envoy was sent into Tang with the goods of the land. Barrier forts were set up along the Anbukha, and Cheolgwanseong was built as well.

The Malgal came into Adalseong and plundered it, and Sona the lord of the fort met them in battle and died. The troops of Tang came with the troops of the Khitan and the Malgal and surrounded Chiljungseong, but did not take it.

Yudong the sosu died. The Malgal also surrounded Jeokmokseong and destroyed it, and Talgi the magistrate led the people and withstood them, and when their strength was spent they died together. The troops of Tang also surrounded Seokhyeonseong and took it, and Seonbaek and Silmo the magistrates and the others fought with all their strength and died. The troops of Silla also fought eighteen battles great and small with the troops of Tang and won them all, and cut off six thousand and forty-seven heads and took two hundred war horses.

In the sixteenth year, in spring, the second month, the eminent monk Uisang received the king's will and founded Buseoksa.

In autumn, the seventh month, a comet appeared between Bukha and Jeoksu, six or seven paces long. The troops of Tang came to attack Dorimseong and took it, and Geosiji the magistrate died. Jagyanggung was built.

In winter, the eleventh month, Sideuk of the rank of sachan led the ships and men and fought Xue Rengui at Gibeolpo in Soburiju and was beaten, and then he went forward again and fought twenty-two battles great and small and won them and cut off more than four thousand heads.

Jinsun the chief minister asked to retire from office, but it was not allowed, and he was given an armrest and a staff.

In the seventeenth year, in spring, the third month, the king watched the archery at the south gate of Gangmujeon. The Jwasarokgwan was set up for the first time. Soburiju presented a white hawk.

In the eighteenth year, in spring, the first month, one seonburyeong was set up to take charge of ships and oars. One gyeong was added to each of the Left and Right Ibangbu. The lesser capital of Bugwon was set up, and Ogi of the rank of daeachan was set to guard it.

In the third month Chunjang of the rank of daeachan was made jungsi.

In summer, the fourth month, Cheonhun of the rank of achan was made governor of Mujinju.

In the fifth month Bugwon presented a strange bird whose feathers had markings and whose legs had hair.

In the nineteenth year, in spring, the first month, Chunjang the jungsi left office for sickness, and Cheonjon of the rank of seobulhan was made jungsi. In the second month an envoy was sent to raid the country of Tamna. The palace was greatly repaired, and it was very grand and very fair.

In summer, the fourth month, Hyeonghok guarded Urim. In the sixth month Taebaek entered the moon, and a shooting star trespassed on the great star of Sam.

In autumn, the eighth month, Taebaek entered the moon. Cheonjon of the rank of gakgan died. The eastern palace was built, and for the first time the names of the many gates within and without were fixed. Sacheonwangsa was finished. Namsanseong was built up higher.

In the twentieth year, in spring, the second month, Kim Gungwan of the rank of ichan was made sangdaedeung.

In the third month vessels of gold and silver and a hundred rolls of figured silk of many colors were given to Anseung the king of Bodeok, and then the king's own sister was given him in marriage. A written order came down, saying:

"The root of the way of men is the husband and the wife before all, and the ground of a king's teaching has the continuing of the line for its chief thing. The king's magpie nest stands empty and the crowing of the cock is on his mind, and the rite of the help within cannot be left empty for long, nor the work of raising a house be missed forever. Now on a good day at a good season, following the old ordinance, I make my sister your mate. Let the king make his heart and his duty firm with her and serve the ancestral shrine, and let him make his children and grandchildren flourish and be rich as the rock forever. Is this not a great thing? Is it not a fair thing?"

In summer, the fifth month, the king of Goguryeo sent Yeonmu the general-in-chief and others with a memorial, saying:

"Your subject Anseung speaks. Kim Gwanjang of the rank of daeachan came and set forth and delivered your command, and with it your written order was given, making your sister's daughter the lady of our humble town, and she came here on the fifteenth day of the fourth month. Joy and fear are together in me and I do not know where to put myself.

I think quietly on this. That the daughter of the Emperor went down to the Gui and that the king's lady was married into Qi showed forth the sage virtue from the first, and had nothing to do with common ability. Your subject is by nature of the common sort and his conduct and his ability are of no account, yet by good fortune he met a flourishing age and bathed in the sage teaching, and he received a favor set apart again and again and had no way to repay it. Now he receives the love of Heaven once more and is given this marriage, and so at once the rich blossom shows forth the happy event and the grave and gentle harmony makes virtue complete.

In a good month at a good hour she comes home to our poor house, and what is hard to meet in a hundred million years is set forth in one morning. The matter was not what we hoped for at the start and the joy has come beyond all thought. How should it be one or two fathers and elder brothers only? Truly they have received this gift. From our forefathers down they will indeed love it and rejoice in it.

Your subject has not received your command and does not dare to come to court directly, and he cannot master the height of his gladness and his delight. With reverence he sends his general-in-chief Yeonmu, taedaehyeong, to bear up this memorial and report."

The lesser capital of Geumgwan was set up in Gaya-gun.

In the twenty-first year, in spring, on the first day of the first month, it was black and dark as night all day long. Museon of the rank of sachan led three thousand chosen troops and garrisoned Biyeolhol. The Usarokgwan was set up.

In summer, the fifth month, there was an earthquake. A shooting star trespassed on the great star of Sam. In the sixth month Cheon'gu fell in the southwest.

The king wished to make the wall of the capital anew and asked Uisang the monk, who answered, "Though a man live in a thatched hut in the grass and the fields, if he walks in the right way his blessed work will last long. If it is otherwise, then though he wear out the people to build a wall, there will be no profit in it either." At this the king stopped the work.

In autumn, the seventh month, on the first day, the king died, and his posthumous name was Munmu (文武). The many officers buried him, as he had said, upon a great rock at the mouth of the Eastern Sea. It is handed down among the people that the king became a dragon, and so they point to that rock and call it Daewangseok (大王石).

His last edict said:

"I was born into a time of confusion and met an age of war and battle. I struck the west and punished the north and won and settled the bounds of the land, and I attacked those who rebelled and called in those who came over, and so gave peace to far and near. Above I comforted the care left me by the ancestral shrine, and below I repaid the old wrong of father and son. I gave rewards to the living and the dead alike and spread offices evenly among those within and those without.

I melted the weapons of war into farm tools and drove the people toward benevolence and long life. I made the taxes light and the labor less, so that houses had enough and men were content, and the people lived at ease and there was no trouble within the land. The granaries were heaped like hills and mountains and the prisons grew thick with grass, and it may be said that I have no shame before the hidden or the manifest and have not failed the officers and the people.

Since I braved the wind and the frost I have come at last to a settled sickness, and worrying and toiling over the government and the teaching I have bound a heavy illness upon myself.

That fortune passes and the name remains is one and the same in old times and now, and if I go suddenly into the long night, what regret is there in it?

The crown prince early gathered a bright radiance and has long held the place of the eastern palace. From the many ministers above to the host of officials below, do not fail in the duty of sending off him who goes, and do not leave out the rites of serving him who stays. The lord of the ancestral shrine cannot be empty for a moment, and so let the crown prince take the throne before the coffin.

Again, hills and valleys shift and change and the generations of men are pushed along. At the grave on the northern hill of the king of Wu, where now is the color of the golden ducks? Looking toward the Western Tomb of the lord of Wei, one hears only the name of the Bronze Sparrow. The hero who once handled ten thousand affairs became at last the earth of one mound, and the woodcutter and the herdboy sing upon it and the fox and the hare dig their holes beside it. It spends wealth for nothing and leaves a reproach in the books, and it wears out the strength of men to no purpose and does not save the hidden soul. When I think of this quietly, the pain and the grief do not stop. Such things are not what I take pleasure in.

Ten days after my breath is gone, burn me with fire in the outer courtyard beyond the gate of the storehouse, after the manner of the Western Country. For the lightness and the heaviness of the mourning dress there is a settled rule of its own, and follow it; and for the ordering of the funeral, strive to follow what is sparing and plain.

Of the guarding of the border forts and the taxes of the provinces and the districts, let whatever is not needful for affairs be weighed and done away with, and where there is anything in the statutes and the ordinances and the forms that is not convenient, change it at once. Proclaim this far and near, that this will may be known, and let those in charge carry it out."

Samguk sagi, book seven.