Yetgeul › Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) › Annals of Silla

King Minae閔哀王

Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) 三國史記 · Kim Busik and others · 1145 (Goryeo, 23rd year of King Injong) · 2 passages · 345 Chinese characters · reading time 1.4 min

Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) Annals of Silla The oldest surviving history of Korea. It is made up of the annals of Silla, Goguryeo and Baekje, together with the treatises, the tables and the biographies. Kim Busik set his own judgments here and there in passages marked as his comment, so what the compiler doubted and what he rebuked stands there still.

1King Minae ascends the throne

閔哀王立,姓金氏,諱明。元聖大王之曾孫也,大阿飡忠恭之子。累官爲上大等,與侍中利弘,逼王殺之,自立爲王。追諡考爲宣康大王,母朴氏貴寶夫人爲宣懿太后,妻金氏爲允容王后。拜伊飡金貴爲上大等,阿飡憲崇爲侍中。二月,金陽募集兵士,入淸海鎭,謁祐徴。阿飡祐徴在淸海鎭,聞金明簒位,謂鎭大使弓福曰:「金明弑君自立,利弘枉殺吾父,不可共戴天也,願仗將軍之兵,以報君父之讎。」弓福曰:「古人有言:『見義不爲無勇,吾雖庸劣,唯命是從。』」遂分兵五千人,與其友鄭年曰:「非子,不能平禍亂。」冬十二月,金陽爲平東將軍,與閻長、張弁、鄭年、駱金、張建榮、李順行統軍,至武州鐵冶縣,王使大監金敏周,出軍迎戰,遣駱金、李順行,以馬軍三千突撃,殺傷殆盡。

King Minae ascended the throne. His surname was Kim and his name was Myeong (明), and he was a great-grandson of King Wonseong the Great and the son of Chunggong the daeachan. He passed through many offices and became sangdaedeung, and then with Ihong the sijung he pressed the king and killed him, and set himself up as king. He gave his father after his death the posthumous title of King Seongang the Great, his mother Lady Gwibo of the Bak clan that of Grand Queen Seonui, and his wife of the Kim clan that of Queen Yunyong. Kim Gwi the ichan was appointed sangdaedeung, and Heonsung the achan was made sijung.

In the second month Kim Yang gathered soldiers, went into Cheonghaejin, and had audience of Ujing. Ujing the achan, being at Cheonghaejin, heard that Kim Myeong had seized the throne, and he said to Gungbok, the daesa of the garrison, "Kim Myeong has killed his lord and set himself up, and Ihong has wrongfully killed my father. I cannot bear the same sky with them. I would lean upon your soldiers, general, and avenge my lord and my father."

Gungbok said, "The men of old had a saying, 'To see what is right and not to do it is to have no courage.' Poor and worthless as I am, I will follow your command and nothing else." So he divided off five thousand soldiers and gave them to his friend Jeongnyeon, and said, "If it is not you, the disorder cannot be put down."

In winter, the twelfth month, Kim Yang became General Who Pacifies the East, and with Yeomjang, Jang Byeon, Jeongnyeon, Nakgeum, Jang Geonyeong and Yi Sunhaeng he led the army and came to Cheorya county in Muju. The king had Kim Minju the daegam send out troops to meet them in battle; and Nakgeum and Yi Sunhaeng were sent with three thousand horsemen to charge them, and they killed and wounded them until nearly all were gone.

2Second year — King Minae is killed

二年,春閏正月,晝夜兼行。十九日,至于達伐之丘。王聞兵至,命伊飡大昕,大阿飡允璘、嶷勛等,將兵拒之。又一戰,大克,王軍死者過半。時,王在西郊大樹之下,左右皆散,獨立不知所爲,奔入月遊宅,兵士尋而害之。羣臣以禮葬之,諡曰閔哀。

In the second year, in spring, the intercalary first month, they marched by night as well as by day, and on the nineteenth day they came to the hill of Dalbeol. When the king heard that the troops had come, he ordered Daeheun the ichan and Yullin and Eokhun, of the rank of daeachan, and the rest to lead troops and hold them back. There was one more battle, and it was a great victory, and more than half of the king's army died.

At that time the king was under a great tree in the western fields. Those about him had all scattered, and he stood alone and did not know what to do. He ran into Woryu House, but the soldiers searched him out and killed him. The many officers buried him with due rites, and his posthumous name was given as Minae (閔哀).