King Gyeongsun敬順王

King Gyeongsun ascended the throne. He was of the house of Kim, his name was Bu (傅), and he was the son of Hyojong, of the rank of ichan, a descendant of King Munseong the Great. His mother was Grand Queen Gyea. He was raised up by Gyeon Hwon and ascended the throne. He took up the body of the former king and laid it in the western hall, and with his many officials he wept aloud, and offered him the posthumous name Gyeongae (景哀). He buried him at Haemongnyeong on the southern mountain. Taejo sent an envoy to mourn.

In the first year, in the eleventh month, his father was raised after his death to the title of King Sinheung the Great, and his mother to that of Grand Queen. In the twelfth month Gyeon Hwon raided Daemok district and burned up all the grain heaped in the fields.

In the second year, in spring, the first month, Kim Sang, a general of Goryeo, fought with Heungjong, the brigand of Chopal fortress, and did not prevail, and died there.

In summer, the fifth month, Yumun, general of Gangju, surrendered to Gyeon Hwon. In the sixth month the earth shook.

In autumn, the eighth month, Gyeon Hwon ordered his general Gwanheun to build a fortress at Yangsan, and so Taejo ordered Wang Chung, general of Myeongji fortress, to lead troops, strike them and drive them off. Gyeon Hwon went forward and camped below Daeyaseong, and sent soldiers in parties to cut and carry off the standing grain of Daemok district.

In winter, the tenth month, Gyeon Hwon attacked Mugok fortress and took it.

In the third year, in summer, the sixth month, Mahura, a master of the three baskets of the scriptures from the country of Cheonchuk (India), reached Goryeo.

In autumn, the seventh month, Gyeon Hwon attacked the fortress of Uiseong prefecture. Heungsul, a general of Goryeo, went out to fight, and did not prevail, and died there. Wonbong, general of Sunju, surrendered to Gyeon Hwon. When Taejo heard of it he was angry, but mindful of Wonbong's earlier service he pardoned him, and only changed Sunju into a hyeon (縣).

In winter, the tenth month, Gyeon Hwon surrounded Gaeun county, but did not take it, and went back.

In the fourth year, in spring, the first month, Seonpil, general of Jaeam fortress, surrendered to Goryeo. Taejo treated him with rich courtesy and called him sangbo (尙父). At the first, when Taejo was about to open friendly relations with Silla, Seonpil had led him and guided him, and now at this time he surrendered. Mindful of his service, and that he was old as well, Taejo therefore favored him and praised him.

Taejo fought Gyeon Hwon below Byeongsan in Gochang district and won a great victory, and those killed and taken were very many. The thirty odd districts and counties of Yeongan, Hagok, Jingmyeong, Songsaeng and the rest surrendered to Taejo one after another.

In the second month Taejo sent an envoy to announce the victory, and the king sent an envoy in return and asked besides that they might meet each other.

In autumn, the ninth month, the villages of the provinces and districts along the sea in the east of the country all surrendered to Taejo.

In the fifth year, in spring, the second month, Taejo led some fifty horsemen, came to the outskirts of the capital and asked for an audience. The king with all his officials met him outside the walls, and they went into the palace and sat together, and they were full of feeling and of courtesy.

A feast was set out in Imhaejeon, and when the wine was at its height the king said. "I have not had the help of heaven, and little by little I have brought on calamity and disorder. Gyeon Hwon has done unrighteousness as he pleased and has made me lose my country. What is more bitter than this?" Then his tears ran down and he wept, and there was none of those about him who did not choke with weeping, and Taejo too shed tears and comforted him.

For this reason he stayed several tens of days and then turned his carriage back, and the king saw him off as far as Hyeolseong, and made his cousin Yuryeom a hostage to follow the carriage. The soldiers under Taejo were grave and orderly and did not take so much as a hair, and the men and women of the capital rejoiced together and said. "In the past, when the Gyeon came, it was like meeting jackals and tigers. Now the coming of Lord Wang is like seeing our own parents."

In autumn, the eighth month, Taejo sent an envoy and gave the king brocade and silks and a saddled horse, and gave also cloth and silk in differing measure to his many officials and generals and soldiers.

In the sixth year, in spring, the first month, the earth shook. In summer, the fourth month, Kim Bul, sirang of the Jipsa, was sent as envoy, with the deputy envoy Yi Yu, sabin gyeong, to enter Tang and bring tribute.

In the seventh year, Mingzong of Tang sent an envoy to Goryeo and bestowed his command.

In the eighth year, in autumn, the ninth month, the Old Man star appeared. The thirty odd districts and counties within the bounds of Unju surrendered to Taejo.

In the ninth year, in winter, the tenth month, the king saw that the land on all four sides had become another's, and that the country was weak and its position solitary and could not be made safe, and so he took counsel with his many officials and would give up the land and surrender to Taejo. The talk of the officials was that some held it right and some held it not right.

The king's son said. "Whether a country stands or falls, there is surely a command of heaven in it. It is only fitting to gather and hold the hearts of the people together with loyal ministers and righteous men, to make ourselves firm, and to stop only when our strength is spent. How should we lightly give a thousand years of the altars of the state to another in a single morning?"

The king said. "To be solitary and in peril like this is a position that cannot be kept whole. Since we can neither grow strong nor yet grow weak, to go so far as to make the guiltless people smear the ground with their livers and brains is what I cannot bear."

Then he had Kim Bonghyu the sirang carry a letter and ask leave to surrender to Taejo. The king's son wept and took his leave of the king, and went straight to Mount Gaegol, where he leaned a house against the rocks and wore hempen clothes and ate grasses, and so ended his days.

In the eleventh month Taejo received the king's letter, and sent Wang Cheol the daesang and others to receive him. The king led all his officials, set out from the royal capital and went over to Taejo, and the fragrant carriages and the precious horses stretched more than thirty li, and the roads were choked, and the onlookers stood like a wall.

Taejo came out beyond the walls to meet him and comfort him, and gave him a fine mansion east of the palace, and gave him his eldest daughter, Princess Nangnang, to wife. In the twelfth month he was invested as Duke Jeongseung, and his place was above the crown prince, and he was given a stipend of a thousand seok, and the officials and generals who had attended him were all set down and taken into service.

Silla was renamed Gyeongju and made the fief of the duke.

At the first, when Silla surrendered, Taejo was very glad, and after he had treated him with rich courtesy he had a man tell him. "Now the king has given his country to me, and his gift is great. I should like to make a marriage with the royal house, so that the good bond of father in law and son in law may last long."

The answer was. "My uncle Eongnyeom, of the rank of japgan, holds the affairs of Daeya district, and his daughter is fair in both virtue and face. Without this one, there is no way to furnish the inner household."

Taejo then took her, and she bore a son, and this was the father of Hyeonjong, who was raised after his death to be Anjong (安宗). When it came to King Gyeongjong Heonhwa the Great, he took the daughter of Duke Jeongseung and brought her in as his queen, and thereupon invested Duke Jeongseung as sangbo ryeong. The duke died in the third year of Taiping Xingguo of the Great Song, a wuin year, and his posthumous name was given as Gyeongsun (敬順).

The country of Silla, from its founder down to this point, is divided into three. From the beginning to Jindeok, twenty eight rulers, is called the upper age; from Muyeol to Hyegong, eight rulers, is called the middle age; from Seondeok to Gyeongsun, twenty rulers, is called the lower age.

Kim Busik comments.

Of Silla, it is said that the Bak and the Seok were both born from eggs, and that the Kim came down from heaven into a golden chest, or, as some say, rode in a golden carriage. This is the more strange and cannot be believed. Yet the common world has handed it down one to another and takes it for a thing that truly happened.

In the years of Zhenghe, when our court sent the minister Yi Jaryang to enter Song and bring tribute, I, Busik, went with him in the office of writing. We went to the Youshen shrine, and there I saw in one hall the image of a woman immortal set up. Wang Fu, the scholar who received us, said. "This is a god of your country. Do you gentlemen know of her?" Then he said. "In olden times there was a daughter of the imperial house who conceived without a husband and was suspected by men. So she floated on the sea and came to Jinhan, and bore a son who became the first lord of the land east of the sea, and the emperor's daughter became an immortal of the earth and has long been on Mount Seondo. This is her image."

I also saw the writing for the sacrifice to the holy mother of the eastern god, made by Wang Xiang, envoy of state of the Great Song, and in it was the phrase "she conceived a wise man and founded a country." From this I knew that the eastern god was the holy one of Mount Seondo. Yet I do not know in what age her son became king.

Now, tracing back only to its beginning, those who were in the high place were sparing where it concerned themselves and generous where it concerned others; they set out their offices briefly and did their business simply. With the utmost sincerity they served the Middle Kingdom, and their envoys of audience went by ladder and by boat one after another without a break, and always they sent their sons and younger brothers to go to the court and stand guard there, and to enter the schools and study. In this way they took over the manners and teaching of the sages and the worthies, changed a rough and dark custom, and became a country of rites and right.

Again, leaning on the might and the power of the emperor's armies, they subdued Baekje and Goguryeo, and took their land and made it into districts and counties, and this may be called great.

Yet they honored the law of the Buddha and did not know its harm, so that in village after village pagodas and temples stood in rows, and the common people fled into the black robes of the monks, and soldiers and farmers grew fewer and fewer, and the country weakened day by day. How then should it not fall into disorder and be lost as well?

At this time Gyeongae added to it a wild pursuit of pleasure, and with the palace women and those about him went out to play at Poseokjeong, and set out wine and made merry, and did not know that Gyeon Hwon had come. He was no different from Han Qinhu outside the gate and Zhang Lihua up in the tower.

As for Gyeongsun's putting his life in Taejo's hands, though it was a thing he could not help, it may also be called fine. If he had fought with all his strength and held out to the death and stood against the emperor's armies, then when his strength was bent and his position spent, he would surely have overturned his own kin, and the harm would have reached the guiltless people. Instead he did not wait for a command to come, but sealed the storehouses, set down the districts and counties in the registers, and went over. His service to the court and his kindness to the living people were very great.

In olden times, when the Qian took Wu and Yue into Song, Su Zizhan, Su Shi, called him a loyal minister. Now the service and the kindness of Silla go far beyond his.

our Taejo had many queens and consorts, and his sons and grandsons too were many, and Hyeonjong came to the precious seat as a grandson of Silla on the mother's side, and those who carried on the line after him were all his descendants. How should this not be the repayment of a virtue quietly stored up?