King Sansang山上王

King Sansang's name was Yeonu (延優), and he was the younger brother of King Gogukcheon. The Book of Wei says. "Gung, a descendant of Jumong, was born with his eyes open and able to see, and he was King Taejo. The present king is the great-grandson of Taejo, and he too looked upon people from birth and was like his great-grandfather Gung. In Goguryeo 'resembling one another' is called 'wi (位)', and so he was named Wigung."

King Gogukcheon had no son, and so Yeonu succeeded to the throne.

At the start, when King Gogukcheon died, Queen U hid it and did not announce the mourning. At night she went to the house of the king's younger brother Balgi and said. "The king has no one to follow him, and you should succeed him."

Balgi did not know that the king had died, and he answered. "The course of heaven has its own place to fall to, and it may not be spoken of lightly. And what rite is it for a woman to walk abroad at night?"

The queen was ashamed, and she went at once to the house of Yeonu. Yeonu rose and put on his robe and cap, and he met her at the gate and led her to a seat, and they feasted and drank.

The queen said. "The great king has died and has no son. Balgi is the elder and should succeed him, but he said that I had another heart, and he was harsh and haughty and without courtesy. This is why I have come to see my husband's younger brother."

Then Yeonu treated her with greater courtesy, and he took up the knife himself to slice the meat, and by mistake he cut his finger. The queen loosened the band of her skirt and bound up the cut finger.

When she was about to return she said to Yeonu. "The night is deep, and I fear something may befall me. Will you see me back to the palace?" Yeonu did as she said, and the queen took his hand and entered the palace.

The next day at first light they made out falsely that it was the former king's command, and they had the officers set up Yeonu as king.

Balgi heard of it and was greatly angered, and he ringed the royal palace with soldiers and cried out. "When the elder brother dies the younger follows him, and that is the rite. You have leapt over your turn and seized it, and that is a great crime. Come out at once. If you do not, the killing will reach your wife and children."

Yeonu shut his gate for three days. Nor was there anyone among the people of the country who followed Balgi. Balgi saw that it was hopeless, and he fled to Liaodong with his wife and children. He saw Gongsun Kang the prefect and told him. "I am the younger brother, by the same mother, of Nammu the king of Goguryeo. Nammu died and had no son, and my younger brother Yeonu plotted with his elder brother's wife Lady U and ascended the throne, and so he cast aside the way that heaven sets between kin. This is why I am bitter and have come to give myself up to the great country. I bow and beg you to lend me thirty thousand soldiers, so that I may strike him and put down the disorder."

Gongsun Kang did as he asked. Yeonu sent his younger brother Gyesu to lead soldiers and hold them off, and the Han army was greatly beaten.

Gyesu himself went in the front rank and chased the fleeing men, and Balgi said to Gyesu. "Will you now bear to harm your old elder brother?"

Gyesu could not be without feeling for a brother, and he did not dare to harm him, and he said. "It was not right of Yeonu to keep the country and not yield it, but you in the anger of a moment would destroy the land of your fathers. What does this mean? After your body is dead, with what face will you meet those who went before?"

Balgi heard it, and he could not bear his shame and regret, and he fled as far as Baecheon and cut his own throat and died.

Gyesu wept bitterly and gathered up the body, and he buried it under grass and returned.

The king was sorrowful and glad at once, and he drew Gyesu within and feasted him and saw him with the rite of one of his own household, and he said. "Balgi begged soldiers of another country and came against the state, and no crime is greater than that. Now you have beaten him, and to let him go and not kill him was enough. But when he died by his own hand you wept most bitterly. Do you then call me a man without the way?"

Gyesu, with a sorrowful face and tears held back, answered. "Your servant begs to say one word and then die."

The king said. "What is it?"

Gyesu said. "The queen set up the great king in the name of the former king's last command, but the great king did not decline it as courtesy asks, and there was never any duty of brotherly kindness and respect. Your servant wished to make the great king's name beautiful, and so he gathered up the body and laid it out. How could he have thought that he would meet the great king's anger for it? If the great king forgets the wrong in kindness and buries him with the rite of an elder brother, who will say that the great king is not righteous? Your servant has spoken already, and though he die he lives. I beg to go out and take the sword from the officer in charge."

The king heard his words, and he came forward to the front of the mat and sat, and with a warm face he comforted him and said. "I am not worthy, and I could not be without doubt. Now that I have heard your words, I truly know my fault. I beg you not to blame me." The king's son bowed to him, and the king bowed to him as well, and they took their fill of gladness and ended.

In autumn, the ninth month, the officer in charge was ordered to receive Balgi's body and bury it at Baeryeong with the rite of a king.

The king had gained his place through Lady U from the first, and so he did not marry again, and he set up Lady U as queen.

In the second year, in spring, the second month, the fortress of Hwando was built. In summer, the fourth month, those in the country whose crime was of the second degree or below were pardoned.

In the third year, in autumn, the ninth month, the king hunted at Jiryang.

In the seventh year, in spring, the third month, the king had no son, and he prayed to the mountains and the rivers. On the night of the fifteenth of that month he dreamed, and heaven said to him. "I will let your lesser queen bear a son. Do not grieve."

The king awoke and said to his officers. "In my dream heaven told me this, over and over. But I have no lesser queen. What am I to do?"

Paso answered. "The command of heaven cannot be measured. Let the king wait upon it."

In autumn, the eighth month, Eul Paso the guksang died, and the people of the country wept and grieved for him. The king made Go Uru guksang.

In the twelfth year, in winter, the tenth month, the pig for the sacrifice at the altar ran away. The keeper chased it as far as Jutong village, but it darted this way and that and he could not catch it. There was a woman of about twenty years, fair of face and lovely. She laughed and stepped forward and caught it, and only then could the one who chased it take it.

The king heard of it and thought it strange, and wishing to see the woman he went in secret by night to her house. He had an attendant speak to her, and the household knew that the king had come and did not dare to refuse him. The king entered the room and called the woman and wished to lie with her. The woman said. "I dare not turn aside the great king's command. But if by good fortune there is a child, I beg that I may not be cast away." The king promised her this. At the third watch of the night the king rose and returned to the palace.

In the thirteenth year, in spring, the third month, the queen learned that the king had lain with the woman of Jutong village, and she was jealous, and she sent soldiers in secret to kill her. The woman heard of it and knew, and she put on a man's clothes and fled. They caught up with her and were about to harm her, and the woman asked. "You come now to kill me. Is it the king's command or the queen's command? There is a child in my womb now, and it is truly the king's own flesh. To kill my body may be done, but will you kill the king's son as well?"

The soldiers did not dare to harm her, and they came back and told what the woman had said. The queen was angry and meant to kill her without fail, but she did not bring it about.

The king heard of it, and he went again to the woman's house and asked. "You are with child now. Whose child is it?"

She answered. "In all my life I have not shared a mat even with my own brothers. How much less would I dare go near a man of another surname? The child in my womb now is truly the great king's own flesh."

The king comforted her and gave to her very richly. Then he returned and told the queen, and in the end she did not dare to harm her.

In autumn, the ninth month, the woman of Jutong village bore a son. The king was glad and said. "This is the heir that heaven has given me." It was the matter of the sacrificial pig that first let him lie with the mother, and so he named the son Gyoche (郊彘) and set up the mother as lesser queen.

At the start, when the lesser queen's mother was with child and had not yet given birth, a shaman divined and said. "She will surely bear a queen." The mother was glad, and when the child was born she named her Hunyeo (后女).

In winter, the tenth month, the king moved the capital to Hwando.

In the seventeenth year, in spring, the first month, Gyoche was set up as crown prince.

In the twenty-first year, in autumn, the eighth month, Xia Yao, a man of Pingzhou in Han, came over with more than a thousand households of the people, and the king took them in and settled them at Chaekseong. In winter, the tenth month, there was thunder, and the earth shook. A comet appeared in the northeast.

In the twenty-third year, in spring, the second month, on the last day of the month, imja, the sun was eclipsed.

In the twenty-fourth year, in summer, the fourth month, strange birds gathered in the king's courtyard.

In the twenty-eighth year the king's grandson Yeonbul was born.

In the thirty-first year, in summer, the fifth month, the king died. He was buried at the Sansang tomb and was called King Sansang (山上王).

Samguk sagi, book sixteen.