King Yeongnyu榮留王

King Yeongnyu's name was Geonmu (建武), and he was a younger brother of King Yeongyang by another mother. Yeongyang had been on the throne twenty-nine years when he died, and Yeongnyu ascended the throne.

In the second year, in spring, the second month, an envoy was sent to Tang to offer tribute. In summer, the fourth month, the king went to Jolbon and made sacrifice at the shrine of the founder. In the fifth month the king came back from Jolbon.

In the fourth year, in autumn, the seventh month, an envoy was sent to Tang to offer tribute.

In the fifth year an envoy was sent to Tang to offer tribute.

Gaozu of Tang was moved that many soldiers from the end of Sui had been left behind in this land, and he sent down an edict to the king and said:

"I have reverently received the precious mandate and reign as lord over all the land. I follow the three spirits with care and gather the ten thousand states in kindness, so that under the whole of Heaven my feeling reaches all alike, and wherever the sun and the moon shine all are made peaceful. The king governs the left of the Liao and has dwelt for generations in the place of a vassal; he has thought to receive the calendar and has followed from afar the tribute of office. Therefore he has sent envoys to cross mountains and rivers and to set forth his sincerity, and I find this very beautiful.

Now the six directions are quiet and calm and the four seas are clear and at peace; jade and silk already pass between us and the roads are not blocked. Now that harmony is to be set forth, the goodness of visits made lasting and firm, and each of us keeps his own borders, how is this not a flourishing beauty?

Only, in the last years of the house of Sui, arms were joined and trouble was raised, and in every place of attack and battle each side lost its people, so that at last flesh and bone were parted and households were divided, and many years have gone by without their grief and their loneliness being unfolded. Now the two countries are joined in peace, and in right there is nothing to block us or divide us. The people of Goguryeo who are here I have already had sought out and gathered, and they will be sent at once; the people of this country who are there, the king may release and send home. Let him do all that he can in the way of soothing and nourishing them, and let us together widen the way of kindness and forbearance."

At this the people of China were all sought out and gathered and sent, and their number came to more than ten thousand. Gaozu was greatly pleased.

In the sixth year, in winter, the twelfth month, an envoy was sent to Tang to offer tribute.

In the seventh year, in spring, the second month, the king sent an envoy to Tang to ask that the calendar be given out. Shen Shu'an, the minister of justice, was sent to invest the king as Supreme Pillar of the State, Duke of the Commandery of Liaodong, and King of the State of Goguryeo. Daoist priests were ordered to go with an image of the Heavenly Worthy and with the methods of the Way and to expound the Laozi, and the king and the people of the country listened to them.

In winter, the twelfth month, an envoy was sent to enter Tang and offer tribute.

In the eighth year the king sent men to enter Tang and to ask to study the teachings of the Buddha and of the Way, and the emperor allowed it.

In the ninth year Silla and Baekje sent envoys to Tang and reported, "Goguryeo has shut the road so that we cannot come to court, and it raids us and plunders us again and again." The emperor sent Zhu Zishe, gentleman attendant of the mounted escort, bearing the tally, to urge them to make peace. The king presented a memorial begging pardon and asked to be at peace with the two countries.

In the eleventh year, in autumn, the ninth month, an envoy was sent to enter Tang to give congratulation that Taizong had taken Xieli, the khagan of the Tujue, and to present as well the map of the borders (封域圖).

In the twelfth year, in autumn, the eighth month, the Silla general Kim Yusin came to raid the eastern border and broke the fortress of Nangbiseong. In the ninth month an envoy was sent to enter Tang and offer tribute.

In the fourteenth year Tang sent Zhangsun Shi, aide of Guangzhou, who came to the place where the bones of the Sui soldiers were buried and made sacrifice there, and destroyed the victory mound that had been raised at that time.

In spring, the second month, the king set the people to work and built a long wall. From the fortress of Buyeoseong in the northeast, east and west, it reached the sea in the south, more than a thousand li, and the work was finished in sixteen years.

In the twenty-first year, in winter, the tenth month, the fortress of Chiljungseong on the northern border of Silla was raided. The Silla general Alcheon met them and fought outside the fortress of Chiljungseong, and the Goguryeo troops were beaten.

In the twenty-third year, in spring, the second month, the heir Hwangwon was sent to enter Tang and offer tribute, and Taizong comforted him and was especially generous in his gifts. The king sent the sons and younger brothers of the noble houses to Tang and asked that they might enter the state academy. In autumn, the ninth month, the sun had no light, and after three days it grew bright again.

In the twenty-fourth year, because the crown prince of Goguryeo had come to court, the emperor sent Chen Dade, gentleman of the bureau of operations, to give comfort in return.

When Dade entered the borders, at every walled town he came to he gave rich gifts of figured silk to the officials and the guards and said, "I have always loved mountains and waters. There is a fine place here, and I wish to see it." The guards were glad and led him about, and there was nowhere that he did not go and see. In this way he came to know even the smallest turns of the country.

He met people of China who had followed the army at the end of Sui and had been left behind, and he told them whether their kinsfolk were living or dead, so that every one of them shed tears. Therefore wherever he went men and women lined the road to look at him. The king set out his troops and his guard in great array and led the envoy in to see him. Dade, taking his embassy as his occasion, spied out where the country was empty and where it was full, and the people of Goguryeo did not know it.

Dade went back and reported, and the emperor was pleased. Dade said to the emperor, "That country heard that Gaochang had fallen and was greatly afraid, and the care they took at the guest lodges was more than their usual measure."

The emperor said, "Goguryeo is only the land of the four commanderies. If I send out several ten thousand troops and attack Liaodong, they will surely empty the country to save it. If a fleet is sent out separately from Donglai to make for Pyeongyang by the sea road, and the strength of water and land is joined, it will not be hard to take. Only the prefectures and the counties of Shandong are withered and sick and have not yet recovered, and so I do not wish to trouble them."

In the twenty-fifth year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent to enter Tang and offer tribute. The king ordered Gaesomun, the great man of the eastern district, to oversee the work on the long wall.

In winter, the tenth month, Gaesomun murdered the king. In the eleventh month Taizong heard that the king had died and performed the rite of mourning in his park, and by edict he sent three hundred lengths of goods and sent an envoy bearing the tally to condole and to sacrifice.

The Samguk sagi, volume twenty.