King Bojang, Part Two寶藏王下

In the sixth year, in spring, the second month, Taizong was about to send out his army again, and the court deliberated.

"Goguryeo makes its fortresses by leaning on the mountains, and they cannot be taken at a stroke. When the imperial carriage went on campaign in person before this, the people of the country could not plow and sow, and from the fortresses that were taken their grain was gathered in. A drought followed, and more than half the people lack food. If small forces are now sent out often, to trouble their borders by turns, so that they are worn out with running to meet them and lay down the plow to enter the forts, then within a few years a thousand li will be desolate and the hearts of the people will fall away of themselves. North of the Amnok can be taken without a battle."

The emperor followed these words. He made Niu Jinda, great general of the Left Militant Guard, grand commander of the marching army of the Cheonggu route, with Li Hai'an, general of the Right Militant Guard, as his second, and sent out more than ten thousand troops to ride in tower ships and come in from Laizhou across the sea. He also made Li Shiji, supervisor of the crown prince's household, grand commander of the marching army of the Liaodong route, with Sun Erlang, general of the Right Militant Guard, and others as his seconds, to lead three thousand troops and come in by the road of Sinseong with the help of the troops of the office of the commander-in-chief of Yingzhou. To both armies men skilled in water and good at fighting were chosen out and attached.

In summer, the fifth month, after Li Shiji's army had crossed the Liao River, it passed Namso and several other fortresses. At each of them the troops set their backs to the fortress and fought, and Shiji struck and broke them, burned the outer walls and went back.

In autumn, the seventh month, Niu Jinda and Li Hai'an came into Goguryeo territory and fought more than a hundred times in all. They attacked the fortress of Seokseong and took it, and went forward as far as below the fortress of Jeongni. More than ten thousand Goguryeo troops came out to fight, and Li Hai'an struck and overcame them, and the Goguryeo dead were two thousand heads.

In the eighth month Taizong ordered Wang Boli, the prefect of Songzhou, and others to call up the artisans of the twelve prefectures of Jiangnan and build several hundred great ships, meaning to strike Goguryeo.

In winter, the twelfth month, the king sent his second son Immu, who held the office of mangniji, to offer apology, and the emperor allowed it.

In the seventh year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent to enter Tang and offer tribute.

By edict the emperor made Xue Wanche, great general of the Right Militant Guard, grand commander of the marching army of the Cheonggu route, with Pei Xingfang, general of the Right Guard, as his second, to lead more than thirty thousand troops with tower ships and warships and come from Laizhou across the sea to attack.

In summer, the fourth month, Gu Shen'gan, commander of the garrison of Wuhu, led troops afloat on the sea to attack. He met five thousand Goguryeo foot and horse, fought them at Mount Yeok and broke them. That night more than ten thousand Goguryeo troops raided Shen'gan's ships, but Shen'gan sprang the troops he had hidden, and they were beaten.

In the sixth month the emperor held that Goguryeo was worn and weary, and it was discussed to send out three hundred thousand men the next year and destroy it at one stroke. Someone held that a great army going east must have provisions for a year, which beasts and carts could not carry, and that boats and warships should be made ready to move them by water. At the end of Sui, Jiannan alone had no bandits, and in the late war in Liaodong Jiannan again had no part, so that its people were well off; therefore boats and warships should be made there. The emperor followed these words.

In autumn, the seventh month, a woman of the royal capital bore a child with one body and two heads.

Taizong sent Qiang Wei, senior secretary of the office of the left commandant of the Left and Right, to the circuit of Jiannan to fell timber and build boats and warships. The large ones were a hundred feet long, and half of that in breadth. He sent envoys separately to go by water from the Wu Gorges to Jiangzhou and Yangzhou and on toward Laizhou.

In the ninth month a herd of roe deer crossed the river and fled west, and a pack of wolves went west for three days without a break.

Taizong sent the general Xue Wanche and others to come and attack. They crossed the sea, entered the Amnok, came to a place forty li south of the fortress of Bakjak and halted their camp.

So Buson, the lord of the fortress of Bakjak, led more than ten thousand foot and horse and held them off. Wanche sent Pei Xingfang, general of the Right Guard, to lead the footmen and the other troops against them, and the Goguryeo troops gave way. Xingfang and the rest pressed their troops forward and surrounded the fortress. But Bakjak leaned on the mountain for its steepness and had the water of the Amnok before it to make it firm, and though they attacked they could not take it.

Gomun, a general of Goguryeo, came to its relief with more than thirty thousand troops from Ogol, Anji and the other fortresses, and set them in two ranks. Wanche divided his army to meet them, and the Goguryeo army was beaten and gave way.

The emperor also ordered by edict that Li Daoyu, the prefect of Laizhou, should move provisions and gear and store them on the island of Wuhu, meaning to raise a great force.

In the eighth year, in summer, the fourth month, Taizong of Tang died. By the edict he left behind, the war in Liaodong was stopped.

Kim Busik comments.

At the first, when Taizong took up the affair of Liaodong, those who remonstrated were not one alone. And after he turned his army back from Ansi he held that he had not been able to succeed, repented of it deeply and sighed, "If Wei Zheng were alive, he would not have let me make this march."

When he was about to attack again, Fang Xuanling, the minister of works, sent up a memorial from his sickbed and remonstrated.

"The Laozi says, 'He who knows what is enough is not disgraced; he who knows where to stop is not endangered.' Your Majesty's awe and name, your merit and virtue, may already be called enough, and the widening of land and the opening of borders may also stop now.

Moreover, whenever Your Majesty decides one case of a grave criminal, you have it gone over three times and reported five times, you take plain food and stop the music; and this is because you hold a person's life heavy. Now you drive soldiers who have done no wrong and give them up beneath the blade, so that their livers and brains are smeared on the ground. Are they alone not worth pitying?

Had Goguryeo in the past broken the duty of a subject, it would be right to punish it; had it raided and troubled the people, it would be right to destroy it; were it able one day to be a trouble to the Middle Kingdom, it would be right to remove it. Now there is none of these three, and yet the Middle Kingdom is put to trouble for nothing, to wipe out within the shame of an earlier age and to avenge Silla without. Is this not to keep what is small and lose what is great?

I beg Your Majesty to allow Goguryeo to make itself new, to burn the ships that cut the waves and to dismiss the host that answered the levy. Then of themselves the Middle Kingdom and the barbarians will be glad and will lean on you, the far will be respectful and the near at peace."

The words of the Duke of Liang as he was about to die were as earnest as this, and yet the emperor did not follow them. He thought only to make mounds and ruins of the eastern region and so please himself, and he gave over only when he died.

A comment of the historians says, "He loved what was great and delighted in merit, and he was diligent in driving his troops far off." Is this not what is meant here?

Liu Gongquan's Xiaoshuo says, "In the battle of Jupil, Goguryeo joined armies with the Malgal, and they were forty li on each side. Taizong looked at them and had fear in his face." It also says, "The six armies were pressed by Goguryeo and were near to not rising again. A scout reported that the banner of Duke Ying was surrounded by black flags, and the emperor was greatly afraid."

Though in the end he got himself clear, his danger and his fear were like that. That the Xin Tang shu and the Jiu Tang shu and Duke Sima's Tongjian do not speak of it — is it not that they hid it for the sake of their country?

In the ninth year, in summer, the sixth month, the monk Bodeok of Ballyong Temple moved south to Mount Godae in Wansan, because the country honored Daoism and did not believe in the law of the Buddha. In autumn, the seventh month, frost and hail harmed the grain, and the people went hungry.

In the eleventh year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent to enter Tang and offer tribute.

In the thirteenth year, in summer, the fourth month, someone said, "On the Maryeong ridge I saw a divine man, and he said, 'Your ruler and his ministers are extravagant beyond measure. The day of your ruin is not far off.'"

In winter, the tenth month, the king sent the general Ango to lead out an army, and together with Malgal troops he struck the Khitan. Li Kuge, the commander-in-chief of Songmo, held them off and broke the Goguryeo army badly at Sinseong.

In the fourteenth year, in spring, the first month. Before this, Goguryeo with Baekje and the Malgal had raided the northern border of Silla and taken thirty-three fortresses, and Kim Chunchu, the king of Silla, sent an envoy to Tang to ask for help.

In the third month Gaozong sent Cheng Mingzhen, the commander-in-chief of Yingzhou, and Su Dingfang, general of the household of the Left and Right Guard, to lead troops and come to attack.

In summer, the fifth month, Cheng Mingzhen and the rest crossed the Liao River. The Goguryeo men saw that their troops were few, opened the gates, crossed the Gwidan River and came out to meet them in battle. Mingzhen and the rest struck hard and overcame them greatly, killing and taking more than a thousand men, and they burned the outer walls and the villages and went back.

In the fifteenth year, in summer, the fifth month, iron rained on the royal capital. In winter, the twelfth month, an envoy was sent to enter Tang and give congratulations on the investiture of the crown prince.

In the seventeenth year, in summer, the sixth month, Cheng Mingzhen of Tang, commander-in-chief of Yingzhou and protector general of the Eastern Yi, and Xue Rengui, general of the household of the Right Army Guard, led troops and came to attack, but they could not overcome.

In the eighteenth year, in autumn, the ninth month, nine tigers came into the fortress at one time and ate people. They were hunted, but they were not caught.

In winter, the eleventh month, Xue Rengui of Tang, general of the household of the Right Army Guard, and others fought Onsamun, a general of Goguryeo, at Mount Hoeng and broke him.

In the nineteenth year, in autumn, the seventh month, the water of the river at Pyeongyang was the color of blood for three days.

In winter, the eleventh month, Tang made Qibi Heli, great general of the Left Valiant Guard, grand commander of the marching army of the Paegang route; Su Dingfang, great general of the Left Militant Guard, grand commander of the marching army of the Liaodong route; Liu Boying, general of the Left Valiant Guard, grand commander of the marching army of the Pyeongyang route; and Cheng Mingzhen, the prefect of Puzhou, commander of the marching army of the Nubang route. They led troops and came to attack by separate roads.

In the twentieth year, in spring, the first month, Tang gathered the troops of sixty-seven prefectures of Henan, Hebei and Huainan, got more than forty-four thousand men and had them go to the marching camps of Pyeongyang and Nubang. It also made Xiao Siye, the minister for foreign guests, commander of the marching army of the Buyeo route, to lead the troops of the Huihe and the other tribes and go to Pyeongyang.

In summer, the fourth month, Ren Yaxiang was made commander of the marching army of the Paegang route, Qibi Heli commander of the marching army of the Liaodong route, and Su Dingfang commander of the marching army of the Pyeongyang route; and with Xiao Siye and the troops of the many Hu, thirty-five armies in all went forward together by separate roads, by water and by land.

The emperor wished to lead the great army himself, and Li Junqiu, the prefect of Weizhou, stood forth and said, "Goguryeo is a small country. Why should the Middle Kingdom be emptied to serve this end? If Goguryeo is destroyed, troops must surely be sent out to hold it. Send few, and your awe will not be felt; send many, and the people will not be at ease. This is to wear out the empire with the shifting of garrisons. I say that to attack it is not so good as not to attack, and to destroy it is not so good as not to destroy." Empress Wu also remonstrated just then, and so the emperor stopped.

In summer, the fifth month, the king sent the general Noeeumsin to lead a host of Malgal and surround the fortress of Bukhansan in Silla. For ten days it was not lifted, and the road by which Silla brought provisions was cut, so that within the fortress they were in danger and afraid. Suddenly a great star fell on the Goguryeo camp, and thunder and rain struck; and Noeeumsin and the rest, in doubt and alarm, drew off apart.

In autumn, the eighth month, Su Dingfang broke the Goguryeo army at the Paegang, took Mount Maeup and then surrounded the fortress of Pyeongyang.

In the ninth month Gaesomun sent his son Namsaeng with several ten thousand picked troops to hold the Amnok, and the many armies could not cross.

When Qibi Heli came, the ice had just frozen hard. Heli led his host over the ice across the water, beating drums and shouting as they went, and the Goguryeo army broke and fled. Heli chased them several tens of li and killed thirty thousand men. The rest of the host all surrendered, and Namsaeng barely got away with his life. Just then there was an edict to turn the army back, and so they went home.

In the twenty-first year, in spring, the first month, Pang Xiaotai of Tang, general of the Left Valiant Guard, prefect of Baizhou and commander of the marching army of the Okjeo route, fought Gaesomun beside the Sasu. His whole army was lost, and he and his thirteen sons all died in the fighting.

Su Dingfang surrounded Pyeongyang, but heavy snow came just then, and he lifted the siege and drew back. Of all these marches, first and last, every one drew back without great merit.

In the twenty-fifth year the king sent the crown prince Bongnam to Tang to attend the sacrifice at Mount Tai.

Gaesomun died, and his eldest son Namsaeng took his place as mangniji. At first, when he took charge of the government of the country, he went out on a round of the fortresses and left his younger brothers Namgeon and Namsan to hold charge of affairs behind him.

Someone said to the two brothers, "Namsaeng hates it that his two brothers press upon him, and he means to be rid of you. It would be better to lay a plan first." At first the two brothers did not believe it.

There was also one who told Namsaeng, "Your two brothers fear that their elder brother will come back and take their power away, and they mean to shut him out and not let him in."

Namsaeng secretly sent a man close to him to go to Pyeongyang and watch. The two brothers took him and caught him out, and then called Namsaeng in the king's name, and Namsaeng did not dare go back. Namgeon made himself mangniji and sent out troops to attack him. Namsaeng fled and held the fortress of Gungnae, and sent his son Heonseong to Tang to plead his sorrow.

In the sixth month Gaozong commanded Qibi Heli, great general of the Left Valiant Guard, to lead troops and take him in, and Namsaeng slipped away and fled to Tang.

In autumn, the eighth month, the king made Namgeon mangniji and gave him charge of the affairs of the soldiers and horses within and without.

In the ninth month the emperor by edict gave Namsaeng the offices of specially advanced, commander-in-chief of Liaodong and great commissioner for the pacification of the Pyeongyang route, and enfeoffed him as Duke of the Commandery of Xuantu.

In winter, the twelfth month, Gaozong made Li Ji grand commander of the marching army of the Liaodong route and great commissioner for the pacification, with Anlu, the vice minister of personnel, and Hao Chujun as his seconds. Pang Tongshan and Qibi Heli were both made deputy grand commanders of the marching army of the Liaodong route and great commissioners for the pacification. The commanders of the several armies by water and by land, together with Dou Yi, Dugu Qingyun, Guo Daifeng and the others who carried the provisions, all took their orders from Ji. The taxes of the several prefectures of Hebei were all sent to Liaodong to supply the army's use.

In the twenty-sixth year, in autumn, the ninth month, Li Ji took Sinseong and set Qibi Heli to hold it. When Ji first crossed the Liao River he said to his generals, "Sinseong is the key point of the western border of Goguryeo. If we do not take it first, the other fortresses will not be easy to take." So he attacked it. Sabugu and other men of the fortress bound the lord of the fortress, opened the gate and surrendered.

Li Ji led his troops forward and struck, and sixteen fortresses all fell. Pang Tongshan and Gao Kan were still at Sinseong, and Cheon Namgeon sent troops to raid their camp, but Xue Rengui, general of the Left Militant Guard, struck and broke them. Gao Kan went forward as far as Mount Geum, fought the Goguryeo army and was beaten. The Goguryeo army rode its victory and chased the fleeing men, and Xue Rengui led his troops and struck them from the side and killed more than fifty thousand of the Goguryeo army. He took the three fortresses of Namso, Mokjeo and Changam, and joined the army of Cheon Namsaeng.

Guo Daifeng with the water forces made for Pyeongyang by another road. Li Ji sent the separate general Feng Shiben to carry provisions and weapons and supply him, but Shiben's ships were wrecked and he missed the day, and in Daifeng's camp they were hungry and hard pressed. He wished to write to Li Ji, but he feared that another might get the letter and learn his strength and weakness, and so he made an acrostic poem and gave it to Li Ji. Li Ji was angry and said, "The business of the army is urgent. What is this making of poems? He shall surely be beheaded." Yuan Wanqing, the secretary of the marching army and gentleman usher, explained the meaning of it, and Ji then sent provisions and weapons to him after all.

Wanqing wrote a proclamation that said, "Do you not know enough to hold the steep places of the Amnok?" Cheon Namgeon answered, "I have respectfully heard your command." At once he moved his troops and held the ford of the Amnok, and the Tang troops could not cross. When Gaozong heard of it he banished Wanqing to Lingnan.

Hao Chujun was below the fortress of Ansi, and before he had formed his ranks thirty thousand Goguryeo troops came upon him suddenly, and his camp was greatly alarmed. Hao Chujun sat astride his camp stool eating dry rations, chose out his best men, struck them and beat them.

In the twenty-seventh year, in spring, the first month, Liu Rengui, the minister of the right, was made deputy grand commander of the marching army of the Liaodong route, with Hao Chujun and Kim Inmun as his seconds.

In the second month Li Ji and the rest took the Goguryeo fortress of Buyeo. Xue Rengui, having already broken the Goguryeo army at Mount Geum, rode his victory and led three thousand men to attack the fortress of Buyeo. The other generals held that his troops were few and tried to stop him. Rengui said, "Troops need not be many. It is only a question of how they are used." So he went forward as the vanguard, fought the Goguryeo army and beat them, and killed and took Goguryeo troops; and then he took the fortress of Buyeo, and more than forty fortresses in the prefecture of Buyeo all asked to submit.

Jia Yanzhong, the attending censor, came back from Liaodong on an errand. The emperor asked, "How is it in the army?"

He answered, "We shall surely overcome. Of old, when the late emperor called Goguryeo to account, the reason he did not have his will was that the enemy had no rift in them. The proverb says, 'An army without a matchmaker turns back midway.' Now the brothers Namsaeng have fallen out and become our guides, so that we know all the truth and falsehood of the enemy, and the generals are loyal and the soldiers strong. Therefore I say we shall surely overcome.

Moreover the Bigi of Goguryeo says, 'Before nine hundred years are out, a great general of eighty shall destroy it.' The house of Go has held the country since Han, and now it is nine hundred years, and Li Ji is eighty years old. The enemy have had famine on famine and men seize and sell one another; the earth shakes and splits, wolves and foxes come into the fortresses and dig their holes in the gates, and the hearts of the people are in danger and alarm. On this march there will be no need to raise another."

Cheon Namgeon sent fifty thousand more troops to save the fortress of Buyeo. They met Li Ji and the rest at the Seolha River, joined battle and were beaten, and the dead were more than thirty thousand. Ji went forward and attacked the fortress of Daehaeng.

In summer, the fourth month, a comet appeared between the lodges Bi and Mao. Xu Jingzong of Tang said, "The comet has appeared in the northeast. It is a sign that Goguryeo is about to be destroyed."

In autumn, the ninth month, Li Ji took Pyeongyang. When Ji had overcome the fortress of Daehaeng, all the armies that had gone out by other roads joined him, and they went forward to the palisade of the Amnok. The Goguryeo army met them and fought, but Ji and the rest broke them and chased them more than two hundred li and took the fortress of Yogi, and one fortress after another fled or surrendered.

Qibi Heli led his troops first and came below the fortress of Pyeongyang, and Ji's army followed him, and they surrounded Pyeongyang for more than a month. The king, Jang, sent Cheon Namsan with ninety-eight chiefs to go to Ji with white banners and surrender, and Ji received them with courtesy.

Cheon Namgeon still shut the gates and held out, and sent troops out to fight again and again, but they were all beaten. Namgeon gave the business of the army to the monk Sinseong. Sinseong, with the lesser generals Osa and Yomyo and others, secretly sent a man to Ji and asked to answer him from within. Five days later Sinseong opened the gate, and Ji loosed his troops to climb the wall; they beat their drums, shouted and burned the fortress. Namgeon stabbed himself, but he did not die. The king and Namgeon and the rest were taken.

In winter, the tenth month, when Li Ji was about to go back, Gaozong commanded that the king and the others be presented first at Zhaoling, and that with the army in full array and a song of triumph he should enter the capital and present them at the Great Shrine.

In the twelfth month the emperor received the captives in the Hanyuan Hall. Because the government had not come from the king himself, he was pardoned and made minister of works, supernumerary with the standing of a regular officer. Cheon Namsan was made vice minister of the court of the imperial table, the monk Sinseong grand master of the silver seal and blue ribbon, and Cheon Namsaeng great general of the Right Guard. To Li Ji and those below him fiefs and rewards were given by degrees, and Cheon Namgeon was banished to Qianzhou.

The five bu, a hundred and seventy-six fortresses and more than six hundred and ninety thousand households were divided into nine offices of a commander-in-chief, forty-two prefectures and a hundred counties, and the protectorate of Andong was set at Pyeongyang to govern them. Goguryeo generals who had merit were raised to be commanders-in-chief, prefects and county magistrates, and they governed together with men of China. Xue Rengui, great general of the Right Awesome Guard, was made acting protector of Andong and led twenty thousand troops to hold and soothe them. This was the first year of Zongzhang of Gaozong, the year mujin.

In the second year, the year gisa, in the second month, Anseung, a son of the king by a concubine, led more than four thousand households and went over to Silla.

In summer, the fourth month, Gaozong moved twenty-eight thousand three hundred households to the south of the Jiang and the Huai, and to the empty lands of the several prefectures of Shannan and Jingxi.

In summer, the fourth month of the first year of Xianheng, the year gyeongo, Geommojam wished to raise the country up again. He turned against Tang and set up Ansun, the grandson of the king by his daughter, as lord. Gaozong of Tang made the great general Gao Kan commander of the marching army of the Dongju route and sent out troops to attack him. Ansun killed Geommojam and fled to Silla.

In the second year, the year sinmi, in autumn, the seventh month, Gao Kan broke the host that was left at the fortress of Ansi.

In the third year, the year imsin, in the twelfth month, Gao Kan fought the host that was left of Goguryeo at Mount Baeksu and broke them. Silla sent troops to save Goguryeo, and Gao Kan struck and overcame them and took two thousand men.

In the fourth year, the year gyeyu, in summer, in the intercalary fifth month, Li Jinxing, great general and commander of the marching army of the Yeonsan route, broke the men of Goguryeo at the Horo River and took several thousand of them. The host that was left all fled to Silla.

In the second year of Yifeng, the year jeongchuk, in spring, the second month, the king who had surrendered was made commander-in-chief of the prefecture of Liaodong and enfeoffed as King of Joseon, and he was sent back to Liaodong to gather and settle the host that was left. The men of the east who had been in the several prefectures before this were all sent back with the king, and the protectorate of Andong was then moved to Sinseong to govern them. When the king reached Liaodong he plotted rebellion and secretly made contact with the Malgal.

In the first year of Kaiyao he was called back to Angzhou, and at the beginning of Yongchun he died. He was given the posthumous office of minister of the imperial guards, and by edict his body was sent to the capital and laid to the left of the tomb of Xieli, and a stone was set up on the path to it. His people were scattered and moved to the several prefectures of Henan and Longyou. The poor stayed in the old fortress beside the fortress of Andong, and from time to time they went over to Silla, while the host that was left scattered into the Malgal and the Tujue. The line of the rulers of the house of Go was cut off at last.

In the second year of Chuigong, Bowon, the grandson of the king who had surrendered, was made King of the Commandery of Joseon; and at the beginning of Shengli he was raised to great general of the Left Soaring Hawk Guard and enfeoffed again as King of the State of Chungseong, to govern the old bu of Andong, but he did not go. The next year Deokmu, a son of the king who had surrendered, was made commander-in-chief of Andong; and afterward little by little he made a state of his own, and in the thirteenth year of Yuanhe he sent an envoy to enter Tang and offer musicians.

Kim Busik comments.

Hyeondo and Nangnang were of old the land of Joseon, where Gija was enfeoffed. Gija taught his people ritual and right conduct, plowing and silkworms and weaving, and he set out eight prohibitions. Therefore his people did not steal from one another and had no need to shut their doors, the women were true and faithful and not lewd, and they ate and drank from ritual vessels. This was the teaching of a benevolent and worthy man. Their nature too was gentle and yielding, unlike that of the other three quarters. So when Confucius grieved that the Way was not practiced and wished to float on a raft over the sea and dwell there, he had his reason.

Yet the Zhou yi says, "Of the lines, the second has much praise and the fourth much fear, because it is near." Goguryeo after Qin and Han lay wedged in the northeastern corner of the Middle Kingdom, and its neighbors to the north were all officers of the Son of Heaven, while in ages of disorder heroes would rise up and usurp names and places. It may be said to have dwelt in a land of much fear. Yet it had no mind to be humble and yielding. It raided their borders and made enemies of them, and it entered their commanderies and counties and dwelt there. For this reason war followed war and disaster was knotted to disaster, and there was scarcely a peaceful year.

When it moved east and met the joining of all into one under Sui and Tang, it still shut out their edicts and would not obey, and it shut up the men of the emperor in earthen rooms. Its stubbornness and want of fear were like this, and so again and again it drew on itself armies that came to call it to account. Though at times it laid clever plans and trapped great armies, in the end it stopped only when the king had surrendered and the country was destroyed.

Yet look at the beginning and the end. While high and low were in accord and the multitude at one, even a great country could not take it; and when it was unrighteous to the country and unkind to the people and so raised the anger of the multitude, it fell apart and could not rise again.

Therefore Mencius said, "The season of Heaven and the advantage of earth are not equal to the harmony of men." The Zuo zhuan says, "The rising of a state is by blessing, and its fall by disaster. When a state rises, it looks on the people as on the wounded, and this is its blessing; when it falls, it treats the people as earth and straw, and this is its disaster." There is savor in these words.

That being so, when those who hold a state let cruel officers drive and press the people and powerful clans gather in their goods, and so lose the hearts of the people, then though they wish to be well governed and not fall into disorder, to endure and not perish, how does it differ from drinking wine by force and hating to be drunk?

The Samguk sagi, volume twenty-two.