King Gaero蓋鹵王

King Gaero (蓋鹵王) was named Gyeongsa (慶司), and he was the eldest son of King Biyu. Biyu had been on the throne twenty-nine years when he died, and Gaero succeeded to the throne.

In the fourteenth year, in winter, the tenth month, on the first day, a gyeyu day, the sun was eclipsed.

In the fifteenth year, in autumn, the eighth month, a general was sent to raid the southern border of Goguryeo. In winter, the tenth month, Ssanghyeonseong was repaired, and a great palisade was set up at Cheongmongnyeong, and the soldiers of Bukhansanseong were divided to guard it.

In the eighteenth year an envoy was sent to pay court to Wei, and a memorial was presented.

"Your servant has set up his country at the eastern edge, and wolves and jackals block the road. Though age after age has received your holy teaching, there has been no way to serve you as a vassal. I look up toward the cloud-wrapped palace gates, and my heart runs to you without end, and now the cool wind answers a little. Bowing low, I consider that Your Majesty the Emperor is in harmony with the goodness of Heaven, and I cannot hold back the feeling of one who looks up to you and clings to you.

I respectfully send Yeoye, whom I have myself named General of the Crowning Army, Commandant of the Imperial Equipage, Marquis of Bulsa and chief clerk, and Jang Mu, General of the Soaring Dragon, Grand Administrator of Daebang and adjutant, and others with them. They throw their boats upon the blocking waves and search out a path at the dark ford. They give their lives over to the workings of nature and carry forward one part in ten thousand of my sincerity. I hope that the spirits of heaven and earth will be moved and that the imperial spirit will cover them broadly, so that they may reach the court of Heaven and make the will of your servant plain. Then, though I heard it in the morning and died in the evening, I would have no regret left to me."

It said again.

"Your servant and Goguryeo have their source in Buyeo, and in the days of our forebears we held the old friendship in deep honor. Their forefather Soe lightly threw away the goodwill of a neighbor. He led his soldiers himself and trampled the borders of your servant. My forefather Su set his army in order and went forward like lightning. He met the moment and struck, and when arrows and stones had crossed for only a little while he cut off the head of Soe and hung it up. From that time on they have not dared to look southward.

Since the fortune of the Feng clan came to its end, the embers that were left have fled and hidden, and the vile crowd has grown strong little by little. So we have been trampled and pressed. Grudges have been knotted and disasters have followed for more than thirty years, our wealth is spent and our strength is dried up, and we grow weaker of ourselves. If the mercy of Heaven would bend down in pity and reach far to those outside, send one general quickly to save the country of your servant. I shall then send my own daughter to hold the broom in your inner palace, and send my sons and younger brothers to tend the horses in your outer stables. Not one foot of land, not one man, will I dare to keep for myself."

It said again.

"Now Ryeon (璉) is guilty, and his country makes fish and flesh of itself. Great ministers and powerful clans are killed without end. His crimes are full and his evils are heaped up, and the common people are falling apart. This is the hour of his ruin, and the season for borrowing another's hand.

Moreover the soldiers and horses of the Feng clan have the longing of birds and beasts for their old nest, and the commanderies of Nangnang hold the heart of the fox that turns its head toward its own hill when it dies. Let the majesty of Heaven rise up once, and there will be a march of punishment but no battle. Your servant, though slow of wit, is set on giving all his strength. I shall lead what is under my command and answer the wind as an echo answers.

Moreover Goguryeo is without right, and its turning and its deceit are not of one kind alone. Outside it admires the humble words with which Wei Xiao called himself a vassal, while inside it holds to cruel disaster and to the way of a boar that rushes on. At times it joins with the Liu clan in the south, at times it makes a pact with the Rouran in the north, and they are lips and teeth to each other and plot to trample the rule of the emperor.

In old times Tang Yao was a sage of the highest kind, yet he sent punishment to the Dan River. Lord Mengchang was called benevolent, yet he did not let go the man who cursed him in the road. A trickling stream should be dammed early. If you do not take them now, you will leave regret for later days.

After the gyeongjin year that has passed, in the sea north of Soseoksan on the western border of your servant, more than ten bodies were seen, and clothing, vessels, saddles and bridles were found with them. When they were looked at, they were not the goods of Goguryeo. Later it was heard that they were men of the emperor coming to the country of your servant, and that a long serpent blocked the road, so that they sank into the sea. Though I do not know it in full, I hold deep anger.

In old times, when Song killed Shen Zhou, King Zhuang of Chu set out barefoot, and when a sparrowhawk snatched a dove that had been set free, Lord Xinling would not eat. To overcome an enemy and set up a name is a beauty without end. Even a small and out-of-the-way border land still longs for the faith of ten thousand ages. How much more Your Majesty, whose breath is joined with heaven and earth and whose power tips mountains and seas. How would you let a little boy straddle and block the great road of Heaven? I now send up one saddle that we found, so that you may examine the truth of it."

Xianzu, seeing that he was far off and out of the way and yet braved danger to come to court with tribute, treated him with even greater ceremony. He sent his envoy Shao An to go back together with the envoy of Baekje, and he gave an edict.

"I have your memorial and have heard it, and it gives me great joy that you are unharmed. You are in the eastern corner, outside the five zones of service, yet you did not count mountains and seas far and came in loyalty to the palace of Wei. I am glad at your utmost intent and take it gladly into my heart.

I have taken up the work of ten thousand ages. I reign as lord over the four seas and govern all living things. Now all within the world is clear and one, and the eight regions beyond have come back to what is right, and those who come carrying children on their backs cannot be counted. The harmony of our customs and the abundance of our soldiers and horses are all things that Yeoye and the others heard and saw for themselves.

You say that you are not at peace with Goguryeo and that you have been trampled and attacked again and again. But if you can follow what is right and guard yourself with benevolence, what have you to fear from robbers and enemies?

The envoys I sent before were to float over the sea and comfort the countries beyond the wilds. Years have piled up since then. They went and did not come back, and whether they lived or died, whether they arrived or not, I could not learn in full. The saddle you sent I have compared with an old one of ours, and it is not a thing of the Middle Kingdom. A matter that only seems to be so cannot be made into a fault that surely is so. As for the weighty measures of governing the border, I shall set them out in a separate edict."

He gave another edict.

"I know this. Goguryeo trusts in its steep land and invades your soil. It takes up again the old grudge of an earlier ruler and throws away the great virtue of letting the people rest. Arms have met for years on end and hardship is knotted along the wild border, and your envoy carries the loyalty of Shen Baoxu as well as his errand, and your country has the urgency of Chu and Yue. It is right, then, to spread what is just and hold up the weak, to take the moment and rise like lightning.

Yet Goguryeo has called itself a vassal of the former court and has served its office for many days. Toward you there may be an old breach, but toward this country there has been no fault of breaking my commands. Your mission has only now opened a way, and at once you ask that they be attacked. When I search out how the matter stands, the reasoning is not yet complete.

So last year I sent Yeoye and the others to Pyongyang to test the grounds of it. But Goguryeo pleaded again and again, and their words and their reasons were both complete. My envoys could not put down their plea, and the officers of law had no way to make the charge stand. So I listened to what they set forth and by edict called Yeoye and the others back.

If they now go against my will again, their faults and their blame will show all the more. Then, though they plead for themselves later, there will be no escape from the charge, and to raise an army and punish them after that will be right.

The countries of the nine Yi have lived beyond the sea age after age. When the way is open they serve as vassals, and when favor stops they keep their own borders. So the holding of them by a loose rein stands written in the older codes, and their tribute of hosi arrows has been sparse from season to season.

You have set out in full the shape of the strong and the weak and listed one by one the traces of ages past. But customs differ and matters differ, and the comparison you offer goes against my mind. The broad rule and the great plan — their purpose stands all the same.

Now the Middle Land is settled and one, and there is no alarm within the world. Always I wish to carry my majesty to the eastern edge and hang my banners beyond the borders, to lift up the rough people of an out-of-the-way place and spread the imperial custom among those who serve far off. It is only because Goguryeo has kept its order that I have not yet divined a day for the march.

If they now do not follow the will of my edict, then the plan you came to lay before me will fit my own mind, and the day when my great army opens the road will not be called far off. So gather your people beforehand to rise with me, make ready and wait upon the matter, and send reporting envoys from time to time, so that their state is quickly known.

On the day the army rises, you will be first among the guides, and after the great victory you will receive the reward of the highest merit. Is that not good? The brocade, the cloth and the things of the sea that you offered did not all arrive, yet they make your utmost heart clear. I now bestow various goods on you, as in the separate sheet."

He also ordered Ryeon by edict to escort An and the others. When An and the others reached Goguryeo, Ryeon said that he had an old enmity with Yeogyeong and would not let them pass eastward, and so An and the others all turned back. An edict then came down that rebuked him sharply.

Later An and the others were sent to float over the sea from Donglai and to give Yeogyeong a sealed letter praising his loyalty and constancy. An and the others came to the seashore, met a wind and were driven adrift, and in the end they came back without arriving.

The king, because the people of Goguryeo attacked his borders again and again, sent up a memorial begging troops from Wei, but Wei did not follow it. The king resented this, and at last he broke off tribute.

In the twenty-first year, in autumn, the ninth month, Georyeon the king of Goguryeo led thirty thousand troops and came to surround Hanseong, the royal capital. The king shut the city gates and could not go out to fight. The men of Goguryeo divided their troops into four roads and attacked from both sides, and they took the wind and set fires and burned the city gates. The hearts of the people were in danger and fear, and some wished to go out and surrender. The king was hard pressed and did not know what to plan. He led several tens of horsemen out of the gate and fled westward, and the men of Goguryeo pursued him and killed him.

Before this, King Jangsu of Goguryeo had secretly plotted against Baekje and sought a man who could go there as a spy. At that time the monk Dorim answered the call and said, "A foolish monk does not know the Way, and so he thinks of how to repay the kindness of his country. I ask that Your Majesty not hold your servant unworthy. Point me to the work and send me, and I promise not to bring shame on your command."

The king was pleased and secretly sent him to deceive Baekje. So Dorim pretended to flee from a crime and ran into Baekje.

At that time Geungaeru, the king of Baekje, loved the game of baduk. Dorim came to the king's gate and said, "Your servant learned baduk when he was young and has entered somewhat into its subtlety. I wish to let those about you hear of it."

The king called him in and sat down to a game with him, and he was indeed the finest hand in the country. So the king honored him and made him a guest of the first rank, and grew very close to him, and was sorry that they had met so late.

One day Dorim was sitting in attendance and said quietly, "Your servant is a man of another country, yet you have not kept me at a distance. Your kindness to me is very deep, and I have given back only one small skill and have never been of the least use. Now I wish to offer one word, but I do not know how Your Majesty's mind will take it."

The king said, "Only speak. If there is profit in it for the country, this is what I look for from a teacher."

Dorim said, "The country of Your Majesty has mountains and hills, rivers and the sea on all four sides. This is a steepness that Heaven has set, not a shape that men have made. For this reason the countries on the four sides dare hold no thought of coveting it, and wish only that they had time enough to serve you. Then Your Majesty ought to awe the eyes and ears of men with a high and lofty power and a rich estate. Yet the walls are not mended and the palace halls are not repaired. The bones of the former king lie gathered for a time in open ground, and the huts of the people fall again and again into the river. Your servant quietly holds that this is not to be chosen for Your Majesty."

The king said, "So be it. I shall do this."

Then he called out all the people of the country, steamed earth and built a wall, and within it he made a palace, towers, pavilions and terraces, and not one of them was other than grand and fair. He also took great stones from the Ungniha and made an outer coffin to bury his father's bones, and he raised a bank along the river, from the east of Saseong to the north of Sungsan.

By this the granaries were emptied and dried up and the people came to want, and the danger of the country was worse than a pile of eggs.

Then Dorim fled back and told him of it. King Jangsu was glad, and meaning to strike, he gave troops to his commanders. When Geungaeru heard of it he said to his son Munju, "I was foolish and not clear-sighted. I believed and used the words of a crafty man, and it has come to this. The people are worn down and the army is weak. Though danger has come, who will fight hard for me? I must die for the altars of the state. For you to stay here and die with me is of no use.

Why not flee from the danger and carry on the line of the country?"

Munju then went south with Mokhyeop Manchi and Jomi Geolchwi.

When it came to this, Jeu of Goguryeo, who held the rank of daero, with Jaejeung Geollu and Goi Mannyeon and others, led troops and came to attack the north fortress, and they took it in seven days. They moved on to attack the south fortress. Within the walls there was danger and fear, and the king went out and fled. Geollu and the other commanders of Goguryeo saw the king, got down from their horses and bowed. Then they turned to the king's face and spat three times, counted out his crimes, and sent him bound to the foot of Adanseong, where they killed him. Geollu and Mannyeon were men of Baekje itself who had been charged with crimes and fled into hiding in Goguryeo.

Kim Busik comments.

When King Zhao of Chu was in flight, Huai, the younger brother of Xin, the Lord of Yun, was about to kill the king. He said, "King Ping killed my father. Is it not right that I should kill his son?"

Xin said, "When a ruler punishes a subject, who dares take him for an enemy? The command of a ruler is Heaven. If a man dies by the command of Heaven, whom shall he take for an enemy?"

Geollu and the others had crimes of their own and found no place in their country, and they led the troops of the enemy in and bound their former king and killed him. Their want of right was deep indeed.

It is asked, "Then what of Wu Zixu, who entered Ying and whipped the corpse?"

The answer says, "Yangzi judged this in the Fayan and held that it did not come from virtue. What is called virtue is benevolence and right, and nothing more. Then the fierceness of Zixu does not match the benevolence of the Lord of Yun. Judged by this, it is clear that Geollu and the others acted without right."