King Uija義慈王

King Uija (義慈王) was the eldest son of King Mu. He was bold and brave, and he had daring and decision. In the thirty-third year of King Mu's reign he was set up as crown prince. He served his parents with filial duty and lived with his brothers in friendship, and in that time he was called the Zengzi of Haedong. When King Mu died, the crown prince succeeded to the throne. Taizong sent Zheng Wenbiao, a director in the Bureau of Sacrifices, and invested him by patent as Pillar of State, King of the Commandery of Daebang, and King of Baekje.

In autumn, the eighth month, an envoy was sent into Tang to give thanks by memorial, and the products of the land were offered as well.

In the second year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent into Tang with tribute. In the second month the king went round the prefectures and the commanderies and comforted them. He looked into the prisoners, and all but those guilty of death were set free.

In autumn, the seventh month, the king led the troops himself and raided Silla, and he brought down more than forty fortresses, Mihu among them.

In the eighth month General Yunchung was sent with ten thousand troops to attack Daeyaseong of Silla. Pumseok, the lord of the fortress, came out and surrendered with his wife and children. Yunchung killed them all and cut off his head and sent it to the royal capital, and he took more than a thousand men and women alive and settled them apart in the prefectures and counties west of the country, and he left troops to hold the fortress. The king rewarded the merit of Yunchung and gave him twenty horses and a thousand seok of grain.

In the third year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent into Tang with tribute.

In winter, the eleventh month, the king made peace and friendship with Goguryeo, and he planned to take Danghangseong of Silla and block the road by which Silla went to court, and at last he sent out troops and attacked it. Deokman, the king of Silla, sent an envoy to beg help of Tang, and when the king heard of it he broke off the attack.

In the fourth year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent into Tang with tribute. Taizong sent Xiangli Xuanjiang, aide in the Court of Agriculture, to make the matter known to the two countries and admonish them, and the king took up a memorial and offered his thanks. The king's son Yung was set up as crown prince, and a great pardon was granted.

In autumn, the ninth month, Yusin, a general of Silla, led troops and came to raid, and he took seven fortresses.

In the fifth year, in summer, the fifth month, the king heard that Taizong was attacking Goguryeo in person and calling up troops from Silla. He took that moment and fell upon seven fortresses of Silla and took them. Silla sent General Yusin, and he came to raid.

In the seventh year, in winter, the tenth month, General Uijik led three thousand foot and horse and went forward and camped below Musanseong of Silla, and he divided his troops and attacked the two fortresses of Gammul and Dongjam. Yusin, a general of Silla, urged on his soldiers in person, and they fought with death resolved and broke them utterly. Uijik came back alone on a single horse.

In the eighth year, in spring, the third month, Uijik fell upon more than ten fortresses on the western border of Silla, Yocha among them, and took them. In summer, the fourth month, he pushed his army forward to Ongmungok. Yusin, a general of Silla, met him, and they fought twice, and he beat him utterly.

In the ninth year, in autumn, the eighth month, the king sent Eunsang the left general with seven thousand picked troops to attack and take seven fortresses of Silla, Seokto among them. Yusin, Jinchun, Cheonjon, Jukji and other generals of Silla met them and struck at them, but they had no advantage. They gathered their scattered soldiers and camped below Dosalseong, and they fought a second time, and the Baekje army was beaten. In winter, the eleventh month, it thundered. There was no ice.

In the eleventh year an envoy was sent into Tang with tribute. When the envoy came back, Gaozong sent down a sealed letter and admonished the king.

"The three countries east of the sea opened their foundations long ago, and their borders lie side by side, and the land is truly locked together like the teeth of a dog. Since recent generations hatred and rift have been woven between them, and war has risen by turns, and there has been almost no year of quiet. So the people of the three Han have had their lives hung on the knife and the chopping block, and spears have been piled up and rage let loose, morning and evening one upon another. I rule all things in heaven's stead, and my pity for this is deep.

Last year the envoys of Goguryeo and of Silla came together to court, and I ordered that these hatreds and grudges be loosed and that sincerity and concord be made firm again. Kim Beommin, the envoy of Silla, said to me, 'Goguryeo and Baekje lean on each other as the lips and the teeth. In the end they have taken up arms, and raiding and pressing come by turns, and great fortresses and heavy garrisons have alike been swallowed by Baekje. Our borders shrink day by day, and our majesty and our strength are gone together. I beg that an edict be given to Baekje ordering it to give back the fortresses it has taken. If it does not obey the edict, we shall raise troops ourselves and take them by force; and if only we get our old land, we shall ask at once for peace and friendship.'

Since his words were already reasonable, I could not but allow them. Of old Duke Huan of Qi was one who had set out the many feudal lords, and yet he let ruined states go on living. How much more shall I, the lord of ten thousand countries, not care for a fence in peril?

The fortresses of Silla that the king has taken shall all be given back to their own country, and the captives of Baekje that Silla has taken shall likewise be sent back to the king. Then trouble will be loosed and confusion set free, arms will be hidden away and armor laid down, the people will have their wish to rest their shoulders, and the three fences will have no toil of war.

Set beside that blood shed at the border posts and corpses heaped on the frontier fields, and tilling and weaving alike given up, and men and women without any joy, how can the two be spoken of in the same breath?

If the king does not follow this word on going forward and holding back, I have already granted what Beommin asked, and I shall leave him free to fight it out with the king. I shall also lay a command on Goguryeo that it may not come from afar to rescue and succor you. And if Goguryeo does not obey the command, I shall order the Khitan and the other fences to cross the Liao and go deep in and plunder. Let the king think deeply on my words, and seek much blessing for himself, and look well and plan a good plan, and leave himself no repentance afterward."

In the twelfth year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent into Tang with tribute.

In the thirteenth year, in spring, there was a great drought, and the people were hungry. In autumn, the eighth month, the king opened friendly dealings with the country of Wa.

In the fifteenth year, in spring, the second month, the palace of the crown prince was repaired, and it was lavish and fair beyond measure. Manghaejeong was raised south of the royal palace.

In summer, the fifth month, a red horse came into Ohamsa on Bugak and went round and round the hall of the Buddha crying, and after some days it died.

In autumn, the seventh month, Macheonseong was built anew. In the eighth month the king, together with Goguryeo and the Malgal, attacked and broke more than thirty fortresses of Silla. Kim Chunchu, the king of Silla, sent an envoy to court in Tang and said in a memorial, "Baekje, together with Goguryeo and the Malgal, has raided our northern border and destroyed more than thirty fortresses."

In the sixteenth year, in spring, the third month, the king gave himself with the women of the palace to lewd and wild pleasure, and he did not stop drinking. Seongchung the jwapyeong remonstrated with him to the utmost, and the king was angry and shut him up in prison. From this there was no one who dared to speak.

Seongchung wasted away and would not eat, and he died; and at his end he sent up a letter. "A loyal subject does not forget his lord even in death, and I beg to say one word and die. I have always watched the times and looked at the changes, and there will surely be a matter of war. In all use of troops one must look well and choose the ground, and take the upper reaches and draw the enemy on, and only then can all be kept whole. If troops of another country come, do not let them pass Chimhyeon by the land road, and do not let the navy come in to the shore of Gibeolpo. Rest on those steep and narrow places and hold them off, and only then will it be well."

The king paid no heed.

In the seventeenth year, in spring, the first month, forty-one sons of the king by secondary wives were made jwapyeong, and each was given a fief for his keep. In summer, the fourth month, there was a great drought, and the land turned red.

In the nineteenth year, in spring, the second month, a pack of foxes came into the palace, and one white fox sat on the desk of the sangjwapyeong. In summer, the fourth month, in the palace of the crown prince, a hen coupled with a sparrow. A general was sent to raid and attack the two fortresses of Doksan and Dongjam of Silla.

In the fifth month a great fish came out and died in the Sabi River southwest of the royal capital, and it was three jang long. In autumn, the eighth month, the body of a woman floated up at Saengchojin, and it was eighteen cheok long. In the ninth month the pagoda tree in the palace cried, and it was like the sound of a man weeping. At night ghosts wept on the road south of the palace.

In the twentieth year, in spring, the second month, the water of the wells in the royal capital turned the color of blood. On the shore of the Western Sea shoals of fish came out and died, and the people ate them and could not finish them. The water of the Sabi River was red like the color of blood.

In summer, the fourth month, tens of thousands of toads gathered in the trees. The people of the market in the royal capital took fright and ran without cause, as though someone were seizing and chasing them, and more than a hundred fell and died, and the goods they lost were beyond counting.

In the fifth month wind and rain came on violently, and lightning struck the pagodas of the two temples of Cheonwangsa and Doyangsa, and lightning struck also the lecture hall of Baekseoksa. Black clouds like dragons fought one another in the sky, east against west.

In the fifth month all the monks of Wangheungsa saw what seemed to be boats and oars coming in at the temple gate on a great flood. A dog like a wild deer came from the west to the bank of the Sabi River and barked toward the royal palace, and in a little while no one knew where it had gone. The packs of dogs in the royal capital gathered on the roads, and some barked and some howled, and when a while had passed they scattered.

A ghost came into the palace and cried aloud, "Baekje falls, Baekje falls." Then it went straight into the ground. The king thought it strange and had men dig the ground, and about three cheok down there was a tortoise. On its back was writing, and it said, "Baekje is like the full round moon, and Silla is like the new moon."

The king asked a shaman about it, and he said, "To be like the full round moon is to be full, and what is full wanes. To be like the new moon is to be not yet full, and what is not yet full fills little by little." The king was angry and killed him.

Someone said, "To be like the full round moon is to be flourishing, and to be like the new moon is to be faint. I think it means that the country flourishes and that Silla grows faint little by little." The king was glad.

Gaozong by edict made Su Dingfang, great general of the Left Guard, grand commander of the marching army of the Singu route, and set under him Liu Boying, general of the Left Guard, Feng Shigui, general of the Right Militant Guard, and Pang Xiaogong, general of the Left Valiant Guard, to lead a hundred and thirty thousand troops and come to make war; and he made Kim Chunchu, the king of Silla, commander of the marching army of the Ui route, to lead the troops of his country and join his strength with theirs.

Su Dingfang led his troops and crossed the sea from Chengshan, and he came to the island of Deongmuldo west of the country. The king of Silla sent General Kim Yusin to go forward with fifty thousand picked troops.

When the king heard of it, he gathered his many subjects and asked what was fitting, to fight or to hold.

Uijik the jwapyeong came forward and said, "The troops of Tang have crossed a great sea from far off, and those who are not used to the water will surely be worn out in the ships. When they first come down on land and their spirit is not yet even, strike them quickly, and we can have our will. The men of Silla trust in the help of a great country, and so they have a mind that makes light of us; and if they see the men of Tang come off badly, they will surely doubt and fear and will not dare to press forward keenly. Therefore I know it is right to fight it out with the men of Tang first."

Sangyeong the dalsol and others said, "It is not so. The troops of Tang have come from far off, and their mind is to fight quickly, and their edge cannot be met. The men of Silla have seen themselves beaten many times before by our army, and now, when they look on the strength of our army, they cannot but be afraid.

The plan for today should be to block the road of the men of Tang and wait until their army grows weary, and first to send one detachment to strike the Silla army and break their keen spirit, and then to watch for the moment and join battle. So the army can be kept whole and the country preserved."

The king wavered and did not know which to follow.

At that time Heungsu the jwapyeong had been found guilty and banished to the county of Gomamiji, and men were sent to ask him, "The matter is urgent. What is to be done?"

Heungsu said, "The troops of Tang are many already, and the rule of their army is strict and clear, and what is more, they plan with Silla to catch us before and behind. If we face their ranks on a level plain and a broad field, victory and defeat cannot be known. Baekgang and Tanhyeon are the vital roads of our country, and there one man with a single spear may stand against ten thousand. Choose brave men and send them to hold those places. Do not let the troops of Tang come in at Baekgang, and do not let the men of Silla pass Tanhyeon. Then let the great king shut the gates again and hold fast, and wait until their means and their grain are spent and their soldiers weary, and then rouse up and strike them, and you will surely break them."

At that time the great ministers did not believe him and said, "Heungsu has long been in bonds in prison, and he bears his lord a grudge and does not love the country, and his words cannot be used. It would be better to let the troops of Tang come in at Baekgang and follow the current, so that they cannot set their ships abreast, and to let the Silla troops climb Tanhyeon and go by the narrow road, so that they cannot set their horses abreast.

When that time comes, loose the troops and strike them, and it will be like killing a chicken in a cage or taking a fish caught in the net."

The king thought it so. Then he heard that the troops of Tang and of Silla had already passed Baekgang and Tanhyeon, and he sent General Gyebaek with five thousand men resolved on death to go out to Hwangsan and fight the Silla troops. They met four times and won every time, but their troops were few and their strength gave way, and in the end they were beaten, and Gyebaek died there.

At this the troops were joined together to block the mouth of Ungjin, and they camped along the river. Dingfang came out on the left bank and rode up the hill and set his ranks. They fought with him, and the Baekje army was greatly beaten. The imperial army rode the tide and came on with prow and stern touching, beating drums and shouting.

Dingfang led foot and horse and went straight for the capital fortress, and he halted thirty li away. The Baekje army spent all its host to stop him, but it was beaten again, and the dead were more than ten thousand. The troops of Tang rode on their victory and pressed close to the fortress.

The king knew he could not escape, and he sighed and said, "I repent that I did not use the word of Seongchung, and so it has come to this." Then he fled with Hyo the crown prince to the northern border.

Dingfang surrounded the fortress. Tae, the king's second son, set himself up as king and led the host and held fast. Munsa, the son of the crown prince, said to Yung the king's son, "The king and the crown prince have gone out, and our uncle has made himself king of his own will. If the troops of Tang loose their siege and go, how shall we be kept whole?" Then he led those about him and went out by a rope, and the people all followed him, and Tae could not stop them.

Dingfang had his soldiers climb over the battlements and set up the flags of Tang, and Tae was hard pressed and straitened, and he opened the gate and begged for his life.

At this the king and Hyo the crown prince and all the fortresses surrendered. Dingfang sent to the capital the king and Hyo the crown prince, and the king's sons Tae, Yung and Yeon, and eighty-eight of the great ministers and generals and officers, and twelve thousand eight hundred and seven of the people.

The country had of old five bu, thirty-seven commanderies, two hundred fortresses and seven hundred and sixty thousand households. At this time it was divided, and the five governorates of Ungjin, Mahan, Dongmyeong, Geumnyeon and Deogan were set up, each to govern its prefectures and counties. Chiefs were chosen and made governors and prefects and county magistrates to rule them, and Liu Renyuan, general of the palace guard, was ordered to guard the capital fortress, and Wang Wendu, general of the palace guard in the Left Guard, was made governor of Ungjin to soothe the host that was left.

Dingfang showed those he had taken captive to the emperor, and he rebuked them and pardoned them. The king fell sick and died, and he was given after death the rank of Grand Master of the Golden Seal and Purple Ribbon and the office of Chamberlain of the Guards, and his old subjects were allowed to go and mourn him. By edict he was buried beside the graves of Sun Hao and Chen Shubao, and a stele was set up for them together. Yung was given the office of Chamberlain for Agriculture.

Wendu died crossing the sea, and Liu Rengui took his place.

Boksin, a nephew of King Mu, had once led troops, and now with Dochim the monk he held Juryuseong and rebelled. They welcomed Buyeo Pung, a son of the former king, who had once been a hostage in the country of Wa, and set him up as king. All the northwestern parts answered them, and they led troops and surrounded Renyuan in the capital fortress. By edict Liu Rengui was raised up and made acting prefect of Daebangju, and he led the host of Wang Wendu and by a short road called up the troops of Silla to rescue Renyuan.

Rengui was glad and said, "Heaven is about to make this old man rich and noble." He asked for the calendar of Tang and the taboo names of the ancestral shrine, and as he set out he said, "I mean to sweep the Eastern Yi flat and to give out the calendar of great Tang beyond the sea."

Rengui ruled his army strictly and evenly, and he fought his way forward from place to place. Boksin and the others set up two stockades at the mouth of the Ungjin River to block him. Rengui joined with the Silla troops and struck them, and the Baekje army drew back into the stockades; but the water barred them and the bridge was narrow, and those who fell and drowned and those who died fighting were more than ten thousand. Boksin and the others then raised the siege of the capital fortress and drew back and held Imjonseong, and the men of Silla, their grain being spent, led their troops home. That was in the third month of the first year of Longshuo.

At this Dochim called himself general of the Leading Army, and Boksin called himself general of Sangjam, and they called together a host, and their strength grew greater still.

They sent a man to tell Rengui, "We hear that great Tang has sworn a pact with Silla that all of Baekje, old and young alike, shall be killed, and that the country shall then be handed to Silla. Rather than take that death, is it not better to die fighting? That is why we have gathered, only to hold fast for ourselves."

Rengui made a letter setting out disaster and blessing in full, and he sent an envoy to admonish them. Dochim and the others trusted in their host and were proud and haughty, and they put Rengui's envoy in an outer guest house and answered him insolently, "The envoy's office is small and low, and I am the great general of a whole country, and it is not fitting that I meet him." They did not answer the letter, and they sent him away as he came.

Rengui, because his host was small, joined his army with Renyuan's and rested his soldiers, and he sent up a memorial asking to join with Silla and plan against them.

Chunchu, the king of Silla, obeyed the edict and sent his general Kim Heum with troops to rescue Rengui and the others, and he came to Gosa. Boksin met him and struck him and broke him. Heum fled back by the Gallyeong road, and Silla did not dare come out again.

Before long Boksin killed Dochim and took his host as well. Pung could not hold him down, and he only presided over the sacrifices.

Boksin and the others, seeing that Renyuan and his men were in a lonely fortress without help, sent an envoy to comfort them, "When will the great envoys go back to the west? We shall send men to see you off."

In the seventh month of the second year, Renyuan and Rengui and the others greatly broke the host that was left to Boksin east of Ungjin, and they took Jiraseong and the stockades of Yunseong, Daesan, Sajeong and others, and those killed and taken were very many, and they then divided their troops to hold and guard them.

Boksin and the others, since Jinhyeonseong looked over the river and was high and steep and lay at a vital crossing, put more troops in it to hold it. Rengui urged on the Silla troops by night, and they came close under the plank battlements of the fortress and entered the fortress about daybreak, and they cut down eight hundred men, and so opened the road by which Silla brought grain.

Renyuan sent up a memorial asking for more troops, and by edict seven thousand troops of Zi, Qing, Lai and Hai were raised, and Sun Renshi, general of the Left Awesome Guard, was sent to lead the host over the sea and add to the host of Renyuan.

At that time Boksin, having taken all power to himself, and Buyeo Pung grew suspicious of each other little by little. Boksin said that he was ill and lay in a cave chamber, meaning to wait until Pung came to ask after his sickness and then to seize him and kill him. Pung came to know it, and he led those near and trusted to him and fell on Boksin and killed him.

Envoys were sent to Goguryeo and to the country of Wa to borrow troops and hold off the troops of Tang. Sun Renshi met them on the road and struck them and broke them, and then he joined with the host of Renyuan, and their spirit was greatly roused.

At this the several generals talked over where to go, and someone said, "Garimseong is the vital neck of water and land, and it is fitting to strike it first."

Rengui said, "The art of war says, 'Avoid what is full and strike what is empty.' Garim is steep and firm, and to attack it is to wound our soldiers, and to hold it is to drag out the days. Juryuseong is the nest and the den of Baekje, and the host is gathered there. If we overcome it, the other fortresses will fall of themselves."

At this Renshi and Renyuan and Kim Beommin, the king of Silla, led the land army forward, and Liu Rengui and Du Shuang the separate commander and Buyeo Yung led the navy and the grain ships from the Ungjin River to Baekgang, to meet the land army and go on together to Juryuseong.

They met the men of Wa at the mouth of Baekgang and fought four times and won every time, and they burned four hundred of their ships. The smoke and the flames scorched the sky, and the sea water turned red.

King Buyeo Pung slipped away and fled, and no one knew where he was; some say that he fled to Goguryeo. They got his precious sword. Buyeo Chungseung and Chungji, the king's sons, led their host and surrendered together with the men of Wa. Jisusin alone held Imjonseong, and it did not fall.

In the beginning Heukchi Sangji called together those who had fled and scattered, and within ten days more than thirty thousand came over and joined him. Dingfang sent troops and attacked him.

Sangji stood against them and fought and broke them, and he won back more than two hundred fortresses, and Dingfang could not overcome him. Sangji, together with Sata Sangyeo, a general of a separate division, had held a steep place and answered to Boksin, and at this time they both surrendered.

Rengui showed them a red heart and had them take Imjonseong to prove their own worth, and he gave them armor and weapons and dried grain at once. Renshi said, "A wild heart is hard to trust. To give them armor and hand over grain is only to supply the robbers and make it easy for them."

Rengui said, "I have looked at Sangyeo and Sangji, and they are loyal and they have counsel, and they will follow the moment and make merit. What is there yet to doubt?"

The two men took the fortress in the end, and Jisusin left his wife and children and fled to Goguryeo, and the rest of the party was all put down. Renshi and the others set their troops in order and went back. By edict Rengui was left behind to lead the troops and hold guard.

After the war and the fire, house upon house was withered and broken, and stiff corpses lay like grass. Rengui gave order for the first time to bury the bones and to write the households and the people in the registers, to govern the villages and set officers over them, to open the roads and raise bridges, to mend the dikes and bring the ponds back, to set farming and silkworm raising as duties and to relieve the poor and the needy, to nourish the lonely and the old and to set up the altars of Tang, and to give out the calendar and the taboo names of the ancestral shrine. The people were all glad, and each was at peace in his place.

The emperor made Buyeo Yung governor of Ungjin and had him go back to his country to settle the old grudge with Silla and to call the people who were left to come home. In the second year of Linde he met the king of Silla at Ungjinseong, and they killed a white horse and swore. Rengui made the words of the oath, and then wrote them in gold on a plate of iron and kept it in the shrine of Silla. The words of the oath are seen in the Annals of Silla.

When Renyuan and the others went back, Yung feared that the host would be drawn away and scattered, and he too went back to the capital.

In the Yifeng period Yung was made governor of Ungjin and King of the Commandery of Daebang and sent back to his country to settle the host that was left, and the protectorate of Andong was then moved to Sinseong to govern them. At that time Silla was strong, and Yung did not dare enter his old country. He attached himself to Goguryeo and governed from there, and he died.

Empress Wu also had his grandson Gyeong succeed to the throne; but his land had already been divided among Silla and Balhae and the Malgal, and the line of the country was cut off at last.

Kim Busik comments.

The Silla gosa says, "Heaven sent down a golden chest, and so the surname was Kim." These words are strange and cannot be believed; but as I compile the history, since they have been handed down from of old, I could not cut the words away.

Yet I have heard also that the men of Silla held themselves to be the descendants of Shaohao Jintian, and so took Kim for their surname, and that Goguryeo too held itself to be descended from Gaoxin, and so took Go for its surname. This is seen in the records of the Jin shu.

The Gosa says, "Baekje came out of Buyeo together with Goguryeo." It says also, "In the time of the troubles of Qin and Han, many men of China fled and hid east of the sea." Then were the forefathers of the three countries not the offspring of those holy men of old? How long they enjoyed their countries!

When it came to the last years of Baekje, much of what it did went against the way. Further, it was the enemy of Silla age after age, and it joined in friendship with Goguryeo and raided and trampled Silla; and taking advantage of profit and riding on ease, it cut away and took the heavy fortresses and the great garrisons of Silla and would not stop. This is not what is called drawing near to the good and living well with one's neighbors, which is a treasure to a country.

At this the Son of Heaven of Tang sent down an edict twice to settle their grudge; but Baekje followed him openly and went against him secretly, and so was found guilty before a great country. That it fell was also fitting.

Samguk sagi, book twenty-eight.