Kim Yusin, part one金庾信上

Kim Yusin was a man of the royal capital.

Suro, his forefather of the twelfth generation, cannot be known for what manner of man he was. In the eighteenth year of Jianwu of the Later Han, the year imin, he climbed Gubong and looked out over the nine villages of Garak, and at last he came to that land and opened a state and called it Gaya. Later the name was changed to Geumgwan. His children and their children followed one after another down to Guchung, the ninth in descent (some call him Guchahyu), who was great-grandfather to Yusin.

The men of Silla said of themselves that they were the offspring of Shaohao Jintian, and so their surname was Kim. The stele of Yusin also says, "He is the offshoot of Xuanyuan, the seed of Shaohao." If so, then Suro, the founder of Namgaya, was of the same surname as Silla.

His grandfather Muryeok became the haenggun chonggwan of Sinjudo. Once he led soldiers and took the king of Baekje and four of his generals, and cut down more than ten thousand heads.

His father Seohyeon rose in office to sopan, dodok of Daeryangju, and anmu jegunsa of Daeryangju. Looking into it, the stele of Yusin says, "His father was the sopan Kim Soyeon." Whether Seohyeon changed his name, or whether Soyeon was his courtesy name, cannot be known. Because it is doubtful, both are left standing.

At first Seohyeon saw on the road Manmyeong, the daughter of Sukheuljong, who was the son of Galmunwang Ipjong. His heart was glad, he drew her with his eyes, and they came together without waiting for a matchmaker. When Seohyeon became taesu of Mannogun and meant to take her with him, Sukheuljong learned for the first time that his daughter had come together with Seohyeon without rites. He hated it and shut her in another house and set men to guard her. Of a sudden a thunderbolt struck the gate of the house, and while the guards were startled and in confusion Manmyeong slipped out through a hole and went with Seohyeon to Mannogun.

On the night of the day gyeongjin, Seohyeon dreamed that the two stars Hyeonghok and Jinseong came down upon him, and on the night of the day sinchuk, Manmyeong dreamed that a child in golden armor rode a cloud into the hall. Soon she was with child, and after twenty months she bore Yusin. This was the seventeenth year of Geonbok of King Jinpyeong, the fifteenth year of Kaihuang of Emperor Wen of Sui, the year eulmyo.

When the time came to settle on a name, he said to his lady, "I got this child by a good dream on the night of gyeongjin, so that should be his name. But the rites say that a name is not made from the day or the month. Now the graph gyeong (庚) and the graph yu (庾) are much alike, and the sound jin (辰) and the sound sin (信) are near to each other, and besides, among the worthy men of old there was one named Yusin (庾信). Why not name him so?" And so he was named Yusin.

The lord was fifteen years old when he became a hwarang. The men of that time followed him with a full heart, and they were called the Yonghwa hyangdo.

In the thirty-third year of Geonbok of King Jinpyeong, the year sinmi, the lord was seventeen years old. He saw Goguryeo and Baekje and Malgal breaking into the borders of the state, and he was stirred to indignation and set his will on putting down the raiders. Alone he went into the stone cave of Jungak, kept a fast, and made his vow before Heaven.

"The enemy states have no way in them. They have become jackals and tigers and trouble our borders, and there is hardly a peaceful year. I am one small and lowly subject, and I do not measure my talent and my strength, but my will is to make this calamity and disorder clean. Only let Heaven look down and lend its hand to me."

After four days an old man came of a sudden, clothed in coarse hemp, and said, "This place has many poisonous insects and fierce beasts, and it is a land to be feared. A noble youth has come here and stays alone. How is this?"

He answered, "Where have you come from, elder? May I hear your honored name?"

The old man said, "I have no dwelling place, and my going and my stopping follow where they are led. My name is Nanseung (難勝)."

The lord heard it and knew that he was no common man. He bowed twice, came forward, and said, "I am a man of Silla. I see the foes of my country, and my heart aches and my head is sore, and so I came here, hoping only for such a meeting. I bow low and beg you, elder, to pity my sincerity and give me your arts."

The old man was silent and said nothing. The lord wept and asked earnestly without weariness, six times and seven times. Then the old man spoke. "You are young, and yet you have a heart to join the three states into one. Is that not great?"

Then he gave him the secret method and said, "Take care not to pass it on lightly. If you use it unrighteously, you will suffer the harm of it instead." When he had spoken he took his leave. When the old man had gone about two li, the lord followed and looked for him, but he was not to be seen. There was only a light on the mountain, shining bright like five colors.

In the thirty-fourth year of Geonbok the raiders of the neighboring lands pressed harder and harder, and the lord stirred his brave heart the more. Alone he took his treasured sword and went into a deep valley of Inbaksan, burned incense and made report to Heaven, and prayed as he had prayed at Jungak, and made his vow in prayer. The officer of Heaven let down his light and sent a spirit into the treasured sword. For three nights the beams of the two stars Heoseong and Gakseong came down bright and clear, and the sword seemed to move of itself.

In the fifty-first year of Geonbok, the year gichuk, in autumn, the eighth month, the king sent the ichan Immalli, the pajinchan Yongchun and Baengnyong, and the sopan Daein and Seohyeon to lead soldiers and attack Nangbiseong of Goguryeo. The men of Goguryeo brought out soldiers and met them and struck, and the men of Silla had the worse of it. Many died, the hearts of the host were broken, and they had no will to fight again.

Yusin was then the dangju of the Jungdang. He came before his father, took off his helmet, and said, "Our soldiers have been beaten. All my life I have set myself to loyalty and filial duty, and facing battle I cannot but be brave. I have heard it said, 'Shake the collar and the fur coat hangs straight; lift the head rope and the net spreads open.' Let me be that head rope and that collar."

Then he mounted his horse, drew his sword, leapt the ditch, and went in and out of the enemy ranks. He cut down their general, took up his head, and came back. When the Silla soldiers saw it they rode the winning tide and struck with all their force, and they cut down more than five thousand and took a thousand men alive. Within the walls they were stricken and afraid, and none dared stand against them, and all came out and surrendered.

In the eleventh year of Queen Seondeok the Great, the year imin, Baekje broke Daeryangju, and Godasorang, the daughter of Lord Chunchu, died following her husband Pumseok. Chunchu bore a grudge for it and wished to ask soldiers of Goguryeo to repay the wrong done by Baekje, and the queen allowed it.

When he was about to go he said to Yusin, "You and I are one body, the arms and legs of the state. Now if I go in there and am harmed, will your heart be untouched?"

Yusin said, "If you go and do not come back, the hoofprints of my horse will surely tread the courtyards of the two kings of Goguryeo and Baekje. If I do not do this, with what face could I look upon the people of the state?"

Chunchu was moved and glad, and he and the lord bit each other's fingers and drank the blood and swore. "I count the days, and in sixty days I shall return. If I pass that and do not come, there will be no time for us to meet again." So they parted.

Afterward Yusin became gunju of Amnyangju.

Chunchu went with the sagan Hunsin on an embassy to Goguryeo. Coming to Daemaehyeon, a man of that hyeon, the sagan Dusaji, gave him three hundred bo of blue cloth. When he had entered that country, the king of Goguryeo sent the taedaedaero Gaegeum to lodge him in the guest house, and feasts were set out in plenty.

Someone told the king of Goguryeo, "The envoy of Silla is no common man. His coming now is likely to look at our strength. Let the king make a plan for it, so that there be no trouble afterward." The king wished to put a crooked question to him, and by his difficulty in answering to put him to shame.

He said, "Mamokhyeon and Jungnyeong were of old the land of our country. If you do not give them back to us, you shall not return."

Chunchu answered, "The land of a state is not a thing for a subject to dispose of. Your servant dares not hear the command."

The king was angry and shut him up and meant to kill him, but it was not carried out. Chunchu secretly gave three hundred bo of blue cloth to Seondohae, a subject whom the king favored. Dohae came with food set out, and as they drank together and the wine grew warm he said in jest:

"Have you too heard the tale of the turtle and the hare? Long ago the daughter of the dragon king of the Eastern Sea was sick in her heart, and the physician said, 'Get the liver of a hare and put it in the medicine, and she can be cured.' But there was no hare in the sea, and nothing could be done.

One turtle said to the dragon king, 'I can get it.' Then he climbed up onto the land and saw a hare and said, 'In the middle of the sea there is an island, with clear springs and white stones and thick woods and fine fruit, where cold and heat cannot reach and hawks and falcons cannot come. If you can get there, you may live at ease with no trouble.'

So he took the hare on his back and swam two or three li. Then the turtle looked back and said to the hare, 'Now the daughter of the dragon king is sick, and the liver of a hare must be her medicine, and so I did not grudge the labor but carried you here on my back.'

The hare said, 'Ah, I am the offspring of a holy being, and I can take out my five organs and wash them and put them back. The other day my heart was a little heavy, so I took out my liver and my heart and washed them and set them for a while under a rock. Then I heard your sweet words and came straight away, and my liver is still there. Why not turn back and fetch the liver? Then you will get what you seek, and though I have no liver I shall still live. Is that not fitting for us both?'

The turtle believed it and turned back, and as soon as he came up on the shore the hare slipped away into the grass and said to the turtle, 'What a fool you are. How can there be one who lives without a liver?' The turtle was abashed and went back in silence."

Chunchu heard his words and understood his meaning. He sent a letter to the king and said, "The two passes were of old the land of the great country. Let your servant go back to his country, and I will ask my king to return them. If you think me not to be trusted, the bright sun is above us." The king was then glad.

Sixty days passed after Chunchu went into Goguryeo, and he did not return. Yusin picked out three thousand brave men within the country and spoke with them. "I have heard that to give one's life when danger is seen, and to forget the body in the face of hardship, is the will of a stout-hearted man. If one man gives himself up to death he is a match for a hundred, if a hundred give themselves up to death they are a match for a thousand, and if a thousand give themselves up to death they are a match for ten thousand, and then one may go where one pleases under Heaven. Now the worthy minister of the state is held fast in another country. Shall we hold back from hardship because it is to be feared?"

At this the many men said, "Though we go out where there are ten thousand deaths and one life, how should we dare not follow the general's command?" So they asked the queen and set a day to depart.

At that time Deokchang, a monk who was a spy of Goguryeo, told the king. The king had heard before the words of Chunchu's oath, and now he heard the words of the spy, and he dared not hold him any longer, and sent him back with rich courtesy.

As he left the border he said to those who saw him off, "I wished to loose my grudge upon Baekje, and so I came to ask for soldiers,

but the great king did not allow it and asked for land instead, and this is not a thing a subject may dispose of. The letter I gave to the great king a while ago was only to escape death."

Yusin became gunju of Amnyangju, and in the thirteenth year he became sopan. In autumn, the ninth month, the queen commanded that he be made sangjanggun, and sent him to lead soldiers and attack seven fortresses of Baekje, Gahyeseong and Seongyeolseong and Donghwaseong among them. He won a great victory, and by this he opened the ford of Gahye.

In the first month of the year eulsa he came back, and before he had seen the queen the border watchman reported in haste, "A great army of Baekje has come and is attacking our fortress of Mariposeong." The queen again made Yusin sangju janggun and had him hold them off. Yusin heard the command and mounted at once, and without seeing his wife and children he met the army of Baekje and struck them and drove them off, and cut down two thousand.

In the third month he came back to the royal palace and made his report, and before he could go home word came again in haste. "The soldiers of Baekje have come out and are camped on the border of their country, and they mean to raise a great army and break in upon us."

The queen told Yusin again, "I ask you, my lord, not to grudge the labor but to go swiftly and be ready for them before they arrive."

Again Yusin did not go into his house. He drilled the soldiers and put the weapons in order and went west. At this time all the people of his house came out beyond the gate and waited for him to come. Yusin passed the gate and went on without looking back, and when he had gone about fifty paces he halted his horse and had them bring thin gruel water from the house. He drank it and said, "The water of my house still has its old taste."

At this the soldiers all said, "If the great general is like this, how should we grieve at parting from our own flesh and blood?"

When they reached the border, the men of Baekje looked upon the guard of the Silla soldiers and did not dare press on, and so they withdrew. The great queen heard of it and was very glad, and she added rank and rewards.

The sixteenth year, the year jeongmi, was the last year of Queen Seondeok and the first year of Queen Jindeok. The great ministers Bidam and Yeomjong said that a woman ruler could not govern well, and they raised soldiers to put her down, and the queen held them off from within. Bidam and his men camped at Myeonghwalseong, and the royal army made its camp at Wolseong, and for ten days they attacked and defended and it was not broken off.

In the dead of night a great star fell on Wolseong. Bidam and his men said to their soldiers, "I have heard that where a star falls there must be blood shed. This is likely a sign that the woman ruler will be beaten." The cries of the soldiers shook Heaven and earth.

The great queen heard it and was afraid and at a loss. Yusin saw the queen and said, "Good fortune and ill have no fixed course, and they are only what men call down. So King Zhou of Yin fell by a red sparrow, and Lu grew weak after it caught the unicorn, and Gaozong rose when a pheasant cried, and the Duke of Zheng flourished though dragons fought. From this it is known that when virtue overcomes the uncanny, the strange turns of the stars are not to be feared. Let the queen not be troubled."

Then he made a straw figure and set fire in its arms and put it on a kite and let it fly, so that it seemed to rise into the sky. The next day he sent men to spread word along the roads. "Last night the fallen star went back up again." This was to make the army of the rebels doubt.

He also killed a white horse and offered sacrifice at the place where the star had fallen, and prayed. "The way of Heaven is that the yang is hard and the yin is soft, and the way of man is that the ruler is high and the subject is low. If indeed these are exchanged, great disorder comes at once. Now Bidam and his men, being subjects, plot against their ruler, and being below, break in upon those above.

These are what are called rebellious subjects and traitorous sons, hated alike by men and by spirits, not to be borne by Heaven and earth. Now if Heaven has no mind in this matter and has shown the wonder of the star over the royal citadel instead, this is what your servant doubts and does not understand. Let the majesty of Heaven follow the wish of men, and call the good good and the evil evil, and make no shame for the spirits."

At this he urged on the generals and the soldiers and struck with all their force, and Bidam and his men were beaten and fled. They pursued them and cut them down and wiped out their nine kindred, and those bound with them in the guilt were thirty men.

In winter, the tenth month, the soldiers of Baekje came and surrounded three fortresses, Musanseong and Gammulseong and Dongjamseong, and the queen sent Yusin to lead ten thousand foot and horse and hold them off. They fought hard until their strength was spent, and Yusin said to Binyeongja, "Today's matter is urgent. If not you, who can stir the hearts of the host?"

Binyeongja bowed and said, "How should I dare not follow the command?" Then he went out against the enemy. His son Geojin and the house servant Hapjeol followed him, and they braved sword and spear and fought with all their strength and died. The soldiers looked on and were moved and pressed forward, striving to advance, and they broke the army of the raiders greatly and cut down more than three thousand.

In the first year of Taehwa of Queen Jindeok, the year musin, Chunchu, having failed to get his request from Goguryeo, went at last into Tang and begged for soldiers. Emperor Taizong said, "I have heard the name of Yusin of your country. What manner of man is he?"

He answered, "Yusin has a little talent and wisdom, but if he does not lean on the majesty of Heaven, how could he easily be rid of the troubles of his neighbors?"

The emperor said, "Truly it is a country of gentlemen." Then he allowed it by edict, and commanded the general Su Dingfang to go with an army of two hundred thousand and punish Baekje.

At that time Yusin was gunju of Amnyangju, and as though he had no mind for matters of war he drank wine and made music, and many months went by. The people of the ju thought Yusin a worthless general and spoke ill of him. "The many have lived at ease for a long time and have strength to spare, and a battle could be fought, but the general is idle. What is to be done?"

Yusin heard it and knew that the people could be used, and he said to the great queen, "Now I look at the hearts of the people, and something may be done.

I ask leave to strike Baekje and repay the battle of Daeryangju."

The queen said, "To touch the great with the small: if it turns dangerous, what then?"

He answered, "The winning or the losing of soldiers does not lie in great or small, but only in how the hearts of men stand. So King Zhou of Yin had a myriad men, but their hearts were parted and their virtue was parted, and they were no match for the ten men of the house of Zhou who were of one heart and one virtue. Now our men are of one mind and can live and die together, and that Baekje is not to be feared."

The queen then allowed it.

So he chose and drilled the soldiers of the ju and went out against the enemy. When they came outside Daeryangseong, Baekje met them and held them off. He feigned defeat, as though he could not win, and came to Ongmungok. Baekje made light of him and came out leading a great host, and the men lying in wait rose and struck them before and behind and broke them greatly. They took eight generals of Baekje and cut down and captured a thousand.

Then he sent word to the general of Baekje. "The bones of our gunju Pumseok and of his wife, the lady Kim, are buried in the prison of your country. Now your eight lesser generals are caught by us, and they crawl and beg for their lives. By the meaning of the fox and the leopard that turn their heads toward the hill in death, I cannot bear to kill them. Now send the bones of the two dead and take back the eight living. Will that do?"

Jungsang, a jwapyeong of Baekje, said to the king, "The bones of the men of Silla are of no use kept here, and it is right to send them. If the men of Silla break faith and do not return our eight men, the wrong will be on their side and the right on ours, and what is there to fear?" So they dug up the bones of Pumseok and his wife and put them in a casket and sent them.

Yusin said, "One leaf falls, and the thick wood loses nothing by it. One mote of dust gathers, and the great mountain gains nothing by it." He let the eight men go back alive.

Then he rode the winning tide and went into the borders of Baekje, and he attacked and took twelve fortresses, Akseong and the rest, and cut down more than twenty thousand and took nine thousand alive. When merit was weighed his rank was raised to ichan, and he was made sangju haenggun daechonggwan. Again he went into the borders of the enemy and broke nine fortresses, Jillye and the rest, and cut down more than nine thousand and took six hundred captive.

Chunchu went into Tang and asked for and got two hundred thousand soldiers and came back. He saw Yusin and said, "Death and life are as fate has it, and so I have come back alive and see you again, my lord. What good fortune is like this?"

Yusin answered, "Your lowly servant leaned on the majesty and the spirit of the state and fought twice in great battle with Baekje. I took twenty fortresses and cut down and captured more than thirty thousand men, and I made the bones of Lord Pumseok and of his lady come back to their home village. All this was brought about by the good fortune of Heaven. What strength was there in me?"