Kim Yang金陽

Kim Yang's courtesy name was Wiheun. He was a ninth-generation descendant of King Taejong the Great. His great-grandfather was Juwon, who held the rank of ichan; his grandfather was Jonggi, a sopan; his father was Jeongyeo, a pajinchan. Generation after generation the house had given the kingdom its generals and its ministers. Kim Yang was outstanding and gifted from birth.

In the second year of Taihe, the third year of King Heungdeok, he became governor of Goseong commandery. Soon he was appointed daeyun of Jungwon, and shortly after he was moved to be dodok of Muju. Wherever he served, his rule was praised.

In the first year of Kaicheng, a byeongjin year, King Heungdeok died with no legitimate heir, and the king's cousin Gyunjeong and Jeryung, the son of another cousin, contended for the succession. Kim Yang joined with Gyunjeong's son Ujing, an achan, and with Yejing, the husband of Gyunjeong's sister, and they upheld Gyunjeong as king. They entered Jeokpangung and stood guard there with the troops of their clan.

Jeryung's party, Kim Myeong and Ihong and the others, came and surrounded them. Kim Yang drew up his troops at the palace gate and held them off, saying, "The new king is here. How dare you be so wicked and rebellious as this?" Then he drew his bow and shot more than ten men dead.

Jeryung's man Bae Hwonbaek shot Kim Yang and hit him in the thigh. Gyunjeong said, "They are many and we are few. As things stand we cannot hold them. Draw back as if in retreat and plan for what comes after."

Kim Yang then broke through the ring and got out, and reached Hangisi, but Gyunjeong was killed by soldiers in the fighting. Kim Yang looked up to heaven and cried aloud, and swore his heart by the bright sun. He hid himself in the hills and the wild country and waited for his time to come.

By the eighth month of the second year of Kaicheng, Ujing, who had been sijung, gathered the remnant of the troops and entered Cheonghaejin. He made common cause with Gungbok, the daesa there, and they planned together to avenge a wrong they could not live under the same heaven with.

When Kim Yang heard of it, he gathered men of counsel and soldiers, and in the second month of the third year he went out by sea, met Ujing, and planned with him to rise.

In the third month, with five thousand hardened troops, he fell upon Muju. When they came below the walls, the people of the province all surrendered. They advanced and halted at Namwon, met the Silla troops, fought them and won. Ujing said that the soldiers had been worn out for a long time, so for the time being they went back to Cheonghaejin, where they rested the troops and fed the horses.

In winter a comet appeared in the west, its rays pointing east, and the company offered congratulations, saying, "This is a sign that the old will be swept away and the new spread out, that the wrong will be repaid and the shame washed clean."

Kim Yang was named General Who Quiets the East, and in the twelfth month they went out again. Kim Yangsun came with the troops of Muju, and Ujing also sent six bold and brave generals, Yeomjang, Jangbyeon, Jeongnyeon, Nakgeum, Jang Geonyeong and I Sunhaeng, to command the troops, so that the array was very grand. They marched to the beat of drums and reached Bukcheon in Cheorya county of Muju.

The Silla daegam Kim Minju met them with troops, and the generals Nakgeum and I Sunhaeng, with three thousand horsemen, charged into that army and killed and wounded them almost to the last man.

On the nineteenth day of the first month of the fourth year the army reached Daegu. The king met them with troops to hold them off, and they struck back, and the king's army was beaten and fled. Those taken alive and those cut down were past all counting.

At that time the king stumbled and fell as he fled, and went into a detached palace, and the soldiers searched him out and killed him. Kim Yang then ordered the generals of the left and the right to lead horsemen round and proclaim, "This was done to avenge a wrong. Now the ringleader has been put to death. Let the men and women of rank and the common people each live at peace, and not stir rashly."

In the end they took back the royal capital, and the people settled in peace.

Kim Yang called Hwonbaek and said, "A dog barks at anyone who is not its own master. You shot me for the sake of your master, so you are a man of duty. I will not hold it against you. Be at ease and do not fear."

The company heard this and said, "If it is so with Hwonbaek, what have the rest of us to fear?" There was no one who was not moved and glad.

In the fourth month they cleansed the palace, and welcomed the sijung Ujing and set him on the throne. This was King Sinmu.

By the twenty-third day of the seventh month the great king died, and the crown prince succeeded to the throne. This was King Munseong. He set down Kim Yang's merits after the fact and gave him the rank of sopan together with the headship of the Chambu, then moved him to sijung together with the headship of the Byeongbu. When Tang sent an embassy of courtesy, they also gave him the office of acting chamberlain of the palace guard.

On the thirteenth day of the eighth month of the eleventh year of Dazhong he died at his private house, at the age of fifty. When the news was heard, the great king grieved bitterly and gave him after his death the rank of seobalhan. The gifts of condolence, the shrouding and the burial were all done after the old precedent of Kim Yusin. On the eighth day of the twelfth month of that year he was buried in attendance at the tomb of King Taejong the Great.

His cousin Heun had the courtesy name Tae (泰). His father Jangyeo rose in office as far as sijung and pajinchan. From childhood Heun was clever and quick to understand, and he loved learning.

In the second year of Changqing King Heondeok was about to send a man into Tang, and it was hard to find the right one. Someone put forward Heun, saying that he was a descendant of King Taejong, that his spirit was clear and outstanding and his bearing deep and steady, and that he was fit to be chosen. So they sent him to the Tang court to serve in the guard. After a year and more he asked to return, and the emperor by edict gave him the offices of grand master of the golden seal and purple ribbon and acting chamberlain for ceremonials.

When he came back, the king of the country held that he had not disgraced his charge, and picked him out to be governor of Namwon. Through several moves he rose to daedodok of Gangju, and soon he was given ichan and the office of prime minister as well.

In the intercalary first month of the gimi year of Kaicheng he became great general, and led a hundred thousand troops to hold off the Cheonghae force at Daegu, and was beaten. Because he had lost his army and had also failed to die as the line fell back, he never took office again. He went into Sobaeksan, wore clothes of coarse arrowroot cloth and ate plain herbs, and roamed in the company of Buddhist monks.

By the twenty-seventh day of the eighth month of the third year of Dazhong he fell ill and ended his days at his mountain house, at the age of forty-seven. On the tenth day of the ninth month of that year he was buried at Namwon in Naryeong commandery. He had no son to follow him, and his wife took charge of the funeral. Afterward she became a nun.