Jang Bogo and Jeong Nyeon張保皐，鄭年

Jang Bogo and Jeong Nyeon were both men of Silla, but their home districts and their fathers and grandfathers are not known. Both were good fighters, and Nyeon could also go down under the sea and travel fifty li without choking. If their courage and vigor are set side by side, Bogo fell a little short. Nyeon called Bogo elder brother. Bogo went by his years and Nyeon by his skill, so they were always at odds and neither would stand below the other.

The two men went to Tang and became junior officers of the Wuning army, and when they rode and used the spear there was no one who could match them.

Later Bogo returned to his own country, had audience with the great king, and said, "All through China they are making slaves of our people. I ask to be allowed to hold Cheonghae, so that the robbers cannot carry our people off to the west." Cheonghae is the key point of the sea road of Silla, and is now called Wando.

The great king gave Bogo ten thousand men, and after this there was no one on the seas selling people of his country.

Once Bogo had risen high, Nyeon left his post and lived in hunger and cold at Lianshui county in Si. One day he said to Feng Yuangui, the commander of the garrison, "I mean to go back east and beg my food from Jang Bogo."

Yuangui said, "How do you and Bogo stand toward each other? Why go and take your death at his hand?"

Nyeon said, "Dying of hunger and cold is not so clean as dying by the sword. And how much better to die in my own country."

So he went and saw Bogo, who gave him drink and was greatly pleased. Before the drinking was over, word came that the king had been killed, that the country was in turmoil and had no lord. Bogo told off five thousand soldiers and gave them to Nyeon, and he took Nyeon's hand and wept and said, "If it is not you, no one can put down this disaster and turmoil."

Nyeon went into the country, cut down the rebels and set up a king, and the king called Bogo and made him chief minister, and had Nyeon hold Cheonghae in his place.

Kim Busik gives his judgment.

Du Mu said, "When An Lushan raised his revolt in the Tianbao years, An Sishun, military commissioner of Shuofang, was made to die because he was An Lushan's cousin, and an edict put Guo Fenyang in his place. Ten days later another edict gave Li Linhuai the staff of office and half the troops of Shuofang, and sent him east into Zhao and Wei.

In Sishun's time Fenyang and Linhuai were both commanders of the headquarters gate, and the two men did not get on. Though they ate and drank from one tray, they always looked at each other sidelong and did not exchange a word. When Fenyang took Sishun's place, Linhuai meant to run away and could not settle on a plan, and then the edict told Linhuai to take half of Fenyang's troops and strike east.

Linhuai went in and made a request. 'To die once I will gladly bear, but spare my wife and children.' Fenyang hurried down, took his hand, brought him up into the hall and sat beside him, and said, 'Now the country is in turmoil and the lord has fled. If it is not you, no one can strike the east. Is this a time to hold onto a private grudge?' When they parted they held hands and shed tears, and urged each other on to loyalty and duty, and in the end the great bandit was put down. That was truly the work of these two men.

Only when you know that a man's heart will not turn against you, and know that his ability is fit for the charge, can your heart be free of doubt and your troops be divided with him. When there is a lifetime of stored-up anger, it is hard to know a man's heart. And anger always makes you see his faults, so it is harder still to know his ability. This is why Bogo and Fenyang were equal in worth.

When Nyeon threw himself upon Bogo, he must have said, 'He is high and I am low. If I bow myself before him, he will surely not kill me over an old grudge.' And that Bogo did not kill him was no more than the common feeling of people. That Linhuai asked Fenyang to let him die was also the common feeling of people.

Bogo's giving the charge to Nyeon came from himself, and Nyeon, being hungry and cold, was easy to move. Fenyang and Linhuai stood against each other all their lives, and Linhuai's orders came from the Son of Heaven. Set beside Bogo, Fenyang is the better. This is just the point between success and failure where sages and worthy men hold back.

There is no other reason for it. The heart of goodness and duty is planted together with the muddled feelings, and when the muddled feelings win, goodness and duty die away, and when goodness and duty win, the muddled feelings fade. In these two men the heart of goodness and duty had already won, and clear understanding came to its aid as well, and so in the end they achieved what they did.

The world calls the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao the teachers of a hundred generations, yet when the Duke of Zhou held the boy king in his arms, the Duke of Shao doubted him. With the Duke of Zhou's sageliness and the Duke of Shao's worth, who in youth served King Wen and in age helped King Wu and were able to settle all under heaven, still the Duke of Shao did not know the Duke of Zhou's heart. If a man truly has the heart of goodness and duty and it is not helped by clear understanding, then even the Duke of Shao was like this, how much more those below him.

The Analects says, 'If a country has one man, that country will not fall.' A country falls not because it has no men, but because when the time of its falling comes the worthy are not used. If they can truly be used, one man is enough."

Song Qi said, "Ah, they did not harm each other out of rancor and spite, but put the country's troubles first. Jin had Qi Xi, Tang had Fenyang, and Silla had Bogo. Who would say that the barbarians have no men?"