Eul Paso乙巴素

Eul Paso was a man of Goguryeo.

In the time of King Gukcheon, Eobiryu, a paeja, and Jwa Garyeo, a pyeongja, and others like them were all kin of the queen's house who took power into their own hands and did much that was not right, and the people of the country resented it and were angry. The king in his anger meant to put them to death, and Jwa Garyeo and the rest plotted rebellion, so the king killed them and drove them out.

Then he sent down an order, saying, "Of late, office has been given out of favor, and rank has been advanced without regard to worth. The poison of it has run down to the people and shaken our royal house, and this has come of my own want of clear sight. Now let each of your four bu put forward the worthy and good who are among the lower ranks."

Thereupon the four bu together put forward Allyu of the Eastern Bu, and the king called him and gave the government of the country into his hands.

Allyu said to the king, "Your poor servant is dull and stupid, and is truly not fit to take part in great affairs of state. But there is a man of Jwamul-chon in Amnokgok to the west, Eul Paso by name, the grandson of Eulso, a great minister in the time of King Yuri. He is firm and hard in nature and grain, and his wisdom and thought run deep, but he has not been used by the world, and works the fields and feeds himself by his own labor. If the great king wishes to put the country in order, it cannot be done without this man."

The king sent an envoy with humble words and heavy gifts to invite him, and made him jungoe daebu, and raised his rank to uttae, and said to him, "Unworthy as I am, I took up the work of those before me and stand above ministers and people, but my worth is thin and my ability short, and I have not brought the country to good order. You, sir, have hidden your use and covered your light, and have lived poor among the grass and the marshes for a long time. Now you have not cast me off but have come to me at once, and this is not only my own joy and good fortune, but the good fortune of the altars of state and of the living people.

I ask to receive your teaching with respect. Give it your whole heart."

Paso had given his mind to the country, but he held that the office he had been given was not enough to get the work done. So he answered, "With my slow and stumbling powers I dare not take on so weighty a command. I ask that the great king choose out someone worthy and good and give him high office, and so bring the great work to pass."

The king understood what he meant, and appointed him chief minister of state and put the government in his charge. At this the ministers of the court and the kin of the royal house hated Paso, saying that a new man was pushing in between the old.

The king sent down a command, saying, "High or low, whoever does not follow the chief minister will have his whole kin destroyed."

Paso withdrew and said to those about him, "To hide when the time is not right, and to serve when the time comes, is the ordinary way of a gentleman. Now the lord treats me with a generous mind. How could I think again of my old retirement?"

So with the utmost sincerity he served the country, made government and teaching clear, and was careful with reward and punishment, and the people were at peace and there was no trouble within or without.

The king said to Allyu, "If it had not been for that one word of yours, I could not have got Paso to rule together with me. That all these good works have come together now is your doing." And he appointed him daesaja.

By the eighth month, in autumn, of the seventh year of King Sansang, Paso died, and the people of the country wept bitterly for him.