Gangsu强首

Gangsu was a man of Saryang in Jungwongyeong. His father was Seokche, who held the rank of nama.

His mother saw in a dream a person with a horn and conceived, and when he was born there was a high bone at the back of his head. Seokche took the child to one who was called a worthy man in that day and asked him, "The bone of this child's head is like this. What does it mean?"

He answered, "I have heard that Fu Xi had the form of a tiger, that Nüwa had the body of a snake, that Shennong had the head of an ox, and that Gao Yao had the mouth of a horse. Sages and worthies are of one kind, and their shapes too have something that is not common. And I see that there is a black mole on the child's head. In the art of reading faces, a mole on the face is no good thing, but a mole on the head is no bad thing. Then this child must surely be a remarkable one."

The father came home and said to his wife, "Your son is no ordinary child. Raise him well, and let him become a scholar of the country in time to come."

When he grew up he knew of himself how to read books, and he came to see through their meaning and their reason. His father wished to see where his mind lay and asked him, "Will you study the Buddha, or will you study the Confucians?"

He answered, "I have heard that the Buddha's is a teaching beyond the world. I am a man of the world of men. How should I study the Buddha? I wish to study the way of the Confucians."

His father said, "Do as you like."

So he went to a master and read the Classic of Filial Piety, the Summary of Ceremonial, the Erya glossary and the Anthology of Refined Writing. What he heard was shallow and near at hand, but what he got from it was higher and further still, and he stood out as one of the great men of his time. In the end he entered office and passed through many posts, and he became a man of name in his day.

Gangsu once joined himself without rites to the daughter of a smith's house in Bugok, and their feeling and liking for each other were deep. When he was twenty his parents found through a matchmaker a woman of the town who had beauty and good conduct and meant to make her his wife, and Gangsu refused and said he could not marry twice.

His father was angry and said, "You have a name in your day, and there is no one in the country who does not know you. Yet you take a lowly woman for your match. Is that not shameful?"

Gangsu bowed twice and said, "To be poor and lowly is not the thing to be ashamed of. To learn the way and not practice it, that is the thing truly to be ashamed of. I once heard the words of the people of old, 'The wife who ate the lees and the chaff with you does not come down from the hall, and the friend you made when you were poor and lowly cannot be forgotten.' So the lowly wife is one I cannot bear to cast off."

When King Taejong the Great ascended the throne, an envoy of the Tang came and handed over an imperial letter. There were places in it that were hard to read, and the king called Gangsu and asked him. Before the king he looked at it once and read it out and explained it without halting.

The king was startled and glad, and he was sorry that they had met so late, and he asked his name. He answered, "Your servant is a man of Imna Garyang by birth, and my name is Udu."

The king said, "Looking at the bone of your head, you may well be called Master Gangsu."

He had him write a letter of thanks in reply to the emperor of the Tang, and the writing was skillful and the meaning complete. The king thought him more remarkable still, and he did not call him by his name but said only Imsaeng.

Gangsu never made any plan for his living, and his house was poor, but he was at ease. The king ordered the office in charge to give him a hundred seom of grain from Sinseong every year.

King Munmu said, "Gangsu took the work of writing upon himself, and by his writing he was able to carry what was meant to China and to the two states of Goguryeo and Baekje, and so good ties could be made and the work brought to success.

Our former king asked the Tang for troops and put down Goguryeo and Baekje, and though this is called a feat of arms, it also came from the help of writing. Then how should Gangsu's merit be made light of?" He gave him the rank of sachan and raised his stipend to two hundred seom of grain a year.

He died in the time of King Sinmun the Great, and the office in charge supplied what was needed for the funeral. The clothes and goods and bolts of silk given were very many, but his household kept nothing for themselves and turned it all over to works of the Buddha.

His wife had not enough to eat and meant to go home to her village. A great officer heard of it and asked the king to give her a hundred seom of grain. The wife refused and said, "I am a lowly person. My clothing and my food I had by following my husband, and I have received much of the country's kindness. Now I am alone. How should I dare to shame a rich gift a second time?" In the end she did not take it and went away.

The Silla gogi says, "For writing there were Gangsu, Jemun, Sujin, Yangdo, Punghun and Golbeon." From Jemun on, what they did has been lost, and no account of them can be set up.