Seol Gyedu薛罽頭
1Seol Gyedu dies in the country of Tang
薛罽頭，亦新羅衣冠子孫也。嘗與親友四人，同會燕飲，各言其志。罽頭曰：「新羅用人論骨品，苟非其族，雖有鴻才傑功，不能踰越。我願西遊中華國，奮不世之略，立非常之功，自致榮路，備簪紳劒佩，出入天子之側，足矣。」武德四年辛巳，潛隨海舶入唐。會太宗文皇帝親征高句麗，自薦為左武衛果毅。至遼東，與麗人戰駐蹕山下，深入疾鬪而死，功一等。皇帝問：「是何許人？」左右奏新羅人薛罽頭也。皇帝泫然曰：「吾人尚畏死，顧望不前，而外國人，為吾死事，何以報其功乎？」問從者聞其平生之願，脫御衣覆之，授職為大將軍，以禮葬之。
Seol Gyedu too came of a family that had worn the cap and robe of office in Silla. Once he gathered with four close friends and they feasted and drank, and each of them spoke of what he wished.
Gyedu said, "Silla weighs bone rank when it uses men, and if a man is not of the right clan then, however great his talent and however outstanding his merit, he cannot pass beyond it. I wish to travel west to the country of China, and there set loose a strategy such as the age has not seen and raise up an uncommon merit, and by my own doing reach a road of glory, and wear the hairpin and the sash and the sword and the pendant jade, and go in and out at the side of the Son of Heaven. That would be enough for me."
In the fourth year of Mudeok, a sinsa year, he secretly followed a sea ship and entered Tang.
It happened that Emperor Taizong Wen went himself to strike Goguryeo, and Gyedu put himself forward and was made guoyi of the Left Martial Guard. He came to Liaodong, and when he fought the men of Goguryeo below Mount Zhubi he went in deep and fought fast and hard and died, and his merit was of the first grade.
The emperor asked, "What sort of man is this?" Those about him reported that he was Seol Gyedu, a man of Silla.
The emperor shed tears and said, "Our own people still fear death, and they look back and do not go forward, and a man of another country has died in our service. How shall we repay his merit?"
He asked those who had come with Gyedu and heard what he had wished for all his life, and he took off his own robe and covered him with it, and gave him the office of great general, and buried him with rites.
Interlinear notes 1
一本作薩。
In one text Seol (薛) is written Sal (薩).