Goguryeo高句驪

As for Goguryeo, its forebear came from Dongmyeong. Dongmyeong was in origin the son of the king of Tangni among the Northern Yi (北夷). While King Ri was away on a journey a serving girl of his was left behind with child, and when King Ri came back he meant to kill her. The girl said, "Some time ago I saw a vapor in the sky like a great hen's egg, and it came down upon me, and by this I am with child." The king shut her up, and afterward she bore a son. The king put him in the pigsty, and the pigs breathed on him with their mouths so that he did not die. The king took him for a spirit and allowed him to be taken up and reared. When he was grown he was good with the bow, and the king feared his fierceness and meant to kill him again. So Dongmyeong fled, and going south he came to the river Eomchesu. He struck the water with his bow, and the fish and the turtles all floated up and made a bridge, and Dongmyeong rode over them and crossed and came to Buyeo and was king there. Afterward a branch parted from that line, and this is the stock of Guryeo. That kingdom was the commandery of Hyeondo under Han. It lies east of Liaodong, a thousand li from Liaodong. In the times of Han and Wei it bordered Joseon and Yemaek on the south, Okjeo on the east, and Buyeo on the north. In the fourth year of Yuanfeng under Emperor Wu of Han, Joseon was destroyed and the commandery of Hyeondo was set up, and Goguryeo was made a county and attached to it.

The land of Guryeo is some two thousand li square, and in the midst of it is Mount Liao, where the Liao river rises. Its king has his capital below Hwando. There are many great mountains and deep valleys and no plains or marshes, so the people live along the mountain valleys and drink the water of the streams. Though they dwell settled on the land they have no good fields, and therefore by custom they are sparing of food. They like to build fine houses. To the left of where they live they raise a great hall and sacrifice to the spirits, and they also sacrifice to Yeongseong and to the gods of soil and grain. The people are fierce and hasty by nature and take pleasure in raiding. Among their offices there are sanga, daero, paeja, gochuga, jubu, utae, saja and joui seonin, and each has its own rank, high or low. In their speech and in many of their affairs they are much the same as Buyeo, but their temper and their clothing differ. In origin there were five clans: the Sonobu, the Jeollobu, the Sinnobu, the Gwannobu and the Gyerubu. In origin the Sonobu were kings, but they grew weak and the Gyerubu took their place. In the time of Han, when clothing and headcloths, court dress and drum and pipe music were bestowed on them, they always received these from the commandery of Hyeondo. Afterward they grew somewhat proud and no longer went to the commandery, but built a small fortress on their eastern border and received them there, and to this day this fortress is named Chaekguru. "Guru" is the Guryeo word for a fortress. In setting up their offices, where there is a daero they do not set a paeja, and where there is a paeja they do not set a daero. By custom they delight in song and dance, and in the towns and villages of the kingdom men and women gather in crowds every night and sing and play. The people take pleasure in their own cleanliness, and they are skilled at brewing and storing liquor. When they kneel and bow they stretch out one leg, and in walking they always go at a run. In the tenth month they hold a great assembly to sacrifice to Heaven, and it is named "Dongmaeng (東明)." At public gatherings their clothing is all of brocade and embroidery, and they adorn themselves with gold and silver. The daega and the jubu wear on the head something like a headcloth but with no back to it, and the soga wear the jeolpung, which is shaped like a cap.

That kingdom has no prisons. When a man is guilty the jega (諸加) gather and judge him and put him to death, and his wife and his children are taken as slaves. By custom they are given to license, and men and women often run to one another and entice one another. Once they are married they begin little by little to make the clothes in which they will be buried. In burying their dead they have an outer coffin but no inner one. They like to bury richly, and gold and silver and goods are all spent on sending off the dead. They pile stones for the mound and plant pines and cypresses in rows. When an elder brother dies the younger takes his brother's wife. Their horses are all small and are good for climbing mountains. The people of the country honor strength and vigor and are practiced with the bow and arrow and the sword and the spear. They have armor and are trained in battle, and Okjeo and Dongye are both attached to them.

At the beginning of Wang Mang's rule, Goguryeo troops were raised to attack the Hu. They did not wish to go, and they were forced and sent, and they all fled out beyond the frontier and became robbers. The province and the commandery laid the blame on Chu, the marquis of Guryeo, and Yan You enticed him and cut off his head. Wang Mang was greatly pleased, and he changed the name of Goguryeo to Haguryeo. At that time it was a marquisate. In the eighth year of Guangwu the king of Goguryeo sent an envoy with tribute, and for the first time he was called king. Between the times of Emperors Shang and An their king, whose name was Gung, raided Liaodong again and again, and Cai Feng, grand administrator of Hyeondo, attacked him but could not stop him. Gung died and his son Baekgo ascended the throne. Between the times of Emperors Shun and Huan they again broke into Liaodong and raided it again and again. In the second year of Jianning under Emperor Ling, Geng Lin, grand administrator of Hyeondo, attacked them and cut off several hundred heads and took captives, and Baekgo then surrendered and was attached to Liaodong. When Gongsun Du held sway east of the sea, Baekgo entered into friendship with him. Baekgo died and his son Iimo ascended the throne. From the time of Baekgo, Iimo had already raided Liaodong again and again, and he had also received more than five hundred households of Hu who had fled. In the Jian'an years Gongsun Kang sent out an army and struck him and broke his kingdom and burned his towns and villages, and the Hu who had surrendered also turned against Iimo, and Iimo set up a new kingdom again. Afterward Iimo struck Hyeondo once more, and Hyeondo joined with Liaodong and struck him and broke him utterly.

Iimo died and his son Wigung ascended the throne. Wigung had courage and strength, was at ease in the saddle, and was good at shooting and hunting. In the second year of Jingchu under Wei, the grand tutor Sima, Prince Xuan, was sent to lead a host against Gongsun Yuan, and Wigung sent a jubu and a daega with a thousand soldiers to help the army. In the third year of Zhengshi, Wigung raided Xi'anping, and in the fifth year Guanqiu Jian, inspector of You province, led ten thousand men out from Hyeondo to attack Wigung. Wigung met the army with twenty thousand foot and horse, and they fought a great battle at Biryu. Wigung was beaten and fled, and Jian's army pursued him as far as the pass. They hung up their carts and roped their horses and climbed Mount Hwando, and they put his capital to the sword and cut off and took captive more than ten thousand heads. Wigung took only his wife and his children and fled far away. In the sixth year Jian attacked him again, and Wigung went in light array with the jega and fled to Okjeo. Jian sent the general Wang Qi after him, and Wang Qi went more than a thousand li beyond Okjeo, as far as the southern border of Suksin, and cut the record of his deeds in stone. He also came to Mount Hwando and cut an inscription at Bullae fortress, and then went back. Afterward they had dealings with the Middle Land again.

In the troubles of Yongjia under Jin, Murong Hui of the Xianbei held Daji fortress in Changli, and Emperor Yuan gave him the post of inspector of Ping province. Eulbulli, king of Guryeo, raided Liaodong again and again, and Hui could not hold him in check. Bulli died and his son Soe ascended the throne in his place. In the first year of Jianyuan under Emperor Kang, Huang, the son of Murong Hui, led troops and attacked him, and Soe fought with him and was heavily beaten and fled on a single horse. Huang followed up his victory and pursued him as far as Hwando, and he burned the palace buildings and carried off more than fifty thousand men and went back. In the tenth year of Taiyuan under Emperor Xiaowu, Guryeo attacked the commanderies of Liaodong and Hyeondo, and Murong Chui of Later Yan sent his younger brother Nong to attack Guryeo, and he recovered the two commanderies. Chui died and his son Bao ascended the throne, and he made An, the king of Guryeo, governor of Ping province and invested him as king of the two states of Liaodong and Daebang. An first set up the offices of chief secretary, marshal and adjutant, and afterward he took the commandery of Liaodong. When it came to his grandson Go Ryeon, in the Yixi years of Emperor An of Jin he first bore a memorial and took up his tribute duties, and through Song and Qi alike he received titles of rank, and he died at more than a hundred years of age. His son Un was made in the Longchang years of Qi Commissioner Bearing the Tally, Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary, Governor of All Military Affairs of the two provinces of Ying and Ping, Great General Who Conquers the East, and Duke of Lelang. When Gaozu ascended the throne he raised Un to Great General of Chariots and Cavalry, and in the seventh year of Tianjian he sent down an edict that said: "Un, king of Goguryeo and duke of the commandery of Lelang, has shown his sincerity clear, and his tribute and his envoys follow one upon another. It is fitting that his office and his charge be raised high, and that the rule of the court be widened by it. He may be made Great General Who Soothes the East, with an Office Opened and Ceremonial Equal to the Three Excellencies, and his commission, his attendancy, his governorship and his kingship shall all be as before." In the eleventh year and the fifteenth year he sent envoys with tribute again and again. In the seventeenth year Un died, and his son An ascended the throne. In the first year of Putong an edict let An succeed to the investiture and rank, as Commissioner Bearing the Tally, Governor of All Military Affairs of the two provinces of Ying and Ping, and General Who Quiets the East. In the seventh year An died, and his son Yeon ascended the throne and sent an envoy with tribute, and an edict let Yeon succeed to the rank. In the fourth year and the sixth year of Zhongdatong, and in the first year and the seventh year of Datong, he bore memorials again and again and offered local products. In the second year of Taiqing Yeon died, and an edict let his son succeed to Yeon's rank.