by Ilyon
(The unlikely events described in the following paragraphs are all evil omens. It will be recalled that foxes especially were associated with ghosts and spirits, and that white is the color of mourning, and hence of death, in East Asia.)
In the fourth year of Hsienking of the T'ang Emperor Kao-tsung (659), a large red horse appeared at Ohoe-sa (Ohap-sa) Temple in Paekje and galloped around the temple six times. In the second moon of that year many foxes entered the palace of King Uija and a white fox jumped up on the monarch's jade table and sat there for a long time.
In the fourth moon a hen in the palace of the crown prince mated with a little bird that swooped down from the sky.
In the fifth moon a thirty-foot-long fish leaped out of the water and died on the bank of Sabi-su (a river in Puyo), and everyone who ate the flesh of this fish died.
In the ninth moon the awe-inspiring giant oaks in the palace gardens wailed with human voices, and during the nights ghosts and goblins cried on the boulevard south of the palace.
In the second moon of the fifth year (660), the water in all the wells of Puyo and in Sabi-su (White-Horse River or Kum-gang) turned blood-red, and small fish leaped out of the water on the western seashore and fell dead. There were so many that the people could not collect and eat them all.
In the fourth moon tens of thousands of frogs appeared in the treetops. The citizens of the capital ran out of their houses in fear, and fell dead by hundreds as if they had been attacked from behind, and people lost their fortunes by thousands.
In the sixth moon, the monks of Wanghung Temple saw as in a mirage a forest of ship's masts rush into the temple on the rising tide, and dogs as big as deer leaped from the west to the banks of Sabi-su, barked at the palace and were gone. The dogs of the city gathered in packs on the roads, where they barked and howled in chorus and then scattered with mournful whines. A terrifying ghost entered the palace and cried loudly, “Paekje is ruined! Paekje is ruined!” and then descended into the bowels of the earth.
King Uija ordered his servants to dig in the ground where the ghost had disappeared and at a depth of three feet they found a turtle with ten Chinese characters carved on its back which read, “Paekje is a round moonwheel; Silla is a new moon.” The King called for a fortuneteller, and asked him what the inscription meant. The aged soothsayer replied, “'Round moonwheel' means a full moon, which is about to wane; the 'new moon' will grow larger and larger night by night.” The king was angry and had the fortune-teller put to death. Then a courtier flattered him, saying, “Your Majesty, 'round moonwheel signifies the zenith of power, and 'new moon' represents the weak and small. This means that Paekje is a large kingdom and Silla is a small kingdom.” The King laughed for joy.
When King Muryol of Silla (Kim Ch'un-ch'u) heard of these grotesque events, he said “These are signs of the doom of Paekje.” In the fifth year of Hsienking (660) he dispatched Kim In-mun to the T'ang; court to ask for military aid.
The Emperor Kao-tsung ordered out 130,000 crack troops under the command of his Left Tiger Guard General Su Ting-fang and his subordinates Liu Po-ying, Feng Shih-kuei and Pang Hsiao-kung. They crossed the sea on 1,900 war vessels and attacked Paekje. (Ilyon notes, here that local records put the number of T'ang troops at 122,711, but that no definite figure is given in the official T'ang history.) Moreover the Emperor appointed King Muryol commander of ground forces, and asked him to send Silla troops to fight on the side of the T'ang army.
When general Su's forces arrived at Tokmul Island to the west of Silla, King Muryol commanded general Kim Yu-sin to lead 50,000 picked warriors to cooperate with the Chinese army.
General Su landed his troops at the mouth of the White Horse River and quickly defeated the Paekje defenders. At the same time, his warships rode a favorable tide up the river to the accompaniment of fifes and drums. The T'ang cavalry and infantry killed tens of thousands of Paekje soldiers and laid siege to Puyu, the capital.
Meanwhile the Silla army crossed the sky-kissing mountains through the high pass of T'anhyon. The patriotic general Kyebaek led his 5,000 soldiers up to the plains of Hwangsan (now Yonsan), where he ordered them to hold or die. At first, through valiant efforts, they were able to halt the superior Silla force, but not for long. The general fell on the field of honor, and the last defensive line of Paekje had been broken.
The T'ang and Silla forces now settled down before the gates of Puyo while the two commanders planned a coordinated attack. At this time a fierce bird circled around the head of general Su, and a fortuneteller said it was an omen of his sure death in the coming battle. The general trembled from head to foot and was about to order his men to turn back. But Kim Yu-sin unsheathed his long sword, struck the swooping bird dead, and laid it at the general's feet, saying “A small grotesque bird cannot interfere with our great expedition against a bad king.”
King Uija and his crown prince fled to Ungjin, while his second son Prince T'ae assumed the throne and fought valiantly against the invaders. But seeing his followers desert him and flee, he opened the city gates and surrendered. General Su captured King Uija and Crown Prince Yung. He also took prisoner two further princes, the aforesaid T'ae and Prince Yon, eighty-eight high officials and generals, and 12,807 Paekje civilians. All these he took away to the T'ang capital, Changan.
Originally Paekje was divided into five provinces, thirty-seven counties, 200 towns and 760,000 households. But the victorious Chinese reorganized it and placed a Chinese military governor in each of the provinces to take charge of the local administration. General Liu Jen-yuan was put in command of Chinese forces occupying Puyo while general Wang Wen-tao was appointed governor of Ungjin (now Kongju) with the special task of pacifying the defeated Paekje troops.
(The significance of this was that the T'ang government plainly-intended to incorporate Paekje into the Chinese empire, a fact which was not lost upon Silla.)
General Su presented his prisoners to the T'ang Emperor, who, after rebuking them, set them free. When King Uija died of an illness soon after, the Emperor conferred a posthumous title on him, ordered a royal funeral and had him buried beside the tombs of Sun Hao and Chen Shu-pao. (These were the tombs of the rulers of states during two periods of Chinese disunity. By his action the Emperor, while recognizing Uija as having been a legitimate ruler, also announced that the Paekje kingdom was now defunct like the states ruled by the two whose tombs neighbored Uija's and implied that Paekje was now under Chinese rule.)
In the second year of Lungshuo (662) Emperor Kao-tsung ordered out another large force under general Su Ting-fang to attack Koguryo. These troops defeated a Koguryo army in the battle of P'ae-gang and surrounded P'yongyang. But the valiant defenders held them off and they were unable to take the city. Finally the Chinese troops were routed in an attack during a snowstorm and forced to scatter and flee.
Returning defeated to China, general Su was appointed the Emperor's special envoy to Liangchow, to pacify the troublesome barbarians in that border area, but died soon after taking up his duties. The Emperor mourned his death and conferred on him the posthumous titles of Left Cavalry Marshal and Military governor of Yaochow. (Ilyon says this last paragraph was taken from the official T'ang history.)
Previous to this, a T'ang army had been sent under general Su to attack Koguryo a second time, and had pitched its tents on the outskirts of P'yonyang. A courier was sent to Silla with a request for food supplies.
This posed something of a problem. The supplies, if sent, would have to pass through Koguryo territory, and thus there was a risk of their being captured by the enemy. Not sending them, on the other hand, would be abandoning an ally in his hour of need. Kim Yu-sin volunteered to take charge of the transport and managed to reach the Chinese camp with 20,000 bushels of grain under heavy guard.
Sometime later Kim Yu-sin dispatched two messengers to general Su, asking if his army should join the T'ang forces in an allied attack on Koguryo. In return he received a drawing by the T'ang commander of a calf and a youn
g phoenix. This was a puzzle, and the great monk Wonhyo was asked to interpret it. He said that both young creatures had lost their mothers, and that this meant the Silla forces operating in Koguryo were in danger and should be pulled back at once to rejoin their “parent.”
Kim Yu-sin ordered his troops to cross the Pai River (now Tae-dong-gang) and go north as fast as possible. But while the crossing was in progress Koguryo troops attacked them from behind, and thousands were killed. Kim Yu-sin launched a counterattack the following day and slaughtered many Koguryo warriors.
An old Silla book contains the following account. “In the fifth year of King Munmu (665) in the eighth moon, the King (of Silla) led a large army to the fortress of Ungjin, where he met with Prince Yung, the (T'ang) puppet ruler of Puyo. The two sovereigns built an altar and killed a white horse as a sacrifice to the heavenly gods and guardian deities of mountains and rivers. Then they painted their mouths with the blood of the sacrifice as a symbol of their pledge of friendship. (A very ancient custom is here recorded.) Next they read aloud the following oath. (The oath is interesting evidence of the typical Chinese assumption that because of her superior civilization China was by right the ruler of all other states and that political virtue consisted chiefly in submission to the will of the Emperor.)
“'The kings of Paekje hitherto have taken a vacillating course in their foreign relations and have neglected good neighborliness with Silla. Instead of maintaining amity in accordance with the royal marriage tie (there had been marriages between the Silla and Paekje royal houses) they allied themselves with Koguryo and Japan in order to commit repeated acts of brutality, raping the fair land and massacring the innocent inhabitants of Silla.
“'The Celestial Emperor of the Middle Kingdom (China), mindful of the welfare of these calamity-stricken people, dispatched celestial envoys to the scene of conflict to make peace. Nevertheless Paekje, relying on her remoteness and her fortifications, disdained the Celestial Emperor's command, thus provoking him to send out an army to subjugate the rebels.
“'The palaces of Paekje ought to be demolished and ponds dug in their ruins as an example to posterity. 'Embrace the meek and punish the rebel' was the splendid practice of our imperial ancestors; 'Raise the vanquished and heal the broken' was the benevolent rule of our predecessors, whose noble virtues should be copied to add new luster to the royal chronicles. Thus the Emperor made Yung of Puyo, ex-king of Paekje, governor of Ungjin to worship the shrines of his ancestors and rule his native land.
“'We command Prince Yung to rely upon Silla as an ally and friend, to dispel the old enmity and create new bonds of amity and lasting peace between the two countries in order that they may become our loyal vassals. We hereby send our right guard general Liu Jen-yuan to convey our wish that marriages be contracted between the two royal houses, and that the two kings paint their mouths with the blood of a white horse in token of their pledge to share their joys and sorrows and relieve each other's calamities like brothers.
“'This our command is to be inscribed on an iron plate in letters of gold and permanently displayed as a symbol of royal loyalty to the imperial throne. If either of you disobeys our command and attacks the other, the spirits of heaven will look down upon your rebellion and send hundreds of catastrophes upon you, so that you will forfeit the privileges of raising your children, ruling your native land and worshipping your ancestors.'
“This the Celestial Emperor commanded Prince Yung of Puyo, and he now obeys. In witness whereof our solemn vow is inscribed in letters of gold on this iron plate and placed in the royal shrine (of Silla) for our posterity to ten thousand generations to know and keep our pledge and never to violate it. We pray the gods of heaven and earth to drink this divine blood, to partake of the sacrifice and to give us blessings.”
After the ceremony the gifts for the gods were buried on the northern side of the altar and the oath was inscribed in golden letters on an iron plate and placed in the (Silla) royal shrine. The oath was drafted by Liu Jen-kuei, military governor of Taebang (i.e. northern Paekje).
The official chronicle of the T'ang dynasty states that King Uija and Crown Prince Yung were sent to the Chinese capital by general Su Ting-fang. This oath is clear evidence that the Emperor released Prince Yung and sent him back to rule Paekje in the Chinese behalf.
An old Paekje book states that King Uija with his concubines and court ladies leaped from a great cliff north of Puyo into the river rather than be captured by the victorious enemy, so that the people call it the Rock of Falling Deaths. But this is a mistake. Only the court ladies leaped from the rock, while King Uija died in China as we have seen.
(There is indeed a sheer cliff on the bank of the White Horse River near Puyo, from which the Paekje court ladies are reputed to have leaped when the city was taken. It is known today as the Rock of the Falling Flowers.)
A legend from Silla times says that after the destruction of Paekje and Koguryo Chinese forces remained in the Sangju area awaiting an opportunity to attack Silla and bring the whole peninsula under Chinese rule. Kim Yu-sin, the legend says, forestalled this plot by inviting the Chinese soldiers to a great banquet and feeding them poisoned birds' meat. The dead were then buried under a huge mound of earth. Even today there is a mound near the T'ang bridge in Sangju county northwest of Kyongju which it is claimed is the grave of the poisoned T'ang soldiers.
But the official T'ang chronicles contain no mention of this incident, either to conceal it or because the legend is groundless. Moreover, had this poisoning occurred at the time stated in the legend, Silla could hardly have asked the T'ang court for help in a later conflict with Koguryo. It seems, therefore, that this Silla folk-tale has no basis in fact. It is true that Silla took possession of Koguryo territory after the battle of Mujin (668) and was never subjugated to China, but there is no evidence of a murder of Chinese troops.
Following the defeat of Paekje and the withdrawal of Chinese troops the King of Silla sent an army to conduct mopping-up operations. No sooner had they taken up positions in Hansan Fortress, however, then they were completely surrounded by forces from Koguryo and Malgal (a Manchurian group ruled by Koguryo). Fierce battles ensued, and by the time the siege had endured for forty days the situation of the Silla troops seemed hopeless.
In consternation, the King of Silla called his courtiers together to ask for their advice, but they all hung their heads in silent resignation. But general Kim Yu-sin arose in the royal conference and said to the King, “Your Majesty, this is too great a crisis to be warded off by human strength alone. Only a miracle can bring succor to our men.”
So saying he climbed up Songbu-san (Star-floating Mountain) where he built an altar and prayed for a miracle from heaven. Suddenly a huge fireball appeared above the altar and flew toward the north shooting flames. Just as the enemy were about to attack the exhausted troops in the lonely fortress, it changed into lightning and struck their stone-shooting cannons. (The existence of cannons in the seventh century seems hardly likely. Perhaps they were catapults.) With thunderous sounds it smashed bows, arrows, spears and projectiles, knocking many of the enemy troops to the ground. Those who survived this heavenly bombing scattered and fled in all directions, and the Silla troops were saved. This is the reason the place is named Star-floating Mountain, for the fireball floated above it like a fiery star.
There is another story about the Star-floating Mountain which has nothing to do with the fireball. It seems there was once a foolish old man who planned to become an aristocrat overnight by obtaining a government position through some marvellous trick. He sent his son to the top of a high mountain near the capital every night and instructed him to lift a flaming torch in the air at midnight. The people of Kyongju thought that it was a fire-star of war floating low in the sky, foretelling a national calamity.
The King also saw it, and ordered the people to pray to heaven for the removal of this evil omen which had appeared almost over his palace, offering a big reward to anyone who could ma
ke it go away. Then the foolish old man came forward and said that he could do it. But the royal astrologer said to the King, “Your Majesty, this is not a sign of national calamity but of private disaster, foretelling a son's tragic death and a father's lamentation.” So the King decided to take no further action for the moment but to wait and see. Sure enough, the very next morning as the old man's son was climbing down the mountain he was caught and killed by a tiger.
During the reign of King Sinmun (681-692) the T'ang Emperor Kao-tsung sent an envoy to the Silla court with the following message: “Our august father, because of his unification of the Celestial Empire during his lifetime in harmony with the universal virtues and by the merits of wise ministers such as Wei Cheng and Li Shun-feng, who assisted the throne so well, was honored with the title T'ai-tsung (pronounced T'aejong in Korean). Silla is a small nation outside China and giving your former King (Muryol) the same posthumous title as a Chinese Emperor is presumptuous and disloyal. We command you to change this royal title at once.”
The King of Silla sent a polite reply to the Emperor as follows: “Though Silla is a small nation, her King was able to unify the three kingdoms during his lifetime by the merit of Kim Yu-sin, who assisted the throne with unexcelled valor. Therefore the King was honored with the title T'aejong.”
When the Emperor read this letter he recalled having heard a Wondrous voice from heaven before his accession, saying that one of the great men in the thirty-three heavens was born in Silla and was called Yu-sin. He could not help admiring the great warrior and sent a second message to the court at Kyongju, which read “Do not bother to change the royal title T'ai-tsung. It is too good a name to change.— from the T'ang Emperor.”