A Fallen King, a Kingdom Rebuilt
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
Eulbul, a royal grandson who had drifted from place to place as a farmhand and a salt peddler, became king of Goguryeo in 300 (King Micheon) and drove out Lelang Commandery in 313. When King Micheon died in 331 and was buried on the Plain of Micheon, Crown Prince Sayu took the throne. He was King Gogugwon.
Characters
The hero of this story
founded by the Xianbei Murong clan
The future King Sosurim
In 342, King Gogugwon rebuilt Hwando Fortress up on the mountain, and in the autumn, in the 8th month, he moved there to live.
I swear I will protect it.
with a load of salt on his back.
Around that time, west of the Liao River, Yan (Former Yan), a kingdom founded by the Murong clan of the Xianbei, was growing stronger by the day.
In the winter of 342, in the 10th month, Murong Huang, King of Yan, moved his capital to Longcheng.
And he decided to strike Goguryeo first.
to take the wide northern road.
down the rugged southern road!
I will take the southern road.
There were two roads to Goguryeo: the wide, flat Northern Road and the rugged, narrow Southern Road.
will come by the wide Northern Road.
and block the Northern Road!
The king himself led weak troops to guard the Southern Road.
Their main army’s coming from the south!
But the 40,000 elite troops led by Murong Huang came pouring in by the rugged Southern Road.
Murong Han’s vanguard struck first, and Murong Huang’s main army followed.
The Goguryeo army was badly defeated. Riding that momentum, the Yan army entered Hwando Fortress.
The king rode off alone and took refuge in Danunggok Valley.
The Yan general Muyu Ni gave chase and captured the king’s mother, Lady Ju, and the queen.
I will walk on my own.
The 15,000 Yan troops who had taken the Northern Road fought the Goguryeo army and were wiped out. Murong Huang pursued no further and sent an envoy to summon the king.
and bow before the King of Yan!
The king did not come out.
to the land of Goguryeo.
will gather again.
Han Shou went on.
Carry off his father’s body,
and take his mother away as a captive.
When the King of Goguryeo comes of his own accord and bows down, you can give them back then.
Murong Huang took his advice. The Yan army dug open King Micheon’s tomb and loaded his body onto a cart.
I swear I will protect it.
The Yan army seized the treasures gathered over generations and took more than 50,000 men and women captive.
Then they burned the palace, tore down Hwando Fortress and went home.
The tomb lay empty, and his mother had been carried off by the enemy.
Mother…
In the spring of 343, the king sent his younger brother to Yan to declare himself a vassal and offered more than a thousand rare treasures.
presents these gifts.
I will return the father’s body.
…The mother stays here.
And so the body of his father, King Micheon, returned to Goguryeo. But his mother remained in Yan as a hostage.
I have brought you home.
The king’s mother, Lady Ju, spent year after year as a hostage in a foreign land.
are you eating well?
Year after year went by. His mother did not come back.
In the 1st month of 355, the king named his son Gubu crown prince.
That winter, the king sent hostages and tribute to Yan and asked for his mother’s return.
Murong Jun, the ruler of Yan,
at last agreed.
The Yan general Diao Kan escorted the king’s mother all the way to Goguryeo. It had been thirteen years.
Around then, Baekje was rising to great power in the south. In the 9th month of 369, the king led 20,000 troops against Baekje.
But after making camp at Chiyang, he was taken by surprise by the Baekje crown prince and badly defeated.
In 370, Yan, which had trampled Goguryeo, fell to Former Qin in the west.
When Murong Ping, Grand Tutor of Yan, fled to Goguryeo, the king seized him and sent him to Former Qin.
Then, the next winter,
Baekje invaded.
In the 10th month of 371, King Geunchogo of Baekje and his crown prince led 30,000 elite troops in an attack on Pyongyang Fortress.
Do not fall back!
The king himself led his troops out and fought back.
An arrow flew in from somewhere and struck the king.
I leave it to you.
I swear I will protect it.
On the 23rd day of that month, King Gogugwon died.
The people buried the king on the “Plain of Goguk.” That is why he is called “King Gogugwon.”
Crown Prince Gubu took the throne. He was King Sosurim.
We must strike Baekje at once!
could not protect the kingdom.
that will never fall.
In the summer of 372, Fu Jian, king of Former Qin, sent an envoy and the monk Sundo with Buddhist images and scriptures.
the teachings of the Buddha.
That same year, the king founded the Taehak, the national academy, to educate the young men of good families.
In 373, law codes (yullyeong) were proclaimed for the first time: the laws for governing the kingdom were set down in writing and made known throughout the land.
shall follow this law!
In 374, the monk Ado arrived. In the 2nd month of the following year, the king built the temples Chomunsa and Ibullansa and had Sundo and Ado live there.
The Samguk Sagi recorded this as “the beginning of the Buddha’s Law east of the sea.”
has risen again.
With faith, learning and law, the son rebuilt his fallen father’s kingdom.
The fighting with Baekje went on even after that. In 377, 30,000 Baekje troops attacked Pyongyang Fortress once again.
In the winter of 384, King Sosurim died. As he had no son, his younger brother Iryeon (King Gogugyang) took the throne.
Iryeon’s son Damdeok
would become King Gwanggaeto the Great.
The next story is that of King Geunchogo, the Baekje king who attacked Pyongyang Fortress.
