Save Silla!
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
In 396, Goguryeo’s King Gwanggaeto the Great led a fleet in person and surrounded the Baekje capital, and the cornered King Asin of Baekje swore he would “forever be a servant.” But the very next year, King Asin sent Crown Prince Jeonji to the Wa as a hostage and joined hands with them. In 399, when the Great King came down to Pyongyang, an envoy from Silla rushed to him and begged for help, saying “the Wa fill our borders,” and the Great King told the envoy a secret plan and sent him back.
Characters
Sends an army to Silla
A hostage in Goguryeo
The stele called him “Maegeum”
Goguryeo to ask for help
His name is not recorded
Still a child
and joined with the Wa.
fall to the Wa too.
Pyongyang, 399. The Silla envoy galloped south, carrying the plan the Great King had given him.
Around that time, there was a hostage in Goguryeo who had come from Silla.
over Silla’s land?
1st month, 392. When Goguryeo sent an envoy, King Naemul, seeing how strong and mighty Goguryeo was, sent Silseong there as a hostage.
I need you to go.
all right?
Seven years had passed since then. Silseong still had not been able to go home.
The envoy returned to Seorabeol and passed the Great King’s plan on to the king.
be it.
What that plan was, the stele did not record.
The next year, 400. The Gwanggaeto Stele recorded it like this.
He sent 50,000 infantry and cavalry
to rescue Silla.
十年庚子 敎遣步騎五萬 往救新羅 — Gwanggaeto Stele
and save Silla!
command!
This time, the stele did not say the Great King “led in person”; it wrote that he “sent” the army.
An army of 50,000 infantry and cavalry set out on the road south.
are going to Silla.
According to the stele, the Goguryeo army advanced from Namgeo Fortress to Silla Fortress. Silla Fortress is the Silla capital.
Silla Fortress, the Silla capital. Inside, the Wa were everywhere.
still not here?
that sound…!
hoofbeats…!
Goguryeo is here!
The Goguryeo army reached Silla Fortress.
The moment the royal army arrived, the Wa bandits withdrew.
We’re saved!
The stele called the Goguryeo army the “royal army” and the Wa “Wa bandits.”
The Goguryeo army chased hard on the heels of the Wa and reached Jongbal Fortress in Imna-Gara.
Chase them to the end!
Jongbal Fortress promptly surrendered and submitted.
Many hold that Imna-Gara was Geumgwan Gaya, in what is now Gimhae.
The Wa raiders were utterly routed.
out to sea!
But from this point on, many of the characters in this passage of the stele have worn away.
Even the surviving characters “安羅人戍兵” (Alla-in subyeong) are read in different ways: “garrison troops of Alla,” or “set men of Silla to guard it.”
Among the erased characters, a sentence survives that calls the king of Silla “Maegeum” (寐錦).
In the past, the Silla maegeum had never
come in person to report…
昔新羅寐錦未有身來論事 — Gwanggaeto Stele
The characters that follow are also erased in places, but they are read to mean that by the time of King Gwanggaeto the Great, the Silla maegeum paid tribute to Goguryeo.
Silla Fortress, after the Wa withdrew.
saved Silla.
to the Great King.
will be pleased.
In the 8th month of that year, a comet appeared in the eastern sky.
something.
That winter, in the 10th month, the horse the king always rode is said to have knelt, shed tears and cried mournfully.
In the 7th month of 401, after nine years, Silseong was to return to Silla at last.
you have seen Goguryeo.
Silla well.
your kindness, Great King.
Silseong rode south, toward home.
After nine years, Silseong returned to Seorabeol.
just as it was.
hard road for you.
The Samguk Sagi says Silseong resented King Naemul for sending him away as a hostage.
In the 2nd month of 402, King Naemul died.
Because the king’s sons were still young, the people of the kingdom made Silseong king.
am now king of Silla.
…I need you to go.
In the 3rd month of 402, King Silseong made peace with the Wa and sent King Naemul’s son Misaheun as a hostage.
The Samguk Sagi says that Silseong, who resented King Naemul, did not refuse the Wa’s request and sent Misaheun.
It would be sixteen years before Misaheun came home to Silla.
In 412, King Silseong sent another of King Naemul’s sons, Bokho, to Goguryeo as a hostage.
The man who had left as a hostage
became a king who sent hostages.
May 1946, a Silla tomb in Gyeongju.
a bronze bowl!
“Eulmyo year (415), Gukgangsang Gwanggaetoji Hotaewang, hou, ten.” It was a Goguryeo bronze bowl inscribed with the name of King Gwanggaeto the Great.
How this bowl came to Silla and ended up buried in a tomb is unknown.
In 400, the Goguryeo army saved Silla.
For some time afterward, Silla remained under Goguryeo’s great power, and its princes set out as hostages.
And so the bowl bearing the Great King’s name
remained in the land of Silla.
