The Eternal Great King
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
In 400, King Gwanggaeto the Great sent 50,000 infantry and cavalry to rescue the capital of Silla, which had been overrun by Wa troops, and had them chase the fleeing Wa as far as Jongbal Fortress in Imna-Gara. Silseong of Silla, who had been a hostage in Goguryeo, returned home in 401 and became king the following year, and this time he sent King Naemul’s sons to Wa and Goguryeo as hostages. Then, in 1946, a Goguryeo bronze bowl inscribed with the name of King Gwanggaeto the Great was found in a Silla tomb in Gyeongju.
Characters
In 414, raises his father’s stele
Becomes crown prince in 409
Dies at thirty-nine
Attacks Liaodong and Mokjeo fortresses
army to Goguryeo
here to keep the Great King’s tomb
In autumn 414, the sound of chiseling stone rang out over a plain near Gungnae Fortress, the capital of Goguryeo.
Stonemasons were carving characters into the stele that the new king, King Jangsu, had raised for his father, King Gwanggaeto the Great.
That day, families who had come from far away in the south unpacked their bundles beside the tomb. They were the households of “tomb keepers,” who would guard the Great King’s tomb.
this stone?
What does it say?
The stele began with the story of the founder, King Chumo, and went on to record the Great King’s life.
story.
The stele recorded the Great King’s end like this.
Heaven did not watch over him;
at thirty-nine he forsook his kingdom and departed.
昊天不弔 卅有九 宴駕棄國 — Gwanggaeto Stele
Fourteen years earlier, in 400.
That year, Goguryeo sent 50,000 infantry and cavalry south to rescue Silla.
And from the west,
Later Yan invaded.
In the 2nd month of 400, Murong Sheng, king of Later Yan, claiming that “the king of Goguryeo does not observe proper courtesy,” invaded at the head of 30,000 troops himself.
and Namso!
Later Yan took the two fortresses of Sinseong and Namso and seized more than 700 li of land.
More than 5,000 Goguryeo households were dragged off to Later Yan territory.
what about our house…?
and 5,000 households were dragged away!
won back.
how will we ever find them?
In 402, it was Goguryeo’s turn: its army crossed the Liao River and attacked Later Yan’s Sujun Fortress.
Sujun Fortress!
Murong Gui, the Later Yan governor of Pingzhou who held the fortress, abandoned it and fled.
In 404, the stele says, when the Wa invaded the Daifang lands in the south, the Great King went out in person and crushed them.
In the 11th month of that year, the Goguryeo army struck Later Yan again.
The next year, in the 1st month, it was Later Yan’s turn
to come swarming at Liaodong Fortress.
In the 1st month of 405, Murong Xi, king of Later Yan, surrounded Liaodong Fortress. The fortress seemed about to fall.
climbs first!
flat.
borne on our palanquin!
The Samguk Sagi records that Murong Xi gave these orders.
Meanwhile, inside the fortress, they made thorough preparations.
Fill the breach!
In the end, the Later Yan army failed to take Liaodong Fortress and went home.
Liaodong Fortress!
on a palanquin—and lost!
to laugh at.
his soldiers pay the price.
In the 12th month of 406, Murong Xi set out to attack the Khitan, but frightened by their great numbers he wanted to turn back; the empress who had come with him would not hear of it.
of them…
We strike Goguryeo!
With a lightly equipped force, Murong Xi raced more than 3,000 li toward Goguryeo.
Men and horses were exhausted and frozen, and the dead lined the road.
The Later Yan army attacked Mokjeo Fortress, but once again it could not win and turned back.
In 407, a coup broke out in Later Yan: Murong Xi was killed, and Gao Yun became the new king. This state is usually called Northern Yan.
The Samguk Sagi says that Gao Yun’s grandfather came from a branch of the Goguryeo line.
In the 3rd month of 408, the Great King sent an envoy to Northern Yan
to honor the bond of shared blood.
In the 4th month of 409, the Great King named his eldest son Georyeon crown prince.
the crown prince of Goguryeo.
The Samguk Sagi says Georyeon was large of build, with a bold and expansive spirit.
For a little over ten years, the Great King’s armies moved west, south, and then east.
In 410, the Great King led his troops in person toward East Buyeo.
The stele says East Buyeo had of old been a subject people of King Chumo, but had rebelled and stopped paying tribute.
is East Buyeo?
its people have been ours.
When the Goguryeo army reached Yeoseong, the capital of East Buyeo, the whole country was struck with fear and bowed down.
the Great King of Goguryeo…!
your swords.
we won.
The stele says “the Great King’s grace reached far and wide.” The Great King soon turned his army back.
Behind the homeward Goguryeo army, there were people following.
following us?
the Great King’s virtue.
The stele carved the names of those who followed the royal army out of devotion to the Great King: five amno, including the Miguru amno and the Bisama amno.
The stele counted all that the Great King attacked and destroyed in his lifetime like this.
Sixty-four fortresses, 1,400 villages.
凡所攻破城六十四 村一千四百 — Gwanggaeto Stele
The stele says the Great King gave these instructions while he was still alive.
had their old subjects, far and near,
keep watch over their tombs.
will grow poorer and weaker.
After I am gone, have the Han and Ye people I brought back
from my own campaigns keep my tomb.
但取吾躬巡所略來韓穢 令備洒掃 — Gwanggaeto Stele
The “Han and Ye” were people brought from the southern lands the Great King had won in battle.
the crown prince of Goguryeo.
In 412, King Gwanggaeto the Great died. He was thirty-nine.
Crown Prince Georyeon took the throne.
This was the king who would live to ninety-eight
and be known as King Jangsu, “the Long-Lived.”
On the 29th day of the 9th month of 414, the Great King was carried to his mountain tomb and laid to rest.
It is said that on the day of a funeral, the people of Goguryeo sent off the dead with drums, dancing and music.
And not far from the tomb, they raised a stone more than three times a person’s height.
One, two, three!
As the Great King had said, 220 households of the Han and Ye people he had brought back were assigned to keep the tomb.
Worried that they might not know the proper rules, King Jangsu added 110 households of old subjects. That made 330 households in all.
you sweep a tomb.
One by one, the stele recorded which places the tomb-keeping households came from and how many there were.
It read: “From the two places Adan Fortress and Japjin Fortress, ten households shall be ganyeon.”
That’s the name of our home!
never go back to.
the name of your home will remain.
The stele also carried a law forbidding the buying and selling of tomb keepers. Those who sold them were to be punished, and those who bought them made to keep the tomb.
how will we ever find them?
In autumn 414, King Jangsu, just past twenty, stood beside his father’s stele for a long time.
For more than 1,600 years since, the stele has stood in that same place.
Holding the Great King’s deeds
and the names of the hometowns
of those who kept his tomb.
