General Introduction (Ch’ongsŏ) 91
am afraid that something is wrong. Why don’t we remove those few
people?”
Believing his words, Consort Kang went directly to His Majesty [King
T’aejong] and said, “Chŏng Tojŏn, Nam Ŭn, and others cannot be trusted at
all.” His Majesty replied, “My father is so fed up with the slander against
him that he wants to retire, and they have come to dissuade him for his own
good.” Then he reproached Chigyŏng, saying, “These few people have gone
through good and bad times together with my father. Stop talking about
them any further.”
In the seventh month, Kongyang visited T’aejo at his private residence,
providing a feast and entertainment. He enjoyed himself until late at night
and returned to the palace.
T’aejo entertained [King] Kongyang together with Consort Kang. As they
stepped forward to present a cup of wine, Kongyang bestowed on T’aejo a
ceremonial robe, a hat, the finest-quality hat string, and a horse equipped
with a saddle. T’aejo tried on the robe on the spot and expressed his grati-
tude by bowing to the ground.
As the night grew late, Yu Mansu closed the palace gate. His Majesty
[King T’aejong] secretly informed T’aejo of the closed gate and requested
him to go home. Then he had the keeper of the palace keys (kŭmjik) open
the gate at T’aejo’s order and returned home, escorting T’aejo safely. T’aejo,
on horseback, looked around and said to His Majesty, “This hat string is a
precious article. I will give this to you in the future.”
The following day, the king [Kongyang] was so upset that he had the
keeper of the palace keys locked up in prison. T’aejo went into the royal
palace and apologized to the king. He said, “Being intoxicated and unable
to drink any further, I made the keeper of the palace keys open the gate [so
that I could go home].” Then the king ordered the keeper of the palace keys
released from prison.
In the ninth month, the king appointed T’aejo chief grand councilor of the
Chancellery (p’an munhabu sa).
In the eleventh month, Yi Saek, who had been in exile, returned to court
on the order of the king. T’aejo was pleased to have Saek visit him at his
private residence and be seated at the head of the table. Then he knelt to
offer wine to his guest. As Saek accepted the wine unreservedly, the people
around considered his manners inappropriate. However, both the host and
the guest thoroughly enjoyed their visit together.