74 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
governing the state, as Lü Buwei^146 did with the state of Qin. Then he put U,
the son of the wicked monk Sin Ton,^147 on the throne, deceiving the people
that he was born to King Kongmin and one of his concubines.
“The consort dowager of King Kongmin was opposed to the enthrone-
ment of Sin U, and state councilor Yi Susan requested that the new king be
chosen from among the royal Wang clan. Nevertheless, Inim refused to
listen to them. The people across the country were disheartened, and the
thick yellow fog all around concealed the sun completely. When U presided
over the funeral [of King Kongmin], a rainbow circled the sun; when he
carried out the winter sacrifice (chŭngje) to the royal ancestors, the owls
cried in the shrine, lightning flashed, and the earth was shaken; when he
performed the sacrifice upon the anniversary of the death of Ŭirŭng [King
Ch’ungsuk], strong winds began to blow with heavy rains as well as thunder,
lightning, and hail; and when he ascended the throne, the wind toppled the
pine trees and blew away the pine cones in the Royal Ancestral Shrine and
the royal tomb, destroying the eagle-shaped gargoyle in the shrine hall.
Further, the gate of the Royal Ancestral Temple was knocked down, and fire
broke out at the palace storehouse. These happened because the ghosts of
the royal family tried to prevent U from succeeding them, by demonstrating
their dignity.
“When they killed Panya, U’s mother, in order to keep the secret of U’s
origin, the new gate of Sap’yŏng collapsed by itself. They buried the dry
bones of someone else, pretending that they belong to U’s mother, and when
they did, the tent in which the coffin of U’s mother was laid caught fire
twice a day. All these strange things were the signs shown by Heaven, indi-
cating that U was indisputably the son of Panya.- Lü Buwei (291?–235): a merchant during the Warring States period who schemed his
way into governing the state of Qin. - Sin Ton (?–1371): a monk of late Koryŏ during the reign of King Kongmin. Though he
was born of a female servant of a Buddhist temple, he enjoyed the favor of King Kongmin and
rose to the position of national preceptor and prime minister plenipotentiary. With the firm
support of King Kongmin who wanted to suppress powerful families, he implemented various
reforms, including land and slaves. He established a special agency called the Directorate for
Reclassification of Farmland and Farming Population and returned the lands and slaves seized
by the powerful families to their original owners. Further, he attempted to move the national
capital to P’yŏngyang. On the other hand, his adversaries criticized him for being arrogant,
corrupt and lascivious, often indiscriminately seizing women from others. What was apparent,
however, was that in the process of carrying out these reforms, he incurred the resentment and
hostility of powerful families, and it led to his downfall and death.