Book I 103
in rows and bowed to him. They beat drums and shouted, “Long live
the king!”
T’aejo appeared to be extremely alarmed and acted as if he could not
accept [their request] on his own. Kŭngnyŏm and others spoke in unison,
urging him to ascend the throne:
“The reason the state has a ruler is only to serve the Gods of Earth and
Grain above and secure the people’s livelihood below. It has been almost
five hundred years since T’aejo [Wang Kŏn] founded Koryŏ, and when it
came down to King Kongmin, he suddenly died without a successor. At that
time, influential ministers wielded their power with abandon, wishing to
strengthen their position and self-interest. Thus, deceiving the people, they
set up U, the son of a treacherous monk, Sin Ton, on the throne and had him
succeed King Kongmin. So it happened that U occupied the throne for fif-
teen years. This means that the royal lineage of the Wang clan was already
severed.
“U became violent and tyrannical, slaughtering innocent people, and
finally raised an army to attack Liaodong. Only you, Lord, took the lead in
advocating the Great Cause, saying that it was impossible to violate the ter-
ritory of the Son of Heaven, and turned your army around to march back
home. Now, U came to realize his mistake and, terrified and confused,
resigned his throne. When this happened, Yi Saek, Cho Minsu, and others
plotted with Yi Im, the father-in-law of King U, and placed Ch’ang, King
U’s son, on the throne. The Wang clan’s [legitimate] line of succession
became disrupted for a second time.
“This was when Heaven mandated the throne to you, but, being humble
and concessive, you would not take the throne and instead let Lord
Chŏngch’ang [later King Kongyang] temporarily assume control of state
affairs, serving the Gods of Earth and Grain and stabilizing the livelihood
of the people.
“The wrongdoings that Sin U committed in the past were well known,
but his clique, including Yi Saek and U Hyŏnbo, persisted in their delusion
and plotted to reinstall him on the throne. This treachery being exposed,
they attempted to evade punishment for their crime by secretly dispatching
cohorts, such as Yun I and Yi Ch’o, to China and falsely accused the current
government of Koryŏ of already rebelling against the Ming. They pleaded
with the emperor for an intervention by having his close relatives mobilize
the imperial army to wipe their native land clean. If this plan had actually
been carried out, the Altars of Earth and Grain would have been ruined, and