Book VI 405
on High. If your servant, who received favor from Your Majesty, sent his
men to spy secretly on your territory, and if they plundered and killed people
by luring your soldiers on the borders, no crime would be more serious than
that. If that really happened—and yet I deny it—it would be deceiving Your
Majesty. Among the crimes committed by a subject, nothing can be more
serious than deceiving his sovereign, and the one who dares to deceive his
sovereign cannot live in the civilized world. If I deceived Your Majesty, it
amounts to my having deceived Heaven. Among the crimes of men, nothing
is more serious than deceiving Heaven, so I would have no place between
Heaven and Earth to which to belong. The spirits are everywhere. If I really
deceived Heaven and the emperor, how can it be possible that those spirits
not report to the Lord on High and have him send down calamities on me?
With extreme fear and trepidation, I presume to speak these words. I sin-
cerely beg Your Majesty to take a pity on me with your benevolence.”
To accede to the imperial demands delivered by Ch’oe Yŏn [Chinese envoy],
the king had Kim Ŭlsang, chamberlain for ceremonials of the Court of
Royal Sacrifices, take 500 tribute horses to Liaodong and deliver them to
the Chinese authorities.
18th Day (Pyŏngsul)
Pyŏn Hon, record keeper of the Office of Appointments and Royal Seals,
who concurrently holds another office, ran away. Earlier, Hon privately rec-
ommended two people to the positions of captain and lieutenant, respec-
tively, and spent their stipend for his own use. Around this time, as his
embezzlement came to be discovered, the Office of the Inspector-General
impeached him.
19th Day (Chŏnghae)
The king dispatched Cho Im, administrative grand councilor of the
Chancellery, to China to submit a memorial congratulating the emperor on
his birthday.
20th Day (Muja)
The water of Kit’an Rapids turned red.