Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/207

A TEBEIBLE MAK. 183 powerful kingdom of Bohai ; powerful by the influx of innumerable Coreans. It was to fight this kingdom, which began early to develop its plans against Chinese rule in Liaotung, that Sinlo was summoned to marshal her army ; the Chinese court sending messengei:s for that purpose in 733 A.D. In 733 AD., Sinlo did send an army across the mouth of the Tooman, from her north border, on to the southern lands of Bohai; but they were miserably defeated, — ^leaving the greater half on the fields of BohaL But thenceforth, down to AD. 827, indeed to the end of the Tang dynasty in 906, the only notice taken by Chinese history of Sinlo, is the succession of her kings. But we can infer from the weakness of her neighbours, that Sinlo was then far the most powerful of the Corean states, and that she bad climbed to the summit of her greatness. The Tang emperor's estimate of the character of Gaisoowun looks more like that of a man who has an interest to serve, than one drawn from life. Their stubborn resistance, and the many years of bitter war defending him and their land, prove that the Coreans did not hate him, as the emperor had pictured. There was no Corean who took the opportunity of Tang's presence to flee ; and it was the former most determined foe of Gaisoowun, who turned back the tide of the Chinese success. If the historical novel, Shwo Tang, is of any service, it proves the same thing ; for the great SLze, ugly face, terrible manner, enormous strength, and magic sword, ascribed to Gaisoowun, together with the total and terrible collapse of Corea after his death, prove first of all his abilities, but also the willingness of the people to have him at the head of aflairs. For if they all, or a small minority of them, hated him so bitterly, it was an easy matter for a band to rush upon and kill him, and then flee to the Chinese from revenge. Thus fell, one after the other, the three kingdoms whose territories now form one Corea, after thirty-three years of blood- shed, since the Tang emperor first meditated and began to prepare for the conquest of GkolL Like all wars of mere conquest, the prize did not repay the cost ; for though history is silent as to the number of Chinese victims sacrificed to that ambitious