The Japanese had not ceased their incursions. Only a year had passed since 200 boat loads had ravaged the southern coast and now a like number swept the island of Kal-do in the south, so that from many a district no revenue rice was forthcoming. It is to be feared that this was the principal cause of uneasiness in Song-do—the loss of revenue. Troops were sent and a fleet of eighty war boats to guard the coast and to convoy[convoy] the revenue junks, but these unexpectedly fell in with a Japanese fleet and were all lost. This disaster caused a panic among the people of Kang-wha and Kyo-dong Island. The governor of Chŭl-la Province came northward with troops guarding the revenue but he too met Japanese and lost all the rice and half his men.
This same year 1364 a Mongol official told the emperor that the king of Koryŭ ought to be allowed to retain his position; and the emperor listened to him. The renegade Ch‘oe Yu was sent back to Koryŭ where he was imprisoned and executed. The Koryŭ envoy Yi Kong-su also returned from Peking. A very neat story is told of him. As he was pursuing his way across a wide plain which seemed to have no inhabitants he was obliged to feed his animals with the standing grain. When he was preparing to resume his way he took a bolt of linen and wrote upon it “The price of grain,” and left it among the standing barley. His attendants said, “But the owner of the grain will never get it. Someone will steal it.” The envoy replied, “That is not my affair. I will have done my duty.” The king wished the emperor to send the would-be king to Koryŭ but to this consent was not given.
The Japanese crept nearer and nearer to Song-do with every new expedition. They went into the temple to the dead and carried away a picture of the king. It was with great difficulty that they were dislodged and driven away.
In 1365 when the queen was confined the king ordered the monks to worship on every mountain top and at every monastery to ensure a safe delivery, but all to no avail. She died in giving birth to the child and the king was inconsolable. Treasure was poured out like water to make the funeral the most imposing that had ever been seen in Koryŭ. For three years following the king ate no meat.
It was in this year that the king had that singular dream which led to such disastrous results. He dreamed that someone attempted to stab him, but a monk sprang forward and by intervening saved his life. The face of this monk remained stamped on his memory. Soon after this he met a monk, Sin-don, whose face was the same as that of the monk who had saved his life in the dream. He was the son of a slave in Ok-ch‘ŭn Monastery and he was looked down upon and despised by the other Monks. The king took this Sin-don to himself, raised him to high position and lavished upon him wealth and honors. As a fact this Sin-don was a most unprincipled, licentious and crafty man, but always when in the presence of the king he assumed the sedate demeanor of the philosopher and for many a year completely hoodwinked his royal master. The other officials expostulated in vain. In vain did they urge that this monk was a beast in human shape. The king considered him well-nigh inspired. He believed that it was jealousy that prompted their antagonism and rather enjoyed getting an outsider in and showing them that office and honors did not always go by inheritance. This new favorite soon began to urge the banishment of this or that official and the king always complied. On this account the feeling against him rose to such a pitch that the king was obliged to send him away for a time lest he should be killed. He remained in this retreat until the king had put to death some of his worst enemies. At last the king sent and recalled him; but the crafty man answered “I cannot go back. It is not right that I should hold office.” When the king reiterated his pressing invitation the monk replied “I am afraid that you will listen to my enemies.” To this the king made answer “I swear by the sun, the moon, the stars, heaven and earth that I will listen to no one but you.” So the wily man came back and from that day completely dominated the king. He exaggerated the faults of his enemies and so gradually supplanted them with his creatures. It is claimed of him that he built a dark vaultlike room where he indulged in almost incredible excesses. He gave out that he could cure barrenness, and by his evil practices brought down upon himself the maledictions of the whole people. The king alone would believe no ill of him. He said he was the greatest prodigy in the world.
At this time the Mongol empire was on the verge of its fall and Koryŭ envoys found it impossible to force their way through to Peking and so were compelled to desist. It is a noteworthy fact that though Koryŭ hated the Mongols she nevertheless held fast to them till the very last moment.
At this time it happened that the king was without an heir and both he and the court were anxious about the succession.
The records say that he was so anxious to have a son that he committed an act almost if not quite unparalleled in the history of any land, civilized or savage. Having become prematurely old by his terrible excesses, he introduced a number of young men into the palace and gave them the entre into the queen’s apartments, hoping thereby that his hopes might be realised. In this he was disappointed. One day while passing an hour in the apartments of his favorite, Sin-don, he noticed there a new-born babe, the son of one of Sin-don’s concubines. He seemed pleased with the child and Sin-don asked him to adopt it as his own. The king laughed but did not seem averse to the proposition. Returning to the palace he summoned the officials and told them that for some time he had been frequenting the apartments of Sin-don and that he had gotten a son by one of the women there. He knew well enough that if he proposed to adopt Sin-don’s son the opposition would be overwhelming, so he took this means of carrying out the plan. Of course it is impossible to verify the truth of this statement. It may have been a fabrication of the historians of the following dynasty in order to justify the founder of the new dynasty in overthrowing Koryŭ. The annals of the Ming dynasty say that it was the king’s son and not Sin-don’s.
In 1366 the opposition to the favorite increased in intensity and the king was almost buried beneath petitions for his banishment or death. These the king answered by banishing or killing the senders and by this means the open opposition was put an end to. The wily monk knew that he needed more than the king’s favor in order to maintain his position of honor, and so he began to take away the fields and other property of high officials and distribute them among the people in order to curry favor with them. This brought from the officials a new and fiercer protest and they told the king that these acts would make his reign a subject of ridicule to future generations. While this did not move the king to active steps against Sin-don it caused a coolness to spring up between them. The favorite saw that he had been going too far and he tried to smooth the matter over by returning the property that had been sequestered. At the same time he secured the liberation of many slaves. Here, too, he was [...][Here, too, he was [...]]
All this time the Japanese were busy at the work of pillage and destruction. They took possession of an island near Kang-wha with the intention of fortifying it and making of it a permanent rendezvous. They landed wherever they pleased and committed the most horrible excesses with impunity. The Koryŭ troops were in bad condition. They had no uniforms and their arms were of the poorest kind and mostly out of order. They dared not attack the Japanese even when there was good hope of success. The generals showed the king the ways and means of holding the freebooters in check but he would not follow their advice, probably on account of the expense. He paid dearly for his economy in the end.