234
Nihongi.
directions of the Gods.[1] Then the Empress, clad in male attire, went on the expedition against Silla, and the Gods guided her. Accordingly the wave which followed the ship reached far into the interior of the Land of Silla. Hereupon the Silla Prince Urusohorichiu[2] came to meet the Empress, and kneeling down, took hold of the Royal vessel. Bowing his head to the ground, he said:—'Henceforward thy servant will act as an interior Government for the child of the Gods who dwells in Japan, and will not cease to furnish tribute.' "
One version says:—"She took prisoner the Prince of Silla, and going to the sea-side, plucked out his knee-caps[3], and causing him to crawl on the rocks, suddenly slew him, and buried him in the sand. Accordingly she stationed there one man as Governor of Silla, and departed. Afterwards, the wife of the Prince of Silla, not knowing where the body of her husband was buried, all by herself conceived the thought of deluding the Governor. So, enticing him, she said:—'If thou wilt let me know the place where the Prince's body is buried, I will surely reward thee liberally, and will become thy wife.' Hereupon the Governor believed these deluding words, and secretly made known to her the place where the body was buried. Then the Prince's wife and the people of the country, having consulted together, slew the Governor, and having disinterred the Prince's body, buried it in another place. Then they took the Governor's body, and buried it in the earth under the Prince's tomb, and taking up the coffin, deposited it on the top of the Governor's body, saying:—'This is as it ought necessarily to be, according to the order of things exalted and things base.' Hereupon the Empress,[4] when she heard of this, was
- ↑ i.e. offering the ship and lands.
- ↑ This transliteration follows the traditional Japanese pronunciation. The Corean would be U-ryu-cho-pu-ri-chi-u. It may be suspected that the final u 于 is a mistake for 干 kan, a frequent element of Corean titles, perhaps = khan, kami? See Parker's "Race Struggles in Corea," p. 220.
- ↑ A Chinese punishment.
- ↑ The original has Tennō a word which, strictly speaking, is either masculine or feminine, but which is not usually applied to this Empress.
