Silla’s victories created a kingdom that controlled most of the Korean Peninsula. Historians often refer to the period from 676 to 935 C.E. as United Silla. This unification of Korea needs some qualification. Although Silla ruled most of the agricultural heartland of Korea it did not control the northern third of the modern boundaries of Korea. It is also somewhat controversial to speak of a single Korean state after 676 since the demarcation between Korea and Manchuria was not well defined, and a northern kingdom, Parhae, emerged in the early eighth century that occupied much of the former Koguryŏ. Nor was there a single “Korean” ethnic group. Over the centuries, however, under the peninsular kingdom of Silla and its successor states an increasingly well-defined Korean culture and society emerged. For the next twelve centuries from 676 to 1876, Korea underwent two major political reformations, suffered several assaults from the outside, and experienced continual sociocultural evolution. In the process it developed a society that possessed a strong sense of its own identity and historical continuity. Then after 1876, Korea entered the emerging Western-dominated global civilization, and the Korean people faced the challenge of adapting their culture and applying their historical experience to the modern world.
During the twelve centuries of the premodern peninsular kingdom, historical events can be put into context by placing them within several broad patterns of change. First, the kingdom became increasingly homogeneous. In terms of language, cultural identity and shared values and traditions, the Koreans became one people. Second, the peoples of Korea continued absorbing Chinese notions of government, religion, ethics, art, music, family structure, and fashions. Chinese-derived cultural values and habits penetrated further down the social hierarchy. As this happened Koreans combined these with indigenous traditions and developments. Thus Korea was able to become a full participant in, and at the same time a distinctive component of, the cosmopolitan East Asian civilization centered in China. Third, the kingdom gradually expanded in population and wealth. It expanded internally by absorbing more marginal lands and internal frontiers into its sociopolitical system, while externally there was a slow, fitful extension of its northern frontiers until by the middle fifteenth century they were stabilized at their present Yalu and Tumen river boundaries.
The periodization of Korean history generally follows dynastic demarcations. From 676 to 935 there was the Silla state that was ruled by the Kyŏngju Kim kings from the southeastern capital of Kyŏngju. From 935 to 1392 the kingdom, renamed Koryŏ, was governed from Kaesŏng under the Wang family, and from 1392 to 1910 the Yi dynasty governed the state, renamed Chosŏn, from Seoul. Within this chronological outline, it is helpful to see Korea as undergoing several stages and transitions. From 676 to the late eighth century the state under Silla experienced a period of growth and consolidation accompanied by an artistic and literary efflorescence. The period after 780 to the end of the ninth century was one of political if not socioeconomic and cultural decline. The tenth century was truly a transitional period that saw the disintegration of Silla, a brief period of political disunity, and the reformulation of the kingdom under the early Wang kings. Their Koryŏ state lasted nearly five centuries until another transitional period in the fourteenth century saw the establishment of the remarkably durable and stable Chosŏn state of the Yi dynasty, which survived to the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910.
Silla’s rulers sought to consolidate their power and create a centralized state. This proved difficult because the society was dominated by powerful aristocratic families, especially those of the highest true-bone rank. The true-bone aristocrats monopolized higher political offices, possessed private armies, and through the Hwabaek chose the king and participated in policy making. In 654, Kim Ch’un-ch’u succeeded to the throne as King Muyŏl (r. 654–661) and began a line of kings that remained on the throne to 780. These Silla rulers struggled to establish a centralized state under monarchical control. The task was made more difficult by the fact that the sŏnggol (sacred-bone) line died out with Queen Chindŏk (r. 647–654). Although Muyŏl’s mother was of the royal Kim clan and his primary queen was the younger sister of Kim Yu-sin and a member of the Kaya royal family, Muyŏl and his descendants were of chin’gol (true-bone) rank, that is, of the same rank as the great aristocratic families. This meant that in terms of caste they were merely first among equals. The term sacred-bone implies a magicoreligious function that may have contributed royal authority. It is not clear if, in fact, the early rulers actually possessed priestly functions; it is apparent, however, that the status of the Silla kings after Muyŏl was far from secure and they had to struggle to maintain their supremacy. Because of this they were eager to seek alternative sources of legitimacy.
The chief rivals of the Silla kings were other higher aristocrats of true-bone rank who were represented in the Hwabaek and who held the top administrative posts. Muyŏl was challenged by the sangdaedŭng, as the chief of the Hwabaek was called, a man named Pidam, and later by another sangdaedŭng, Alch’ŏn. Another king, Sinmun (r. 681–692), was challenged by Kim Hŭm-dol, the father of his first queen, and purged another sangdaedŭng, Kun’gwan, forcing him and his son to commit suicide. To secure his authority Sinmum reorganized the army to bring it under closer royal control. The yukchŏng (six garrisons) were replaced by the sŏdang (oath banner) system as the main military force. Recruits were selected from Koguryŏ, Paekche, and from the Malgal tribes along the northern border. He placed these under direct royal authority. This was supplemented by the sip chŏng (ten garrisons). These forces, primarily concerned with internal security, were stationed outside the capital, Kyŏngju. One garrison was placed in each province with two in the capital area, and two in Hanju, the strategic province between the Han and Taedong Rivers. Since earlier Silla armies are believed to have been headed by powerful aristocrats, and perhaps organized along clan lines, the new royal forces marked the beginning of a truly centralized military. Meanwhile, the hwarang continued to exist as an organization of aristocratic youth. Sinmun also attempted to strengthen the fiscal basis of the state by reforming the tax system.
Under Sinmun the regional administration was reorganized, and in 685 nine chu (provinces) were created: three out of the Silla homeland, three out of the former Paekche, and three out of former Koguryŏ territories; while at the same time five secondary capitals were created, a measure important in controlling the country since the capital Kyŏngju was awkwardly situated in the extreme southeastern corner of the country. Following Chinese practice each province was subdivided into kun (prefectures), which totaled over one hundred, and into hyŏn (smaller counties) of which there were more than three hundred. At the lowest level of administration were ch’on (villages) headed by village chiefs. An elaborate administrative hierarchy of governors, prefects, and county magistrates administered the country. There were also subcounty units called hyang and pugok that were places of settlement for outcaste groups.
On the surface Silla appeared to be an impressively centralized state with royal administration penetrating down to smaller units of administration, much like, on a bigger scale, Tang China. In reality, however, Silla functioned more as an alliance of powerful families in the capital and prominent provincial families. Royal authority was limited by the fact that the top officialdom was recruited from a small segment of the aristocracy, the true-bone aristocrats of the Kyŏngju area. Local elites were appointed to serve as functionaries in the local administrations, perhaps a recognition of the need to rule with the support of these prominent families. To insure the loyalty of non-Sillan and other local elites a hostage system was believed to exist in which family members served at court on a rotation basis (this was later dubbed the sangsuri system). In the capital a complex central bureaucracy existed headed by the Chipsabu (Chancellery Office), which had been created in 651 and was headed by a chungsi or chief minister.1 Eleven ministries, a Board of Censors, and hundreds of departments administered the court and the state. It is generally believed that after unification the Hwabaek declined in importance and the royal bureaucracy under the Chipsabu administered the kingdom.
Silla, a close ally of Tang and an exemplary tributary in many ways, modeled itself on Tang China. Yet for all the adoption of court robes and rituals; Chinese legal concepts and administrative nomenclature; and the careful study of Chinese literature, art, and philosophy, Silla maintained some distinctive features. This is evident in its administration. Tang China was administered by three chancelleries and six ministries: revenue, rituals, military, personnel, justice, and public works, a system later adopted by the Koryŏ state. In contrast, Silla’s bureaucratic structure included many different ministries, including a Ministry of Horses and a Ministry of Marine. There were also on paper at least, hundreds of departments, including offices that dealt with monasteries, astronomy, medicine, and translation. There was even an office of water clocks. It is not clear how many of these offices functioned or whether they existed only on paper. Many or most may have been sinecures for the well connected. Provincial administration was based on the nine chu (Chinese: zhou) of the ancient Zhou dynasty, not the circuits (Korean: to; Chinese: dao) of Tang. Silla’s society was also evolving differently from China’s. While the Tang state was gradually reducing the hereditary aristocracy’s control over government posts, despite efforts by monarchs to assert their personal authority, the aristocracy’s monopoly of government was strengthened under Silla. In fact, it can be argued that Silla was not so much a centralized state as a coalition of local and central elites. Furthermore, while anti-Buddhist sentiment asserted itself in late Tang, the links between Buddhism and the state remained strong in Silla. Thus, while the Silla state faithfully adopted much of Chinese culture and nomenclature, it was not a miniature Tang China.
As with other premodern states, Silla consisted of a small elite of officials and courtiers on top of a mass of farmers. To support itself, the state exacted tribute from its peasants and fishers to feed and clothe its officials and their retainers. How this taxation was organized during the Three Kingdoms period is not clear, but by the seventh century we have enough information to give a general description. Sigŭp (tax villages) were granted to prominent members of the elite as a reward for their services to the state. Apparently the owners of these estates were free to extract what produce and labor they could. It is not known how often this was done or how much of the countryside was controlled in this manner. The famous general Kim Yu-sin was granted five hundred households and six horse farms, but as he was a national hero this might not have been typical. Most officials were supported by nogŭp (stipend villages), which are believed to have included the right to collect a stipulated grain tax and perhaps corvée labor (use of labor service as a form of taxation) on the part of the recipients. In 687, a new system, the chikchŏn (office-field), was introduced, which assigned land to specific offices and entitled the officeholder only the right to collect the grain tax. Two years later the stipend village system was abolished. Both moves were an apparent attempt to gain greater control over the nation’s resources by the state. The office-field system was abandoned in 757, and the nogŭp restored. More ambitious was the chŏngjŏnje (“able-bodied land system”) that was initiated in 722. Based on the Chinese term “equal field” (Chinese: juntian; Korean: kyunjŏn), this was an attempt to establish state control over all land and periodically redistribute it to individual households, the amount depending upon the number of able-bodied adult males each contained. Upon the death of an adult male, his portion of land reverted to state control and was redistributed. This would insure that the state had access to the surplus produce and labor of its peasantry, and would prevent great landowners from controlling these resources and denying the state access to them. This too was abandoned; just when is not known. Along with the failure of the chikchŏn, the failure of the “able-bodied land system” indicates the limits of the state’s control over its aristocracy and peasantry.
However, a chance discovery of four village registers found in the form of a wrapper over another document in the Shosoin Imperial Repository in Nara, Japan, in 1933 belies this impression of limited government control. This fascinating peak into Silla administration, while highlighting the fragmentary knowledge of this period of Korean history, also testifies to the ingenuity of historians who have managed to derive a wide range of insights and interpretations of Korean history from a single scrap of documentation. The document contains portions of a census register of four villages near modern Ch’ŏngju. The dating of this document is given in a sexagesimal cycle year used in East Asia to count by giving each year in a sixty-year cycle a name. The year name given is generally believed to refer to 755, although 815 is a possibility. With surprising detail the villages were classified into nine grades of households based on the number of able-bodied adults and others available for corvée duty. Fields were divided into paddies, dry fields, and hemp fields. Horses, oxen, and mulberry, pine nut, and walnut trees were all listed. Certain fields appear to have been set aside for the support of village heads. There are other categories of fields of uncertain purpose.2 These were perhaps office lands in accordance with the chikchŏn system, that is, for the support of the state officials.
All this would indicate that the Silla state made a considerable effort to consolidate its control over the peasantry and its resources, and possessed an impressive level of administrative organization and recordkeeping. An important form of taxation was corvée. Peasants were required to work on major public construction projects. Skilled workers owned or controlled by the state provided it with services and needed goods that were produced in state workshops. Metalsmiths, leather workers, butchers, guards, spinners and weavers of cotton and hemp, makers of medicinal goods, temple officials, street cleaners, and bookkeepers worked for the state in varying degrees of servitude. The state’s ability to extract taxes and labor was the key to its effectiveness as a political institution. Potential revenues were lost to grants of tax-free land given as rewards, such as the impressive grant to Kim Yu-sin. Buddhist temples owned farmland that was also exempt from taxes. How much land was owned by temples is not clear, but it may have been considerable. Revenue gathering reached its peak efficiency in the late seventh and eighth centuries as monarchs consolidated their power. In the ninth century, especially in the latter half, there appeared to have been a sharp drop-off in state revenues, and a concomitant decline in the power of the Silla monarchy.
At the apex of the state was the monarch. The king, however, had to compete for authority with the great landowners for revenue, who were generally the high-born aristocrats. To shore up their legitimacy Sillan kings made use of the Chinese tributary system. The Chinese emperor was recognized as the Son of Heaven, and the Silla king as his enfeoffed representative on the peninsula. The Chinese imperial calendar was official, and in the eighth and early ninth centuries each king sought to confirm his position by sending an envoy to the Tang capital upon coming to the throne.
Kings also used Confucianism to strengthen state authority. Confucianism was a line of teachings derived from the Chinese philosopher Kongfuzi, known in the West as Confucius (551–479 C.E.). In Silla times its most important teachings were its emphases on filial piety, loyalty to the ruler, and respect for authority, all useful for the state. Confucian ideas would gradually penetrate Korean culture until by the fourteenth or fifteenth century they became the principal basis for moral, social, and political philosophy. In Silla times, however, Confucianism was primarily useful for training literate and loyal officials. The full implications of this school of thought were not felt until much later. As early as 636, Queen Chindŏk appointed scholars to teach the Confucian classics. Her successor, Queen Sŏndŏk, followed Koguryŏ and Paekche practice by designating certain scholars as paksa (erudites). In 682, a Kukhak (National Academy) along Tang lines was established to promote the study of the Chinese classics. This institution was open to sons of aristocratic families between eighteen and thirty years of age. In 717, portraits of Confucius and the “ten philosophers” and seventy-two worthies were brought back from Tang China, and in 750, the National Academy was reorganized as the T’aehakkam with a curriculum based on Confucian works. Examinations on Chinese classics were held to select worthy officials. Confucianism, however, was strictly secondary to Buddhism as a source of moral and political authority. It is also unlikely that the examinations were more than a short-lived modest experiment. Only later with the reintroduction of the civil examinations in the Koryŏ state did the Chinese practice of selecting officials by examination begin to play a significant role in Korean political culture.
A number of scholars trained in the Chinese classics served that state. Some were historians. Historical compilation played an important role in Silla society as it did throughout Korean history. Two erudites of history served the Sillan kings. The most distinguished historian was Kim Tae-mun, active in the early eighth century, who authored a history of the hwarang, the Hwarang segi (Chronicles of the Hwarang), Kosŭng chŏn (Biographies of Eminent Monks), the Kyerim chapchŏn (Tales of Silla), and the Hansan ki (Record of Hansan). Unfortunately none of these have survived. The men like Kim Tae-mun who served as officials became the forerunner of the Confucian scholar-bureaucrat who would characterize later Korean history. Another early scholar official was Kangsu (d. 692), who, as with most of the men of Chinese learning, came from the lower head-rank aristocracy (see below). Most famous of the early masters of classical Chinese learning was Sol Ch’ong, a contemporary of the historian Kim Tae-mun. Son of the Silla monk Wŏnhyo by a Silla princess, Sol Ch’ong (c. 660–730) was one of the outstanding learned men of Silla. He served as a royal advisor, and his letter to the throne P’ungwang so (Parables for the King) urged monarchs to renounce pleasure seeking and strictly observe moral standards. This is one of the earliest examples of the Confucian moralistic admonitions to the monarch that would remain a major feature of premodern Korean politics. Sol Ch’ong was also incorrectly credited with inventing the idu (or kugyŏl) transcription system used to facilitate the reading of the Chinese classics, but he may have standardized it.
A distinction existed between these men of the head-rank-six class, who were generally better educated so they could carry out the clerical functions of the state, and the higher aristocracy of the true-bone that monopolized the top posts. Many of the early Confucian scholars such as Kangsu and Sol Ch’ong were locally educated men, and their knowledge of the Chinese classics was still a rare and valuable skill. By the ninth century a large number of men who had studied in Tang and were fluent in Chinese emerged to take an increasingly active part in government serving the kings. They were mostly from the lower aristocratic head-rank-six class. These educated head-rank-six officials insisted, as men of learning and merit, on the right to serve government at the higher levels despite their lower rank. Ch’oe Ch’i-wŏn was the most famous of these. Ch’oe went to Tang China in 868 where he studied Chinese classics and literature. He distinguished himself in the Tang examinations in 874 and served in the Tang bureaucracy. After returning to Korea in 885, Ch’oe served as an advisor to Queen Chinsŏng (r. 887–897), to whom he submitted a number of memorials proposing reforms. The content of those proposals has not survived, but he is believed to have been an early champion of the employment of the Chinese civil examination system. When his proposals were not adopted, he retired to self-imposed exile, setting a pattern for many subsequent scholars and reformers. Ch’oe Ch’i-wŏn was regarded in his day as an outstanding poet and essayist both in China and in Korea. A collection of his writings, the Kyewŏn p’ilgyŏng chip (Plowing the Laurel Grove with a Writing Brush), has survived. They represent the earliest extant collection of literary works of an individual Korean author. He was also highly thought of as a calligrapher and samples of his calligraphy have survived in the “four mountain inscriptions.”3
Daoism (Taoism) was another school of thought that shaped Korean culture at this time, albeit to a much lesser extent than Buddhism or Confucianism. The Daoist classic, the Laozi, was known in Koguryŏ. Religious Daoism was actively promoted as an alternative to Buddhism by the state in the seventh century. Even earlier references to the Laozi and the Zhuangzi, the other great Daoist classic, appear in Paekche. In Silla, the official transmission of Daoism came in 738 when the Tang envoy presented King Hyo-sŏng with a copy of the Laozi. It was, however, only during the period of decline during the eighth and ninth centuries that Daoism had a significant influence in Korea.
Silla’s elaborate formal government apparatus was imposed over a society structured along hereditary class lines. Bureaucratic positions were limited to corresponding hereditary ranks. At the top was the chin’gol (true-bone) aristocracy. The true-bone aristocrats, for the most part, resided in the capital and monopolized the first five of the seventeen bureaucratic ranks, including the highest position, the sangdaedŭng; the yŏng (heads) of the ministries; the provincial governors; and the generals. Many of these high-ranking aristocrats possessed private armies of armed retainers. According to one Chinese source these private armies numbered as many as three thousand men.
Below the true-bones were the tup’um (head-ranks). The yuktup’um, the topmost head-rank six, formed the second tier of the aristocracy. Also primarily residents of the capital Kyŏngju, they played an increasingly significant political and cultural role. The head-rank-six members held positions of lesser bureaucratic rank and provided the state with many of its scholars and court scribes. Beneath the aristocratic class were commoners. We hear little of these people who probably made up the majority of the population. One historical problem has been whether the peasantry was free or in some state of servitude. Evidence is too fragmentary to make conclusions as to whether they were free to move or to buy and sell land. In view of the powerful grip the aristocracy had on society, it is not likely that peasants possessed much freedom of movement. That peasants enjoyed at least some rights and privileges is implied by the fact that they were distinguished from people of more servile status. Free or not, in Silla’s hereditary class-based society the opportunity to rise in status, serve in government, or change occupation was at best extremely limited.
Koreans adopted the Chinese classification of nonelites into p’yŏngin (“good people”) and “mean” or “base” people. The p’yŏngin lived in villages (ch’on) and were subject to the supervision of village elders, farming their own fields as well as those designated for government and elite support. “Mean” people ranged from skilled craftsmen and specialists to chattel slaves. While slavery certainly existed, it does not appear to have been the primary economic basis of society. There appears to have been no large landed estates, only scattered parcels of land that could have been worked by slaves; public construction, however, was carried out by peasant corvées, not slaves. But that slaves were probably fairly numerous and could be held by commoners is suggested by the few records that have survived.4 The four village census registers list twenty-five slaves among the 442 members of the agricultural communities.
Available evidence indicates that Silla was a rigidly hierarchical society where rank, status, and privilege ran along hereditary class lines. Incidences of social mobility, if it existed, must have been rare. Strict sumptuary laws reinforced class differences. Clothing, footwear, utensils, the size of houses, the designs on tiles, size of carts, and room sizes were all regulated. Commoners were forbidden from having big entry gates to their homes and could have no more than three horses in their stables. Nevertheless, commoners could become wealthy, and the flourishing maritime trade of late Silla must have afforded many opportunities for lower-ranked merchants to amass wealth and influence. The records state, for instance, that in 834, King Hŭng-dŏk issued an edict prohibiting the possession of luxurious foreign goods by commoners because this was leading to confusion in social ranks. Family descent was extremely important as was true of Korea in later periods. The main kinship organization was the chok, a large descent group. Later Koreans would have family shrines and elaborate rituals honoring their ancestors, but this was probably not the case in Silla.5
The status of women in Silla was higher than in subsequent periods or perhaps in Paekche and Koguryŏ. Much of our knowledge of Silla’s family structure and the role of women, however, remains a matter of speculation. It is believed that the status of women was high compared to most contemporary Asian societies, that men and women mingled freely and participated together in social functions, and that families traced their ancestry along both their father’s and mother’s line. Women were able to succeed as the family head, and failure to produce a son was not grounds for divorce. Three women ascended to the throne—the last was Chinsŏng (r. 887–897)—although only when there was no male heir. Among royalty, about whom much more information is available, girls married between sixteen and twenty, and there was often a considerable difference in ages between partners. No strict rule seems to have existed concerning the use of paternal surnames. Succession was not limited to sons, but also included daughters, sons-in-law, and grandsons by sons and daughters. Equal importance was given to the rank of the father and the mother in determining the status of the child.6 Kings selected their queens from powerful families. A careful reading of the historical records that were edited in later times suggests that Silla queens may have exercised considerable authority.7
In all these ways Korean society at this time differed from later periods in which the position of women weakened considerably. If the above represents an accurate picture of Silla society, then the pattern of the next one thousand years of Korean history is one of a steady decline in the status of women, of the greater segregation of sexes, and of a shift to a more patrilineal society.
Agriculture was the basis of the economy and the vast majority of the population lived in small villages and hamlets where they farmed rice, barley, and vegetables. Little is known about farming methods in this period, but enough surplus was produced to support a sizeable urban population. Kyŏn-gju was the largest city. The thirteenth-century history Samguk yusa states that at one point it had 178,936 households. The city is said to have had 1,360 residential quarters in its fifty-five wards, thirty-five great private estates, and four royal palaces, one for each season. While these figures no doubt are greatly exaggerated, archaeological evidence suggests that it was indeed a sizeable city, among the major urban centers in Asia. It was apparently a prosperous city of parks, bridges, and large official markets. The Samguk yusa records that when King Hŏn’gang (r. 875–886) looked out from his palace he could see “homes with tiled roofs in rows from the capital to the seas, with not a single thatched roof in sight.”8 Historical demography for Korea is still largely undeveloped, but Korea under Silla probably had a population of at least two million, possibly twice that, making it one of larger states in Eurasia.
Silla was a Buddhist kingdom. The religion had taken deep roots, at least among the ruling class, by the time of unification. Both kings Chinhung and Pŏphŭng, for example, abdicated late in their reigns to be ordained as monks.9 Originally from India, Buddhism eventually spread across most of Asia. Through Buddhism Korea was linked to the wider world that included not only China and Japan but the Buddhist lands in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and India. A few Korean monks even journeyed to India in search of Buddhist teachings. Best known was Hyech’o (704–?), who described his pilgrimage to India in Wang och’ŏnch’ukkuk chŏn (Record of a Journey to the Five Indian Kingdoms). The basic teachings of Buddhism included the ideas that the world was full of suffering, and that this suffering was the result of karma or deeds done in this or past lives. The goal of Buddhism was to break the cycle of births and rebirth and achieve Nirvana, a state of nonexistence that was free from suffering. The forms of Buddhism that reached Korea had undergone considerable change from the original teachings that had emphasized moderation and avoidance of excessive attachment to worldly affairs. These modifications were, in part, due to the Chinese practice of ge-yi, that is, finding suitable Chinese equivalents to Indian Buddhist terms, a process that did much to reinterpret and perhaps dilute the original meanings. Chinese Buddhism during the Tang also reflected the influence of Daoism and other indigenous beliefs. In Silla Buddhism was a source for legitimizing authority, adding to the prestige of the monarchy, and providing the state with scribes and advisors. It was especially, perhaps principally, valued for the supernatural aid it provided. This role gradually declined with the absorption of Chinese secular learning, especially Confucianism, and with the consequent growth of a literate segment of the aristocracy trained in the Chinese classics and in Chinese principles of law and government. Yet, Buddhism still provided the chief source of artistic inspiration, continued to attract many of the best minds in Korea, and pervaded all aspects of secular culture. It was the fundamental belief system of the dominant groups of society. The Buddhist scholarship produced during this period was one of the finest outpourings of intellectual creativity in Korean history.
Tang Buddhism was characterized by its division into many doctrinal sects. Most were named after a particular sutra that was regarded by the sect as the embodiment of the true essence of Buddha’s teachings. Korean Buddhism inherited this multiplicity of doctrines and the focus on certain sutras from Tang. It also shared, if not inherited, the Chinese practice of doctrinal tolerance and the absence of sectarian strife as well as a tendency toward syncretism. Sects tended to borrow from one another so that distinctions between them gradually became blurred.
One of the most important sects was Hwaŏm (Flower Garland). Named for the Avatamsaka (Flower Garland) Sutra, this sect tried to incorporate various doctrines by classifying them into varying degrees of truth. The tenets of Hwaŏm were complex and intellectually demanding, making little concession for the follower who was unable to devote his life to them. It appealed to the small number of monks of aristocratic background who spent their lives mastering esoteric knowledge and thereby gaining awe and respect. It also appealed to other members of the elite who were attracted to its rich rituals and ceremonies, and who could afford to finance the construction of temples, perform elaborate ceremonies and prayers, and support monks who could study on their behalf. Ŭisang (625–702), founder of the Hwaŏm school in Korea, was one of the major intellectual figures of Korean history. Ŭisang went to China at sixteen where he studied under the Hwaŏm master Zhiyan, along with Fazang, who became one of China’s seminal Buddhist thinkers. Among Ŭisang’s many disciples were Simsang, who later propagated the doctrine in Japan. Ŭisang’s later reputation was such that he was credited with saving Silla from an invasion by Chinese emperor Tang Gaozong. He emphasized strict learning, the performance of rituals, and monastic life. In this, he typified the Korean Buddhism of his age.
While Silla kings did not abandon the patronage of Buddhism or its use as a source of legitimacy, Silla Buddhism became less court centered and at the same time less confined to the aristocratic elite. Newer, less esoteric forms of Buddhism with simpler doctrines appeared that did not require constant sponsorship of costly ceremonies. A precursor of this popular Buddhism came with Wŏnhyo. Wŏnhyo (617–686) was one of the major Buddhist thinkers of Korea.10 He preached to the common people at a time when Buddhism was confined mainly to the court and the aristocracy. Most of the eminent monks of Silla derived their fame from introducing some new teaching from China. Wŏnhyo, however, did not journey to China. Instead he traveled throughout the countryside as an act of penance after having broken his vows and sired a son, Sol Ch’ong, by a Silla princess. He was also the founder of the Pŏpsang (Dharma-nature) school of Buddhism, sometimes called the Haedong (Korea) school since it was the only indigenous sect. Wŏnhyo’s aim was to create a school of Buddhism that would harmonize the doctrines of the various other schools. He would be the first major figure in a distinctively Korean tendency to seek a unifying school of doctrine and practice.
Two forms of Buddhism that appeared in Silla times had their major impact on Korean religious beliefs later on: Pure Land Buddhism and Meditative Buddhism. The Pure Land sect centered around devotion to Amitabha (Amit’a-bul) who helped the troubled reach Happy Land (Sukhavati). This belief spread among those of humble status as early as the mid-eighth century, becoming of greater importance in subsequent centuries. Sŏn (called Chan in Chinese but better known in the West by its Japanese pronunciation Zen) was first introduced by Pŏmnang (c. 632–646) after returning from Tang. Another monk, Sinhaeng (d. 779), founded one of the world’s oldest extant Sŏn temples. Sŏn became important in the ninth century with the teachings of Toŭi (d. 825), the first major figure in that tradition, and it had a profound impact on Korea during the Koryŏ period.
Buddhism was the inspiration for much of the art of this period. The most outstanding examples are the Pulguk-sa temple and the Sŏkkuram grotto. Pulguk-sa, built near Kyŏngju in the mid-eighth century, is still one of the great architectural monuments of East Asia. Of special interest is the Muy-ŏng-t’ap (Pagoda that casts no shadow), built in 751. During its reconstruction in 1966 a dharani, a magical formula, was found that was apparently placed in the pagoda at the time of its construction. This is the world’s oldest known printed document. The justly famed Sŏkkuram Grotto, located in a mountain near Kyŏngju facing the East Sea, contains among its many excellent carvings an exquisite eleven-foot stone Buddha that is situated so that it catches the first rays of dawn as the sun rises above East Sea. The bronze Buddhas and Boddhisattvas are of a high standard and were never equaled in Korea. Also impressive are the bronze bells. The Samwŏn-sa bell, cast in 725, the oldest extant, weighs fifteen hundred kilograms. The Pongdŏk-sa bell, cast in 770, is the second largest in the world. Silla bells were decorated with delicate bas-reliefs of flowers, clouds, and flames. Most famous of all is the Emille Bell in Kyŏngju.
Beneath the Buddhism of the Silla was a rich and complex tradition of indigenous religion and practices. We know little of these, however, because they did not leave behind written records. The peoples of Korea worshiped the spirits of mountains and rivers and of various natural features. Dragon spirits were worshiped. The popularity of the cult of Mirŭk, the Buddha of the future, may have been linked to dragon worship since the word for dragon is the same in Korean. A chilling hint of indigenous beliefs is the story of the Emille bell. According to legend the craftsman who cast the magnificent bronze bell was successful only after sacrificing his daughter by throwing her into the molten metal. The cry of her name could be heard, it was said, calling out when the bell was rung.
Silla rulers continued to construct tombs in the Chinese manner. A distinct feature of these tombs, not found on the mainland, is the zodiacal animal deities bearing weapons. One of the interesting surviving monuments from Silla is the Ch’ŏmsŏng-dae, a bottle-shaped granite tower in the ancient Silla capital of Kyŏngju, often cited as the world’s oldest astronomical observatory. According to the Samguk yusa, the Ch’ŏmsŏng-dae was built during the reign of Queen Sŏndŏk (632–647). Its original purpose is not clear but it is widely believed that it served as an observatory, and it has been suggested that its shape was designed to hold a large armillary sphere. If so, it is the world’s oldest extant observatory.11 Due to the central role that Buddhism played as a state protective cult it has been suggested that the tower was built as a replica of the holy Mt. Sumeru, and that it was a place where praying and incantations took place. It is known that astronomy was an important science for compiling the calendar and for prognostication. One eighth-century astronomer, Kim Am, enjoyed a high reputation. Kim studied in China and was also remembered as a master of military science and of yin-yang theory.
Educated members of the elite wrote poetry in Chinese, and some of their works have survived in Chinese anthologies. The great anthology of Chinese literature, the Wenxuan, was taught in Korea; and the Tang poets Bo Juyi and Du Fu were highly esteemed by the educated elite, while some Korean writers in Chinese, such as Ch’oe Ch’i-wŏn, were highly admired in Tang. Ch’oe was considered a master of poetry and parallel prose. A collection of his writings was compiled in 886 and published in both China and Korea. In general, Koreans used Chinese characters (called hanmun or hanja in Korean) for writing, although, of course, they spoke one of the several dialects of Korean used in the peninsula during that time. All three kingdoms apparently employed systems for writing in their native languages using Chinese characters. One method of writing in the vernacular was called idu. Idu used hanmun sentences and placed them in Korean syntax by using certain characters to indicate grammatical markers. Another system, Kugyŏl or t’o, also employed a system of markers and was used as an aid in reading Chinese. Writing Korean in Chinese characters presented problems, as can be seen in the Oath Inscription of 612 where Chinese characters are put in Korean word order. The complicated sound system of Korean made development of a phonetic script difficult, and it was not until the fifteenth century that the Korean alphabet han’gul was developed (see chapter 7).12
Koreans in Silla times also wrote poetry in Korean. In the late ninth century an anthology of hundreds of vernacular Korean poems, the Samdaemok (Collection from the Three Kingdoms), was compiled, but it has been lost. Much Korean poetry was written in a system called hyangch’al, which was devised to transcribe entire Korean sentences with Chinese characters. Using this system, Korean-language poems known as hyangga were composed. Unfortunately few hyangga have survived (see below). Although we have the titles of many hyangga, only twenty-five hyangga now exist: fourteen dating to Silla times are in the Samguk yusa; the other eleven, attributed to the tenth-century monk Kyunyŏ, are in the Kyunyŏ chŏn (Tale of Kyunŏ). These poems provide us with the earliest forms of purely Korean literature. They are invaluable in providing a window into the language and indigenous poetry of the period. Seventeen are Buddhist in inspiration and content; others show a shamanistic influence. Among the latter the “Song of Ch’oyŏng” is probably the best known. This eight-line poem refers to the legend of Ch’oyŏng, one of the seven sons of the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, who married a beautiful woman. Seeing that the wife was extremely attractive, an evil spirit transformed himself into a man and attacked her in her room while Ch’oyŏng was away. But Ch’oyŏng returned, and witnessing the scene, he calmly sang the words of the poem, which so moved the evil spirit that it went away. The Ch’oyŏng mask was later used to exorcize evil spirits, usually on New Year’s Eve. It is apparent that many of the hyangga were to be accompanied by music and dance. Indigenous religious undertones are strong in surviving Silla literature. Even many of the Buddhist poems appear to have been Buddhified shamanistic invocations to mountain spirits and other nature deities and are perhaps of remote origin.
Saenae-mu, mask dances, were performed on festival days such as the three-day T’aep’o (Festival of Wine), which was imported from China. The first was recorded in 615. In 746, at a T’aep’o given by King Kyŏngdŏk, a general amnesty was declared, and 150 novices were ordained monks. This was celebrated in Kyŏngju, which was the great center for aristocratic life. In fact, there appear to have been no significant regional cultural centers, and to a much greater degree than in later Korea, the higher culture was confined to the aristocratic elite living in the capital. An inkling of what this life may have been like is revealed in the Imhae-jŏn (Pavilion on the Sea) banquet hall, which was built over the man-made Anapchi Lake and in the P’osŏkchŏng. The latter was a slightly winding water channel carved out of stone in which wine cups were floated. Revelers took turns composing verse before the wine cups floated down to them. Little is known, however, of the art, music, and festivities of the nonelites.
Silla relations with Tang began to improve in the eighth century. There were several reasons for this. After the reign of Gaozong the expansionary phase of Tang was largely over, and fear of a direct invasion lessened. Furthermore, the creation of Parhae, a new state in Manchuria, acted both as a buffer between Silla and Tang and as a mutual enemy. It controlled part of what is now Korea, posing a threat to its southern neighbor. An alliance between Tang and Silla against Parhae in 733 brought a long period of amiable relations between the two. Tang’s interests in the Korean peninsula were largely strategic, and as it became obvious that Silla posed no threat to its security, relations warmed. China found instead that its policy of using trade and cultural exchanges and offering legitimacy and prestige to the Silla monarchy was effective in keeping Silla safely in the tributary system. Indeed, the relationship that was worked out in the late seventh and early eighth centuries can be considered the beginning of the mature tributary relationship that would characterize Sino-Korean interchange most of the time until the late nineteenth century.
Cultural relations with China were significant. Forty-five of the fifty Silla monks known to have traveled to China did so after unification. Many Korean students studied in Tang. There is no way of knowing how many, but it must have been a considerable number, for in 844, 105 Koreans who were studying at the national academy were sent back to Silla. Eighty-eight Sillans passed the highly competitive and prestigious civil examination during the Tang. A few Koreans even rose to high office in China. Koreans who succeeded academically or who achieved fame in China returned to the homeland as celebrated heroes. In addition to students, frequent embassies were exchanged. One Chinese embassy is said to have had eight hundred members. The resultant process of sinification among the elite was profound. Silla courtiers wore Chinese dress, aristocrats wrote verse in the best Chinese, and Chinese fashions in eating, drinking, music, and imported luxuries of all sorts were necessary accoutrements to high-born status. It is not certain how far Chinese cultural influences penetrated down the social scale. Most probably, the interest in Chinese culture was largely confined to the elite.
In contrast to those with China, relations between Silla and Japan were often hostile. In 733, the Yamato government participated in an alliance with Parhae and sent ships to attack Korea. Japanese leaders hoped to gain a foothold on the Korean peninsula. Attacks by the Japanese from the sea were a threat in early Silla. In 746, three hundred Japanese ships are reported to have attacked Silla. This was followed by a treaty of amity that initiated a period of peaceful exchange. Good relations with Silla served the Japanese well because during the next century the chief maritime route to China passed along the south coast of Korea. A Bureau for Silla was established in Dazaifu in Kyushu in Western Japan, and embassies were exchanged. One Japanese embassy had a reported 204 members. During 761–764, during the An Lushan rebellion in China, a Japanese court official, Fujiwara no Nakamura, planned another invasion; but this was called off by rivals at court and no further organized invasions of Korea took place for the next eight centuries. Instead, it was Sillan pirates who plagued the Japanese coast in the ninth century.
Silla was also tied to its neighbors by trade networks. This included the official tribute given to Tang and the “gifts” received in return. A great deal of private trade flourished as well. Silla silver and gold wares were prized in China. Especially famous were silver and gold basins that became known in China through Song times as “Silla” and copper basins that were called “copper Silla.” Silla silver and gold gained a reputation as far as the Middle East where early Arab references to al-Sila describe it as rich in precious metals. 13 Silla exported silver and gold bullion, textiles, and ginseng, for which Korea has always been famous in East Asia. Sometimes Silla took advantage of its location to reexport Chinese goods and furs and horses from the tribal peoples on its northern border to Japan. From China books, tea, textiles, swords, a variety of ceremonial goods such as court robes, and various luxurious goods were imported. Chinese coins were also imported; they served as a medium of exchange since Silla did not mint coins. Some of these goods were reexported to Japan, where they were traded along with Silla crafts for pearls, fans, and screens.
Silla was the greatest period of maritime activity in Korea’s history. Koreans dominated the commerce of Northeast Asia in the eighth and ninth centuries; most of the commerce between Korea, North China, and Japan was carried out in Korean ships. Koreans established communities in the port of Dengzhou, the historic gateway into north China from Korea, and in Lians-hui and Chuzhou on the Huai River. Korean ships sailed to Yangzhou at the junction of the Yangzi River and the Grand Canal, but did not generally venture into southern China where international commerce was dominated by Arabs. In the ninth century Japanese going to China sailed on Korean vessels, and the account of one these travelers, the monk Ennin, provides a valuable description of Korean maritime activities and of the Korean naval commander Chang Po-go (note hyphen).
Chang Po-go’s career illustrates this interesting chapter of Korean history. Born on Ch’ŏnghae (Wando) Island off Korea’s southwestern coast of humble family background, Chang Po-go emigrated to Tang, where he became a military officer in the lower Huai River basin. Chang returned to Korea and gained royal permission to establish the Ch’ŏnghae Garrison on his home island in 828 by arguing for the need to control Chinese piracy and to protect Korean trade and travelers. From his stronghold he operated a private navy that was a major power in the Yellow Sea. According to the Japanese monk Ennin in his Account of a Pilgrimage to Tang in Search of the Law, which tells of his 840 voyage to Tang China in one of Chang Po-go’s ships, the Korean commander operated a large Buddhist temple in Shandong Province with twenty-eight Korean monks and nuns.14 Chang Po-go’s maritime trade and connections were so extensive that he was called “King of the Yellow Sea.” According to Korean accounts he was given command of the Ch’ŏnghae Garrison because he wanted to end the marauding of pirates who were kidnapping Koreans and selling them as slaves. However, this official position was probably just an official acknowledgment of his already accumulated power. Chang supported Kim U-jing in his successful bid for the throne in 839, when he became King Sinmu. When the newly installed king died the same year Chang attempted to marry his daughter to King Sinmu’s son and successor King Munsŏng. For an islander and a man outside the aristocratic elite of Silla, this bid for influence was a bold move, which failed when a member of the capital aristocracy assassinated him in 846. The Ch’ŏnghae Garrison was abolished in 851. Chang Po-go’s rise from a maritime trader to a major power broker in late Silla was unusual but probably indicative of the growth of maritime lords during this period. Two other maritime lords were Wang Pang-gyu in Chinju and Wang Kŏn, the Koryŏ founder, who came from a maritime family in the Kaesŏng area. Korea’s dominance of Northeast Asian sea lanes ended after the ninth century.
Silla was not the only state to occupy the Korean peninsula. To the north was the state of Parhae. After the collapse of Koguryŏ, remnants from that state and a number of Manchurian tribal peoples set up a state in southern Manchuria at the end of the seventh century that dominated most of Manchuria and the northern third of Korea for two centuries. From 713 to its destruction by the Khitans in 926, Parhae was a formidable power. Its relations with its neighbors were often tense. Parhae, an extensive state, was strong enough to launch a naval raid on the Chinese port of Dengzhou in 732. Despite the tense relations with Tang, Parhae was quickly brought into the Chinese cultural orbit, modeling its administrative structure, its laws, and its literature after its giant neighbor. In general the Parhae administrative structure conformed more closely to the Tang model than to Silla. The state impressed the Chinese enough to earn from them the sobriquet the “flourishing land in the East.” A high-water mark of its wealth and power was reached under the tenth king, Sŏn (r. 818–831).15 Sŏn expanded the kingdom to the Amur River.
For Silla Parhae was a menacing neighbor. This was heightened when the second king, Tae Hŏm-mu, known also as King Mu (r. 720–738), completed the tasks of subjugating the western Manchurian tribes and then turned south to subdue the Okchŏ and establish control over the Hamhŭng plain and the Hamggyŏng coast. In 721, Silla was forced to construct what is recorded as a wall but was more likely a chain of fortifications along its northern border that extended from the mouth of the Taedong to Wŏnsan Bay on the East Coast. In terms of geopolitics, Parhae occupied the former position of Koguryŏ. With the consolidation of the Parhae state under Mu, Silla found itself in the same position that it was in in the 660s when, after the fall of Paekche, it allied itself with Tang to remove the threat in the northern part of the peninsula. But the Tang-Silla military campaign of 733 was no repeat of 668. Half the Sillan army, including two sons of Kim Yu-sin, perished in the snows of the northern mountains. Parhae remained a powerful state that outlived by a couple of decades Silla’s effective control over most the peninsula. The war did bring one benefit for Silla. Tang, in return for its support against Parhae, recognized Silla’s sovereignty over all the territory south of the Taedong. Again in 762, during the An Lushan rebellion in China, Silla felt compelled to fortify its northern border in anticipation of a joint Parhae-Japanese invasion. Relations between the two states, however, were not always hostile, and diplomatic missions to Parhae are recorded for 792 and 812. Trade also was carried out between them, and there is a reference to thirty-nine stations along a trade route stretching from the Parhae city of Tonggyŏng to Silla.
Parhae’s relations with Japan were of a much more consistently friendly nature. For two centuries the two nations exchanged diplomatic embassies. Parhae dispatched thirty-five embassies to Japan and the Japanese court sent thirteen embassies to Parhae.16 A lively trade existed between the two, Parhae selling furs for Japanese textiles. Parhae also acted as an important avenue for the transmission of Chinese culture into Japan, assuming the role formerly played by Koguryŏ. The Japanese were impressed by the cultural attainments of Parhae’s envoys; surviving poems composed by Parhae diplomats for the Japanese hosts remain the only extant examples of Parhae literature. Twice in 733 and again in 762 joint attacks on Silla were planned, the second one abortive. And when the Parhae state fell to the seminomad Khitans, a last embassy came in 929 unsuccessfully seeking assistance in restoring the kingdom. In the early eighth century Parhae also sought alliance with the Tujue (Turkish) confederation that arose in Mongolia, briefly making Korea the focal point of a vast East Asian military alliance system that pitted Tang and Silla against Parhae, the Tujue, and Japan.
Only fragmentary knowledge has survived about Parhae society and culture. The economy was based on agriculture with the rich central Manchuria plains supporting a population that according to one Chinese source consisted of one hundred thousand households or about half a million people. Ethnically the population was a mix of various Manchurian peoples of Tungusic linguistic stock along with possible admixtures of Koguryŏ-speaking people. Recently archeological work in Manchuria has begun to give us a glimpse of an amalgamated cultural style of Chinese, Korean, and indigenous elements. Interestingly an ondol system for heating homes characteristic of Korean houses was used. Many Parhae students studied and sat for the examinations in Tang, where the Chinese diplomatically admitted the same number of Sillan and Parhae applicants to the exams. But the Chinese were not always so even-handed and gave Sillan envoys a higher place in imperial audiences. Since only a few fragments of literature have survived, little can be said except that the elite at least had absorbed a great deal of Chinese culture and wrote eloquent Chinese verse. Buddhism was patronized and a purple porcelain was produced that gained a high reputation in Tang.
Since the eighteenth century many Korean historians have considered Parhae part of Korean history, which has led some historians to regard the united Silla period as the “two Kingdoms period.”17 The implications of this for Korea are significant. Considering Parhae part of Korea history strengthens the argument of those modern Korean nationalists who seek to incorporate much of Manchuria within the historical homeland of Koreans, and it provides support for modern ultranationalists who hold irredentist claims for all or portions of Manchuria. For contemporary Koreans it also provides an historical echo for their current north-south division. Still the questions remain: Was Parhae a Korean state? And what role does it play in Korean history? It did occupy the northernmost parts of what is now Korea, including the modern Hamgyŏng province, and its ruling dynasty of non-Korean ethnic origins proudly laid claim to Koguryŏ’s heritage. The rulers of Parhae often referred to their state as the successor to Koguryŏ, and many of the leading families traced their ancestry to that state. But Parhae’s population was predominately of groups different from those that evolved into modern ethnic Koreans. Furthermore, unlike Koguryŏ its population base and its primary capital (as well as three of four of its secondary capitals) lay outside the Korean peninsula. In short, Parhae was first of all a Manchurian state with a southern foothold in northern Korea and some ethnic and cultural affiliations with the peoples of the peninsula. Its role in Korean history is important because for all its tensions with its southern neighbor, Parhae acted as a protective barrier both from Tang and from potential seminomadic invaders. That is, Parhae stabilized the always troublesome northern frontiers of Manchuria and Siberia and enabled Silla to enjoy two centuries of relative peace and prosperity. This, perhaps, was Parhae’s most important contribution to Korea’s historical development.
After the mid-eighth century Silla began a political decline. The central government became weaker, powerful local warlords emerged, and the countryside was plagued by banditry. In part this was related to the changes in its international environment. Throughout East Asia the eighth century was a period of cultural brilliance and prosperity while the ninth century was a time of decline. All three cultural/geographical areas that surround Korea—China, the northern frontiers of Manchuria and Siberia, and Japan—experienced troubles. The Tang empire, after reaching a political and cultural apogee under Xuanzong (r. 712–756), began to weaken. By the late ninth century China saw internal rebellions and intrusions by tribal invaders, and at the beginning of the tenth century the Chinese Empire broke up into smaller rival states. The Manchurian state of Parhae was weakened by external pressures from seminomadic neighbors. In Japan, Nara was abandoned in 784 and the capital moved to Heian a decade later. While the early Heian period was one of cultural creativity, the central Japanese state declined and effective power gravitated toward regional warlords. Contacts between Japan and China diminished, hurting Korea since it had benefited as an intermediary in Chinese-Japanese trade. In the south, Annam (Vietnam) became restless, and in the tenth century it broke free from Chinese rule. Tribal peoples along the northern borders of the East Asian cultural realm became increasingly powerful, with the Khitans (or Qidans) emerging in the ninth century as the most formidable in the northeast. In the early tenth century they contributed to the fall of the Tang, destroyed Parhae, and threatened the Korean Peninsula with invasion. It is important to see the weakening of central authority in Silla, the rise of local warlords, and the resultant civil disorder within the context of the great fragmentation of authority and breakdown in order that characterized all of East Asia at this time. But the Silla state’s decline was also part of the internal pattern. After 780, local landed aristocrats consolidated their landholdings, built sŏngju (walled towns), and commanded private armies. These local aristocrats in effect became warlords, even styling themselves as changgun (generals). Eventually these warlords formed alliances and competed with each other for power.
Toward the end of the ninth century the central government’s control over most of the peninsula disintegrated. During Chinsŏng’s reign (887–897) the bandit Kihwŏn overran much of south-central Korea. Yanggil, another bandit, controlled much of the north-central region; a third, Ch’onggil, lorded over parts of the south and central areas, while a group known as the Red Pantaloons terrorized the southeast and raided the outskirts of Kyŏngju in 896. Eventually three separate states emerged, so that the period from 901 until 936 is known as the Period of the Later Three Kingdoms. It became another three-way struggle for the mastery of the Korean Peninsula. Later histories portrayed the struggle for the mastery of Korea among three personalities, Wang Kŏn, Kyŏnhwŏn, and Kungye, whom one scholar has called respectively the good, the bad, and the ugly.18 Kyŏnhwŏn, the bad one, a son of a farmer, served in the coast guard in southwest Korea, was commissioned as an army officer, and with his private army occupied the provincial capital of Muju, installing himself as military governor in 892. Initially he was still an officer in the Silla army, but then he aligned himself with the rebel-bandit Yanggil before setting himself up in 900 as the King of Later Paekche.
Kungye, the ugly one, according to traditional sources was either born from a liaison between King Kyŏngmun and a woman outside his court or was the son of a low-ranking concubine of King Hon’an (r. 857–861); the accounts vary. A Silla prince, as a victim of a power struggle he was exiled from the court, and eventually became a supporter of the bandit-rebel Kih-wŏn and later of another rebel leader, Yanggil. As one of Yanggil’s commanders in northern Silla he is said to have brought large areas of Kyŏnggi, Kangwŏn, and Hwanghae provinces under the former’s control. In 901, after having killed Yanggil, Kungye established the Later Koguryŏ at Songak (Kaesŏng). He renamed his state twice; it is best known as Later Koguryŏ. As leader of one of the Later Three Kingdoms he engaged in a three-way power struggle with Later Paekche and Silla. Kungye is depicted in Korean histories as cruel and tyrannical with a deep hatred of Silla. Announcing “revenge on Silla for the fall of Koguryŏ” and declaring Kyŏngju the “City of Destruction,” he is said to have killed anyone who ventured into his kingdom from the old Silla heartland, although his staff included Silla aristocrats. In an effort to sanctify his rule he claimed to be the Maitreya Buddha, proclaimed his sons bodhisattvas, dressed himself and his sons in colorful garb, and composed sutras. He rode on a white horse preceded by youths and maidens burning incense, followed by two hundred monks chanting mantras. Kungye, claiming to have the power of mind reading, carried out frequent purges of his officials whose disloyal intentions he could read.19 In 918, he was murdered by one of his commanders, Wang Kŏn, the good one, and the founder of Koryŏ.
Silla was the weakest of the three states. The monarchy’s control was limited to the extreme southeast corner of the country. Internal instability is suggested by the fact that between 912 and 927 three monarchs came from the ancient Pak consort line. In 921, the weakened Silla state allied itself with Wang Kŏn and his renamed Koryŏ state, a move possible only with the death of Kungye. Silla paid for this alliance with a devastating attack by Kyŏnhwŏn in 927 in which Kyŏngae (r. 924–927) committed suicide and Kyŏngju was sacked. A member of the royal Kim clan was then placed on the throne as Kyŏngsun (r. 927–935). Wang Kŏn, whose base of support appeared to be maritime, captured the islands off the west coast of Korea. But these early victories were followed by two decades of stalemate during which Silla just managed to survive and gradually came under the protection of Koryŏ. In 930, Wang Kŏn defeated Later Paekche at Mt. P’yŏng north of Andong; a year later he visited Kyŏngju and probably effectively controlled that state from then on. In 932, he was recognized as Korean ruler by the Later Tang dynasty that ruled northern China. His position was also strengthened by the arrival of refugees from Parhae including the crown prince, Tae Kwang-hyŏn, in 934.
Later Paekche, increasingly isolated, was defeated at Ungju in 934 and lost all land north of the Kum River. Kyŏnhwŏn sought unsuccessfully to obtain military support from Japan in 935. In the end his older son Sin’gŏm murdered his younger son Kŭmgang, whom Kyŏnhwŏn had set up as his successor, and imprisoned his father. Escaping, the aging Kyŏnhwŏn marched with Wang Kŏn’s army to Ilsŏn-gun. There Wang Kŏn, now able to act as an avenger for unfilial conduct, defeated the Later Paekche forces at Ilsŏn-gun in September 936. Sin’gŏm surrendered and died a few days later. The previous year, 935, the last Silla king, Kyŏngsun, abdicated and recognized Wang Kŏn as his successor. Thus Korea was reunified by Wang Kŏn and the Koryŏ period began.
Our information on this period comes from official sources written in the twelfth century under the sponsorship of the dynasty that Wang Kŏn founded. Much about the events remains unclear. For example, how did Silla manage to survive so many years? Why did Kyŏnhwŏn not annex it in 927? What were the bases of support for Kyŏnhwŏn, Kungye, and Wang Kŏn? Was the conjuring up of the names Paekche and Koguryŏ indicative of a resurgence of regional/ethnic sentiment in those regions? And, if so, does this mean that the unification of Korea under Silla was far from complete at the end of the ninth century? Or was the use of these names simply part of the search for sources of legitimacy by the rebel leaders? None of the answers to these questions are clear.
Silla rulers had only limited success in establishing a centralized polity. Powerful true-bone aristocrats resisted attempts to create a more Chinese-style centralized bureaucracy. After 780 real power seems to have slipped from the king and his officials in the capital to aristocrats in the countryside. By the end of the ninth century the king could no longer maintain control much beyond the capital, and a power struggle emerged among regional warlords. The use of the old names of Paekche and Koguryŏ suggests that the Korean peninsula was not as homogeneous as it later became; regional loyalties were still considerable. Evidence indicates that people in different areas probably still spoke distinctive languages. They also probably possessed local and ethnic identities apart from and/or stronger than any shared Korean/Sillan identity. Much of this is not yet understood. Whatever the reasons for the creation of the later three kingdoms, they were short-lived. Most of the Korean peninsula was soon reunited, and would remain united until the division of the peninsula by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1945.
Sŏl Kyedu was a descendant of a Silla official. Once he went drinking with his four friends, each of whom revealed his wishes. Sŏl said, “In Silla the bone rank is the key to employment. If one is not of the nobility, no matter what his talents, he cannot achieve a high rank. I wish to travel west to China, display rare resources and perform meritorious deeds, and thereby open a path to glory and splendor so that I might wear the robes and sword of an official and serve close to the Son of Heaven.”
In the fourth year, sinsa, of Wu-te [621], Sŏl stealthily boarded an oceangoing ship and went to T’ang China.
—From the Samguk sagi 47:436
Worshiping and Honoring the Buddhas
I bow today before the Buddha,
Whom I draw with my mind’s brush
O this body and mind of mine,
Strive to reach the end of the dharma realm
He who is in every mote of dust;
He who pervades every Buddha field;
He who fills the realm of dharma—
Would that I could serve him in the nine time periods.
Ah, idle body, mouth, and mind—
Approach him and be with him, unimpeded.
Rejoicing in the Merit of Others
The truth of dependent origination tells me
That illusion and enlightenment are one.
From the buddhas down to mortal men,
The other and myself are one.
Were I able to practice his virtues,
Were I able to master his ways,
I would rejoice in the merit of others;
I would rejoice in the good of others.
Ah, were I to follow in his footsteps,
How could the jealous mind be aroused?
Transfer of Merit
Would that all my merit
Might be passed on to others,
I would like to awaken them—
Those wandering in the sea of suffering.
When we attain the vast realm of dharma,
Removed karmas are jewels in dharmahood;
Since aeons ago
Bodhisattvas, too, have devoted their merit to others.
Ah, he whom I worship and I are one,
Of one body and one mind.
—From the Kyunyŏ chŏn 7, in Korean Tripitaka 47:260c–261 b
The translations of the names of Korean institutions in this text generally follow those in Ki-baik Lee, A New History of Korea, trans. Edward W Wagner with Edward J. Shultz (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984).
Chin Kim, “The Silla Village Registers and Korean Legal History: A Preliminary Inquiry,” Korean Journal of Comparative Law 7 (November 1979): 99–127.
Ki-baik Lee, A New History of Korea, 109.
Kim Chong Sun, “Slavery in Silla and Its Sociological and Economic Implications,” in Traditional Korea—Theory and Practice, ed. Andrew Nahm (Kalamazoo: Center for Korean Studies, Western Michigan University, 1974), 29–43.
Martina Deuchler, “Thoughts on Korean Society,” in First International Conference on Korean Studies, Ch’ŏngsin Munhwa Yon’guwŏn (Yongnam, Republic of Korea: Ch’ŏngsin Munhwa Yon’guwŏn, 1980), 643–52.
Martina Deuchler, The Confucian Transformation of Korea: A Study of Society and Ideology (Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1992), 81.
Werner Sasse, “Trying to Figure Out How Kings Became Kings in Silla,” Cahiers d’Etudes Coreenes 7 (2001): 229–41.
Peter Lee, ed., Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 209.
Robert E. Buswell, Jr. “Imagining Korean Buddhism” in Nationalism and the Construction of Korean Identity, ed. Hyung Il Pai and Timothy R. Tangherlini (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California Press, 1998), 73–107.
Ik-jin Koh, “Wonhyo and the Foundation of Korean Buddhism,” Korea journal 21, no. 8 (August 1981): 4–13.
Nha Il-Seong, “Silla’s Cheomseongdae,” Korea Journal 41, no. 4 (Winter 2001): 269–81.
Yi Ki-moon, “Language and Writing Systems of Traditional Korea,” in The Traditional Culture and Society of Korea: Art and Literature, ed. Peter H. Lee (Honolulu: The Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawaii, 1975), 15–32.
William E. Henthorn, A History of Korea (New York: Free Press, 1971), 65.
Edwin Reischauer, Ennin’s Travel in T’ang China (New York: Ronald Press, 1955).
Song Ki-ho, “Current Trends in the Research of Palhae history,” Seoul Journal of Korean Studies 3 (December 1990): 157–74.
William H. McCullough, “The Heian Court, 794–1070,” in Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 2, Heian Japan, ed. John Whitney Hall et al. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 20–96.
The relationship between Parhae and Korea is not fully understood. In the eighteenth century Korean scholar Yu Tŭk-kong in his Parhae ko argued that Parhae was a successor state to Koguryŏ and a part of Korean history. Since then, many Korean historians have regarded the eighth and ninth centuries as the period of the “Two Kingdoms.”
C. Cameron Hurst, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Personalities in the Founding of the Koryo Dynasty,” Korean Studies Forum 7 (Summer-Fall 1981): 109–25.
Kenneth H. J. Gardiner, “Korea in Transition: Notes on the Three Later Kingdoms (900–935),” Papers on Far Eastern History 36 (September 1987): 139–61.
Peter H. Lee and William Theodore De Bary, eds., Sources of Korean Traditions , vol 1., From Early Times Through the Sixteenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 27.
Lee and De Bary, Sources of Korean Traditions, vol. 1, 114–16. Kyunyŏ (923–973) was a monk who revived the Flower Garland school of Buddhism. His collected works include eleven poems written in the hyanch’al system and are among the surviving twenty-five poems in this early form of writing in Korean.