A History of Korea (34 page)

Finally, although all these popular uprisings were subdued by the central government, they did not end in total failure. The military regime abolished the special forced labor districts of pugok and so, raising the status of their inhabitants to that of commoners, and emancipated many slaves. Clearly the uprisings during military rule changed Kory
ŏ
’s social order to a great extent. These popular rebellions, in other words, provided a major momentum for the reshuffling of the social status system in the late Kory
ŏ
period.

As military officials seized control and civil officials fell from power, Confucianism was in a steep decline, and men of letters who were frustrated with the situation abandoned thoughts of government careers. Some of them lived in rural retirement, passing their days enjoying poetry and wine. Figures such as Yi In-no, Im Ch’un, O Se-jae, Cho T’ong, Hwangbo Hang, Ham Sun, and Yi Tam-ji compared them to third-century China’s “Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove” and called them
Haejwa ch’il hy
ŏ
n,
or Seven Sages of the Left of the Sea. They spent their days writing poems and tales, including, for example, Im Ch’un’s
Kongbang ch
ŏ
n,
or Tale of the Fortunes of Master Coin, in which the main character, Master Coin, personified money, and Yi In-no’s
P’ahan chip,
or Collection to Dispel Leisure.

After Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n established a military dictatorship in 1196, some men of letters sought to enter government service as retainers of the Ch’oe house. Yi Kyu-bo and Ch’oe Cha were two outstanding figures of this sort. Enjoying the confidence of the Ch’oe regime, Yi Kyu-bo enhanced his reputation when he wrote his national epic
Tongmy
ŏ
ng wang p’y
ŏ
n,
or Saga of King Tongmy
ŏ
ng (Chumong), the semi-legendary founder of Kogury
ŏ
. In this work, composed of verses with five words to each line, Yi suggested that the people of Kory
ŏ
, the successor to the great Kogury
ŏ
kingdom, take pride in being a cultured people possessed of a long history and tradition. Yi also wrote
Kuk s
ŏ
nsaeng ch
ŏ
n,
or Tale of Mr. John Barleycorn, in which the main character personified wine.

Yi In-no’s
P’ahan chip,
Yi Kyu-bo’s
Paekun sos
ŏ
l,
or Novel of White Clouds, a collection of poems and trifles ranging from the period of the Three Kingdoms to his day, and Ch’oe Cha’s
Pohan chip,
or Supplement to
P’ahan Chip,
were all collections of anecdotes, poems, stories, and casual commentaries designed to entertain. Starting with Pak In-nyang’s
Sui ch
ŏ
n,
or Tale of the Bizarre, writings of this genre were enormously popular in the period of military rule and later influenced such works as Yi Chae-hy
ŏ
n’s
Y
ŏ
kong p’aes
ŏ
l,
or Scribbling of Old Man Oak.

After military rule was established, a new development appeared in Kory
ŏ
Buddhism. While the Kyo school, which had had close ties with civil officials, was declining, the S
ŏ
n school distinguished itself under the aegis of the military rulers and finally gained the upper hand over the Kyo sect. Also, at this time the Chogye sect was established within the S
ŏ
n school. During the period
of military rule, in 1200, the Kory
ŏ
Chogye sect was founded by the monk Chinul, also known as the National Preceptor Pojo. The Nine Mountain Sects of S
ŏ
n took the name of the Chogye School, which accepted the Hwa
ŏ
m doctrines of the Kyo sect and would greatly flourish.

In 1200 Chinul moved to the Songgwang-sa temple, located in present-day Sunch’
ŏ
n, South Ch
ŏ
lla province, and converted it into a base for the propagation of his new Chogye sect. He thoroughly analyzed and reformulated the methodologies of S
ŏ
n study and practice. After Chinul, the Chogye sect continued to develop by the efforts of such outstanding successors as Hyesim, known as the National Preceptor Chin’gak, and Ch’ungji, known as the National Preceptor W
ŏ
n’gam. The Chogye sect gained substantial support from military rulers, and beyond uniting the S
ŏ
n and Kyo schools, the monk Hyesim even attempted the unification of Buddhism and Confucianism. The Chogye Order would, in fact, develop as the mainstream of Korean Buddhism.

The age of military rule, which spanned 100 years, witnessed the collapse of Confucianism-oriented government as well as great confusion in the existing administration and social order. On the other hand, this was a transitional period when general disorder led to improvements in the social status of the lower classes and the gradual decline of the aristocratic order.

While Kory
ŏ
was undergoing internal upheavals by the establishment of military rule, an unprecedented situation developed in north-central Asia. A man named Temujin in Mongolia succeeded in conquering and integrating the neighboring tribes of Mongolia, and in 1206 he proclaimed himself Genghis Kahn, or Almighty Emperor. Until he died of battle wounds suffered when he invaded Xixia (West Xia in Tibet) in 1227, he had already conquered a vast territory on the Eurasian continent. His third son, Ogodei, succeeded him and continued his campaign of conquest.

The Nuzhen Jin empire, which had acted as a shield for Kory
ŏ
against Mongols, fell in 1234, placing Mongols at Kory
ŏ
’s doorstep. Now Mongols had a reason to make Kory
ŏ
an object of their conquest, for their ultimate aim was to use Kory
ŏ
as a base for conquering Southern Song and Japan.

The first contact between Kory
ŏ
and Mongols resulted from their joint military operation to destroy remnants of Qidans who had fled from Manchuria
across the Yalu into Kory
ŏ
to escape Mongols. Sustained Mongol attacks on Jin had afforded Qidans an opportunity to reassert their independence. Following the fall of the Jin capital in 1215, however, Mongol pressure drove Qidans into Kory
ŏ
territory to find shelter. From 1216 to 1218 Qidans created considerable turmoil in Kory
ŏ
. They even raided the town of Chech’
ŏ
n in the central Korean peninsula, and in 1218 they entrenched themselves in the Kangdong-s
ŏ
ng fortress, east of Pyongyang. The next year the combined Kory
ŏ
-Mongol forces took the fortress, causing Qidans to surrender. Thereafter Mongols considered themselves Kory
ŏ
’s benefactors and, in this capacity, demanded heavy tribute annually, although on several occasions Kory
ŏ
flatly rejected the Mongol demands. Amid rising tensions between the two states, the Mongol envoy Zhuguyu, who had acted disrespectfully while in Kory
ŏ
, was killed as he traveled back to his country in 1225. Mongols used this incident as an excuse to invade Kory
ŏ
.

In 1231 Mongols launched their first invasion of Kory
ŏ
. Mongol forces, under the command of Salledei (Salietai), crossed the Yalu and took the towns of
Ŭ
iju and Anju in the northwestern region, but they were met with stubborn resistance from Kory
ŏ
general Pak S
ŏ
at the Kwiju-s
ŏ
ng fortress. Frustrated by siege warfare, Mongol forces used their superior mobility to bypass the Kory
ŏ
army and pressed hard against the capital, Kaes
ŏ
ng. When Kory
ŏ
sued for peace, Mongols withdrew in early 1232, leaving 72
daruhachi,
administrative officials, in the northwestern region to ensure that Kory
ŏ
kept to its peace terms, including heavy tribute. Immediately after dodging the brunt of the Mongol attack, however, the military regime of Ch’oe U resolved to renew the resistance against Mongols. Thus, against the pleas of King Kojong and many civil officials, he moved the capital to the island of Kanghwa-do for the purpose of mounting a more effective defense against the enemy. In doing so, he exploited Mongols’ primary weakness, which was fear of the sea, as Kanghwa-do was separated from the mainland by several hundred yards of waterway. Ch’oe U proceeded to move the ruling class to Kanghwa-do and build significant defense structures in preparation for the Mongol threat. With the construction of small forts and a double wall on Kanghwa-do, the island was transformed into a mighty defense fortress. The general population was ordered to take shelter in the mountain fortresses or on offshore islands. But members of the ruling class were still able to maintain their extravagant lifestyle on Kanghwa-do, as the Ch’oe U regime built luxurious facilities there
for their comfort, sustained by grain tax revenues that were sent by ship along safe coastal routes.

Mongols regarded the transfer of Kory
ŏ
’s capital to Kanghwa-do as an act of defiance and immediately resumed their invasion of Kory
ŏ
. For more than 20 years, until 1259 when Kory
ŏ
finally surrendered, the invaders continued their attacks. In 1232 Ogodei again sent Salledei’s Mongol forces to invade Kory
ŏ
, where he succeeded in capturing the empty capital but could not touch the new capital on Kanghwa-do. His forces crossed the Han River and continued the invasion of the southern Korean peninsula. Throughout the struggle Kory
ŏ
’s resistance to Mongol forces was carried out mainly by the peasants and lowborn classes. In the battle at the Ch’
ŏ
in-s
ŏ
ng fortress (present-day Yongin, Ky
ŏ
nggi province) in 1232, Salledei was shot to death by the monk Kim Yun-hu, and the Mongol army became disorganized and again withdrew. At the time of the first invasion in 1231, the brigand bands on Kwanak-san (mountain) in present-day Seoul fought the invaders fiercely, and at Ch’ungju, in the central Korean peninsula, the Mongol advance was halted by a slave army led by Chi Kwang-su who fought bravely to his death, even though the aristocratic officials had all fled. The resistance of these lowborn people resulted in their emancipation from their lower-class status.

As the battle continued, Mongols repeatedly overran and despoiled Kory
ŏ
. The villages were devastated and the people suffered heavy losses. Faced with strong resistance from the people of Kory
ŏ
, Mongols burned towns and villages everywhere they went and destroyed buildings and temples, leaving nothing but ashes. Many innocent people, including women and children, were cruelly slaughtered. Many irreplaceable cultural treasures were lost, outstanding among them the nine-story wooden pagoda at the Hwangyong-sa temple in Ky
ŏ
ngju and the woodblocks for the Tripitaka stored at the Puin-sa temple in Taegu.
²
Thus, at the court on Kanghwa-do, sentiment for peace with Mongols arose among the king and moderate officials. In 1258 moderate military official Kim Chun and civil official Yu Ky
ŏ
ng assassinated Ch’oe
Ŭ
i, the last ruler of the Ch’oe house. Authority reverted to King Kojong and a decision was reached to make peace with Mongols. The next year the crown prince, later King W
ŏ
njong (1259–1274), conveyed to Mongols Kory
ŏ
’s desire for peace. To clearly demonstrate Kory
ŏ
’s intent to cease resistance, the walled fortifications on Kanghwa-do were torn down. The peace terms between Kory
ŏ
and Mongols allowed Kory
ŏ
to maintain its sovereign power and traditional culture,
implying that Mon gols had abandoned their aim of conquering and directly dominating Kory
ŏ
.

But struggles within the court continued over peace with Mongols until 1270. The hard-line military official Im Y
ŏ
n killed Kim Chun and seized power in 1258. In 1269 Im Y
ŏ
n deposed King W
ŏ
njong, who ascended the throne in 1259, in opposition to the king’s pro-Mongol policy. Because Kory
ŏ
had already been under strong Mongol influence, however, five months later Mongol interference restored W
ŏ
njong to the throne. In 1270 Im Y
ŏ
n died, and his role as a powerful military official was taken over by his son, Im Yu-mu. Three months later, when Im Yu-mu was executed by royal command, the long military rule finally ended. Kory
ŏ
returned the capital to Kaes
ŏ
ng and surrendered completely to Mongols.

The collapse of military rule in 1270 did not completely end Kory
ŏ
’s resistance to Mongols. The toppling of the military regime and peace with Mongols infuriated the Sam-by
ŏ
lch’o army, the Ch’oe house’s core military force which was the vanguard in the struggle against Mongols. Immediately after the government returned to Kaes
ŏ
ng, the Sam-by
ŏ
lch’o forces revolted under the leadership of Pae Chung-son. They placed Wang On, the Marquis of S
ŭ
nghwa, a member of the royalty, on the throne and established an anti-Mongol regime in opposition to the pro-Mongol government in Kaes
ŏ
ng. In order to secure a permanent base of military operations out of reach of the central government in Kaes
ŏ
ng, the rebel forces went south to the island of Chin-do, off the southwestern tip of the Korean peninsula. They placed the nearby islands and the adjacent coastal region under their control, once more establishing a maritime kingdom.