A History of Korea (36 page)

Under Yuan aegis, new forces among powerful families emerged in Kory
ŏ
society. Some of these families had remained powerful from the early period, whereas others became prominent during military rule. On the other hand, new families distinguished themselves by their relations with Mongols. Some of them became powerful as Mongolian language interpreters or officials of the falconries, and others assumed prominence by taking public office in the Yuan government or forging marital relations with Mongolian royal and aristocratic families.

Members of these powerful families served as high-ranking civil and military officials in the government. They participated in the deliberations of the Top’y
ŏ
ng
ŭ
isasa, the highest decision-making organization. Participants in this body had originally numbered just 10 or so, but now the number had reached 70 or 80. They also possessed vast estates and hundreds of slaves. Their unrestricted personal landholdings gave rise to the so-called
nongjang,
or agricultural estates, which were enormous tracts of farmland. It is said that at the end
of the Kory
ŏ
dynasty, the landholdings of powerful families were so vast that mountains and rivers formed their boundaries or they extended across entire counties. The royal house also possessed many nongjang estates, indeed more than 360. These nongjang were cultivated by the owners’ retainers and slaves. Powerful families secured special privileges such as tax and corvee exemptions on their lands and retainers. As a result, the increase in private estates seriously cut into state revenues. The increased population of privately owned slaves also reduced the number of peasants that the state could mobilize for corvee labor. In fact, to escape heavy taxation and corvee labor, many peasants entered nongjang estates to be reclassified as slaves or serfs, either at their own or the owners’ wish. The situation had now reached the point where the state had to carry out reforms from top to bottom.

The Yuan empire, which had once had dominion over most of the Eurasian continent, rapidly faded, as the fires of its conquest were extinguished. After Kublai’s death in 1294, all Mongol rulers degenerated quickly. The descendants of erstwhile conquerors were no longer formidable and instead became weak and corrupt. Within half a century after Kublai, all of China was embroiled in serious rebellions. Zhu Yuanzhang, who revolted against Yuan in southern China, expelled Mongols from China proper and founded the new Ming dynasty in 1368. The ousted Mongols renamed their state Northern Yuan.

Upon learning that Mongols began to recede from China proper, King Kong-min (1351–1374) initiated his reform movement, which basically pursued two goals: eliminating Yuan’s control and influence over Kory
ŏ
and suppressing the nation’s own powerful families. In 1352 he prohibited his officials and the people of Kory
ŏ
from wearing their hair in the pigtail style of Mongols and from wearing Mongol dress. In 1356 he purged the pro-Yuan faction led by Ki Ch’
ŏ
l, the elder brother of Empress Ki of Shundi, discontinued the use of Yuan era names, restored the old government structure, abolished the Imunso, or Office of Interrogation and Punishment, which was subordinate to the former Ch
ŏ
ngdong haengs
ŏ
ng, and recovered Kory
ŏ
’s territory that the Ssangs
ŏ
ng ch’onggwan-bu had taken by military force. In 1369 he sent troops across the Yalu into Manchuria to recapture Kogury
ŏ
’s lost territory. The Kory
ŏ
general Yi S
ŏ
ng-gye, later the founder of the Chos
ŏ
n dynasty, took the Liaoyang for-tress,
the major stronghold of the remaining Yuan forces in Manchuria. The occupation did not last long, however. Fearing a counterattack from the Yuan army, Yi withdrew, having first received a pledge of loyalty to Kory
ŏ
from the tribes in the area. King Kongmin’s aggressive defiance toward Yuan provoked a strong reaction from both Yuan and its supporters within Kory
ŏ
. Kim Yong, a major pro-Yuan figure at the Kory
ŏ
court, attempted to assassinate the king at the H
ŭ
ngwang-sa temple in 1363. King Kongmin barely escaped the assassination attempt. Although Yuan proclaimed that the king had been dethroned, he stood firm and resolutely proceeded with his anti-Yuan policy. When the Ming dynasty was founded in 1368, he took measures to open relations with the new Chinese empire.

Internally King Kongmin made every effort to undermine the dominant position of powerful families. In 1352 he abolished the Ch
ŏ
ngbang, which had functioned as an instrument of the Ch’oe house’s autocratic rule and placed restraints on the exercise of royal authority over personnel matters. In 1365, when his Mongol queen died during a difficult childbirth, however, he lost interest in political affairs and instead devoted himself entirely to Buddhism, believing it would soothe his wife’s soul. That same year he took into government service a humble Buddhist monk named Sin Ton, formerly called P’y
ŏ
njo, establishing for him a new high-level government post the Samjung taegwang y
ŏ
ngdo ch’
ŏ
m
ŭ
i, or Prime Minister Plenipotentiary, in which capacity he carried out sweeping reforms. Sin Ton first expelled from the court several influential officials from powerful families such as Yi Kong-su and Ky
ŏ
ng Ch’
ŏ
n-h
ŭ
ng. Then, with the consent of the king, in 1366 he created the Ch
ŏ
nmin py
ŏ
nj
ŏ
ng togam, or Directorate for the Reclassification of Farmland and the Farming Population, and set about returning land and slaves seized by powerful families to their original owners; in many cases he actually set slaves free. Sin Ton’s actions were well received by the general population, and he was even hailed as a “saint.” At the same time he provoked the antipathy of powerful families and grew so arrogant that he became involved in wrongdoings including abuses of power under the pretext of royal command. After losing the confidence of King Kongmin, he plotted treason against the king. Finally, he was banished to Suw
ŏ
n, just south of Seoul, and executed in 1371.

In his later years King Kongmin increasingly indulged in artistic activities and was killed by a eunuch in 1374. Although he succeeded in freeing Kory
ŏ
from Mongol domination, King Kongmin failed to free its society from the grip of powerful families.

Following the period of military rule, a new educated bureaucratic class, called the
sadaebu,
or literati, emerged. The literati were literally scholar-officials, but in the late Kory
ŏ
period the term defined educated and knowledgeable men, particularly Neo-Confucian scholars. Members of the literati generally sought political advancement through the civil service examinations, based purely on scholarly achievement. Some of them passed the Yuan civil service examinations and entered government service in Kory
ŏ
. Others distinguished themselves on the battlefield and became military officers, called
hallyang.

Many members of the literati emerged from among local functionaries in local administrations. The literati of this hyangni background were generally small- and mid-level landowners or self-supporting farmers who had built up their meager landholdings by reclaiming wasteland, improving agricultural techniques, or by purchasing them. These literati despised powerful families who acquired their huge estates by illegal means, including using their political clout to extort land from others, and thus they were quite reform-minded.

The emergence of the literati profoundly changed Kory
ŏ
’s political scene. During military rule, they did not play a major role in government or society, as they functioned only as the retainers of the Ch’oe house. During the period of Yuan domination, however, they were completely overwhelmed by Kory
ŏ
’s powerful families and accepted Neo-Confucianism brought from Yuan as their political ideology. After the reign of King Kongmin, they enjoyed relatively favorable circumstances and began to perform important political roles. As abuses of powerful families reached a climax in the reign of King U (1374– 1388), the literati joined forces in an all-out effort to reform Kory
ŏ
society. But, in the end, the literati split into moderates and radicals, and whereas the former tried to reform the Kory
ŏ
dynasty, the latter wanted to establish a new dynasty in its place.

The Introduction and Spread of Neo-Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism was first established by Zhu Xi, the great Chinese philosopher of the Southern Song period. This “new Confucianism” was an abstruse philosophy that explicated the origins of man and the universe in metaphysical terms. It espoused a political ethic that stressed joint rule by monarchs and their subjects, thus strengthening the power of the latter. The new literati class in the
late Kory
ŏ
period, satisfied neither with Buddhism nor with earlier belletristic, speculative Confucianism, accepted Neo-Confucianism as their spiritual doctrine. The first to profess Neo-Confucianism was An Hyang (An Yu), who, after returning from Yuan in 1290, disseminated the new doctrine in Kory
ŏ
. In the reign of King Ch’ungny
ŏ
l, the efforts of An Hyang and others greatly encouraged the study of Neo-Confucianism. For instance, in 1304, a
munmyo,
or Confucian shrine, was built, and an endowment for the support of students was established at the Kukhak (formerly the Kukchagam but renamed in 1275). King Ch’ungs
ŏ
n, after his throne had been returned to his father, King Ch’ungny
ŏ
l, in 1298, went to the Yuan capital with the Kory
ŏ
scholar Paek I-j
ŏ
ng and forged close relations with eminent Yuan scholars. Ten years later he returned to Kory
ŏ
to succeed to the throne. After he was dethroned again in 1313, however, he built the Man’gw
ŏ
ndang, or Hall of Ten Thousand Volumes, in the Yuan capital in 1314. Paek I-j
ŏ
ng studied Neo-Confucianism in Yuan, and his studies were furthered by his disciple Yi Che-hy
ŏ
n. The study of Neo-Confucianism greatly advanced in the reign of King Kongmin, when many famed Neo-Confucian scholars appeared in succession. Well-known Neo-Confucian scholars at the end of Kory
ŏ
included Yi Saek, Ch
ŏ
ng Mong-ju, Ch
ŏ
ng To-j
ŏ
n, Kim Ku-yong, Pak Sang-ch’ung, Yi Sung-in, Kil Chae, and Kw
ŏ
n K
ŭ
n.

As Neo-Confucianism spread, Buddhism was increasingly repudiated. During most of the Kory
ŏ
period, Buddhism and Confucianism coexisted with little conflict. But now Neo-Confucian scholars did not agree with the idea that one should renounce one’s family ties to become a monk, as the very basis of Confucian philosophy was founded on strong family and social relationships. More important, the wealth and power of the Buddhist temples and the enormous expense incurred by the state for Buddhist festivals became a major target of criticism. At first, rather than denouncing Buddhism itself, moderate Neo-Confucian scholars, such as Yi Che-hy
ŏ
n and Yi Saek, were content to attack the abuses of the temples and the misconduct of the monks. Later, however, radical Neo-Confucian scholars, such as Ch
ŏ
ng To-j
ŏ
n and Kw
ŏ
n K
ŭ
n, completely rejected Buddhism as destructive of mores and ruinous to the state. Because these hard-liners assisted Yi S
ŏ
ng-gye in founding the later Chos
ŏ
n dynasty, the influence of Buddhism would inevitably diminish in the new kingdom.

Unlike the earlier kingdoms, Kory
ŏ
produced many historical writings. In 1215 the monk Kakkhun, by royal command, wrote
Haedong kos
ŭ
ng ch
ŏ
n,
or Lives
of Eminent Korean Monks, which contained biographies of Korea’s most distinguished Buddhist monks since the period of the Three Kingdoms. A portion of this work still exists. In the early reign of King Ch’ungny
ŏ
l, Ch
ŏ
ng Ka-sin wrote a Kory
ŏ
history titled
Ch’
ŏ
nch’u k
ŭ
mgy
ŏ
ng nok,
or Records from the Mirror of This Age. In 1284 W
ŏ
n Pu and H
ŏ
Kong, on the king’s command, compiled a history of Kory
ŏ
’s founding in
Kog
ŭ
m nok,
or Chronicle of Past and Present. In 1319 Min Chi wrote of Kory
ŏ
’s history chronologically from King Munjong to King Kojong in his
Ponjo p’y
ŏ
nny
ŏ
n kangmok,
or Annotated Events of the Present Dynasty in Chronology. In 1357 Yi Che-hy
ŏ
n summarized the achievements of Kory
ŏ
kings from King T’aejo to King Sukchong in his
Saryak,
or Concise History. None of these works has survived, and only Yi Che-hy
ŏ
n’s personal judgments on history, contained in his
Saryak,
remain. Following the tradition of
Samguk sagi,
these government-sponsored histories were compiled from the perspective of Confucian morality which viewed history didactically as a mirror for good government.

Quite different in character from the above works were
Samguk yusa,
written by the monk Iry
ŏ
n in 1285, and
Chewang un’gi,
or Songs of Emperors and Kings, compiled by Yi S
ŭ
ng-hyu in 1287. Unique about these works is that both saw Korean history as beginning with Tan’gun. Thus both sought to recover Koreans’ national identity and national pride, which had disappeared in the period of Mongol domination, by strengthening their sense of identity as a distinct race with a common ancestor, Tan’gun. Because they emphasized traditions and the legacy of history, these writings used many historical materials neglected by Kim Pu-sik’s
Samguk sagi.
Iry
ŏ
n’s
Samguk yusa
is particularly valuable, as it contains the history of Old Chos
ŏ
n and the three Han federations which were ignored in Kim Pu-sik’s
Samguk sagi.
Yi S
ŭ
ng-hyu’s
Chewang un’gi
more closely resembles a work of literature than a work of history, as it is in the form of an epic. Fortunately both are still with us today.