Goryeo

Goryeo (918 to 1392) lasted nearly as long as Silla and gave the world its English name for Korea (Korean History 1). It ran an examination system, patronised Buddhism on a huge scale, made the celadon that is still its best-known product, fought the Khitans and Mongols, and spent about eighty years as a Mongol vassal. This chapter follows those threads and the coup that ended it.

Founding and Unification

• Wang Geon. The Taejo article says he was born in 877 (a [citation needed] tag) at Songak (modern Kaesong) into a maritime merchant family of Goguryeo descent, and calls the claim that his grandfather was a Tang emperor's son "hagiographical". He served Gungye of Taebong and became prime minister in 913.
• 918. On 24 to 25 July 918 four Taebong generals installed him as king; he renamed the state Goryeo and moved the capital to Gaegyeong (Kaesong) the next year. The Goryeo article says the generals chose him after the "erratic" Gungye was deposed.
• Unification. After a defeat at Gongsan in 927, Silla's last king Gyeongsun gave up the throne to him in 935. Later Baekje was conquered in 936 with an army of 87,500, which the Goryeo article calls a "true national unification".
• Balhae refugees. After the Khitans overran Balhae in 926 (Korean History 4), Wang Geon welcomed its refugees and treated them as relatives; he was hostile to the Khitans, and in 942 exiled Liao envoys and starved their camels. He died on 4 July 943, aged 66.

The article gives the Ten Injunctions only one sentence and does not state their contents, so I do not describe them. The Taejo article also has gaps of its own: the sons list shows "Wang Uk" twice, and one sentence about Kyŏn Hwŏn being "treated like Taejo's father" does not square with the father's given dates (850 to 897).

Government and the Examination

The Goryeo article says the civil service examination (gwageo) was introduced in 958 under Gwangjong, on the advice of Shuang Ji, and based on the Tang imperial examination; it lasted until 1894. The article's infobox gives a population of "N/A" and then 3,000,000 to 5,000,000. Compare Silla, where Korean History 3 and 4 showed bone rank deciding office: the examination is the article's route for talent outside hereditary rank, though I read nothing about how many people actually passed.

Buddhism, Printing and Celadon

• Buddhism. The state religion, with 70 temples in the capital in the eleventh century (Goryeo article).
• The Tripitaka Koreana. The Tripitaka article calls it "the oldest intact version of the Chinese Buddhist canon". An earlier set was carved from 1011 to 1087 and destroyed by fire in the Mongol invasions in 1232 (the Mongol-invasions article says only that the first set was destroyed, with no date). The surviving set was begun in 1237 and "completed in 12 years". The Goryeo article says it was recreated from 1236 and took about 15 years. The lead gives 81,352 blocks, though the same paragraph says 81,258 pages, and the Goryeo article gives 81,258 blocks at Haeinsa and "some 81,000" elsewhere. The article says King Gojong ordered it "to implore divine assistance" against the Mongols, that it was moved to Haeinsa in 1398, and that it was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register in 2007. Haeinsa's World Heritage listing year is not given in the body of the article, only a 1995 reference; I do not state it as established.
• Printing. The Goryeo article says metal movable type was developed in the early thirteenth century, "200 years before" Gutenberg. That is the article's claim; I have not checked it.
• Celadon. The celadon article says Goryeo potters had a native style by the twelfth century, with an eleventh-century spread of kilns and a twelfth-century peak when the glaze "exquisitely reflected the jade color, called bisaek". Sanggam inlay, carved patterns filled with white or purple clay, is called unique to Goryeo celadon; the article says it started in the eleventh century and reached a second zenith later. Gangjin is the main kiln area named. The article says quality declined after the Mongol invasion and that Gangjin and Buan kilns closed in the late fourteenth century, ending the celadon age; buncheong followed.

The Khitan Wars

The Goryeo article describes: a Khitan (Liao) invasion in 993, ending in a truce and nominal tribute to Liao; a 1010 invasion with a claimed 400,000 troops, which ended with Goryeo's counterattack and the Liao retreat; and a 1018 invasion by Xiao Paiya with 100,000 troops, against a Goryeo army under Kang Kam-ch'an reportedly 208,000, with a Goryeo win at Kusong. The 1022 peace formalised vassalage. The Cheolli Jangseong wall was built from 1033 to 1044. Every troop figure here is the article's or its sources' claim, and the article places the Kusong victory within the 1018 campaign. It does not mention a 1019 battle or Gwiju.

Military Rule and the Mongols

• 1170. Chŏng Chung-bu, Yi Ŭi-bang and Yi Ko staged a coup and military rule began. The Ch'oe family ruled from 1197 "for 61 years" through Ch'oe Ch'unghŏn, Ch'oe U, Ch'oe Hang and Ch'oe Ŭi; Kim Chun assassinated Ch'oe Ŭi in March 1258. The infobox dates the military dictatorship to 1170 to 1270, while the text ends Ch'oe rule in 1258 and the last military ruler, Im Yu-mu, is dated to 1270.
• Invasions. The Mongol-invasions article gives the span as 1231 to 1259 "intermittently" and lists nine invasions (the first from August 1231 to January 1232, the last 1258 to 1259), while a cited scholar, Breuker, is quoted as describing "six massively destructive invasions" and "forty years of intermittent warfare". In spring 1232 Choe U moved the capital to Ganghwa Island, which the article says was "heavily defended" and never taken; the evacuation policy had provincial people take refuge in mountain citadels or coastal islands.
• Cost. The article gives an "estimated 206,800 captives" in the 1254 to 1255 invasion and says starvation was "rampant". Chungju's inhabitants were reportedly massacred after a 70-day siege (no figure). The Hwangnyongsa tower and the first Tripitaka were destroyed. A claim that "no wooden structures remained" is tagged [citation needed].
• Peace. In spring 1259 Goryeo agreed to send the crown prince (later Wonjong) to the Mongol court and to return the capital to Gaegyeong, which happened "many years later". The Goryeo article gives Ganghwa as a temporary capital from 1232 to 1270 and calls Goryeo a Yuan "client state" after 1270, with kings marrying Mongol princesses; the Mongol-invasions article puts vassalage at "approximately 80 years". The infobox lists a "Mongol victory", yet the article also says the Mongols never conquered Goryeo.
• Resistance. The Sambyeolcho rebellion (1270 to 1273) was formed by former military officials who resisted from islands off the southern coast.
• Yuan ties. Empress Gi was a Goryeo-born Yuan empress; Gongmin (reigned 1351 to 1374) purged her family in 1356. I did not read his reforms.

The Fall

The Goryeo article's lead says a proposed attack on the Ming led to a coup by General Yi Seong-gye (Yi Sŏnggye) that ended the dynasty; the infobox dates the abdication of the last king, Gongyang, to 12 July 1392, and Joseon followed. The "Fall" section was cut off, so I give only these two statements. The founding of Joseon is in Korean History 6.

What to Take from This

My own reading, unverified: Goryeo's story has two long outside pressures, the Khitans and then the Mongols, and in both the sources give the invaders' numbers as claims and the Goryeo response as a choice (a wall, an island capital, a printed canon). The articles do not make that comparison; I do.

What the Sources Left Open

• The contents of the Ten Injunctions, which the Taejo article does not give.
• The number and dates of the Mongol invasions (nine or six; 1231 to 1259 or to 1270).
• The dates and length of carving of the second Tripitaka (1236 or 1237; 12 or about 15 years) and the block count (81,352, 81,258 or "some 81,000").
• Gongmin's reforms and the exact course of the 1392 coup, because the sections were cut off.
• Whether the "200 years before Gutenberg" claim for metal type is sound.

Exercises

Next: Korean History 6 follows the founding of Joseon, Neo-Confucianism, Hanyang, Sejong and the literati purges, to 1592.