The History of Korea (Vol.1&2). Homer B. Hulbert
crystal used in making spectacles. This was likewise a period of Chinese immigration, encouraged without doubt by the flattering reception given to Sang Geui. The king gave the visitors a hearty welcome, provided them with houses, gave them office and even secured them wives. So far did he go in the way of providing houses that he incurred the resentment of some of his highest officials, one of whom, So P‘il, asked the king to take his fine residence from him as a gift. In surprise the king asked him why he wanted to give it up. The answer was, “It will be seized anyway when I die and I would rather give it up now and spend the rest of my days preparing a little home somewhere for my children.” This threw the king into a rage; but the shot told, for he stopped the form of injustice from that very day.
The following year, 961, a sweeping change was made in the style and color of official garments. This was also under the direction of Sang Geui. For the highest rank purple was used, and for the second rank red, for the third rank deep red, and for the fourth rank blue.
How far this king had degenerated from the standard set by the founder of the kingdom, less than fifty years before, is apparent from the fact that he was the pliant instrument of anyone who had access to his ear. He believed anybody and everybody. Enemies accused each other before him and he accepted every statement as true. The result was that the prisons were simply bursting with inmates and the executioner’s axe was busy night and day. Hundreds of men were executed whose only crime was that they had been accused before the king. Added to this was a prodigal waste of treasure in the building of palaces, the assumption throughout of Chinese clothes and the entertainment of countless “friends” who came from across the border, on the principle, no doubt, that where the carcass is there will the eagles be gathered together. This state of things continued up to 969, going from bad to worse. That year the king took to himself two Buddhist monks as mentors. He suddenly awoke to the fact that many murders lay at his door and he began to have twinges of conscience. He thought to make it right by a wholesale favoring of Buddhism. He put himself entirely into the hands of the monks and let them manage all the affairs of state to suit themselves. But this, while it may have eased his conscience, brought no betterment to the state. He was imposed upon in the grossest manner and never once guessed it. He lost the respect of all men of sense and reason. His useless reign dragged on till 976 when the country was relieved of the mighty incubus by his death. The prisons were overrun with innocent men, priestcraft had wound its octopus tentacles about every branch of the government. Energy and patriotism had been eradicated; for, the moment a man possessing these traits appeared, jealousy caused him to be accused to the credulous king and he was thrown into prison.
But now his son, Chu, came to the throne. His posthumous title is Kyong-jong. His first act was to open the prison doors and liberate all who were not condemned felons. This act of mere justice was greeted by applause from the people. It was the signal for a general reform in the methods of administration. The monks were sent back to their monasteries. The competitive examinations were renewed and an impetus was given to the study of the classics. The king in person examined the papers of the candidates. But death put an end to his promising career after six short years and in 982 his younger brother, Ch’i, posthumous title Song-jong, ascended the throne. Fortunately he was of the same mind as his deceased brother and the good work went on unchecked. He first did away with the senseless festivals described under the reign of Wang-gön, at which all manner of animals were represented. He changed the names of official grades to correspond with those of the Tang dynasty in China. Intercourse with China was revived and frequent envoys passed back and forth. It was in the second year of his reign, namely 983, that the time-honored custom was instituted of the king plowing a piece of land in person each year. This too was borrowed from China. Confucianism received a great impetus during these days; an envoy to China brought back a picture of the emperor’s shrine, of the patron genius of China, of Confucius’ shrine, and a history of the seventy-two disciples of the great sage. Financial affairs engaged his attention too, for we find that in this year 984 the legal rate of interest on money was set at ten per cent per mensem. The defenses of the country were not neglected. A fortress was begun on the banks of the Yalu River but the people of the Yŭ-jin tribe caused the work to be suspended.
The Kitan tribe were still in the ascendant and so ominous was the growth of their power that the envoy from China who came to perform the ceremony of investiture of the new king, intimated that China would be glad to join the forces of Koryŭ in an invasion of the Kitan territory. We are not told what reply was given but nothing seems to have come of it. Buddhistic encroachments were checked and a stop was put to the seizure of houses for the purpose of erecting monasteries. Mourning customs were changed; the three years’ limit was shortened to one hundred days, the one year limit to thirty days, the nine months’ limit to twenty days, the six months’ limit to fifteen days and the three months’ limit to seven days. Special instructions were given to the governors of the provinces to foster agriculture, and prizes were offered for superior excellence in agricultural methods as proved by their results. The governors were allowed to take their families with them to the provincial capitals. This marks a long step in advance, for it would seem that heretofore the families of provincial governors had been held at the national capital as a guarantee of good behavior on the part of the governors while in the country.
The king caused the erection of great store-houses in the various parts of the country for the storage of rice to be used in time of famine. The students in the Confucian school were encouraged by gifts of clothes and food, and several were sent to China to prosecute their studies. In 987 the soldiers’ implements of war were beaten into agricultural implements, especially in the country districts. A second trial was made of liberating slaves but without satisfactory results. It made those that were not freed so arrogant that the attempt was given up. A further invasion was made into the territory of priest-craft by the discontinuance of certain important festivals, but the fact that the law against the killing of any animal in the first, fifth or ninth moons was still in active force shows that Buddhism was still a powerful factor in the national life. Kyöng-ju, the ancient capital of Sil-la, was made the eastern capital of the kingdom, a merely honorary distinction.
The annals state that this reign beheld the inauguration of the humane custom of remitting the revenues, in part or in whole, in times of famine, also the custom of the king sending medicine to courtiers who might be ill.
The growing power of Kitan in the north was a cause of uneasiness for we find that in 989 the whole north-east border was thoroughly garrisoned. The time was approaching when this half-savage tribe would add another proof that conquest is usually from the cooler to the warmer climate.
During the commotion incident upon the founding of the dynasty and the extinction of the kingdom of Sil-la, the bureau of history had been largely neglected. Now it was reorganized and the annals of the kingdom were put in proper shape.
The king was apparently trying to steer a middle course between Buddhism and Confucianism, for the pen of the annalist records that no animals were to be killed on the king’s birthday, and in the next stroke that wives were to be rewarded for unusual virtue, and again that the king went out of the city to meet an envoy bringing the great Buddhistic work, Tă-jang-gyŭng, from China, and still again that the first ancestral temple was erected. Well would it have been could this equilibrium have been maintained.
One of the sons of Wang-gön was still living. His name was Uk. He was the author of a court scandal which illustrates the lax morals of the time. He formed a liaison with the widow of his younger brother. The king learned of it and visited his anger upon the offender by banishing him. The woman bore a son and then went forth and hanged herself on a willow tree. The nurse brought up the child and taught it the word father. One day the child was brought into the presence of the king, when it rushed forward, caught the king by the garments and cried father. The king was deeply moved and sent the child to its father in banishment. When Uk died the boy was brought back to the capital and given office. He eventually became king.
In 993 the cloud in the north began to assume a threatening aspect. A feeble attempt was made to stem the march of the now powerful Kitan tribe, but without avail. The Kitan general, So Son-ryŭng, made this a casus belli, and, mustering a strong force, pushed down into Koryŭ territory. The king put Gen. Păk Yang-yu at the head of the Koryŭ forces and himself went with the army as far as P‘yŭng-yang.