Season 6, Episode 12: The Golden Age of Goryeo

When we last left our Korean friends, the peninsula had been unified under the Goryeo Dynasty after many years of fighting among various factions. This happened at a fortuitous time for the Korean people, as the unified Goryeo state would enable them to deal with the primary threats to their sovereignty: their Khitan neighbors to the north.

Manchurian nomads raiding the northern peninsula was nothing new, but the Liao Dynasty was not a typical run-of-the-mill nomadic faction which the agrarian powers of Korea were accustomed to dealing with. They were no longer satisfied with smash-and-grab moveable wealth, but had become bent on conquest.

Before we dig too far into the wars between the Liao and Goryeo, let’s get better acquainted with the new unified dynasty that ruled the peninsula. King Taejo, who we mentioned last season, was the founding monarch of the Goryeo Dynasty. He was known for his magnanimity toward all of his fellow Koreans, regardless of whether they hailed from the former lands of Silla, Baekje, or even Balhae. As refugees from the war between Balhae and the Liao Dynasty came flooding into Goryeo in the 920s, they were welcomed onto the peninsula and the noble families of Balhae were even given lands and titles. This was, no doubt, more than just an act of kindness because King Taejo needed noble support in the early years of the Goryeo Dynasty.

There were powerful landholders throughout Korea at this time called hojok who controlled vast semi-independent domains. Any of these families could potentially become a threat to Taejo’s rule, so he brokered alliances with many of them by marrying their daughters and gained for himself 29 new wives in this way. Taejo maintained a hostile attitude toward the Liao Dynasty throughout his reign, especially in the famous Manbu Bridge Incident. Seeking peace with their new neighbors after conquering the last vestiges of the Balhae state, the Liao sent 30 envoys with a gift of 50 Bactrian camels. King Taejo sent a very clear response: he imprisoned the envoys and had them exiled to a small, remote island and had the camels kept under the Manbu Bridge without food until they all starved to death.

After Taejo’s death in 943, his oldest two sons both had short-lived stints as king. Literally short-lived. King Hyejong died in 945 from mercury poisoning he acquired from the medicine he used to treat his eczema, and King Jeongjong reigned for four years but fell into paranoid insanity as he imagined assassination plots all around him. He financially supported the spread of Buddhism throughout the land, a trend that would continue in future monarchs of Goryeo. Just before his death in 949, he signed an official order declaring that his younger brother would succeed him instead of his son. As far as I was able to discover, there were never any accusations of murder but I have to say the timing is a little bit suspicious.

The fourth King of Goryeo is remembered as King Gwangjong. He inherited a throne of uncertainty, as the hojok families remained very powerful and the rapidfire reigns of his older brothers did little to enhance royal prestige and influence. There had already been an attempted coup during King Hyejong’s reign and if something wasn’t done to strengthen the power of the monarchy itself, a future king becoming a puppet of a powerful noble hojok family was a matter of time.

Breaking with his father Taejo’s tactics, he refused to marry any daughters of the hojok families, preferring instead to marry his cousins and one of his half-sisters. Then he did something wholly unpopular among the nobility and wildly popular among the commoners: he abolished slavery.

Slavery in Korea in the mid-900s largely consisted of prisoners-of-war which the noble families or their armies had captured during the wars of the three kingdoms. This was not just chattel slavery, in fact many of the war slaves served as part of their liege’s security entourage or as enforcers on his property, but many were also made to work the vast estates and fill their owner’s pockets. This abolition was not done out of tender feelings of sympathy, but because it suited two of King Gwangjong’s purposes: expanding the tax base as the slaves were now commoners who would pay taxes, and directly weakening the power of the hojok families whose incomes had swelled thanks to having an unpaid workforce.

These reforms were not made without resistance. Factions formed among the nobility in government offices but the King routinely dismissed those ministers who objected to his reforms and promoted lower-ranking nobles who would tow the line to those positions in their stead. This was also deeply unpopular among the Nobles, who felt entitled to a seat at the table, and some of them accused the King of petty cronyism. However, with the king’s popularity and the looming threat of Khitan aggression, few attempted to try and unite the other houses in a coup. Those who did were often found out and anyone even suspected of such treason was arrested on trumped-up charges and executed.

Thus, among the nobility King Gwangjong was considered a tyrant while among the commoners he was practically a folk hero. He expended great sums building Buddhist temples across the land and he helped create a new national civil service examination with the help of an envoy from the Later Zhou Dynasty named Shuang Ji, who inspired King Gwuanjong to promote confucianism throughout his domains by building schools. He even instituted a qualification exam for those who wished to become Buddhist monks.

Gwangjong died in 975 but his influence would be felt throughout the Goryeo Dynasty’s existence. While King Taejo had generally rebuffed foreign powers, Gwangjong made an effort to ally once more with the new big dynasty in China, the Song. He also built a series of forts along the northern boundary to protect against a future invasion from the Liao. In 993, long after King Gwangjong was dead, that invasion materialized at last.

According to the Liao sources, they marshalled an army of 800,000 troops and deployed them to their border with Goryeo. The true number is probably closer to 60,000, but that’s still a very big army. The generals of the Goryeo Dynasty assembled their troops quickly and prepared to defend their land. This time, however, cooler heads actually did prevail. An ambassador attached to the Goryeo army named Seo Hui parlayed with the leaders of the Liao army and worked out an amicable arrangement. Goryeo agreed to cease all further contact with the Song Dynasty, to cancel further tribute to the Song and direct said tribute to the Liao instead, and to adopt the Liao calendar. Seo Hui argued quite persuasively, apparently, for an extension of Goryeo’s northern border, recalling that the Yalu river was the border of ancient Koguryo. The Liao agreed to let Goryeo annex the land to the Yalu river, some of which was occupied at the time by Jurchen tribes.

Goryeo wasted no time in fortifying that new northern border as soon as the Liao departed. They also kept up communications with the Song Dynasty in secret, but it became clear that the rulers of China would not be able to help them in any case. The royal family, meanwhile, was immersed in intrigues from within and without. Rivalry between the nobility and the leaders of the army grew and the king was often caught in the middle. An incident arose in the early 1000s in which a scholar-official besieged the royal palace and threatened to kill the king and his family. General Gang Jo answered the king’s call for help and destroyed the meager rebel army. Soon afterward, however, other ministers forged mutual alliances and gradually convinced King Mokjong that Gang Jo was intent on overthrowing the government. In 1009, the king was convinced and signed a secret death warrant for the general. But Gang Jo was forewarned and so he instead actually did overthrow the government by force and his troops killed not only the scholar-officials who had plotted against him, but also King Mokjong himself. Gang Jo installed the eighteen-year-old King Hyeonjong as the new sovereign.

The Liao Dynasty used this military coup as a pretense for a second invasion, which they mounted in the fall of 1010. This particular invasion was not a massive conquest campaign, but a surgical strike against Gang Jo himself. The Khitan forces crossed the Yalu river and marched south, heading for the city of Tong-ju after failing to capture a fort. Gang Jo deployed his troops near a narrow pass which the Liao army would have to use and executed a massive ambush, killing a reported 10,000 Liao troops and driving them north for the moment. Knowing his enemy would be more cautious on their next trip through the pass, Gang Jo led his army to the city and prepared to defend it. The Liao besieged it, but their attempts to breach its walls were thwarted and they suffered even more casualties. They tried a second time and were driven back again.

At this point General Gang Jo appears to have become overconfident. He ordered one of his officers to take charge of the city’s defense, thinking that the Liao must surely be running out of steam by now and would give up any moment. However, the Khitans soon received a Goryeo defector who gave them valuable information about the city’s defense. Thus their third time trying to take the city was successful and a massive slaughter ensued.

Gang Jo was captured and given the opportunity to officially surrender. When he refused, he was summarily executed. King Hyeonjong was spared any further wrath of the Liao Dynasty, as they marched north and returned to their homelands once the menace Gang Jo was dealt with. The king of Goryeo sued for peace, sending messengers with tributes to the Liao Emperor. However, the Liao were not satisfied with these gifts and did not trust this new king, whose coronation they had not approved and who had been set on the throne by an ambitious general. The Khitans demanded that King Hyeonjong make the journey to the Liao capital and submit his proposal for peace in person. The King wisely refused this humiliation, knowing that he would probably just be taken hostage for his trouble. Throughout the late 1010s, the Liao raided throughout the north and demanded that Goryeo hand over the border forts they had built along the Yalu River, a request which was repeatedly refused. Finally, in 1018, the Khitans constructed a bridge that crossed the river and would serve as reinforcement infrastructure for their invading armies.

The Liao army in this final invasion was said to number 100,000, which is possibly an accurate figure. The army assembled by the King of Goryeo and his generals numbered a little over 200,000, but this numerical advantage did not necessarily confer tactical superiority. Most of the Liao fought from horseback and most of the Koreans fought on foot. The general appointed to lead the Goryeo troops was a minister who had no military experience, but he seems to have possessed in cleverness whatever he lacked in war stories.

General Gang Gam-chan ordered the damming of a small stream that flowed near one of the forts. As the Liao army marched through that area, they unwittingly crossed the stream’s dry bed and when about half were across, the dam was destroyed and the floodwaters carried many doomed horses and riders to their deaths as the blocked-up river raged through them. The Khitan army was then beset by nearly constant ambushes as they attempted to navigate the mountainous landscape as winter snows began to fall.

Almost miraculously, they reached the capital of Kaesong and attempted to besiege it but General Gang Gam-chan and his army caught up with them and managed to defeat them in the ensuing battle in sight of the city walls. The Khitan troops were, by this point, utterly exhausted. Their supply lines had been cut and they were far from home fighting against a General with perhaps the most impressive case of beginner’s luck in world history.

As the Liao troops headed north to regroup beyond the Yalu River, however, General Gang and his army caught up with them and managed to encircle them at Gwiju, which is also called Kuju, in the northern peninsula. The slaughter was intense and desperate but by the time it was over, General Gang had won one of the greatest military victories in all of Korean history. Tens of thousands of Liao troops surrendered and were taken prisoner. Most were taken to Namgyeong city, which today is named Seoul, and put to work as engineers and in other specialist professions. A few centuries later these and other Manchurian peoples living within the Goryeo domains would take up jobs considered “dirty” by other people - tanners, butchers, and entertainers, for example, and considered an untouchable caste.

In 1022, four years after the disastrous third Liao invasion of Goryeo, the Liao Dynasty saw the wisdom in moving on. A peace treaty was signed, the border of Goryeo’s domain was fixed at the Yalu River, and the Khitans would turn their attention toward the increasingly troublesome Song Dynasty as well as keeping their many subordinate Turkic, Tungusic, and proto-Mongolic groups under their control. They would occasionally menace the borders of Goryeo, however, which led King Deokjong, sometime after 1031, to begin constructing Korea’s own Great Wall, a fortified boundary wall which could help contain invading Khitan troops and trap them between the wall and the Yalu River. This was named the “Thousand Li Wall,” or “Cheolli Jangseong” in Korean. I apologize for my pronunciation, my Korean is not great.

While the occasional sabre-rattling from their northern neighbors might occasionally unnerve anxious nobles and ministers, geopolitically things mostly settled into a quiet status quo after the Goryeo-Khitan War. The Liao and Song Dynasties would both make overtures for closer relations, each believing that they could triumph over the other if they only got the Goryeo Dynasty to fight alongside them. This relatively peaceful and secure condition led to a Korean renaissance as trade increased throughout the land, new art forms were created and perfected, and literacy and learning also increased across the nation as it transformed into something of a Confucian utopia.

Arab traders even began stopping in Korea during their annual circuits across the seas, and Korean goods became much-treasured items in foreign courts, especially those implements made of celadon. Celadon is a type of ceramic which gets its characteristic green hue from the iron-rich glazes that were in use. Tea sets, simple storage boxes, incense burners, and many other items were given beautiful decoration with mother-of-pearl inlays and then coated in the glaze which would turn green, brown, or even black once it was fired in the kiln.

Some of the earliest and most exhaustive official histories of Korea were written during this time, mostly using Chinese script which was preferred by the nobility. Just like the Song Dynasty, printing presses were developed which spawned an entire publishing industry that thrived as literacy spread. Buddhism also thrived, transforming into the official religion of the Goryeo state during the 1000s. The established schools which were influential tried to suppress what they saw as heretical movements like Seon, which was called Chan in China and better known by its Japanese name, Zen. As Seon was gradually adopted by the nobility and the royal family, it eventually supplanted the older schools and became the preferred denomination of the Goryeo Dynasty. Taoism and Shamanism were also still practiced in Korea during this time, though both would remain a minority of spiritual establishments.

With the increase in trade, merchant houses began to grow rich and the necessity of keeping track of their business expenditures and profits led to the creation of the first ever use of double-entry bookkeeping that we know of. This was a bookkeeping technique that allowed for greater accountability in expenditures and the particular kind developed during the Goryeo Dynasty remained in use in Korea until 1920. I’m sure all of the bookkeepers and accountants listening to this podcast are now celebrating wildly.

The 1000s are generally considered the golden age of the Goryeo Dynasty. Then came the 1100s. The Liao Dynasty fell and the Jin Dynasty rose and this created a great deal of uncertainty in the Goryeo court regarding what all of this meant for the balance of powers in Manchuria and beyond. While there was little love for the Liao Dynasty at court, the Jurchens had been a problem for Goryeo before and the uncertainty created by their ascendance to regional domination threatened to overturn Goryeo’s established order. In 1117, the founder of the Jin Dynasty - say it with me, Emperor Taizu - formally requested that the king of Goryeo not only recognize his new dynasty as base-line legitimate, but acknowledge the Jin Dynasty as Goryeo’s “older brother.”

Factions quickly formed at court over how to respond, generally falling into the groups of appeasers and warhawks. Some among the warhawk faction even suggested beheading the envoys who had brought the letter and sending the Emperor of Jin their heads as a response. For the moment, the court dead-locked and they neither recognized the Jin Dynasty as a superior, nor did they declare war against them.

This indecision over what to do about the Jin Dynasty consumed the royal court as the war and peace factions sought to undermine one another and influence the king to take their side. Assassination plots, power grabs, and wild accusations flew as the king continued to dither. To his credit, this was an important decision and there was no way for him to know for certain whether the Jin Dynasty would become supreme or get steamrolled by the Song Dynasty. Previous Han Chinese Dynasties had certainly achieved domination in the north, even after losing some battles to Nomadic groups. The Jurchens, for their part, did their share of intimidation by marshalling large armies along the Yalu River nominally for menial tasks like reinforcing boundary defenses.

Once the Song finally hammered out a treaty with the Jurchens, however, Goryeo knew that further resistance would only invite punitive expeditions from the new superpower to their north. In 1142, during the reign of King Injong, the government of Goryeo officially submitted to the Jin Dynasty, promising tribute and vassalage. By this point, however, the king was no longer the actual leader of the government. A scholar-minister named Kim Busik had been the effective head of state since squashing the Myo Cheong Rebellion in 1136 and operated in a manner similar to the Fujiwara dictators of Japan.

Kim Busik died in 1151, just five years after King Injong passed away. The new sovereign was remembered as King Uijong, who was particularly notable for his dislike of soldiers. Civilian control of the military had been a hallmark of the Goryeo Dynasty since its founding, but this led to a string of abuses against the military by their scholar commanders-in-chief. Goryeo suffered the same occasional shortages as every other nation throughout history and when tax revenues dropped, payroll also shrank. The way the government pay structure was arranged, however, meant that the scholar officials in the council of state were paid first, then the military was paid afterward. The scholars nearly always received their entire expected salary, while the soldiers and officers were expected to make due when their wages were light or indefinitely delayed.

The sources indicate that King Uijong was even more disrespectful of soldiers and the military in general than most others in government. He would arrange for soldiers to fight in tournament-style combat for his entertainment, and allegedly once forced an elderly general to fight a twenty-year-old soldier until the old man collapsed. These abuses became too heavy to bear for a general named Jeong Jung-bu, who had personally bore the mockery of the civilian court officials over the years, including an incident at a banquet in 1167 where some of them set his beard on fire with a candle. In 1170, shortly after the incident with the elderly general, Jeong Jung-bu marshaled the army and gave orders, in his own name, for them to kill the king and most of the civilian government. It’s a testament to just how dissatisfied the military was that they carried out these orders without hesitation and commenced slaughtering much of Goryeo’s council of state.

Afterward, Jeong Jung-bu set King Myeongjong on the throne as a puppet and Goryeo would essentially be under military rule for the next hundred years until… well, that’s for next season. This is where we leave the Korean peninsula for now, under a military dictatorship with a puppet king. Next time, we will return to Japan about a hundred years before all of this, where Emperor Shirakawa is about to create the key to deflating the power of the Fujiwara regents.