Notes

INTERNAL POLITICS, 935–1170
Politics in Koryŏ centered on competition between powerful clans for
high offices in government. Studies indicate that a small number of clans
held a large percentage of high offices in the period from 981 to 1146.
Some of these clans were of Silla true-bone origin such as the Kyŏngju
Kim, Kangnŭng Kim, and P’yŏngsan Pak. These were among the greatest
producers of high officials. But leading clans came from all parts of
the kingdom, indicating that the early Koryŏ state sought to win support
from the aristocracy throughout the country. It also showed that the elite
were being integrated into a common society, helping to establish a common
social order and common culture.
One of the themes of Koryŏ history during the first two centuries was
the attempts by the dynastic government in the capital to gain greater
control over the countryside. Another was the intrigue among powerful
clans. The problem of containing the power of great clans was compounded
by the practice begun by Wang Kŏn of marrying members of
the royal family into these clans to cement alliances with them. The result
was powerful in-law families that could threaten the dynasty. In the early
eleventh century, the Ansan Kim clan achieved a degree of dominance
when an aristocrat, Kim Ŭn-bu, married three of his daughters to King
Hyŏnjong (r. 1009–1031). After dominating the court for half a century the
power of the Ansan Kim clan was eclipsed by that of the Kyŏngwŏn Yi.
In the middle of the eleventh century, a member of that clan, Yi Cha-yŏn,
emerged as the dominant figure in the government. He bound the royal
family to his by marrying three daughters to King Munjong (r. 1046–
1083). The Kyŏngwŏn Yi thereafter produced by far the most officials and
continued to marry into the royal family. The clan grew in power until it
posed a threat to the throne. In 1095, the clan leader, Yi Cha-ŭi, attempted
to dethrone the king and replace him with a son of King Sŏnjong by Yi’s
sister, but he failed and was removed from power. Again in 1127, another
leader of the clan, Yi Cha-gyŏm, purged many opponents and tried to depose
the teenage King Injong (r. 1123–1146), who was both his son-in-law
and grandson. His plan was to place himself on the throne with the aid of
less illustrious clans, including new arrivals from the countryside. Rivals
defeated Yi Cha-gyŏm and his clan fell from power.13
As happened so often in Korean history, factional rivalry during the
Koryŏ was aggravated by external threats and tensions. Yi Cha-gyŏm
attempted to align the dynasty with the rising Jurchen state of Jin in
Manchuria and northern China. Accordingly he sent an envoy to the
Jin in 1126 following the Jin conquest of Liao. His opponents wanted
to maintain good relations with Song rather than submit to yet another
northern barbarian state. Yi was eventually overthrown, but his realistic
policy of acknowledging the power of the Manchuria-based empire that
was gaining control over the northern half of China prevailed. The fall of
the Kyŏngwŏn Yi shifted power to a number of northwestern-based clans
that aimed at moving the capital near the northern frontier at Pyongyang.
This group remained hostile to Jin. They were led by the monk
Myoch’ŏng (?–1135), who used fengshui (Korean: p’ungsu) theory to argue
that the geomantic forces around the capital of Kaesŏng had waned but
that those of Pyongyang were strong. Myoch’ŏng urged the king to move
there, declare himself emperor, and launch an attack on the Jin. When
his effort failed, he and his supporters attempted to establish a new state
called Taewi in 1135, but this revolt was destroyed by forces loyal to the
dynasty that included the Confucian scholar and historian Kim Pusik.
Koryŏ then refrained from military adventurism.
To deal with the growing number of competing clans, the number
of top officials was increased and the councils of aristocrats such as
the privy council swelled in number, the latter eventually having seventy
Chaech’u officials. Competition was aggravated by men from the
hyangni, the local hereditary elite, seeking central government offices.
Meanwhile there was growing domestic tension between the dominant
lineages that supplied civil officials and the lineages that supplied the
less prestigious and less influential military officials that resulted in a
military uprising in 1170 (see chapter 5). While all this gives an impression
of constant political tension, it is important to note that politics was
a struggle among great aristocratic families for power and privilege; it
had little to do with most ordinary nonaristocratic peoples. As for the
common people, we hear little of them in the historical records except
for an occasional peasant uprising.