# The passing of Korea/Chapter 5

CHAPTER V MEDIEVAL HISTORY
This was an Indian rather than a Chinese cult, and it appealed rather more strongly to the Korean imagination than did the bald materialism of the Confucian code. It is on this theory alone that we can account for the temporary rehabilitation of Korean virility. So long as Buddhism was held within bounds, and was the servant rather than the master, the Koryu state flourished. The people began in a gradual way to assimilate some of the material for thought which the Chinese intellectual invasion had deposited here, and out of it all the Koreans evolved a rather nondescript, but still a workable, plan of national life. But erelong it appeared that the pendulum had swung too far, and their fanatical adhesion to Buddhism led them into difficulties which were almost worse than those which they had escaped. The priesthood encroached more and more upon the prerogatives of the state, and assumed more and more of the political power, until at last the king himself was constrained to don the monastic cowl. This was not until two centuries after the founding of the dynasty, but the transformation was sure though slow. It was during this time that Japan received such an impetus in the direction of Buddhism. She obtained large numbers of books and vestments and other ritualistic necessities from Koryu, and it is probable that a number of Korean monks went to Japan to teach the cult. There is very little mention of this ​in the Korean annals, for during all this time Japan was considered, as she doubtless was, a very inferior state; but in the Japanese accounts we find acknowledgment of the help which the Japanese received from this source. The Japanese temples and shrines contain numerous Buddhist relics that were obtained in Korea. It may be that some of these were taken at the time of the great invasion of 1592, but more of them doubtless went to Japan at the earlier date.
There is no evidence at all to show that Korea was subject in any way to Japan, and there is not a shred of proof to uphold the claim that Korea was tributary to that power. In fact, there is very much to prove the contrary. During a large part of most of this dynasty the shores of Korea were devastated by Japanese corsairs, and the government was constantly fighting them. It is impossible that there could have been any sort of rapport between the two countries while these things were going on. An occasional messenger came to ask for Buddhist books or relics, but as for any regular diplomatic communication, it is not at all probable. Nor does Koryu seem to have had much to do with China up to the time of the Mongol invasion, which did not come until near the end of the dynasty. The kings of Koryu doubtless considered themselves vassals of China, and sent occasional envoys to the Chinese court; but the yoke was a very light one, and was never felt. It fact it was, if anything, a benefit, for when Koryu got into difficulties on any side, it was of considerable value to her to be able to refer to China as her patron.
During the first three centuries of Koryu's power there was a gradual evolution of a social system, based mainly upon Chinese ideas, modified by Buddhistic precepts. The national examination became a fixture, though it presented some unimportant contrasts to the Chinese system. It is this institution that must answer for the absence of any such martial spirit as that which Japan displayed. The literary element became the leading element in the government, and scholarship the only ​passport to official position. The soldier dropped to a place inferior to that of any other reputable citizen, and from that time to this the soldier in Korea, as in China, has been considered but one step above the beggar. No one would think of adopting the profession of a soldier if he could find anything else to do. The complete absence of any form of feudalism had something to do with this. Korea became welded together as a single state at such an early date that no opportunity was given for the rise of feudalism. Whatever may have been the reason, we find that Korea never passed through this necessary stage which leads to enlightened government. The faulty induction has sometimes been drawn that for this reason Koreans are without patriotism ; but, if we come to think of it, it is not necessarily a sign of lack of love for country that people will not take up arms and kill in its defence. That there are certain animals to which nature has not given the instinct to fight in defence of their young is not conclusive proof that those animals do not love their young.
Although for the most part Buddhism controlled the issues of the dynasty, and that cult flourished until the law was promulgated that every third son must take the cowl, yet there was always a remnant of opposition left, and from time to time this flared up and created widespread disturbances. Not infrequently it resulted in horrible massacres, in which whole cabinets were ruthlessly put to the sword. But in every case the Buddhist element came to the top again and exacted fearful revenge.
The country was filled with monasteries, which became the schools of literature, art and even war; for we find that, contrary to the custom in Europe in the Middle Ages, the science of war was frequently taught by the monks. It became even more true of Korea than of Europe that the monasteries became the repositories of all that was best in science, art and literature. The splendid buildings and shrines, the beautifully carved pagodas and the gorgeous vestments of the spectacular ritual ​gave to Koreans the only canons of art that they possessed. The leisure of the monastic life fostered such little literature as they enjoyed, and on the whole it is not to be wondered at that in time the kings came to wish that they were monks too, and that some of them actually went so far as to take the tonsure.
Korea to-day is full of relics of those times. There are thousands of monasteries throughout the land, many of them falling to pieces, but still showing remains of former grandeur. These were built on the most beautiful sites in the land, and this alone would be sufficient to show that the monks had an eye to art. There are many moss-grown pagodas and other monuments on which one can spell out in Chinese characters, or more often in Thibetan characters, the record of past glories.
Strange to say, the institution of slavery grew to great proportions in Koryu days. We say strange, because such a class of society is not recognised by Buddhism usually. Slavery was made the punishment for many misdemeanours, and the ranks of slaves were swelled to such proportions and they were treated so badly, that on more than one occasion they arose in revolt and were put down only after thousands had been killed.
One of the most curious customs of Koryu was that the kings always took their own sisters to wife. This has its parallel in Egypt under certain of the dynasties. The idea seems to have been to keep the royal blood as clear from plebeian strain as possible; but, of course, it defeated its own purpose, for in time the kings of Koryu became practically imbeciles, at least so feeble in mind that they were the mere tools of designing monks, who exerted for the time being all the powers of royalty. Time would fail to tell of half the plots and counterplots, poisonings, stabbings, stranglings and every other form of murder and sudden death that deface the annals of Koryu. It is. no wonder that when the time came for a new dynasty to ascend the throne the whole Buddhist system, which was mainly to blame for the shameful state of affairs, was outlawed, and no Buddhist monk was allowed to enter the gate of the capital.
​The first century of the dynasty saw the sowing of the seeds of evil which were to spring up and bear such disastrous fruit; but the nation was a virile one as yet, and under stress of circumstances could summon a formidable army in her own defence. This was seen when, early in the eleventh century, the semisavage people of Kitan in the north one of those hordes which periodically have swarmed southward from the Manchurian plains came across the Yalu, expecting to carry everything before them. In this they were sadly disappointed ; for though at the first considerable disorder existed in the country, the people rallied, put an army of some two hundred thousand men into the field, and soon had the half-naked plunderers in full retreat. Kitan tried for a time to assert herself in the peninsula, but never with success. She built a bridge across the Yalu and successfully defended it, but Koryu retaliated by building a wall clear across the peninsula from the Yellow Sea to the Japan Sea. Remains of this can be seen to-day in the vicinity of Yong-byun. It was twenty-five feet high and two hundred miles long. This period marks the summit of Koryu's power and wealth. She had reached her zenith within a century and a quarter of her birth, and the next three centuries are the story of her decline and fall. To show the power that Buddhism exercised at this time we have but to give a single paragraph of detail.
1. Ruins of Golden pagoda in ancient Silla.
2. Bas relief on the door of an ancient Silla pagoda.
3. Astronomical observatory of ancient Silla.
The next century or more passes without event of special note, except the publication of the great historical work, " History of the Three Kingdoms." These were Silla, Pakche and Koguryu. The great scholar Kim Pu-sik collected all the data and reduced it to historical form, and that book has been the basis of every history of ancient Korea from that day to this.
With the opening of the thirteenth century we come to the beginning of the Mongol power, and it was in 1231 that the Golden Horde of Genghis Khan screamed their insulting summons across the Yalu. Some attempt was made to stop this mighty avalanche of men, but Koryu's strength was not what it had been; luxury had bitten too deep. The Mongols swept southward to the capital. The craven King fled to the island of Kang-wha in the mouth of the Han River, and was there able to defy the invaders ; for it is a curious fact, and one well worth noting, that though that island is separated from the mainland only by an estuary half a mile wide, the Mongols never succeeded in crossing to it. They were wholly unacquainted with boats or with sea fighting, and even this narrow tide-way daunted them. This island of Kang-wha has the distinction of being the only spot of land on the mainland of eastern Asia (for it was practically the mainland) that the Mongols never took by force of arms. They swept southward over the rest of the peninsula, ravaging everywhere, and committing the utmost excesses. Neither man, woman nor child was secure. Never before had Korea seen such devastation, and she never has seen such since. It is said, and probably with some truth, that half the entire population fled to the islands of the archipelago, and left the land a wilderness. Invasion followed invasion, and Koryu was swept as by recurring waves until the devastation was complete.
​84 THE PASSING OF KOREA By the year 1260 the Mongols were tired of slaughter, and as the submission of Koryu was complete, a Resident was placed at the capital, and the King was induced to leave the island and return to Songdo. But there was no such thing as independence. The restless and brutal Mongols played all manner of childish tricks with the government, and the Mongol garrisons in various parts of the country treated the people to horrors worse than actual war. It became at last unbearable, and the King sent his son to the Chinese capital to protest against Mongol methods in Korea. The prince found that things were unstable in China. The Mongol Emperor died and a usurper grasped the reins of power. The prince with splendid tact hastened southward, and was the first to warn the heir, who was none other than the great Kublai Khan, that his succession was disputed. By reason of this timely warning the Mongol prince was enabled by forced marches to fall suddenly upon the forces of the usurper and disperse them. Coming to his capital in triumph, he heaped favours on the Korean prince and granted him all he asked for his own country. The obnoxious troops were withdrawn from the peninsula, and an era of good-will and peaceful intercourse followed.
It was in 1265 that the idea of invading Japan first formed itself in the brain of the Mongol conqueror. He first sent envoys to Japan, accompanied by Korean envoys, demanding that Japan swear allegiance to the Mongol power. They were treated with marked disrespect at the Japanese capital, forbidden to enter the gates of the city, provided with miserable food, made to wait for months without an answer, and finally dismissed without a word of reply to the pompous summons of the world-conqueror in China. Kublai Khan was not the sort of man to relish this, and he immediately resolved upon the invasion. He knew he had no boats, and that his people knew nothing about navigation ; so he sent to Korea, demanding that she furnish a thousand boats to carry the army of invasion across the straits. Korea was also ordered to furnish four thousand bags of rice and a ​contingent of forty thousand troops. It took time to do this, and all sorts of vexatious delays occurred, so that it was not until 1 273 that the army was ready to take boat across the straits, and then it numbered only twenty-five thousand men ; so slightingly did the Mongol conqueror gauge the prowess of the Japanese. The expedition ended as might have been expected. Nine hundred boats sailed from the Korean coast, and fifteen thousand Korean soldiers went as auxiliaries. After taking a thousand Japanese heads on one of the undefended islands, the invaders landed on the mainland. There they found they were no match for the hardy Japanese. They made their way back to their boats, but Nature aided the Japanese, and a typhoon wrecked many of the vessels and scattered others far over the sea. Out of a total of forty thousand men thirteen thousand were lost. The vessels finally rendezvoused at an island in the Korean straits, and then made their way sadly back to Korea.
But the Emperor was quite unconvinced. He could not imagine the Japanese attempting to withstand his will, and set down the defeat of his army to a panic or some other extraneous cause. He soon began the welding of another bolt to launch at the island empire. This was ready in 1282, and consisted of fifty thousand Mongol regulars, one hundred thousand from the allied tribes, and twenty thousand and seventy Koryu auxiliaries. This was indeed a formidable force, and rightly handled might have made trouble even for Japan ; but as fortune would have it, a great storm arose in their rear as they approached the mainland of Japan, and as all the thousand boats made at once for the mouth of the harbor, they jammed in the offing and foundered, grinding ships and men in one great mill of slaughter. It is said that one could walk across from one point of land to the other upon the solid pile of wreckage. Thus were upwards of one hundred thousand men done to death without a stroke being made by the Japanese. It must have been a wonderful and awe-inspiring spectacle. Of those who perished thus miserably, eight thousand were Koryu men. Those in the rear, being thus ​ warned, turned and made their way home. Even then the Emperor would not give up, but set in motion new plans for the invasion of Japan. This wish was not to be gratified. A year later it became apparent to him that Koryu had been squeezed to the very limit, and the terrible privations of his own troops led him to change his mind. It must have been a bitter hour for him.
The last century of the Koryu dynasty was one swift fall into worse and worse excesses, until the end. One King was so unspeakably infamous that the Mongol Emperor sent for him; and when he arrived at the Mongol court the Emperor said, " I put you on the throne of Koryu, but you have done nothing but tear the skin off your subjects. Though your blood be fed to all the dogs of the world, justice would hardly be satisfied." The Emperor then placed him on a bier, and in this most disgraceful fashion he was carried away into banishment to western China.
In 1361 occurred another of those periodical invasions from the north. This time it was by the Hong-du, or " Red Heads," a wild robber tribe. They came across the Yalu like locusts, and swarmed over the country. The army could do nothing with them, and soon they surrounded the capital, from which the King had fled. There they turned cannibal and carried on frightful orgies, while in another part of the country the great Yi T'a-jo, who was destined to found a new dynasty, was trying to whip into shape the demoralised army of Koryu. This he did, and before long they had the " Red Heads " on the run. These were also the years when the coast of Korea was continually harried by Japanese corsairs. No one knew at what point they would appear next, and so no preparation could be made to receive them. At first these raids were confined to the eastern coast, but gradually they extended around to the western side, and came north as far as the present Chemulpo. On one occasion they ravaged the island of Kang-wha, and even landed in Whang-ha Province, near the capital. So desperate did the ​
| The Marble Pagoda in Seoul The Japanese tried to take it away in 1592, but after removing the top, were driven from Seoul | A Buddhist relic in the South |
Several of the kings took Mongol princesses for their wives, and these women, imitating the example of Jezebel, made themselves unmitigated nuisances. They knew they had behind them the Mongol emperors, and their lawless freaks and escapades scandalised the people. The magnificent marble pagoda that stands in the centre of Seoul to-day was a gift from one of the Mongol emperors to his daughter, the Queen of Koryu. The intention was to erect it at Songdo, the capital; but when it came from China by boat, it was found too heavy to carry overland to that town; so it was brought up the Han River and erected in Han-yang, the present Seoul.
It is a curious fact that the Mongols still held the island of Quelpart, and used it as a breeding-place for horses; and when the fall of the Mongol power became imminent, and the last Emperor saw that he was to be driven from his capital, he determined to make this island his asylum, and sent an enormous amount of treasure there for his future use. Such at least is the statement found in the Korean annals. When the time came, however, he was unable to make good his escape in this direction, but had to flee northward.
As the fourteenth century neared its close, there were two men in Korea worthy of note. One was a monk named Sindon, who was, so far as we can learn, a Korean counterpart of Arbaces in Bulwer Lytton's greatest novel. He had the King completely under his thumb, or "in his sleeve," as Koreans would say. There was no heir apparent to the throne, and the baseness of the King was so abject that this Sindon made him take to wife a concubine of his own, who was already pregnant by him, hoping thus to see his own son on the throne. The enormities of this man exceed belief and cannot be transcribed. He was ​the consummate flower of Buddhism in Korea, and the people of this land, at least the intelligent portion of them, have ever since pointed to Sindon as being a legitimate product of the cult. The other person was General Yi, whom we have already mentioned. He was of excellent family, and had risen by his own merits to the leading position in the Koryu army. His prowess against the Japanese raiders, whom he had severely chastised on various occasions, made him the idol of the army; and as the baneful influence of Sindon increased at court, the people began to look at General Yi as a possible saviour. As for himself, he had no thought of usurping the throne. Nor would he have done so except for the suicidal action of the King. That semiimbecile took it into his head that it would be a good thing to invade China, where the powerful Ming dynasty was already starting out on its glorious course. General Yi was ordered to lead the little army across the Yalu and attack the Celestial Empire. The mouse against the lion ! This was too much even for General Yi's loyalty, but as yet he meditated nothing against the King's person. He knew where the difficulty lay. He was given his choice to lead the army against China or be executed. He appeared to comply, and led the army as far as one of the islands in the Yalu, and there addressing them, he asked if they were not of the opinion that it would be better to go back to Songdo and clean out the dissolute court than to attack their great patron, against whom they had not the semblance of a charge. The army applauded the move, and the return march commenced. The court was thunder-struck. The capital was in confusion. But their eyes were opened too late. The stern leader forced the gates and took up the work of reform with vigour. Sindon was banished and then killed. Scores of the worst officials were sent to their account, and the King was deprived of all his flatterers. This helpless individual was not actually forced to abdicate, but he saw the logic of the situation and gracefully lay down the sceptre. Only one thing had stood in the way of this. There was one good man still living in ​Songdo, a great scholar and a highly respected official. It was Chong Mong-ju. He was the only rock that blocked the way, the only excuse for the continued existence of the Koryu dynasty. The third son of General Yi was ambitious that his father should mount the throne; and seeing how things lay, he determined to cut the gordian knot. This famous scholar was invited to a dinner, and on his way home at night he was struck down and murdered on a stone bridge near the city wall. That bridge exists to-day, and on it is a dark red blotch which becomes bloodred in the rain. Tradition says it is the blood of Chong Mong-ju, which Heaven will never permit to be washed away. The annals say that General Yi mourned this crime ; but we may be permitted to have our doubts, especially in view of the fact that he took advantage of it and allowed himself to be made king. Thus fell the kingdom of Koryu after a life of four hundred and seventy-five years.