A History of Korea (23 page)

The person who took Kungye’s place was Wang K
n, who had for some time been Kungye’s most successful general in the struggles against other regional lords. Wang had entered Kungye’s orbit in 895 when Wang’s father, the court-sanctioned local leader in the west-central coastal city of Songak—today known as Kaes
ng—joined the monk’s new kingdom, which by the year 911 had conquered a vast territory. When Kungye began to grow cruel and show disturbing signs of uncontrolled despotism, Kungye’s top officers overthrew him and handed the crown to Wang K
n. In the official historical accounts from the Kory
dynasty, Wang is depicted as having displayed great reluctance to betray his loyalty to his superior, Kungye, but it is likely that Wang himself led the effort to take control. Kungye perished while being chased from the throne, and immediately Wang set his sights on overcoming the resistance of both Silla and Latter Paekche. His longtime nemesis, Ky
n Hw
n, who had meanwhile been overthrown himself by his own son, actually joined Wang’s cause to defeat his former country. By 935, Wang had gained the peaceful submission of Silla’s last monarch. Upon putting down the final bout of Paekche resistance in 936, Wang, known historically through his reign name of “T’aejo,” or “Great Founder,” accomplished the successful reunification of the country.

Given his own beginnings as the scion of a powerful merchant family in a far-off province of Silla, Wang knew well the potential pitfalls presented by regional power holders. Hence his most daunting task in fortifying his rule was gaining the subjugation, or at least the consent, of the many local chiefs scattered around the peninsula. This issue would remain at the forefront of challenges faced by the Kory
monarchy for the rest of the five-century-long dynasty. Eventually the Kory
instituted a kind of cooperative
“hostage” system, much like the one used later in Shogunal Japan, that required local chiefs to reside for stretches of time in the capital. For the moment, however, Wang K
n did what many rulers around the world in similar circumstances have done: use marriage alliances to consolidate political rule. Wang in fact went a step further; he himself did the marrying, and to the daughters of an astounding twenty eight different local rulers! Not all of the many sons produced from these alliances went on to become king or even play important political roles, but this step proved instrumental in securing a large pool of loyal descendants with a stake in maintaining the dynasty. To them, and more specifically to his eldest sons—three of whom would take turns in serving as the succeeding monarchs—Wang would leave behind a very specific blueprint for ruling the Kory
dynasty and a personal vision for what made Kory
Korea.

CONTENT OF THE TEN INJUNCTIONS

The country that Wang K
n envisioned reflected the many  different strands of thought and religion, originating internally and externally, that had come to shape civilization on the peninsula. More impressive than the specific policy recommendations, which were significant in themselves, were the Ten Injunctions’ expansive proclamations of the central currents of culture that defined Korea’s past, present, and future. One specific civilizational strain, however, stood out as primary: “The success of every great undertaking in our country depends upon the blessings and protection of the Buddha,” begins the first of the Ten Injunctions. Indeed, the significance of regulating well the Buddhist establishment, of building temples and other places of worship, and of sponsoring the major Buddhist festivals is emphasized in three separate injunctions. Little wonder, then, that the centrality of Buddhism to Korean civilization would reach unprecedented heights during the Kory
dynasty, reflecting the maturity, diversity, and even the decadence of Buddhism’s near-millennium of dominance, especially in concert with political power. One could argue, in fact,
that the state’s patronage of Buddhism in the Kory
produced the peak of Korean civilization itself, given the extraordinary cultural advances that arose from this relationship.