A History of Korea (49 page)

The Chos
ŏ
n kingdom may be summed up as replacing the aristocratic Kory
ŏ
dynasty and, in its stead, establishing a strictly bureaucratic order led by the yangban. Based on Neo-Confucian institutions and culture, it achieved an advanced civilization in its first century. Subsequently, however, the bloody literati purges and fierce factional struggles greatly sapped its earlier vitality and strength. Finally, the decisive turn of the dynastic cycle came with the massive Japanese invasion of Chos
ŏ
n in the late sixteenth century, which virtually sealed the fate of the kingdom. Another important aspect should be mentioned concerning the Chos
ŏ
n kingdom. Its Neo-Confucian scholars spontaneously confined the scope of Korean history to the Korean peninsula, denying the close ties it had forged earlier with many states and civilizations on the Asian continent.

Figure 1. Comb Pattern Pottery (Neolithic Age).

All photos in this gallery used by permission of the National Museum of Korea.

Figure 2. Facing. Polished Stone Sword (Bronze Age).

Figure 3. Above. Gold Crown (Silla, fifth century).

Figure 4. Facing. Gilt-Bronze Half-Seated Meditating Maitreya Bodhisattva (Three Kingdoms Period, seventh century).

Figure 5. Above. Gilt-Bronze Incense Burner (Paekche, seventh century).

Figure 6. Facing. Kory
ŏ
Ch’
ŏ
ngja (Kory
ŏ
, twelfth century).

Figure 7. Above. Chos
ŏ
n Paekcha (Chos
ŏ
n, fifteenth–sixteenth century).

Figure 8. Facing. Map of the Eastern Kingdom by Ch
ŏ
ng Sang-gi (Chos
ŏ
n, 1728).

Figure 9. Above. A Dancing Boy in Kim Hong-do’s
Genre Album
(Chos
ŏ
n, eighteenth century).

In the later Chos
Ŏ
n period fierce factional struggles developed, in which scholar-officials quarreled even over minor points of Confucian ritual and etiquette, especially the proper mourning period following the death of a royal personage. Neo-Confucian doctrine rewarded tedious scholasticism and inflexible orthodoxy, and encouraged the Neo-Confucian literati to avoid “forged factions” and join “authentic factions.” The Neo-Confucian literati also argued that their own faction was orthodox and denounced their rivals as heterodox. This bitter strife deteriorated further as the number of aspiring officials grew while the number of available positions became scarce.

After the two wars with the Japanese and the Manchus, the power struggle among the yangban scholar-officials intensified. Bloody purges took many talented lives every time power changed hands. The winners threatened the losers’ persons, property, and families, even their graves. Each faction sought to desecrate the power and influence of its rivals, always in the name of a higher morality, but every time a faction took power, the group splintered into smaller units. Meanwhile, with officials engaged in a life-and-death struggle, they had no time to attend either to national matters or the needs of the populace.

After Kwanghaegun was charged with misrule and deposed in 1623, eventually the Westerners dominated the political scene. For example, King Hyojong (1649–1659) brought members of the
sallim,
or rustic literati, from the Westerners into government service, such as Song Si-y
ŏ
l, the king’s former mentor, Song Chun-gil, Kim Chip, Kw
ŏ
n Si, and Yi Yu-t’ae. Of course, the Westerners frequently faced challenges to their power. In 1674, following a dispute concerning how King Hyojong’s stepmother, the Queen Dowager Cho, was to mourn the death of one of Hyojong’s consorts, the Southerners drove the Westerners from power and took their place. Later, in 1680, the Westerners struck back, accusing the Southerners of plotting high treason against King Sukchong (1674–1720) and succeeded in purging them from the court. The Southerners’ two top leaders, H
ŏ
Ch
ŏ
k and Yun Hyu, were executed. Then, in 1683, the Westerners themselves split into two factions: the
Noron,
or Old Doctrine, faction, led by Song Si-y
ŏ
l, and the
Soron,
or Young Doctrine, faction that coalesced around Yun Ch
ŭ
ng. The Old Doctrine faction wanted the Southerners to be purged and harshly punished, whereas the Young Doctrine faction remained relatively moderate on the issue of retribution against its political rivals. After the division, it was principally the Noron faction that seized power. The downfall of the Westerners, however, came after the group discordantly opposed the king’s intention to make a child of Southerner lineage the crown prince. When Sukchong, long without an heir, proposed this investment of the newborn son of his favorite concubine, the Lady Chang of Southerner lineage, in 1689, the Westerners’ opposition enraged the king, who was driven to kill Song Si-y
ŏ
l by poisoning him. Then, in 1694, only a few years after the Southerners assumed the reins of government, Sukchong lethally poisoned the Lady Chang and ousted the Southerners from power. For quite a long period following these bloody political intrigues, the Westerners, particularly the Old Doctrine faction, enjoyed political supremacy, and there was no chance of the Southerners ever returning to power again. After the Old Doctrine faction won a lasting victory over its chief rival, the Southerners, and Kings Y
ŏ
ngjo and Ch
ŏ
ngjo made strong efforts toward reconciliation, factionalism subsided considerably.