A History of Korea (33 page)

A military revolt finally broke out in 1170. The military officers who escorted King
Ŭ
ijong on a royal procession to the Pohy
ŏ
n-w
ŏ
n temple, outside Kaes
ŏ
ng, rose up in protest. The proximate spark igniting the riot was the insulting behavior of civil official Han Noe, who slapped Yi So-
ŭ
ng, a taejanggun, on the cheek. Under the direction of Ch
ŏ
ng Chung-bu, Yi
Ŭ
i-bang, and Yi Ko, the outraged military officers raised the cry “Death to all who wear the civil official headdress!” and they won an easy victory in their rebellion. The military officers removed
Ŭ
ijong and instead enthroned his younger brother, My
ŏ
ngjong
(1170–1197).
Ŭ
ijong was banished to K
ŏ
je-do off Pusan, and the offending Kim Ton-jung and Han Noe, as well as countless other civil officials, were massacred. Another ruthless purge of civil officials followed in 1173, when Kim Podang failed in his attempt to restore
Ŭ
ijong to the throne. After Kim Po-dang was captured and executed,
Ŭ
ijong was killed by military officer Yi
Ŭ
i-min in 1173. The next year Cho Wi-ch’ong, commander of the Pyongyang garrison, raised an army at the secondary capital to oust military officers in Kaes
ŏ
ng. When this effort failed, political power was transferred completely from civil officials to military officers. Military rule lasted for 100 years until 1270.

After their successful bid for power, military officials managed state affairs through the Chungbang and monopolized government positions. At the time success in grasping political power depended on the size of each military official’s personal military force. Thus military officers made the most of their newly acquired positions and political power to secure financial resources to build their own private military force. As a result, they exploited the country’s economic resources more harshly than their civil official predecessors, using their enormous economic wealth to arm family retainers and household slaves. The situation remained unsettled, with power transferred from one military official to another, until Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n finally seized power and established a military dictatorship in 1196.

Initially political power was shared by Ch
ŏ
ng Chung-bu, Yi
Ŭ
i-bang, and Yi Ko, the main protagonists in the military revolt, and they made decisions jointly in the Chungbang junta. Soon, however, they developed internal power struggles among themselves. First, Yi
Ŭ
i-bang killed Yi Ko in 1171 and consolidated his power by giving his daughter in marriage to the crown prince, but he in turn was killed by Ch
ŏ
ng Chung-bu’s son in 1174. Ch
ŏ
ng remained a dictator until 1179, when he was killed by a young, unsullied officer named Ky
ŏ
ng Tae-s
ŭ
ng, who sought to stop the military officers’ despotic behavior and thus incurred their hatred. Sensing that his life was in danger, he established a security squad of some 100 handpicked men, calling it the Tobang, or Residence Squad. Before long, however, amid the growing tension, Ky
ŏ
ng became ill and died at the age of 30 in 1183. After his death Yi
Ŭ
i-min seized power in early 1184. Yi had been in self-exile in his hometown of Ky
ŏ
ngju, for fear of Ky
ŏ
ng Tae-s
ŭ
ng. Originally of ch’
ŏ
nmin status, Yi
Ŭ
i-min’s rule was marked by extreme tyranny and corruption, until he was killed by Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n in 1196. Ch’oe’s ascension marked the end of these decades of disorder and upheaval, and opened a new era of the Ch’oe regime which spanned 62 years (1196–1258).

Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n, having ruthlessly eliminated his opponents, succeeded in establishing a dictatorship. To consolidate his power, he purged everyone without distinction, including kings, rendering royal authority completely powerless. During his lifetime he deposed two kings, My
ŏ
ngjong (1170–1197) and H
ŭ
ijong (1204–1211), and enthroned four, Sinjong (1197–1204), H
ŭ
ijong (1204–1211), Kangjong (1211–1213), and Kojong (1213–1259). As a result, the monarchy was completely under his control. His power structure was similar to the shogunate system in Japan, and under impotent kings his family held power for four generations and more than 60 years.

To win the people’s confidence, Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n first crippled the power of Buddhist temples and monasteries. He mobilized armed forces to suppress the armed monks who violently resisted his measures. Against the rampant peasant and slave uprisings he employed a carrot-and-stick policy. While subduing them by military forces, on the one hand, he pacified the lowborn inhabitants of hyang, so, and pugok by freeing many of them and often merging the special administrative units into the regular hy
ŏ
n counties. To boost the morale of civil officials who were excluded from political power, he enlisted such men of letters into government service as Yi Kyu-bo and Chin Hwa. In these ways, he firmly established the Ch’oe regime, which was made much stronger by his son, Ch’oe U (also known as Ch’oe I).

The power of the Ch’oe house was based primarily on its own private army. Ky
ŏ
ng Tae-s
ŭ
ng’s Tobang security squad was the model for Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n’s similarly named personal armed force, said to have numbered 3,000. In addition to this elite band of warriors on a retainer, Ch’oe U established the Ya-by
ŏ
lch’o, or Night Elite Patrols, as a police force. As its numbers grew, the Ya-by
ŏ
lch’o was divided into two units and reorganized as the Chwa-by
ŏ
lch’o, or Left Elite Patrols, and the U-by
ŏ
lch’o, or Right Elite Patrols. Ch’oe U also formed another military unit, Sin
ŭ
i-gun, or Divine Righteousness Army, with soldiers who had escaped after being captured in the war with Mongols. Together these three came to be known as the Sam-by
ŏ
lch’o, or Three Elite Patrols. Although in form the Sam-by
ŏ
lch’o appeared to function as a police and combat force, in reality it was just another private army to provide further military support to the Ch’oe regime.

To rule the nation more effectively, the Ch’oe house established new control mechanisms. Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n exercised his dictatorial power through an administrative
body called the Kyoj
ŏ
ng togam, or Directorate for Decree Enactment. Created in 1209, it functioned as the highest organ of the Ch’oe regime. After Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n first established it, his heirs, U (I), Hang, and
Ŭ
i, in turn headed it. As directors of this powerful office, Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n and his successors issued orders to collect taxes and investigate official wrongdoing. In 1225 Ch’oe U created the Ch
ŏ
ngbang, Administrative Authority, in his own residence to handle official appointments and attached men of letters to this office, calling them
ch
ŏ
ngsaek s
ŭ
ngs
ŏ
n,
or secretaries for personnel administration. This paved the way for the gradual reappearance of civil officials in positions of power. In 1227 Ch’oe U also formed the S
ŏ
bang, or Household Secretariat, comprised of men of letters among his household retainers. It was divided into three
sukwi,
or watches, that stood duty in turn. For his rule, Ch’oe U relied not only on a retinue of military men from the Tobang security squad and Samby
ŏ
lch’o units but on a civilian staff from the Ch
ŏ
ngbang and the S
ŏ
bang.

To consolidate his family’s political power, Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n expanded his personal landholdings. He possessed large-scale agricultural estates in the Ch
ŏ
lla and Ky
ŏ
ngsang regions. In fact, the whole of the fertile Chin’gang (present-day Chinju) region was bestowed on him by the state as sik
ŭ
p, and all the revenues from this vast private preserve went only to him. To administer the enfeoffed region, he obtained the title of
Chin’gang-hu,
or Marquis of Chin’gang (Chinju), from King H
ŭ
ijong and established the H
ŭ
ngny
ŏ
ng-bu (Chin’gang-bu), or Office of Flourishing Tranquility, in his residence in 1206. The H
ŭ
ngny
ŏ
ng-bu was a special organ for the Ch’oe house to administer the Chin’gang region, and the house’s vast wealth was the economic foundation sustaining its private armed force.
¹

Ch’oe Ch’ung-h
ŏ
n died in 1219, after a 23-year rule, and was succeeded by his son, Ch’oe U. The ablest ruler of the Ch’oe house, Ch’oe U was in command for 30 years, until his death in 1249. His political position and power were succeeded by his illegitimate son Ch’oe Hang. When Ch’oe Hang died in 1258, his power passed on to his son, Ch’oe
Ŭ
i. This last ruler from the Ch’oe house was assassinated by the civil official Yu Ky
ŏ
ng and the military official Kim Chun in the same year, 1258. The reins of government briefly reverted to King Kojong, with Kim Chun as another military strongman. In 1268 the military official Im Y
ŏ
n killed Kim Chun and seized power. After Im Y
ŏ
n’s death, in 1270, another military official, Im Yu-mu (Im Y
ŏ
n’s son), exercised dictatorial power for a short time. His execution in the same year led to the final restoration of royal rule, thereby ending the long period of military rule in Kory
ŏ
.

Since the second half of the eleventh century, Kory
ŏ
achieved remarkable advances in agriculture, commerce, and handicraft manufacturing. But the main beneficiaries of this great economic growth were the aristocracy and Buddhist temples, while the peasant population remained impoverished. In the reign of King
Ŭ
ijong, in particular, when royal extravagance and personal pleasures went to extremes, life among the masses further deteriorated following years of bad harvests and excessive government exploitation. The peasants were in serious distress owing to the severe land tax, tribute exactions, and corvee mobilizations, all of which only benefited the aristocracy. In fact, much of the aristocracy was a parasitic class, living in great luxury and addicted to literary and artistic diversions. The peasantry had already been consumed by restlessness, and now people of lower social status, including the peasants, were further agitated by the social upheaval caused by the military revolt, which had created a social climate in which those on the lower stratum challenged those on top. Finally, large-scale popular uprisings erupted in many parts of the country.

The first uprising flared in the Western Border Region, presently P’y
ŏ
ngan province, in 1172, during military rule. The region’s inhabitants were enraged by an oppressive government comprised of local officials of military background. The uprising was immediately suppressed by government forces. When Cho Wi-ch’ong rose in revolt against the military regime in 1174, many peasants in the northwestern region gave him their support. The remnants of Cho’s defeated forces, numbering more than 500, entrenched themselves on Myohyang-san (mountain) and continued organized resistance for many years.

Popular uprisings also arose in the southern regions. In 1176 Mangi and Mangsoi led a revolt in the My
ŏ
nghak-so forced labor district attached to Kongju. The rebels occupied Kongju and then advanced northward to Kaes
ŏ
ng, but after holding out for more than a year in some areas of present-day North Ch’ungch’
ŏ
ng and Ky
ŏ
nggi provinces, they were finally suppressed in 1177. The previous year, in 1176, the central government in Kaes
ŏ
ng had organized a large-scale government force to put down this and other ensuing rebellions. A few years later, in 1182, soldiers and government slaves in Ch
ŏ
nju rebelled and held the town for some 40 days. In the meantime, small-scale outbreaks occurred one after another, particularly in southern parts of the kingdom.

Overall these early uprisings broke out sporadically, as these were the desperate acts of soldiers, peasants, and slaves attempting to shed some of their economic burdens, spontaneously resisting the oppression of local officials and aristocrats. In the 1170s and the 1180s, however, rebels did not attempt to join forces with other lower-class rebel forces in efforts to achieve emancipation.

But a new situation developed after the 1190s, with the uprisings of Kim Sa-mi and Hyosim in 1193, where the two rebel bands united to form a common front. First Kim Sa-mi rose up in revolt at Unmun (present-day Ch’
ŏ
ngdo, North Ky
ŏ
ngsang province), and then Hyosim began a separate riot at nearby Ch’oj
ŏ
n, thought to be present-day Ulsan; later the two merged into a single force of tens of thousands. When the rebels were defeated in a battle at Mils
ŏ
ng (present-day Miryang, South Ky
ŏ
ngsang province) in 1194, more than 7,000 were killed. This united revolt was finally subdued in the same year as Kim Sa-mi surrendered to the government forces and Hyosim was captured.

The peasant rebels who revolted at My
ŏ
ngju (present-day Kangn
ŭ
ng, Kangw
ŏ
n province) in 1199 occupied Samch’
ŏ
k and Ulchin to the south on their way to join forces with a rebel band at Ky
ŏ
ngju. This uprising was suppressed in 1200. That same year slaves of Chinju increased their strength by forming a common front with lowborn inhabitants in revolt at Hapchu (present-day Hapch’
ŏ
n, South Ky
ŏ
ngsang province). In 1202 soldiers, monks, and peasants at Ky
ŏ
ngju, Ch’
ŏ
ngdo, Ulchin, and Ulsan also revolted with the battle cry of reviving old Silla, engaging in fierce battles with government forces for some two years. Uprisings erupted not only in the countryside but also in the capital. An insurrection was plotted by Manj
ŏ
k, one of Ch’oe Ch’ungh
ŏ
n’s privately owned slaves, in 1198, just two years after he came into power, with the aim of emancipating the entire slave population and seizing power. The plot was uncovered before the uprising even got under way, and Manj
ŏ
k and his supporters faced a river burial. By this time the goal of the popular rebellions was to restructure the existing social order and, beyond that, to seize power.