Ch 4 - Koryo and the Khitan

Unification under Koryo

The collapse of the Tang dynasty and the rise of the Khitan Empire in Manchuria marked the beginning of fifty years of disunity and division in China. The Khitan conquered Parhae, bringing nomad power closer to Koryo. In the south, Koryo forced the surrender of Silla and defeated Later Paekche to save Korea from complete disintegration and enable the people to defend the peninsula against marauding Khitan tribes.

The An Lushan Rebellion in the mid-eighth century China marked the beginning of nearly one hundred fifty years of misrule, court intrigues and economic exploitation that seriously weakened the once domineering Tang Dynasty. During this long period of decline, China's strength as a major Asian power slipped to the point where the government lost control over much of China proper. The once powerful central bureaucracy had become a quarrelsome, fractious group that battled with the growing power of the court eunuchs for political power. Regional commanders turned their local jursidictions into miniature kingdoms and occasionally, one or more of these warlords openly rebelled against the royal court. By the end of the ninth century, China had become a ripe fruit ready for the picking. It was only a matter of time before the enfeebled dynasty would completely collapse.

The beginning of the end started with a rash of violent rebellions that broke out across northern China in 874. Huang Chao, an unsuccessful candidate in the government examinations, led a rebel group that managed to capture the Tang capital in Changan. Although the revolt was suppressed within a decade, China lost all semblance of control over its regional commanders. Internal warfare continued, sporadically, through the turn of the century. Finally, in 907, a warlord who had once been a supporter of Huang Chao, took the throne by force and formally brought an end to the Tang Dynasty. For the next fifty years, China suffered a complete disintegration of centralized rule. Regional warlords, each claiming to be the emperor of China, divided the Middle Kingdom into fourteen separate kingdoms. In northern China, a series of five separate dynasties appeared then disappeared in rapid succession as ambitious generals toppled each other and tried without success to establish a lasting regime. None managed to survive more than sixteen years.

Early in the tenth century, semi-nomadic Khitan tribes appeared on the Manchurian Plain in the area of the upper Liao River basin. Their presence added a new element to the aready chaotic conditions prevailing in China and across the Manchurian steppes. Beginning with a nucleus of eighteen tribes headed by a single clan, the Khitan assimilated Chinese culture and technology and grew in strength through almost constant warfare. By 907, when China's central government formally collapsed in the throes of internal warfare, the Khitan had already formed a tribal confederation comparable to the much earlier Xiungnu. Six years later, Yeh-lu A-pao-chi, chieftain of the leading clan, declared himself emperor of the Khitan.

Asia's nomads were always the have-nots of antiquity, existing on the fringes of more thickly populated farming regions in a perpetual state of economic instability. Periodically, their lack of accumulated wealth provided the incentive for not only increased trade, but military expansion. The Khitan, dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry lived under the dominating influence of the horse. From boyhood they spent their lives in the saddle and their active outdoor life molded them into competent, self-reliant, independent individuals not unlike the early American cowboy.

Much of the Khitan's military strength came from the social organization of its tribes. Clan chieftains rose to prominence through personal prowess. Chieftains as well as tribal warriors maintained strong personal bonds based on fealty and mutual protection and a strong personality could quickly rise to the top of their hierarchy of personal relationships. The herdsman-hunter-warrior of the Asian steppe had to be ready for anything and could be mobilized on very short notice. Unlike peasants, who could seldom leave their fields without loss of production, the nomad could quickly turn his attention from the care of his flock or the pursuit of game to the destruction of his tribe's enemies.

Nomad striking power came from a combination of many factors. Securely mounted on a well-trained horse, each man wore light armor and carried two types of bows, an axe, a sword, a length of rope and a small pouch of dried food. Equipped with iron stirrups that allowed him to literally "stand in the saddle" at a full gallop and armed with a compound bow small enough to use from the saddle, the mounted nomad cavalry was a vastly superior tactical military force to the peasant foot soldier. In terms of military technology, until the introduction of firearms the Asian horseman held the balance of power on the field of battle.

By 922, Yeh-lu A-pao-chi had drawn nearly two thousand mounted archers from all the Khitan tribes to form the emperor's camp bodyguard, ordo, the prototype of what Westerners later called a "horde." As the Khitan empire grew, this elite cavalry unit expanded to between fifty and seventy thousand horsemen. On the field of battle, Khitan horsemen fought with clock-like precision in highly disciplined organized units of tens, hundreds, even thousands of men.

The Khitan army moved with a large scouting force of up to ten thousand men in the lead. Even at night they sent out reconnaisance patrols. They communicated using a complex system of beacons, drums, gongs, horns, banners, shouted code names, even birdcalls. While avoiding engagements against superior numbers, they would frequently use the tactics of maneuver and ambush to harass and cut enemy supply lines. When the Khitan laid seige to a city, they forced the local Chinese populace to fill the surrounding moats and used Chinese-style catapults to break down the outer walls. Storming a city was particularly brutal, as the Khitan would drive Chinese captives ahead of their army into the face of stones and arrows fired by the prisoner's townspeople and relatives.

Highly-skilled mounted Khitan horsemen successfully expanded their domain into an empire that eventually comprised fifty-four separate tribes and dominated an area covering much of Mongolia, Manchuria, and northeastern China. Leadership of Khitan society rested in the hands of a single clan divided into eight main lineages. In sharp contrast to the Chinese clan system, where an unbroken lineage remained in place indefinitely, most of the Khitan clans lacked clan names and tended to lose their identity after several generations. As their empire expanded however, the central leadership firmly adopted the Chinese sytem of hereditary monarchy. Within this society one could find many non-Khitan tribes as well as the settled populations of Chinese agricultural towns and villages. The social status of Chinese ranged from complete freedom to abject slavery.

Civilization bred complacency, an open invitation to predatory men. The first victim of the Khitan's great expansion out of the Manchurian Plain was the Kingdom of Parhae in eastern Manchuria. Weakened internally by a segregated social structure that separated the Koguryo and Malgal peoples, Parhae could not resist the brutal strength of the Khitan invasions. After each successful conquest, Parhae captives were kept at the very bottom of Khitan society. Those lucky enough to escape captivity, including hundreds of members of Parhae's aristocracy, fled south to Koryo. Koryo warmly welcomed these refugees, particularly those of Koguryo descent, and easily assimilated them into its ruling class. Wang Kon generously gave them land and bestowed the title Wang Kye, "Successor of the Royal Wang," on Parhae's Crown Prince Tae Kwang-hyon. He also included the prince's name in the royal household register, a clear indication Wang Kon considered him a member of the same lineage.

In 926, when Khitan tribes finally engulfed Parhae and brought the power of the steppe nomads ever closer to Koryo's northern frontier, Wang Kon initiated plans to reconquer the old Koguryo territory of T'aebong. He stationed a large military garrison force in Pyongyang under the command of his cousin, General Wang Sing-nyom. Pyongyang, once a vibrant city that served as a frontier outpost for the former Silla kingdom, had seriously declined after the fall of Koguryo. Its small population lived in dilapidated buildings among the ruins of the city's old fortifications. Pyongyang's real value however, lay in the fact that it sat on the banks of the Taedong River as a strategic frontier defense position for Koryo and represented a base for future northward expansion.

The peninsula wars were far from over. In 927, Kyon-hwon and the armies of Later Paekche exacted their revenge against Silla by sacking and pillaging the once glorious capital city of Kumsong in a particularly brutal assault. The invading troops hunted down, captured and executed Silla's King Kyonghae, kidnapped the king's younger brother and numerous high court officials, and seized large quantities of treasure and weapons. As if to symbolically erase Silla culture, they also captured the capital's skilled craftsmen. Had Wang Kon and the Koryo army not stood in his path, Kyon-hwon could have easily toppled the entire Silla kingdom.

Koryo and Later Paekche fought pitched battles for possession of what remained of the Kingdom of Silla. In a fierce struggle that lasted some twenty years, the two kingdoms continually engaged in hostilities along a common frontier that extended from just south of Unju near modern Hongsong on the west coast, to the mountainous region around Koch'ang near modern Andong. In the region just west of the Naktong River, fighting stretched from the Sangju area southward to Kangju near modern Chinju. Their battlefields defined Silla's outer perimeter. Koryo's armies finally broke the stalemate in 930 by winning a pitched battle against Later Paekche near the city of Koch'ang. From then on, the tide of battle swung in Koryo's favor.

After forcing Kyon-hwon's forces to retreat from Silla's outer frontier, Wang Kon intensified the pressure against Later Paekche. Kyon-hwon suffered a succession of bitter losses over the next few years, which culminated in 934, when Koryo sent a large army into the south Ch'ungch'ong area and handed Later Paekche's warriors a crushing defeat at Unju near modern Hongsong. Defeated on the battlefield, Later Paekche faced internal disarray as royal inlaws began a battle for the throne. Bypassing the normal line of succession, Kyon-hwon selected his fourth son, Kumgang, as heir to the throne. The selection angered Kyon-hwon's oldest son, Sin'gom, who retaliated by imprisoning his father in the Kumsan-sa temple at Kimje and taking the throne for himself. Kyon-hwon escaped confinement and fled Kimje, traveling north to the city of Songak, where he placed his fate in the hands of his old enemy Wang Kon. His arrival was not so much a surrender as a chance to plot revenge against his son.

Unlike Kyon-hwon, who despised Silla, Wang Kon endeavored to maintain friendly relations with the declining kingdom. He did so partly to destroy his rival in Later Paekche and partly to secure his position as the legitimate successor to Silla's traditions and ruling authority. Wang Kon's policy of friendly relations operated in conjunction with a strong military strategy toward the Silla kingdom. Since the Chinese were so preoccupied with their own internal problems, they were incapable of causing trouble in Korea. Silla could no longer expect help from its former ally. Wang Kon cleverly stationed his army about thirty kilometers north of Kumsong in a permanent encampment at the Iro-jin (Sin'gwang-jin) Garrison. Despite the fact he commanded a large, well-armed military force close at hand, Wang Kon never ordered his troops to attack Silla directly. Instead, perched like a vulture anticipating the death of its prey, Wang Kon simply waited for the degenerate kingdom of Silla to collapse through its own self-destructive behavior. He didn't have to wait long.

National unity and Silla's close friendly relations with Tang China had brought the Korean kingdom over 230 years of peaceful existence. Now, Tang China was no more. Once the most powerful state on the peninsula, Silla stood alone. Wang Kon's growing power made it painfully clear they ruled a kingdom in name only. Without allies and powerless to put up a defense of their own, Silla's aristocracy withdrew into a small pocket of territory in the region around Kumsong. King Kyongsun and the Kumsong aristocracy finally confronted the bleak reality of their situation in late 935. After enduring for 992 years, the Kingdom of Silla quietly passed into history when King Kyongsun finally took fate into his own hands and, together with all the leading government officials, formally surrendered to Koryo. Standing in stark contrast to the scenes of chaos, slaughter and panic that marked the collapse of other monarchies of the period, Silla's end contained a certain aura of dignity.

In the aftermath of Silla's surrender, the three-way battle for supremacy in Korea had become a duel. Later Paekche stood alone against Koryo's formidable armies. In 936, less than a year after Silla's collapse, Kyon-hwon rode at the head of a large Koryo army that brought about the final collpase of Later Paekche. Wang Kon had at last managed to unite the Later Three Kingdoms. The establishment of Koryo, its absorption of Silla and defeat of Later Paekche saved Korea from complete disintegration and enabled the people to defend their territory against marauding Khitan tribes in the northern part of the peninsula.