The History of Korea (vol. 1 of 2)Hulbert, Homer B. (Homer Bezaleel)
History
The History of Korea (vol. 1 of 2)
Hulbert, Homer B. (Homer Bezaleel)
Korea -- History
The king who had abdicated was sent back with his son, though he had
abdicated solely for the purpose of being able to live permanently in
Peking. He spent his time in attending Buddhist festivals, but when he
saw into what ruins the palaces in Song-do had fallen he said, “If my
father had feasted less I should have had better palaces.” He soon
returned to China where he devoted himself to letters. The emperor
offered to make him his Prime Minister but he declined the honor. He
mourned over the lack of letters in Koryŭ and came to realise that it
was Buddhism that had proved the curse of the dynasty. He accepted the
post of King of Mukden and later became Prime Minister to the emperor.
The young king went to Peking in 1317 to marry a Mongol Princess, and
like his father was very loath to come back. We infer that the position
of king in Song-do was so hedged about by priestcraft that it was much
pleasanter for the king to reside at the Chinese court. Koryŭ must have
been exceedingly poor after the desperate struggles she had been through
and life in Peking with his hand in the imperial exchequer must have had
its attractions.
At the end of a year however the king and his bride came back to
Song-do. The records say that in order to induce him to come they had to
bribe the soothsayers to tell him that if he did not come he would be
involved in war. As soon as he arrived he began to search for unmarried
women to send to Peking. He had turned pander to the Mongol court. The
men of the upper classes hid their daughters and denied their existence
for fear they would be seized and sent to Peking. He himself put in
practice the principles he had imbibed at the Mongol court, and spent
his days in hunting and his nights in high revelry.
The king’s father who had been made king of Mukden, made a trip into
southern China, or at least as far south as Chŭl-gang and Po-ta San
where he engaged in Buddhist worship. Two years later he asked
permission to repeat the visit and the emperor consented. But he was
suddenly called back to Peking and ordered to go straight to Koryŭ. He
refused and the emperor compelled him to cut his hair and to become a
monk. He was banished to T‘o-bŭn or San-sa-gyŭl in the extreme north.
This was because one of the Peking eunuchs, who had formerly been a
Koryŭ man and hated the king, told the emperor that the ex-king had on
foot a scheme to raise a revolt in China.
At this time there was silver money in Koryŭ in the form of little
bottle-shaped pieces of silver, but it was much adulterated by an alloy
of copper. The king gave thirty of these bottles and the officials
contributed a number more; and with them a silver image of Confucius was
made, indicating a slight reaction against Buddhism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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