The Formation of the Central Aristocracy in Early Koryŏ

Abstract

century and inaugurated a series of political explosions that rocked the Koryo dynasty, including the Yi Cha-gyom revolt of 1126, the Myoch'ong insurrection of 1135, and the purges of the 1150s. The turmoil culminated in the military coup of 1170, the event that brought the early Koryo period to a close. The conventional explanations of these individual events reveal some of the historical forces at work during this period. Aristocratic power struggles characterize the Yi Cha-ui and Yi Cha-gyom affairs, regional rivalries and conflict between Confucian and Buddhist ideas lay behind the Myoch'ong affair, and gross imbalance between the civil and military branches of government was one of the causes of the 1170 coup. Illuminating as these themes may be for particular events, they do not constitute comprehensive explanations of the overall political instability of the twelfth century. Historians almost universally subscribe to the view that these events took place within the general context of a decadent aristocratic sociopolitical order whose distinguishing feature was the domination of the kingdom by the families of royal consorts, most notably the Kyong won Yi clan of Yi Cha-ui and Yi Cha-gyom.1 This is a valid characteriza tion, but it does little to explain the political unrest of the twelfth century, since aristocracy and domination by royal in-laws were also prominent features of the eleventh century, as seen in such clans as the Tongju Kim of Kim Ch'i-yang, the Ansan Kim of Kim Un-bu, and the Ch'ongju Yi of Yi (Wang) Ka-do. Furthermore there were no major shifts in economy, thought, or the international situation during the eleventh and twelfth centuries that would explain why Korean politics grew so turbulent. The agrarian economy saw no major changes in