After a century of military commanders’ control of the government, the king’s governance was resumed in the 13th century, yet the Goryeo court was still under heavy influence of all the interventions committed by the Mongol Yuan empire. The Goryeo intellectuals of the time had to reevaluate their own identity and the nature of the Goryeo society itself. Some historians took notice of this particular aspect of the time fairly early on, and examined certain changes in the Goryeo people’s world view, perspective on their own dynasty as well as themselves, which were undoubtedly caused by the new relationship Goryeo was forced to cultivate with Yuan. However, one thing was missing from the discussion: the fact that the Goryeo intellectuals of the time were defining their own reality not only as a contemporary one but also as an era that was completely different and severed from the past. So, examined in this article is the Goryeo people’s new take on the ‘now,’ and what kind of identity they were pursuing and exploring for themselves.BR In the eyes of the Goryeo intellectuals of the time, the very foundation of the Goryeo dynasty, which had only continued to prosper ever since Founder king Taejo Wang Geon opened the country, was severely shaken and even nearly dismantled by the Military commanders’ revolt during King Euijong’s reign, and the whole Goryeo civilization was summarily broken as a result. That was their take on the ‘past.’ And compared to such ‘past,’ at least in their eyes, the 13th and 14th centuries, a time when Goryeo was situated within the Yuan-centric world order, was an era that welcomed civil governance, duly supported by worthy human resources appointed to proper tasks, under the leadership of the Imperial Yuan court. So, to the Goryeo intellectuals, the ‘present’ was an era of a civilized world order, which they had no reservation to immediately join as well. Added to that, based on the new academic school of thought –Neo-Confucianism- they recently learned from the very heart of the above-said civilization, they viewed themselves as a generation tasked with the duty and obligation to ‘resurrect’ the long forgotten civilized traditions of Goryeo.BR Meanwhile, the intellectuals’ experience of the so-called Jung’hwa, the conceptual Sino-centric world order and culture, was quite different from what the former generations earlier had, in terms of not only quantity but quality as well. Although overwhelmed by the Yuan empire’s superior political and cultural influences and therefore acknowledging its merits as qualities they had to embody as well, the Goryeo intellectuals of the time also identified themselves as the “People of the East(Dong’in, 東人)” who had maintained a cultural distinctiveness and outstanding capabilities of their own for a very long time. Their evaluation of the present and themselves in such climate laid down a new foundation upon which future generations would continue to charter new realities for themselves.
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Open Access
Aug 1, 2020
Dele Jẹgẹdẹ 
