Difference between revisions of "Sinmun of Silla" - New World Encyclopedia
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'''Sinmun of Silla''' (r. 681-692) was the thirty-first king of [[Silla]], one of the early kingdoms of Korea. He was the eldest son of Silla's unifier-king, [[Munmu of Silla|King Munmu]] (문무왕, 文武王) and Queen Ja-eui (자의, 慈儀). Sinmun's reign may be characterized by his attempts to consolidate royal authority following unification and to reorganize and systematize the governing apparatus of the newly enlarged Silla state. | '''Sinmun of Silla''' (r. 681-692) was the thirty-first king of [[Silla]], one of the early kingdoms of Korea. He was the eldest son of Silla's unifier-king, [[Munmu of Silla|King Munmu]] (문무왕, 文武王) and Queen Ja-eui (자의, 慈儀). Sinmun's reign may be characterized by his attempts to consolidate royal authority following unification and to reorganize and systematize the governing apparatus of the newly enlarged Silla state. | ||
| − | ==The | + | ==The beginning of Unified Silla== |
The state of [[Silla]], sometimes called Shilla, arose on the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula in about 50 B.C.E. and continued for almost 1000 years until 935, when it was absorbed into [[Goryeo]]. Sinmun's father, [[Munmu of Silla|King Munmu]] and grandfather, [[Muyeol of Silla|King Taejong Muyeol]] expanded the kingdom in the 7th century, with the assistance of an alliance with the Tang Chinese. In the 660's, during Muyeol's reign, a coalition of Silla and Tang forces took over [[Baekje ]]to the west and [[Goguryeo]] to the north of Silla. About a decade later, in 676, while Munmu was on the throne, Silla pushed out the Tang forces, gaining sole control of most of the Korean peninsula, and marking the beginning of the [[Unified Silla]] period. The remainder of Goguryeo's territory, the northernmost part of the Korean peninsula and adjacent territory in what is now China, emerged as the new country of [[Balhae]], which lasted from about 698-926. | The state of [[Silla]], sometimes called Shilla, arose on the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula in about 50 B.C.E. and continued for almost 1000 years until 935, when it was absorbed into [[Goryeo]]. Sinmun's father, [[Munmu of Silla|King Munmu]] and grandfather, [[Muyeol of Silla|King Taejong Muyeol]] expanded the kingdom in the 7th century, with the assistance of an alliance with the Tang Chinese. In the 660's, during Muyeol's reign, a coalition of Silla and Tang forces took over [[Baekje ]]to the west and [[Goguryeo]] to the north of Silla. About a decade later, in 676, while Munmu was on the throne, Silla pushed out the Tang forces, gaining sole control of most of the Korean peninsula, and marking the beginning of the [[Unified Silla]] period. The remainder of Goguryeo's territory, the northernmost part of the Korean peninsula and adjacent territory in what is now China, emerged as the new country of [[Balhae]], which lasted from about 698-926. | ||
Revision as of 21:47, 17 November 2007
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Sinmun of Silla (r. 681-692) was the thirty-first king of Silla, one of the early kingdoms of Korea. He was the eldest son of Silla's unifier-king, King Munmu (문무왕, 文武王) and Queen Ja-eui (자의, 慈儀). Sinmun's reign may be characterized by his attempts to consolidate royal authority following unification and to reorganize and systematize the governing apparatus of the newly enlarged Silla state.
The beginning of Unified Silla
The state of Silla, sometimes called Shilla, arose on the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula in about 50 B.C.E. and continued for almost 1000 years until 935, when it was absorbed into Goryeo. Sinmun's father, King Munmu and grandfather, King Taejong Muyeol expanded the kingdom in the 7th century, with the assistance of an alliance with the Tang Chinese. In the 660's, during Muyeol's reign, a coalition of Silla and Tang forces took over Baekje to the west and Goguryeo to the north of Silla. About a decade later, in 676, while Munmu was on the throne, Silla pushed out the Tang forces, gaining sole control of most of the Korean peninsula, and marking the beginning of the Unified Silla period. The remainder of Goguryeo's territory, the northernmost part of the Korean peninsula and adjacent territory in what is now China, emerged as the new country of Balhae, which lasted from about 698-926.
Sinmun's rise to the throne
Munmu designated Sinmun as Crown Prince in 665, soon after he took the throne. Munmu had ruled Silla for twenty years when he fell ill in 681. On his deathbed, he abdicated to his son, Prince Sinmun, saying, "A country should not be without a king at any time. Let the Prince have my crown before he has my coffin." Munmu had begun the construction of Gameunsa Temple, about 500m from the East Sea, to secure Buddha's protection for the kingdom against sea pirates. Sinmun completed the temple, dedicating it to his father's memory. Nothing remains of Gameunsa except two stone pagodas. At 13.4 m high, the pagodas are the tallest three-story stone pagodas from the Silla era, and have been designated as National Treasure No. 112.
Legends about Sinmun and Manmu
Legend has it that King Manum told Sinmun, "Cremate my remains and scatter the ashes in the sea where the whales live. I will become a dragon and protect the Kingdom." King Sinmun did as his father asked, and scattered his ashes over Daewangam (the Rock of the Great King), a small rocky islet a hundred metres or so off the Korean coast. King Sinmun also built a waterway for the sea dragon to come to and from the sea and land, and he built a pavilion, Eegun, overlooking the islet so that future kings could pay their respects to the great King Munmu.
Another legend tells that in a dream, King Munmu and the famous general Kim Yu-shin appeared to King Sinmun and said to him, "Blowing on a bamboo flute will calm the heavens and the earth." King Sinmun awoke from the dream, rode out to the sea and received the bamboo flute Monposikjuk. Playing the bamboo flute invoked the spirits of King Munmu and General Kim Yu-shin and would push back enemy troops, cure illnesses, bring rain during drought and halt the rains in floods.
Sinmun's reign
He came to power in the immediate wake of Silla's unification of the peninsula following its defeats of rival Baekje and Goguryeo with military aid from Tang China, and then its check of Tang ambitions to establish its hegemony over the peninsula. It was in late summer 681, not long after coming to power (the official period of mourning was in fact still in effect for the recently deceased King Munmu), that a serious revolt broke out against royal authority. The so-called "Kim Heumdol 金欽突 Revolt," named after its leader, a high-ranking Silla official, though a serious challenge to royal authority on the part of a clique of aristocratic officials, also provided Sinmun with the motive to solidify his power through a purge of certain aristocrats. The causes of Kim's revolt are disputed. Kim Heumdol was the father-in-law of Sinmun, who had married his daughter. The failure of Sinmun to produce a male heir through her, and the subsequent erosion of Kim's favor and influence at court may have been a key factor. Other scholars see in it a more serious challenge on the part of military leaders (some of whom were also implicated), who following the successful conclusion of the wars of unification saw their own influence and status erode. Still others see the source of aristocratic grievance being the rising influence of non aristocratic officials, who were increasingly being used to staff government posts. In any case, the 681 revolt was soon put down and Kim Heumdol and those implicated were executed.
Further evidence of Sinmun's ambitious attempts to buttress central authority lies in a 689 royal edict that eliminated the official salary system, called the nogeup 錄邑, or "stipend village," wherein in lieu of salary officials were allotted pieces of land and their attendant population whereby to extricate their income. In place of the nogeup Sinmun instituted a system wherein officials were allotted only "office land" (jikjeon 職田) from which they were allowed to procure only taxes on grain. This was clearly meant to sever the landed power base of aristocratic officialdom. In time, however, this royal initiative would prove no match against an aristorcracy united in its determination to protect the sources of its power. Eventually (though not in Sinmun's reign) the old stipend village system would be revived.
It was also in 689 that Sinmun made an ultimately abortive attempt to move the Silla capital from Gyeongju to Dalgubeol 達句伐, at what is now Daegu, evidence again that Sinmun was keen on extricating the base of royal power away from the aristocratic clans, and in so doing to empower it. The Samguk Sagi, the source of this attempt at capital shifting, provides no details as to why it failed, though it is safe to assume it encountered stiff resistance by capital aristocrats.
It was following the attempted revolt Kim Heumdol that Sinmun rescinded the fiefdom granted earlier to Anseung, the would-be king of Goguryeo, and had him come live in the Silla capital of Gyeongju in 683. Perhaps related to this, the following year Sinmun was again faced with rebellion when the general and relation to Anseung was implicated in a revolt and executed. His followers then launched the rebellion without him, seizing what is now Iksan, location of Anseung's erstwhile fief. This revolt too was put down.
Sinmun's reign also saw the expansion of the Silla government and reorganization of Silla territory. Several new departments were established and for the first time were organized a system of nine national provinces (an organization that had clear allusions to the nine provinces of China during the reign of King Yu 禹王, legendary founder of the Xia Dynasty). Established as well were a series of "secondary capitals" 小京, to which it was Sinmun's policy to relocate many of the peoples subjugated by the defeats of Baekje and Goguryeo. In 682 Sinmun also established the Gukhak, or National Academy, dedicated to training officials in the Confucian classics. He soon thereafter dispatched an embassy to Tang, now under the rule of Empress Wu, to request copies of the Book of Rites and other classics.
Sinmun died in 692, having weathered several serious challenges to royal authority and set the framework for the organization and governance of the expanded Silla state. The aristocratic challenges to his authority, though defeated, were harbingers of the social unrest and political upheavals that would characterize later Silla.
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See also
- History of Korea
- List of Korea-related topics
- List of Koreans
- Three Kingdoms of Korea
- Unified Silla
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