A History of Korea (27 page)

Another major organ of the central government, equally important as the three chancelleries, was the Chungch’uw
ŏ
n, later called the Ch’umirw
ŏ
n, or Royal Secretariat. Sometimes termed the Ch’u-bu, or Directorate of Advisers, the Chungch’uw
ŏ
n was responsible for transmitting royal commands and managing urgent military affairs. In other words, it functioned as the royal secretariat as well as the military intelligence agency. The Directorate of Chancellors and the Directorate of Advisers together were known as either the Yang-bu, or Two Directorates, or the Chaech’u, or Privy Council, and the joint sessions attended by their highest officials decided important matters of state by unanimous consent. This joint session was called the
Todang,
or Convening of the Privy Council, and the decision making was termed
ŭ
ihap,
or consensus. This Kory
ŏ
system in which overall state policy was discussed in a high council followed the tradition of the Three Kingdoms where council institutions acted as political decision-making organs.

In addition to the powerful Two Directorates, another important organ called the
Ŏ
sadae (later called the Sah
ŏ
nbu), or Censorate, was empowered to evaluate any official’s administrative performance and censure any wrongdoings. Significant restrictions were placed on the exercise of royal power by the Censorate and the deputy directors in the Directorate of Chancellors (together known as the Taes
ŏ
ng or Taegan, or Surveillance Chancellery), through their mandate to scrutinize the royal appointments of officials, propose changes in state statutes, and return royal commands to the monarch without enforcement. The Kory
ŏ
government structure, unlike that of the Chinese Tang on which it was modeled, had firmly established the power to admonish the monarch and censure royal decisions made by officials. In short, Kory
ŏ
was an aristocratic state in which the aristocratic officialdom had considerable power to restrain the crown.

Other offices or agencies in the central government included the Singmok togam, or Directorate for Legislation, which enacted detailed regulations of the kingdom’s statutes; the Samsa, or Agency for Financial Affairs, which handled the nation’s finances; the Hallimw
ŏ
n, or Academy of Letters, which was responsible for preparing royal edicts and diplomatic correspondence; the Ch’unch’ugwan, or Office of Records, which compiled national history; the Pomungak, or Royal Library, which maintained the books and records at the palace; and the Sach’
ŏ
ndae, or Astronomical Observatory, which, as the name
makes clear, functioned as the nation’s astronomical observatory.
³
In sum, the central administrative structure of Kory
ŏ
was more specialized and more refined than that of unified Silla.

In 983 the central government established 12 mok and dispatched its officials for local administration. Later the number of mok decreased to 8. In 1018, after years of alterations, the structure of local government was finally completed. The whole country was divided into a capital region (
ky
ŏ
nggi
), five large circuits (
to
), and two border regions (
kye
), within which were established three capitals (
ky
ŏ
ng
), five regional military commands (
tohobu
), and eight provinces (mok), which were further subdivided into districts (kun), counties (hy
ŏ
n), and garrisons (
chin
). The capital region of ky
ŏ
nggi was equivalent to the present-day metropolitan area. The number of circuits fluctuated over time but was finally set at five (Yanggwang-do, Ky
ŏ
ngsang-do, Ch
ŏ
lla-do, Kyoju-do, and S
ŏ
hae-do). Because these circuits had no permanent administrative organs, the superintendents, called
anch’alsa,
were dispatched to make rounds as inspectors. Together with these circuits, two border regions, the Puk-kye (S
ŏ
-gye), or Northern (Western) Border Region, and the Tong-gye, or Eastern Border Region, were created along the state’s northern frontier and the northeast littoral. As special military zones, these border regions were administered by military commanders, called
py
ŏ
ngmasa,
and were subdivided into military garrisons, whereas large circuits were divided into districts and counties.

At first, the three capitals were situated at Kaes
ŏ
ng (Kae-gy
ŏ
ng; the Main Capital), at Pyongyang (S
ŏ
-gy
ŏ
ng; the Western Capital), and at Ky
ŏ
ngju (Tonggy
ŏ
ng; the Eastern Capital). Since the period of King Munjong, Nam-gy
ŏ
ng (the Southern Capital) at Seoul (Hanyang) replaced Tong-gy
ŏ
ng as one of the three capitals. The emergence of Seoul as a secondary capital was closely related to geomantic theories. The creation of these secondary capitals was designed to rebuild the old capitals of the Three Kingdoms and to implement balanced development of the nation. The five regional military commands entrusted with the defense of the realm were strategically located at Andong (present-day Andong, Ky
ŏ
ngsang-do), Annam (present-day Ch
ŏ
nju, Ch
ŏ
lla-do), Ans
ŏ
(present-day Haeju, S
ŏ
hae-do), Anbuk (present-day Anju, Puk-kye), and Anby
ŏ
n (present-day Anby
ŏ
n, Tong-gye). Later, as military tensions were eased in the south, two military commands, Andong and Annam, were abolished. The eight provinces were located at Sangju and Chinju (Ky
ŏ
ngsang-do), Naju and Ch
ŏ
nju (Ch
ŏ
lla-do), Kwangju, Ch’
ŏ
ngju, and Ch’ungju (Yanggwang-do), and Hwangju (S
ŏ
hae-do).

The central government dispatched its officials to head the provincial and local administrative units. But central government officials were not sent to all districts, counties, and garrisons. They were selectively dispatched to some important local units called
chu-gun,
or major districts, and
chu-hy
ŏ
n,
or major counties. Many more districts and counties—
sok-kun,
or minor districts, and
sok-hy
ŏ
n,
or minor counties—were administered by the major districts and counties, and were thus under the indirect control of the central government. With a far greater number of minor districts and counties than major districts and counties, the central government’s control over the countryside was curtailed. Fearing the growth of local power centers, rather than appointing officials to administer their own home districts, the central government dispatched officials from the capital and assigned them fixed term limits. These dispatched officials were responsible for levying taxes and tributes, and mobilizing corvee labor, but because local functionaries were better acquainted with the conditions of their home areas than the centrally appointed officials, in practice the local functionaries ended up performing the important administrative tasks. Unlike their counterparts of the later Chos
ŏ
n dynasty, these Kory
ŏ
functionaries, called
hojang,
were originally of local gentry descent and therefore formed an elite stratum of local society. Recognizing their status as local headmen, the central government made efforts to check their power and influence by sending officials from particular localities as
sasimgwan,
or inspectors-general, to their home districts to investigate and supervise the local elites. The last Silla king, Ky
ŏ
ngsun, was appointed to be the sasimgwan of Ky
ŏ
ngju. Also the
kiin,
or hostage, institution forcibly assigned young male members of local influential families to minor duties in the capital.
⁴

The district, county, and garrison administrative units all consisted of ch’on. A ch’on was an administrative unit comprised of several hamlets. These villages were headed by village chiefs who mediated between local officials, their functionaries, and the people of the village. The influence of these Kory
ŏ
village chiefs was much weaker than that of their Silla counterparts. Special settlements, called hyang, so, and pugok, were administered by the major districts or counties. The local administration of Kory
ŏ
, in sum, had a well-organized political structure.

In its early years Kory
ŏ
’s pursuit of a policy of northward expansion forced the state to confront Qidan Liao. It therefore needed to maintain a strong military force and to devote considerable attention to national defense and military organization. Kory
ŏ
adopted the
puby
ŏ
ng
(
fubing
in Chinese), or militia, system, in which the military trained able-bodied peasants between the ages of 16 and 60, organized them into regular forces, and allotted them tracts of land. Those who did not comply with their military duty or did not complete their training were called
paekch
ŏ
ng,
meaning “white men,” and did not receive land allotments.

MAP 4.1.
Kory
ŏ

T’aejo (Wang K
ŏ
n), of a warlord background, commanded his own, war-experienced army to destroy Later Paekche. These central forces—called the
ky
ŏ
ng-gun,
or capital army—were organized into the Two Guards and Six Divisions. The Two Guards units, which formed the royal guards and ranked above the Six Divisions, were comprised of the
Ŭ
ngyang-gun, or Soaring Falcon Guards, and the Yongho-gun, or Dragon and Tiger Guards. The other pillar of Kory
ŏ
forces, the Six Divisions, consisted of the Chwaui-wi, or Left and Right Division; the Sinho-wi, or Divine Tiger Division; the H
ŭ
ngwi-wi, or Rising Authority Division; the K
ŭ
mo-wi, or Internal Security Division; the Ch’
ŏ
nu-wi, or Thousand Bull Division; and the Kammun-wi, or Capital Guards Division. The first three divisions (the Chwaui-wi, Sinho-wi, and H
ŭ
ngwi-wi)—the core of the kingdom’s combat forces—were responsible for defending the capital and guarding the frontiers. The K
ŭ
mo-wi functioned as the police force in the capital, the Ch’
ŏ
nu-wi was organized for state ceremonies, and the Kammun-wi guarded the palace and castle gates in the capital.

The Two Guards and Six Divisions had a total strength of some 45,000 soldiers, a majority of whom were conscripted peasants. Each conscripted soldier was assigned two supporting households, responsible for supplying the soldier’s provisions and equipment, and cultivating his land during the term of his military service. These conscripted soldiers were supplemented by professional soldiers from military households, who were recorded as such in a military census roster. Their social status and military service passed from generation to generation. In return for the military service of these professional soldiers, the state allocated each military household “soldier’s land” and assigned two supporting households to cultivate it.

In addition to the Two Guards and Six Divisions, local forces were permanently stationed in the two border regions, where they cultivated “garrison farms.” They were organized into three units—the
ch’o-gun,
or assault force; the
chwa-gun,
or left force; and the
u-gun,
or right force. Local forces stationed in Kory
ŏ
’s districts and counties functioned as reservists.

The central army of the Two Guards and Six Divisions and the local army were composed of
y
ŏ
ng,
or regiments, of 1,000 soldiers each. The commanding officer of a regiment was called
changgun,
or commander. Each of the Two Guards and Six Divisions was commanded by a
sangjanggun,
general, and a
taejanggun,
lieutenant general. These commanding officers of the Two Guards and Six Divisions and y
ŏ
ng had their own joint deliberative organs—the Chungbang, or Council of Generals, for generals and lieutenant generals, and the Changgunbang, or Council of Commanders, for regiment commanders.

In Kory
ŏ
the political elites were trained through education and selected by the civil service examination. T’aejo had already taken scholars of Silla’s head rank 6 lineage into government service and established schools in Kaes
ŏ
ng and Pyongyang. But it was King S
ŏ
ngjong who laid the foundation for Kory
ŏ
’s educational system. He established the Kukchagam as a national university in 992 and founded national libraries and archives. The king’s libraries, the Pis
ŏ
s
ŏ
ng, meaning Secretariat, in Kaes
ŏ
ng, and the Sus
ŏ
w
ŏ
n, or Academy of Books and Records, in Pyongyang, housed tens of thousands of books. The national university had a book publishing department called the S
ŏ
j
ŏ
kp’o, meaning Book Concern. It also established the Ch’il che, or Seven-Course Academy, where lectures were given on seven specialized areas of Confucianism, and a scholarship fund was set up for needy students. Later the Kukchagam created the Ky
ŏ
ngsa yuk hak, or Six Colleges of the Capital, including Kukcha-hak, or University College; T’ae-hak, or High College; Samun-hak, or Four Portals College; Yul-hak, or Law College; S
ŏ
-hak, or Calligraphy College; and San-hak, or Accounting College. Admission to these six colleges reflected Kory
ŏ
’s aristocratic society, marked by precisely defined rankings based on bloodline. Kukcha-hak, T’ae-hak, and Samun-hak were all established to teach the
Five Classics
of Confucianism, the
Classic of Filial Piety,
and the
Analects.
The three colleges differed only in their entrance requirements: Kukcha-hak admitted the sons of civil or military officials of the 3rd rank or higher; T’ae-hak, the sons of 4th and 5th rank officials; and Samun-hak, the sons of 6th and 7th ranks officials. The sons of 8th and 9th rank officials, and of commoners, were admitted to Yul-hak, S
ŏ
hak, and San-hak to study one of the miscellaneous technical specialties called
chap-hak,
or miscellaneous subjects, which were held in contempt.