Unified Silla - Part 1

-Now that Baekje and Gogoryeo had fallen, tensions escalated between the Tang dynasty and Sila over where to go from here.
   -Begs the question:  WTF were Silla thinking by allying with the Tang??
      -Obviously, the Tang dynasty wanted Korea to go back to its old commandery divisions, but this time with a unified Korean peninsula under Chinese control, the Tang dynasty set up a new government in Pyongyang called "the Protectorate General to Pacify the East".
      -In order to give the Protectorate General some legitimacy, the Tang got King Bojang (who survived the fall of Gogoryeo and had been a puppet for Yeon Gaesoman when he controlled Gogoryeo) to back them up in Pyongyang, which was the former capital of Gogoryeo).
         -Therefore, King Bojang was set up as governor of the Protectorate General, and King of Joseon.
-Pyongyang may have been pacified, but rural Gogoryeo was still hostile to the Tang dynasty, seeing them as foreign invaders.
   -This anti-Chinese resistance looked to Silla to drive off the Chinese from the peninsula.
      -General Kim Yu-sin (Silla) managed to drive off the Tang dynasty troops that were occupying the former lands of Baekje.
-673- Kim Yu-sin dies.  However, the anti-Chinese resistance looked to Silla to drive off the Tang from the peninsula.
      -Tang sources claim that the Chinese were winning the battles, but this doesn't make sense because why would the Chinese then just suddenly leave the peninsula?
         -One theory is that Emperor Gaozong's health was deteriorating at this point, and the empress, Wu Zetian, didn't seem to care much about taking over Korea.
   -Silla began to feel more nationalistic, and together due to its newfound power and its emerging Buddhist faith, thanks in large part to the success of the monk Wonhyo.
   -Also, after the war, King Munmu found himself surrounded by a powerful, militarized aristocracy...uh-oh!
-681- King Munmu died, leaving the crown to his son, King Sinmun.
   -King Sinmun tried to reign in their wealth by limiting what they could tax from their lands.
-The crown was severely indebted to the aristocracy because it was the aristocracy that had paid for the war effort, and now they looked to the crown to repay their debts.
   -King Sinmun had allowed the aristocrats to become like lords of their own domains under the crown, i.e. a feudal system, as repayment for supporting the kingdom, but this made the lords too powerful and rich, which is why the crown tried to impose restrictions on the aristocracy's taxation of the people of their lands and estates.
      -He even tried to move the capital from Gyeongju to Dalgubeol (Daegu), but this didn't work out.
         -King Sinmun's biggest political rival was a dude named Gumwong, who was essentially Silla's "prime minister".
         -King Sinmun was also opposed by "King Anseung", the would-be king of old Gogoryeo before it was conquered, but had been given rulership over the fake kingdom of Bodeok (a puppet kingdom of Silla).
         -King Sinmun then flexed his political muscle by cracking down on the aristocracy and did initiated a strong purge, arresting any people he didn't like and annexed the lands of the Gogoryeo resistance fighters.
      -King Sinmun also set up the Gukhak, or "National Academy", which was founded to train government officials in the Confucian classics.
      -He also sent a delegation to set up peaceful relations with Empress Wu of the Tang Dynasty, which allowed Silla to copy lots of Chinese culture.
-Meanwhile, the Tang Dynasty gave up on trying to maintain a puppet kingdom on the Korean peninsula, so they decided to cut their losses and fortify the Liaodong Peninsula.
   -As a result, there was a power vacuum in the former Gogoryeo lands unclaimed by Silla, so that'[s how the state of Balhae (known as Jin at the time, just to be confusing, and would change its name to Balhae in 712) came about.
      -Formed after Gogoryeo fell and occupied much of Gogoryeo's old territory, including the northern half of modern-day North Korea.
-Balhae was made up of Malgal tribes that were ruled by former Gogoryeo aristocrats.
   -Populated by many slaves as well.
   -The Malgal people kind of governed themselves, but paid tribute to their Gogoryeo overlords.
   -Many historians claim that Balhae was a Korean kingdom, but this is controversial since the Malgal people that made up most of the population weren't closely related with the Yemaek tribes that the Koreans of the peninsula are descended from.
      -Also, Balhae history is really sketchy because there are no surviving historical records from the kingdom, so who knows what the deal was.
-Silla continued to maintain the Bone Rank during this time.
   -At the top was the the "sacred" or "hallowed" bone rank- the (Gyeongju) Kim, Park, and Sook clans, AKA the founding clans of Silla.
      -When the Gaya Confederacy was incorporated into Silla in 562 (finally falling because they were allied with Baekje for a war against Silla awhile ago), the (Gaya) Kim were brought into the Bone Rank as a "sacred" clan as well.
-King Sinmun died in 692, his legacy remembered as successfully consolidating Silla's power as a government and country, upholding the crown's authority, and making peace with the Tang Dynasty.
   -Meanwhile, the aristocracy wasn't happy with how strong the crown had become, and this would prove to be problematic later on.