Goryeo - Part 5

-1122- The Khitan (Liao dynasty) had fallen to the Jurchens (Jin dynasty)!
   -Also, King Yejong had died, replaced by his son, King Injong.
-King Injong was like 12, heavily influenced by the Lee clan.
   -The other courtiers didn't like the power that the Lee clan now wielded, and wanted to removed the patriarch of the Lee clan from the court.  The king was also a part of this push as well.
      -However, the clan found out and staged a coup in 1126, sacking the palace, killing a bunch of people, and sacking the king!
         -The clan now enacted an autocratic rule under the patriarch, Lee Ja-gyeom, with King Injong remaining as their puppet.  Under Lee Ja-gyeom's rule, Goryeo agreed to submit to the Jin Dynasty as a tributary state.
   -Eventually, the king was able to rally enough support to strike back and overthrow the patriarch and exile him to the south.
      -It seems like a light penalty, but like the other Goryeo kings before him, King Injong was a devout Buddhist.
-King Injong regained power in 1127, but immediately had trouble reorganizing the court because it was divided between Confucians and Buddhists.
   -The Buddhists, led by a monk named Myo-cheong, derived power from their large monastic holdings as well as rural clans with huge estates.  Favored by King Injong.
   -The Confucians, led by Kim Bu-sik, derived power from the intellectuals and the merchant class.
-Myo-cheong preached that the capital should be moved to Pyeongyang from Gaeseong due to Buddhist geomancy.  Also, conveniently enough, it was Myo-cheong's hometown and base of support, which is why he wanted Pyeongyang, and not Seoul, which was apparently equally viable as the main capital.
   -King Injong conceded and began to start projects that would make Pyeongyang a more suitable capital.  Myo-cheong also tried to make various "miracles" happen that would influence the king's attitude (but who knows if these stories are literal or exaggerated/metaphorical).
      -This made King Injong disenchanted because he saw through Myo-cheong's bullshit.
         -Obviously, Myo-cheong got butthurt, so in 1135 he called on all Korean Buddhist monks to join his army, occupying Pyeongyang, and claimed themselves to be a sovereign state.  This lasted about a month before the rebellion was quelled.
-Ever since 1018 there was a rough pattern that can be seen with the Goryeo court: the king was influenced by Buddhist monks who abused and disrespected the Confucian officials who then took out their anger on military officials.
-1145- King Injong commissions Kim Bu-sik to write a historical saga, the Samguk Sagi, which is where a ton of the previous info in these notes comes from and is the major source of what we know about about Korean history.
   -The Samguk Sagi was influenced by Han Chinese scholarly histories and compiled from Chinese sources, Silla chronicles, Hwarang records, and records from Baekje and Gogoryeo as well.  For whatever reason, Japanese sources weren't used.
      -None of the Korean sources of the Samguk Sagi draws from have survived to this day, so the Samguk Sagi is extremely important.  It has also only been partially translated into English.
         -It is also obviously biased towards Confucian thought since it was written by Confucians.  In the next century, the Buddhists would try and replace it with the Samguk Yusa.
-1146- King Injong died, replaced by his son, King Uijong.
   -Not a very devout Buddhist, he was mostly interested in building additions to the palace, gambling, drinking, and having sex!!
-1160s- A fleet was sent to Ulleongdo, an island 75 miles east of Korea.  The island had actually been conquered by Silla in 512, but it didn't actually become part of Goryeo until 930.  It had been constantly raided and fucked up by pirates in the 11th century, so King Uijong wanted to go there to see WTF the deal with the place was.  The fleet reported that the island was actually uninhabited, and so they decided not to fuck with it and didn't send settlers to repopulate it.
   -The king also decided to set up a goofy new system of tax collecting, which replaced the original tax collects with eunuchs, and whoever could collect the most taxes would be rewarded with land taken from the aristocracy (which obviously pissed off the aristocracy).
      -He also spent his time chilling with his inner circle and never bothered to invite anyone from the military or aristocracy to join him.
         -So naturally, things started falling apart, and everyone hated King Uijong, even the peasants, due to his push for ruthless tax collection and high taxes.  Slaves were being overworked, and talk of rebellion began to spread, not just against the king, but against the corrupt local lords and Buddhist monasteries.
-1170- King Uijong was captured in a military coup, and lots of eunuchs and officers were slaughtered.  They wanted to kill King Uijong, but they didn't want the Jin dynasty to find a reason to invade as their "older brother" to maintain order.  So, they exiled him to a small island and enthroned his brother, King Myeongjong.
-King Uijong tried to regain power by being re-appointed by an army official that wanted him back on the throne for whatever reason, but this army was defeated, and then King Uijong was murdered.
   -This pissed off lots of King Uijong's Buddhist monk supporters, and they staged mass protests in Gaeseong, but the military didn't give a fuck and burned several Buddhist libraries and temples, and raided several monasteries as well.
-Goryeo was becoming increasingly unstable, with regional powers in the kingdom beginning to vie for dominance.  The most powerful region outside of Gaeseong was centered around Pyeongyang.
   -So, a battle occurred between Gaeseong and Pyeongyang, with Gaeseong emerging victorious.
      -Eventually, Pyeongyang was besieged, with its population either fleeing or being executed by Gaeseong forces.
-Meanwhile, chaos was breaking out everywhere, with rebellions popping up in multiple regions.  The people were starving, turning to thievery and brigandry.
   -The military even sent troops to capture girls from the countryside to bring them back to Gaesong as sex slaves, and ancestral temples were looted.
-King Myeongjong was still the puppet ruler during this time, living a life of decadence.
   -After many years of chaos, with different rebellions, King Myeongjong was finally dethroned in 1197 and replaced by his brother, King Sinjong.
-Unfortunately, King Sinjong was completely dominated by the military, specifically by General Choi Chong-heon.  General Choi had dubbed himself Prime Minister and "Protector of the Realm".
   -One historian (Homer Halbert) called General Choi "the first shogun of Korea".
   -General Choi had a bodyguard of 3000 elite troops, each of whom were paid very well.
   -The peasants didn't like General Choi's rule, and there were numerous revolts.
      -People were starving because so many resources went to the military, and they couldn't get help from the temples because they were predatory lenders when it came to working in exchange for food.
         -They would essentially be slaves to the temples, and would also have to make up the armies of these warrior monks (thugs).
      -There was even one revolt that tried to revive Silla!
         -It was actually successful at first, but it was ultimately put down.
      -Another revolt was a slave rebellion, led by one of General Choi's slaves, but it wasn't successful either.
-During this time, Goryeo was nearing complete collapse.  However, for whatever reason no one in East Asia seemed to notice that there was an insanely powerful barbarian horde amassing in Central Asia, led by a mysterious man named Temujin...