Wang Kon: Ten Injunctions

Context

In 676 the kingdom of Silla successfully united the southern half of the Korea Peninsula. After a period of peace and prosperity, the state, torn by struggles over succession to the throne, progressively lost control over more and more territory. In 889 a major peasant uprising against Silla erupted, soon to be followed by other rebellions, weakening the kingdom. This revolt allowed for the rise of local strongmen and, eventually, two rival states that claimed to be the successors of kingdoms that Silla had defeated during the wars of unification: Paekche and Koguryo. T’aejo took control of Later Koguryo in 918 and renamed it Koryo, using a similar-sounding designation so that he could claim to be the successor of Koguryo while distancing himself from the previous ruler, Kungye, who had become unstable and dangerous. After fierce fighting, Koryo, under T’aejo, was victorious over Later Paekche. T’aejo then accepted the surrender of the last Silla king, uniting the Korea Peninsula. His dynasty would last until 1392. After a period of fruitful rule, he fell ill and died in 943. It has traditionally been held that on his deathbed he gave the Ten Injunctions as a guide to his successors so that the dynasty would continue to rule virtuously over a peaceful and happy kingdom.

If Breuker is correct in his theory that the Ten Injunctions were written during the troubled reign of King Hyonjong, however, then the context of their creation would be quite different. There was a dark cloud over King Hyonjong’s rise to power. Although he was a grandson of King T’aejo, Wang Sun (Hyonjong being, in fact, his posthumous title) was illegitimate, born from an illicit affair. At age eighteen he was forced to enter a Buddhist monastery so that he would not threaten the power of the queen dowager and her lover, Kim Ch’iyang, who ruled through the weak and pliable king, the queen dowager’s son, Mokchong—who was probably a distant cousin of Wang Sun’s. When the queen dowager and Kim Ch’iyang had a child, they decided that it was necessary to remove Wang Sun completely from the scene and attempted to have him murdered. Their plot failed, and some officials, fearing the power of the queen dowager and Kim Ch’iyang and its possible effect on the health of the dynasty and the state, staged a coup. King Mokchong was overthrown and murdered as he fled the capital. Kim Ch’iyang was also killed, and the queen dowager was banished.

Wang Sun then ascended the throne, but his troubles were not over. The Khitan people, who lived north of Korea, had established the Liao Dynasty, and Koryo was technically its vassal. The two states were engaged in a territorial dispute, and the murder of King Mokchong became a pretext for an invasion that lasted from 1010 to 1011, forcing Wang Sun to flee the capital. Eventually the Khitan withdrew, but the country had suffered terribly. If Breuker is correct, then the injunctions were written in the aftermath of a destructive foreign invasion during the reign of a king whose succession was of questionable legitimacy. This context helps explain the concern for peace, order, and military defense found in the Ten Injunctions. In fact, it was the destruction of historical records that provided the opportunity for the writing of the Ten Injunctions. In 1013 state officials began to recompile surviving historical materials and interview elderly people in order to reconstruct as much of the historical record as possible. This allowed a window of opportunity in which the Ten Injunctions could be written and “discovered.”