Read Online A History of Korea by Professor Kyung Moon Hwang - Free Book Online Page B

role in a watershed moment in the history of Kory.
    MYOCH’ONG’S REBELLION
    Aside from the fact that he was a Buddhist monk from Pyongyang, little is known about Myoch’ng’s life before his role as protagonist in the tumult that engulfed the country in the early twelfth century. The official historical accounts excoriate him for his deceitfulness and cunning, but he clearly had considerable charisma and skill. Like Rasputin, who held an unshakable grip over the Russian royal family at the turn of the twentieth century through his seemingly magical ability to treat the Romanovs’ hemophilia, Myoch’ng appears to have cast a spell over the monarch, Injong. Most tellingly, the monk convinced him of a direct geomantic relationship between the ongoing misfortunes of the dynasty—especially the constant attacks and threats of invasion from the Jurchen people to the north—and the location of the dynastic capital in Kaegyng (present-day Kaesng). Myoch’ng’s solution, not coincidentally, was to move the capital to his home town of Pyongyang, which held more positive geomantic features, he claimed. He also urged the monarch to declare Koryan empire and launch a campaign against the Jurchen, steps bitterly opposed by the king’s ministers.
    That King Injong succumbed to this line of reasoning cannot be explained simply by dismissing him as a dupe, for the baseline of belief tying geomantic principles directly to the health of the country, as noted above, had an extensive history. Furthermore,Pyongyang had long enjoyed a centrality in Korean civilization, reflected in the fact that, since the early Koryperiod, it was deemed the Western Capital (
Sgyng
), the second most important city. And, as noted in Chapter 1 , Pyongyang had served as the admin- istrative center of the Lelang Chinese commandery and the capital city of the Kogurykingdom. Furthermore, according to the conventional understanding of Korean origins codified in the Koryera, this city represented the place of origin for Korean civilization itself. So said the myths of Tan’gun, the founder of the Korean people who established his court there, and of Kija, the Chinese official who transmitted higher civilization to the peninsula and ruled from Pyongyang. From Myoch’ng’s perspective, and likely that of many elites from the northwest, the transfer of Kory’s capital to Pyongyang represented simply the return of this city to its rightful standing, which would in turn lead to better fortunes for a country besieged by both external and internal threats.
    The capital region, in fact, was still recovering from the biggest domestic challenge to the dynasty hitherto, the rebellion in 1126 led by Yi Chagym. The powerful scion of a royal consort family and the monarch’s father-in-law, Yi attempted a personal takeover of the throne before his uprising was suppressed with tremendous bloodshed. The capital officials, in short, were extremely wary of brewing trouble. These sensitivities were put on high alert when, soon after the Yi Chagym incident, King Injong began to show signs of having fallen under the sway of the mysterious monk from Pyongyang. Injong made frequent visits to Pyongyang and eventually ordered the construction of a royal palace there. The capital elites, fearing a major shift in power to the northwestern region, responded by imploring the monarch to examine the countervailing evidence: the greater attention shown to Pyongyang, including the construction of the royal palace, not only failed to eliminate the Jurchen menace, but also failed to halt a series of natural calamities that beset this region. The monarch became convinced by these arguments and put a stop to his plans for moving the capital city to Pyongyang. Prompted by an official, Cho Kwang, and other cohorts from Pyongyang, Myongch’ng’s response to this royal turnabout was simple: rebellion.
    In the first month of 1135 Myoch’ng, Cho Kwang, and the other leaders orchestrated a swift