The medieval state of Koryŏ (918-1392) relied on a heavily sinicized military structure to protect the peninsula from its foes across the border.But with the collapse of civil rule and the ascent... Show moreThe medieval state of Koryŏ (918-1392) relied on a heavily sinicized military structure to protect the peninsula from its foes across the border.But with the collapse of civil rule and the ascent to the highest offices of the state by the military in 1170, this system also collapsed, giving way to highly personalized and often improvised army structures. Northeast Asian influences combined with the spreading popularity of the warriors from the north (such as the Mongol), coalescing into the import of the warband to the Korean peninsula. It quickly established itself as the preferred way of organizing it soldiers in the military administration. The adoption of the warband is historically important, because of the political power it came to possess in the 13thcentury. As important is the fact that an important element of a larger Northeast Asian cultural complex entered Koryŏ through the northern. The warband was a Northeast Asian inflection in terms of warfare, but also in terms of the exercise of political power. Evidence showing the popularity of Northeast Asian models and ideals of warriorship among Koryŏ warriors did not stop at the individual level of clothing, armor, and weaponry or at the purely tactical level of fighting techniques and strategies. Strategic and organizational changes were added to what had been a military organization in the Sinitic mold. As such, the warband became the most important and prevalent military organisational principle in 13th-century Korea, ultimately becoming the institute that would decide the fate of the country – and certainly the life and death of its rulers – until the Mongols took over the governing of Koryŏ in the second half of the 13thcentury. Show less
Oppenheimer, C.; Wacker, L.; Xu, J.; Galván, J.D.; Stoffel, M.; Guillet, S.; ... ; Büntgen, U. 2017
Ranking among the largest volcanic eruptions of the Common Era (CE), the ‘Millennium Eruption’ of Changbaishan produced a widely-dispersed tephra layer (known as the B-Tm ash), which represents... Show moreRanking among the largest volcanic eruptions of the Common Era (CE), the ‘Millennium Eruption’ of Changbaishan produced a widely-dispersed tephra layer (known as the B-Tm ash), which represents an important tie point for palaeoenvironmental studies in East Asia. Hitherto, there has been no consensus on its age, with estimates spanning at least the tenth century CE. Here, we identify the cosmogenic radiocarbon signal of 775 CE in a subfossil larch engulfed and killed by pyroclastic currents emplaced during the initial rhyolitic phase of the explosive eruption. Combined with glaciochemical evidence from Greenland, this enables us to date the eruption to late 946 CE. This secure date rules out the possibility that the Millennium Eruption contributed to the collapse of the Bohai Kingdom (Manchuria/Korea) in 926 CE, as has previously been hypothesised. Further, despite the magnitude of the eruption, we do not see a consequent cooling signal in tree-ring-based reconstructions of Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures. A tightly-constrained date for the Millennium Eruption improves the prospect for further investigations of historical sources that may shed light on the eruption's impacts, and enhances the value of the B-Tm ash as a chronostratigraphic marker. Show less
This thesis is an investigation into the formation of plural identities in the first half of the Koryŏ dynasty (918-1392). It focuses on processes of identity formation with both domestic and... Show moreThis thesis is an investigation into the formation of plural identities in the first half of the Koryŏ dynasty (918-1392). It focuses on processes of identity formation with both domestic and international reference. The Koryŏ dynasty was a rather extraordinary society, in which several important systems of belief and thought co-existed, but were not assimilated into each other. Koryo literati possessed a seldom encountered capacity for tolerating ambiguity, inconsistency and contradiction, while nonetheless displaying a distinctive sense of identity. The tolerance, even preference for ambiguity ensured in the long run the survival of the Koryo state amidst its powerful neighbours in China and Manchuria. This thesis concludes that despite the majority opinion in modern historiography Koryŏ was not either Confucian or Buddhist or nativist, but a mixture of all these systems and a good many more. The Koryŏ state and society were thoroughly pluralist, that is, geared to provide to the maximum of different, sometimes contradictory principles, instead of one ultimate principle. The thesis also concludes that pre-modern forms of community construction and the generation of feelings of belonging were not significantly different from their modern counterparts. Show less
