Goryeo: the kingdom that gave Korea its name
The Goryeo dynasty reunifies the peninsula, builds a Buddhist high culture of celadon and printing, and survives decades of Mongol invasion and domination.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
- Korea Old and New: A History — Carter J. Eckert, Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner, Ilchokak / Korea Institute, Harvard University (1990)
As Silla weakened, the general Wang Geon founded a new kingdom in 918, naming it Goryeo after Goguryeo, and by 936 he had reunited the peninsula, absorbing many refugees from fallen Balhae. Its capital was Kaesong, now just north of the DMZ.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
- Korea Old and New: A History — Carter J. Eckert, Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner, Ilchokak / Korea Institute, Harvard University (1990)
Goryeo was a Buddhist kingdom run by an aristocracy, with a civil service examination borrowed from China. Its potters made jade-green celadon admired even in China. Its monks carved the entire Buddhist canon onto more than 80,000 woodblocks, the Tripitaka Koreana, in 1237–48, hoping for divine protection against the Mongols; they are still kept at Haeinsa temple. The Jikji, a Buddhist text printed with movable metal type in 1377, is the oldest surviving such book in the world, decades before Gutenberg.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
- Korea Old and New: A History — Carter J. Eckert, Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner, Ilchokak / Korea Institute, Harvard University (1990)
From 1231 the Mongols invaded repeatedly. The court fled to Ganghwa Island and held out for nearly thirty years, while the mainland was devastated. Goryeo then became a vassal of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, its kings marrying Mongol princesses, until the Yuan collapsed in the 1360s. In 1388 the general Yi Seong-gye, ordered to attack Ming China, turned his army round at Wihwa Island, seized power and in 1392 founded the Joseon dynasty.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
- Korea Old and New: A History — Carter J. Eckert, Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner, Ilchokak / Korea Institute, Harvard University (1990)
Why it matters today
The English word "Korea" comes from Goryeo. Its celadon pottery, the woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana and the world's oldest surviving book printed with movable metal type are points of deep pride, and its long resistance to the Mongols is part of the story of a small country that endures.