Wang Geon and the founding of Goryeo

When Goryeo marched against Later Baekje in 936, the records count 87,500 soldiers, and Later Baekje's own founder, Gyeon Hwon, rode with them.

Goryeo ruled the Korean peninsula for 474 years, from 918 to 1392. Its name is where the English word "Korea" comes from, and it gave us celadon, the Tripitaka Koreana and the oldest surviving book printed with metal type. This course follows it in seven units. It begins with a country in pieces: by the end of the 9th century the Silla government had lost its hold on the provinces, and local strongmen ran their own districts with their own soldiers.

Three kingdoms again

In 900 Gyeon Hwon, who had set himself up at Mujinju in 892, proclaimed Later Baekje in the southwest, and in 901 Gung Ye founded Later Goguryeo in the centre and north. Together with what was left of Silla, these are called the Later Three Kingdoms. Gung Ye's state grew fast, but it did not last. In 918 Wang Geon drove Gung Ye out and founded a new state. He named his country Goryeo, a shortened form of Goguryeo, to claim the old northern kingdom as its ancestor. In 919 he joined Songak county, today's Kaesong, with part of Kaeseong county, renamed it, and moved his capital there. The city, Gaegyeong, remained the capital for the rest of the dynasty, apart from the war years on Ganghwa Island.

Winning by alliance, then by battle

Wang Geon's first tool was alliance. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes two policies he kept up through the war: an alliance with local strongmen, the hojok, and friendship with Silla. He courted the local families and treated Silla with respect, while Later Baekje under Gyeon Hwon fought Silla. The friendship paid off. In 935 Silla's last king handed his kingdom to Goryeo without a fight.

The reunification of 936 was more than a change of ruler. The Encyclopedia notes that Goryeo's ruling class was far wider than Silla's, where power had been held by a small circle of true-bone aristocrats in the capital. Local families from all over the country now had a share. Goryeo also took in people from Balhae, the northern kingdom destroyed by the Khitan in 926, so its people came from both the north and the south.