182 korea
On Mar.25, 1219, Koryo envoys for the first time in Hsüan-tsung’s
reign reached the Chin court and offered presents. Hsüan-tsung there-
upon attempted to send envoys in return. But the roads were blocked
[by the Mongols], and there were no further relations between the
two states (Chin shih 15:19a; 135:8a-8b).
The Five Dynasties, Sung, Liao, and Chin all liked to pretend that
Koryo was a tributary vassal. Nothing could be more wrong. The
Five Dynasties and Sung had no common border with Koryo and
no way, even if they had possessed the military resources, to assert
any supremacy over it. The Liao invasions of Koryo from 993 to1020
were successfully repelled by the Koreans. The Chin made no serious
attempts against Koryo. The dynastic historians accepted nevertheless
the official fiction and referred to Koryo by an unrealistic terminology.
Let us look at the instances.
When peace negotiations between Koryo and Liao were conducted
in 993, these are by Liao shih expressed as a Korean “apology”. They
were nothing of the sort, and, in fact, Liao made concessions to
Koryo.
When in 994 Koryo envoys to Sung proposed a joint military action
against Liao, they met with refusal. Henceforth, Koryo “accepted
the decrees of the Khitan”, and missions to China ceased (Wen-hsien
t’ung-k’ao 325:51b). This means no more than that Koryo realized the
weakness of the Sung and, without losing its independence, adjusted
itself to coexistence with its powerful neighbour in the north.
In 1002, Koryo envoys offered the Liao a map of their state. It has
been seen that such a symbol of surrender was hardly ever seriously
meant.
When Sheng-tsung of Liao in 1010 ordered an attack on Koryo on
the grounds that Wang Sung had been murdered and that he had not
been informed of Wang Hsün’s succession, he did not act as a piqued
overlord but because this gave him a pretext to resume the war.
When Wang Hsün in 1010 sent envoys to the Liao court “to hand
up a memorial and beg to pay court” and this was “allowed” (Liao shih
15:2a), the phraseology simply means that he was willing to negotiate
peace.
When the Liao shih claims that Wang Hsün in 1012 “declared himself
a subject as of old”, this is hyperbole. Wang Hsün had never been a
subject but an independent ruler and continued to be so, whatever
the rhetoric.
When in 1020 Liao realized that a conquest of Koryo was beyond its