korea 185ognized its kings and none conferred posthumous titles on them or
held official mourning. But China appointed the kings to honourary
offices^101 and gave titles to their envoys, while Liao and Chin are not
recorded to have done so.^102 Liao married a princess to a king of
Koryo, China and Chin did not.
Like its Korean predecessors Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla, Koryo
was deeply influenced by Chinese culture. One purpose of its mis-
sions to the Five Dynasties and Sung was to seek knowledge in such
fields as Confucianism, Buddhism, history, literature, law, the plastic
arts, medicine, pharmacy and geomancy, and, at times, even to make
contributions in return. Koreans were sent with missions to Sung to
stay there for study in 976, 986, and soon after 1105. A brother of
a Koryo king inquired about the Buddhist dharma in 1085. Koryo
requested printed Buddhist sutras in 991, the Nine Confucian Classics in
993, again Buddhist sutras in 1019, books on geomancy and geogra-
phy in 1021, the Buddhist Tripitaka in 1073, physicians, pharmacists,
painters, and sculptors in 1074, books on penal law and the Wen-yüan
ying-hua in 1085, the dynastic histories and the Ts’e-fu yüan-kuei in 1092,
and again physicians soon after 1105. On its part, Koryo presented
four different editions of the Classic of Filial Piety to the Later Chou in
959, and the Huang-ti hsien-ching to Sung in 1092. And these are only
the recorded cases.
Other purposes of the Koryo missions to China were to announce
the death of a king and the name of his successor, to congratulate on
an enthronement, to request a resumption of diplomatic relations,
to seek a change of route for arrival, to request mediation for peace,
to announce a peace, and to inform about border violations. Koryo
and Sung also had a common interest in restraining the Liao of the
Khitan and later the Chin of the Jurchen, in the classical pattern
of a joint enemy situated between them, but although alliances and
combined military actions were repeatedly proposed and explored,
nothing ever came of it.
The Koryo missions to Liao and Chin had the same purposes,
as well as to announce the death of a royal mother, to condole and
sacrifice after the death of an emperor or empress dowager, to attend
an imperial burial, to thank for condolence, to congratulate on the
(^101) In 932, the Later T’ang also conferred a title on Wang Chien’s queen.
(^102) Only a son of the king Wang Hui was given a title by Liao.