Transformation of Official Rank and Salary System in the Late Koryŏ Period
Journal Title: International Journal of Korean History - Year 2002, Vol 3, Issue 1
Abstract
The Mongols regarded virtually the whole known world as their legitimate domain and they demanded from conquered people a complete and total submission. Among the states in Northeast Asia, Koryŏ was the only state that was able to retain its own kingship and to exercise some degree of autonomy in the conduct of its internal affairs. Mongols regarded it as fortunate to have secured the submission of a nation that had persisted in a stubborn resistance against them for more than thirty years. 1 However, Koryŏ was still forced to demonstrate its symbolic subordination to the Mongols by making changes in its official languages, rites, and institutions. In 1301, the Koryŏ court restructured its government institutions and renamed all agencies that shared same names with Yüan imperial agencies. Previous studies on the late Koryŏ political history have focused mainly on institutional aspects such as the changes in the official rank system and the emergence of the Personnel Authority (Chŏngbang) as the center of power. While these studies have shown that the power structure and political process in late Koryŏ were clearly different from those of the early Koryŏ period, we still the official rank), and the system of honorary civil official titles did not seem to have functioned. The article will attempt to clarify the late Koryŏ institutional changes in the management of personnel in the officialdom. It will first describe the official rank system during the reign of King Munjong and then compare it to that of the late Koryŏ period, when the official rank system became closer to the T’ang and Sung models not only in name but also in actual operation. It is hoped that this study of the institutional changes in the officialdom will offer some insights into the late Koryŏ period.
Authors and Affiliations
Jin-han Lee
Keywords
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