Rebellion quelled.... cannibalism.... anarchy....“faith cure”.... reformation.... Ta-na well.... the Queen restored.... slaves revolt.... the Mongols.... envoy killed.... Kin weakens.... Kitan refugees.... civil strife.... Kitan driven back.... Mongol allies.... Mongols drive Kitans into Koryŭ.... Mongol savages.... Kitan remnant surrenders.... Mongol envoy.... jealousy.... Mongol demands.... rebels’ heads sent to Song-do.... Mongol demands tribute.... brutal envoy.... a new wall.... Japanese pirates.... Mongol envoy killed.... Mongol allies.... driven back.... prime minister duped.... pirates again.... a Korean “Shogun”.... Mongols cross the Yalu.... a Mongol letter.... the Mongols reach Song-do.... leave it untaken.... the “Shogun” flees.... a brave prefect.... Mongol terms.... King surrenders.... Mongol residency.
Cho Wi-jong was a P‘yŭng-yang man with a towering ambition, and he now deemed the time ripe to put the wheels in motion. He therefore drew about him a strong body of troops. All the districts about P‘yŭng-yang joined him excepting Yŭn-ju, which remained loyal to the king. The people of that place were afraid of the rebel but the loyal prefect Hyŭn Tŭk-su forged a letter purporting to be from the royal army en route for P‘yŭng-yang. This gave the people courage to hold out.
Cho and his troops marched toward Song-do and encamped not far to the west of the town. Gen. Yi Eui-bang, having first seized and killed all the P‘yŭng-an officials who happened to be in the capital, marched out against the rebels. At the first attack the seditious force broke and fled. Gen. Yi chased them as far as the Ta-dong River. He crossed that river and lay siege to P‘yŭng-yang; but winter was coming on and he was obliged to retire to Song-do. Cho then made two or three attempts to overthrow the loyal town of Yŭn-ju, but without success.
Gen. Yi was a ruthless man, who had no love of humanity in him, but would kill his best friend if it served his purpose. For this reason Gen. Chöng did not dare to associate with him, but threw up his commission and went into retirement. His son got a priest to dog the footsteps of Gen. Yi and wait for a chance to kill him. This he finally accomplished and Gen. Yi and many of his relatives were killed; and the queen, who was his daughter, was driven away.
As Cho Wi-jong, the P‘yŭng-yang traitor, was gradually losing power he desired to get help from the Kin emperor. For this purpose he sent two envoys, but one of them killed the other on the way and them fled to Song-do. Cho sent another, but him the Kin emperor seized and sent a prisoner to the Koryŭ capital. In the spring the royal forces besieged Cho in P‘yŭng-yang again and famine within the walls became so great that men ate each other. Many of the towns-people came out by stealth and as they were well received by the besieging force, well-nigh all the civilians in the city came over the walls by night. When the city fell, Cho was killed and his wife and children were sent to Song-do where they were hung in the center of the city.
The rebel forces were scattered but reunited in various places and terrorized the whole north, so that envoys to the Kin court had to go a round-about way to avoid them. The whole country in fact was in a state of anarchy. In the south whole sections of the country were disaffected toward the government and bands of men roamed the country. There was a rising also in Whang-hă Province. In P‘yŭng-yang the people rose and drove out the governor. The king was forced to begin the correction of abuses. He sent all about gathering information as to how the people were governed and as a consequence eight hundred officials were cashiered. But the attempt at renovation came too late. In the west the bands of robbers looted right and left and could not be apprehended. The capital itself swarmed with thieves. The ancestral temple itself was robbed of its utensils. But all this time the king kept up a round of carousals and debaucheries at which he himself played the buffoon, and danced for the delectation of his guests, and that too at a monastery. A sacred place truly!
In the twelfth year of the reign, 1182, we find an interesting application of what goes in these days under the name of “faith cure.” A priest claimed to be able to cure any disease. Being called before the king he said, “If anyone drinks water in which I have washed my hands he will be immediately cured.” He further explained “After drinking the water, pray earnestly to Buddha. Then rise and say ‘I am cured’, and if you really believe you are cured, you will be so.” Crowds of people applied to him for treatment. He seduced many of the women who came to him.
Gen. Yi Eui-mun was now court favorite and he usurped all the leading offices and acted as pander-in-general to the King by seeking out and forcibly carrying to the palace young and handsome girls. This seemed intolerable to such loyal men as Gen. Ch‘oe Chung-heun, and he, in company with his brother, surrounded the palace, killed Yi Eui-mun and many others of his ilk, chased away many illegitimate sons of the king, who had become monks, and would not let them enter the palace again. This all happened in 1196, and two years later the reformer continued the good work by deposing the old and indolent king, banishing the crown prince to Kang-wha and putting the king’s brother Mun on the throne. His posthumous title is Sin-jong. The banishing of the crown prince and his wife was effected in a very heartless manner. They were ordered out of the palace at a moment’s notice and, coming forth entirely unprepared for the journey, were mounted on horses in a cold rain and hurried away to Kang-wha. A terrible storm raged the day the King was deposed, as if in sympathy with the throes through[through] the country was passing.
There was a saying current among the people which shows at once how superstitious[superstitious] they were and to what an extent the eunuchs were wont to abuse their power. They said “If the King uses water from the Ta-nă Wall many eunuchs will arise and will cause the government to be administered badly;” so the well was filled up. Another instance shows what a terrible temptation there was for the people to abuse their power. This same reformer Ch’oe[Ch’oe] Chung-heun, though himself a man of perfect uprightness, had a brother who now took advantage of his position to force the king to take his daughter as queen. To do this the real queen had to be banished. As it happened, the king was deeply attached to her, but he was in no position to refuse to do the bidding of the powerful courtier. After a tearful parting she went into exile. This was as yet unknown to the reformer, but when he learned of it his indignation was deep and fierce. Cloaking his feelings, he called his brother to a feast and there reminded him that they were not of a high enough family to furnish a queen, and he charged him to give up the attempt. The next day, the villain changed his mind again. His mother expostulated with him and he felled her to the floor. Gen. Ch‘oe was told of this and, surrounding himself with a strong body-guard, he proceeded to the palace gate. When his niece was brought in her chair and was about to enter to become queen, the faithful old general disputed the passage and a fight ensued between his men and his brother’s. The former were successful and the wretch betook himself to flight, but was pursued, taken and killed by the general himself. The rightful queen was restored to her station.
The six years of this king’s reign were one long scene of turmoil and strife. In the first place the slaves revolted. They said “The high men are not made so by the decree of heaven. Great men are those who do well. Let us fight for our rights; Gen. Ch‘oe is from as low a grade as ourselves. Let us become high men too.” They rendezvoused at Heung-guk monastery and decided as a preliminary measure to demand from their masters the deeds of themselves (for slaves as well as houses were deeded property) and to burn them. They were betrayed to Gen. Ch‘oe who trapped a hundred of them, tied stones about their necks and drowned them in the river. The south was overrun by marauding parties whom the king bought off by gifts of food, clothes and land. In Chin-ju the governor’s servants locked him in his private dungeon, gathered a band of men and put to death all who would not join their standard. It is said that 6,400 men were killed because of refusal to join them. The same scenes were enacted in various places, notably in Quelpart and Kong-ju.