Who’s Who

Goguryeo

First thing to note is that “Goguryeo” is actually “Goryeo” or “Guryeo”, but we need to distinguish it from the later kingdom of “Goryeo”.

Pyongyang

The capital of Goguryeo. It was probably originally something like “Burana”, but the meaning is something like “Flat Land”. This was converted to Sinitic ideographs that were then pronounced with a Sino-Korean pronunciation, which we know, even today, as “Pyongyang”. This would be the capital of Goguryeo, of the later Goryeo, and similarly at different times in history.

King Yeongnyu

The King of Goguryeo during the early rise of the the Tang empire. He was largely a proponent of appeasement towards their aggressive neighbor. He was born “Geonmu”.

Yeon Gaesomun

Descended from various “Magniji”, or Prime Ministers, he was the Western and then Eastern Governor, and eventually the Dae Magniji, with “Dae” meaning “Great”. His name is based on modern Korean pronunciations of the Sinitic characters used in the annals. In the Nihon Shoki his name is “Iri Kasumi”. It is thought that his acutal name may be something like “Eol Kasum”. He was a hard-liner against the Tang empire.

King Bojang

The nephew of King Yeongnyu, who came to the throne after his father passed. During his reign, he was largely a puppet figurehead at the mercy of the Dae Magniji, Yeon Gaesomun.

Silla

Queen Seondeok

Reigned 632-647. She was the queen of Silla, and appreciated for her intelligence and perceptive nature. Still, she was not always taken seriously by patriarchal societies like the Tang empire. Even in Silla, she only came to the throne because there was no available male heir.

Queen Jindeok

Reigned 647-654. She followed Queen Seondeok and reached out to the Tang Empire with a poetic request for assistance.

Kim Yusin

Silla general who regularly fought against Baekje, with numerous victories against Baekje incursions.

Kim Ch’unch’u, aka king Muyeol

A grandson of King Jinji, who was still of “sacred bone” rank, although his line had been delegitimized when King Jinji was deposed. Still, he was a major supporter and diplomat for Silla. When Queen Jindeok passed away, he took the throne and would be known as King Muyeol

Baekje

King Uija

King Uija came to the Baekje throne in 641 and almost immediately launched military attacks on Silla. He was also an ally of Yamato.

Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua and this is Episode 115: Red Banquets, Fashion Disasters, and Other Continental Adventures

It was the year 642, and the hall was decked out in the finest, with banners hung and tables set. The scene was awash in gold and silk and silver. The guests were no less opulently adorned: The crème de la crème of Burana, aka Pyongyang, capital of the state of Goguryeo. The tables were piled high with food, and there was a low murmur as the assembled guests talked quietly as they waited for their host.
These guests were among the highest nobles in the land. 180 members of the most powerful families. As they mingled, they talked. Much of it was gossip, the currency of court politicians everywhere. They discussed who was up and down in the constant fight for favor. Who had made a misstep, or was seen talking to the wrong person? Or how about that time that someone wore the wrong clothes, or misspoke in court?
Other conversations focused outward, on the threats from beyond the border. But the majority of conversation had to do with their host, a striking individual. The murmurs continued as they waited for him to arrive.. Yeon Gaesomun was a hard-liner, pushing his agenda for stronger defenses against Tang encroachment. That might be understandable for someone stationed out east, as he had been, but the King himself and his supporters felt that relations needed a more diplomatic touch. Now that Gaesomun was back in the capital of Pyongyang, would he change his approach?
The conversation continued apace as people ate and drank. The whole time they remained blissfully unaware of what was happening just outside. Drowned out by the sound of the banquet, troops were quietly assembling just outside, girding themselves for what would soon be an irrevocable step forward. As orders came down the line, they drew their weapons, and then they burst through the doors…

Last episode we talked through much of the Hakuchi era, from 650 to 654. This episode I want to finish out the era, in order to do so we’re once again going to touch on what was happening over on the continent. Some of these events we’ve talked about already: Last time we did a deep dive into this subject, back in Episode 104, we focused primarily on the Tang dynasty and its rise. We also talked somewhat about Yamato’s conflicts with Tang, Goguryeo, and others in Episode 107. But at this point it’s useful to go back and put that Continental narrative together a little bit more clearly, to set the stage for what will be happening in Yamato in the next reign after Karu. This episode we are going to go back over some of that info, but I want to center the narrative a bit more on the peninsula, rather than on the Tang dynasty.
As you may recall, the Tang dynasty started in approximately 618, taking over from the Sui. By 628, the Tang had defeated the Gökturks, and they continued to expand. They conquered Turpan and Gaochang, in the Western Regions, and their control over the Silk Road was substantial, opening up tremendous trade routes that brought in wealth and more. The capital of Chang’an became a true center of learning, and the government instituted a national university that was attended by elites from both in and outside the empire.
This episode, though, we are going to focus more on the area of the Korean and Liaodong peninsulas, where the countries of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla contended with each other. Goguryeo was the largest and perhaps even the most powerful of the three, but it was also on the border with the Tang empire, who were nothing to sneeze at given their own string of military victories. So Goguryeo was beset from all sides, and needed a sizeable force on their western border. Everything was in a tenuous balance, of sorts.
When it came to the Tang empire, Goguryeo walked a delicate line. On the one hand, they wanted access to the trade goods and the knowledge that was accumulating in the Tang empire and making it the envy of most other nations in the region. On the other hand, they had to be constantly on the lookout for a possible invasion, and so needed to show their strength. This wasn’t without some confidence. After all, Goguryeo had defeated attempts by the Sui dynasty to invade, and so they had proved up to the challenge—at least so far.
In 619, on the eve of the Tang dynasty’s founding, King Yeongnyu of Goguryeo, whose personal name was Geonmu, sent a tribute mission to the Tang, to encourage good relations. By 622, Goguryeo was responding to the Tang dynasty’s request to return soldiers captured during the attempted invasions by the Sui. They kept sending missions on an annual basis, playing the part of a friendly tributary.
Further on the peninsula, Baekje and Silla were likewise reaching out to the Tang dynasty, similarly hungry for the trade goods available in the markets of Chang’an. Baekje, sitting on the coast of the Bohai sea, had direct routes to the mainland; to both the Yellow river and Yangzi river deltas. They may not have had an overland border, but the sea was open to them.
Silla, on the other hand, was not so quite so fortunate. They were mainly situated on the east side of the peninsula, and though they had some access through the Han river, near modern Seoul, their access was constantly threatened by both Baekje and Goguryeo. In 626, a Silla mission to the Tang complained about this very thing, claiming that Goguryeo was attacking them. In response, the Tang requested peace, and Goguryeo apologized and backed down.
That said, it is unclear if the Tang would have taken much action. They were, at that point, more focused on the Gökturks and others. That military action ended with the defeat of the Gökturks in 628, however, a victory for which Goguryeo sent congratulations. One has to imagine, however, that the congratulations were a bit mixed. After all, without the Gökturks to hold their attention, what was to keep the Tang dynasty from looking at further conquest?
The question of how to react to the Tang Empire seems to be one that split the Goguryeo court. Some members of the court wanted to appease the giant on their doorstep, with offers of tribute and nominal submission, with the goal of making it clear that they were not a threat and that military conquest was unnecessary. They could all live in harmony, one with the other. To that end, they would not want to be too blatant about building up their forces or defenses in an act that could be seen as a prelude to military action.
On the other side were the hard-liners: members of the court that felt that they had to maintain a strong military defense against the likely possibility of a Tang offensive. To these hawks, military strength was the deterrent, as power only truly respected power. To be seen as weak and submissive would be to seem vulnerable, and an easy target.
Still, there seems to have been relative, if uneasy, peace for a time. Goguryeo continued to build their relation as a tributary state, and most of the action seems to have actually been taking place in the peninsula. For Silla, 632 was a banner year, as Queen Seondeok came to the throne. She was the eldest daughter of her father, who had no sons to inherit, and so she came to the throne. She is said to have been quite intelligent, and the Samguk Sagi gives various accounts of her Holmsian powers of deduction. For example, upon seeing a picture of flowers, she immediately concluded that, though they were beautiful, they had no fragrance. She noted the lack of bees and butterflies around the flowers, and based on that observation she deduced that the flowers must have no scent to attract them.
Queen Seondeok would oversee Silla in a time when they were growing closer to the Tang and also seeing increased pressure from Baekje and Goguryeo. We mentioned how, in 626, Goguryeo had blocked Silla’s mission to the Tang court. Then, in 636, a Baekje general led 500 troops to Mt. Doksan, to attack the Silla position there. Two years later, Silla defeated Goguryeo troops outside Jiljung Fortress.
This wasn’t constant warfare, but it did mean that the armies had to be on a constant wartime footing. You never knew when your neighbor might sense a moment of weakness and try to take advantage of it. Of course, as the old adage goes, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Baekje and Goguryeo were more directly on the Tang Empire’s borders. And so we see Silla cultivating a special relationship with the Tang.
This is nothing new, by the way. Various dynasties in the Yellow River basin had used similar tactics for generations. Immediate border countries were often treated more severely, with threats of punitive expeditions if they did not fall in line or give themselves over completely to become a direct vassal of the empire. Countries just beyond the border were often treated with a lighter touch, luring them into complacency and even friendship with access to elite trade goods, and more. As borders shifted, so too did the relationship between the empire and those on its borders.
Goguryeo and Baekje fell into the former category, while Silla seems to have been in the latter—at least for now. And yet all three were still trying to get what they could.
In 640, Seondeok sent her sons to enroll in the Guoxue, or National University, that Tang Taizong had set up in Chang’an. This university had gathered Confucian scholars from all corners of the world. The school is described as having some 1200 bays, with 3,260 students. Besides Silla, Goguryeo and Baekje also sent their princes, who mingled with elites from Gaochang, Turpan, and elsewhere. It was opportunities like this that made Chang’an so attractive: a place where the elites of Silla, Goguryeo, and Baekje, could mingle with the members of the Tang Court and the western regions, beyond, sharing ideas and learning about the wider world.
The following year, in 641, there are two items of note. One is the inspection by Chen Dade of the Tang-Goguryeo border. We talked about this back in episode XXX. Under the pretense of a diplomatic mission, Dade arrived at the border with numerous gifts of silk, presenting them to the various fortress commanders and then asking to be shown around. The Commanders were more than happy to show Dade their impressive fortifications, and they were exceedingly polite, but little did they know that Dade’s true purpose was to scout for weaknesses in Goguryeo’s defensive line. His report back to Tang Taizong would be critical in what was to come.
Also in this year, King Uija of Baekje came to the throne. We talked about how Uija had sent his son, Prince Pung, to Yamato, and we’ve touched on him a few times here and there. Uija was clearly a proponent of the alliance with Yamato, and, as we’ll see, he was no friend to Silla. The following year, in 642, Ujia’s forces attacked Silla, capturing 40 strongholds, and pushing Silla’s expanding borders back to the Nakdong river, retaking much of the area that had been under the control of the various Kara, or Gaya, confederacy. This likely included places like Nimna and Ara, though we can’t know for certain. We do know that Baekje forces took Taeya fortress in the south of the peninsula, which gives us an idea of the extent of Baekje’s victories.
In response to Baekje’s brazen attacks, Silla went to a seemingly unlikely ally. They reached out to Goguryeo. In fact, they sent none other than Kim Ch’unch’u.
Kim Ch’unch’u was the grandson of the 25th king of Silla, King Jinji. Though his father, Kim Yonsu, had lost any claim to the throne when King Jinji was overthrown, he was still of “seonggol”, or “Sacred” bone rank, a concept somewhat similar to the kabane of Yamato, though in this case the “Sacred bone rank” indicated nobles specifically descended from the royal family. These would have likely been the various Royal Princes and their families in the Yamato hierarchy. Kim Ch’unch’u, in particular, seems to have been well regarded by the Silla court of his day, and since his own daughter had been killed by Baekje, he had a personal stake in the matter. And so he led the embassy to Goguryeo’s capital at Pyongyang to request that they send troops to aid Silla.
There was only one problem. Goguryeo was still fuming about territory that they had lost to Silla many years ago. They agreed to send troops, but only if Silla would agree to a little quid pro quo. Silla would need to return the Chungnyung pass and cede everything northwest of it back to Goguryeo. This would return much of Goguryeo’s territory north of the Han river and modern Seoul.
Kim Ch’unch’u rebuked their offer, calling it a threat against Silla. This angered King Yeongnyu, and Kim Ch’unch’u was jailed for his disrespect. Ch’unch’u was able to get word out of his imprisonment, however, and Queen Seondeok sent what the Samguk Sagi calls a “Death Squad” of 10,000 soldiers with the aim of breaking him out of prison. As soon as Goguryeo heard that these troops were on the move, they decided that holding onto Ch’unch’u wouldn’t be worth it, and they released him rather than fight. Kim Ch’unch’u was returned safely, but without the support that he wanted.
That said, there may have been other things going on in Goguryeo. The pro-appeasement camp and the hard-liners were fuming, and things in the court were coming to a head. The two sides pulled against each other in the way that they shaped policy. For the most part, King Yeongnyu was pro-appeasement, but there were powerful figures in the hard-liner camp, such as Yeon Gaesomun. At 46 years old, he was a descendant of at least two previous “Magniji” court officials—a title roughly equivalent to that of a Prime Minister, and one of the most powerful roles a non-royal court noble could aspire to. Gaesomun himself was the Western Governor, directly responsible for the fortresses that defended the border with the territory of the Tang Empire. As such, it is little wonder that he may have been a bit more focused on the threat that they posed, and he likely held the loyalty of not a few troops.
And perhaps this is why King Yeongnyu started to suspect him of being a problem, and why he plotted to have him killed. Word of the King’s plot reached Gaesomun, however, and he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Returning to Pyongyang in 642, Gaesomun let it be known that he was throwing a lavish banquet to celebrate his rise to the position of Eastern governor. He invited over one hundred of the opposing court nobles under this pretence. But that is all it was.
When the nobles had gathered at the banquet site, Gaesomun struck. He had loyal forces rush in and kill all of his opponents, and then, before an alarm could sound, he rushed his troops over to the palace and murdered King Yeongnyu. It was the Goguryeo’s own Red Wedding, and it would hold a particular place of infamy in Korean history, which said that the troops dismembered the corpse and discarded it without ceremony.
In place of King Yeongnyu, Gaesomun propped up Yeongnyu’s nephew, King Bojang. Gaesomun then appointed himself the Dae Magniji, the Great Prime Minister, or perhaps more fittingly “Generalissimo”. Though King Bojang sat upon the throne there was no question that it was Gaesomun who now ruled Goguryeo.
Gaesomun’s legacy is complicated. Under the Confucian values of the time, many early historians vilified him for murdering the king, and blamed him and his harsh policies for the eventual downfall of the kingdom. He is portrayed as a man lusting after power. We are given examples of his harsh demeanor, and the Annals state that when he got off of his horse he had high ranking nobles and military officials lie on the ground so that he could step on them, rather than touching the ground. Of course, some of this we should likely take with a grain of salt, given the Chroniclers’ generally dim view of him in general.
On the other hand, some modern histories believe that he wanted Goguryeo to take a tougher stance against the Tang. Early Korean nationalists rehabilitated him, exalting him for taking such a hard stance against the Tang, or, in their eyes, China. I suspect that he was a little of both. A tyrant and a despot—as many rulers of the time were—but also dedicated to the defense of his nation.
We mentioned this briefly back in Episode 107, but I wanted to touch on it here in more detail as it really leads to where we want to discuss. A very brief mention of this lies in the Nihon Shoki, where it says that “Irikasumi” the “Prime Minister” of Goguryeo slew the king and over 180 others. For the most part it tracks, though it does say that it happened in 641, which may easily just be a simple scribal error.
The general narrative from here is that the Tang dynasty used Gaesomun’s usurpation as a pretext for war against Goguryeo, but the narrative seems a bit more complex, and when we are reading we should keep in mind that none of the players in this drama knew the outcome beforehand. And so, as is often the case, things are quite as straightforward as they may seem when we zoom out and take a look at the macro level of historical events, where we’ve already decide what events we believe to be important and which were less so, often based on knowing the outcomes. Of course, the Chroniclers would have had similar narratives, but they were still trying to catalogue the events of each year as best they could.
And that brings us to the year 643. In this year, Silla went to the Tang dynasty to ask them for assistance against both Baekje and Goguryeo, who were planning to cut off Silla’s access to the Tang court. Tang Taizong agreed to help, but only if Silla would accept a Tang official who would come and oversee Silla. Taizong’s reasoning is given, which follows a typically misogynistic logic: “Because your country has a woman as a ruler, neighboring states belittle it. As you have lost the authority of the ruler, thus inviting the enemy to attack, no year will enjoy peace.” He basically said that Silla needed a big strong man to help out, and he was willing to send someone—along with troops—to do just that. Of course, I think we can all see how that was likely to end up, and any thoughts Silla had of being an equal partner in such an arrangement were nothing more than fantasies. Tang Taizong was agreeing to assist, if Silla became a protectorate of the Tang court.
The Silla envoy, for his part, took a very political stance. No doubt knowing just how bad this was for Silla, but not wanting to disrespect the Tang emperor, whose assistance they still needed, he acknowledged the emperor’s words without accepting the terms, returning without the promised help, but also without completely subordinating his country to the Tang empire.
Although the troops were not forthcoming, the envoy’s mission still had a positive impact. Having heard that the envoy was traveling to the Tang court, King Uija of Baekje proactively withdrew the troops he had that were planning to attack with Goguryeo and cut off Silla’s access to Chang’an. Thus, Silla’s corridor was maintained.
Goguryeo, for their part, continued to attack Silla’s border, but even though Gaesomun was one of the hard-liners when it came to Goguryeo-Tang relations, his initial envoys to the Tang court took a conciliatory stance towards the Tang empire. Gaesomun promoted Daoism over Buddhism, and had his emissaries request and bring back 8 Daoist sages from the Tang court.
Many historians feel that this was actually something of a show. Sure, they would get knowledge and learning from the sages, but more importantly was to put the Tang at ease and hopefully allow Goguryeo a chance to annex Silla before the Tang war machine got up and running.
For their part, the Tang were already considering their next moves against Goguryeo, with some suggesting that they use proxies, like the Khitan and the Malgal, to make an attack. Emperor Taizong’s advisors suggested that the best course of action would be to lull Goguryeo into a false sense of security prior to a massive assault. And so there were no major attacks that year.
In 644, however, the Tang sent a message to Baekje and Goguryeo that they would need to stop invading Silla, and that if they didn’t do so, the Tang would attack. Gaesomun was actually leading troops in an attack on Silla when news of the messenger arrived at Goguryeo’s court in Pyongyang. Gaesomun’s response was that he was simply trying to reclaim the territory that Silla had previously stolen from them many years earlier. Along with their excuses, they sent along gold and 50 hostages from the Goguryeo court, but they were refused by the Tang. It was probably pretty clear at this point that things were coming to a head—and diplomatic relations finally broke down in 645.
That year the Tang dynasty—in conjunction with Silla, the Samguk Sagi tells us—launched a massive invasion of Goguryeo. The pretext of which was, as I mentioned, Gaesomun’s usurpation of the throne, but let’s not kid ourselves: The Tang dynasty were not shy about pushing out their borders.
The Tang troops, who had been preparing for the past year, invaded in a two prong attack. An overland attack struck at Gaemo—modern Shenyang—while naval forces landed on the Liaodong peninsula. These forces initially swept through the border fortresses along the Liaodong penninsula with seeming ease. Remember Chen Dade and his little factfinding mission? No doubt all of his work came in quite handy.
Things were going well, and Tang Taizong himself joined the campaign. Still, each fortress took time, so that even though the invasion started in April, they reached Ansi by June.
We are told that Goguryeo had amassed over 150,000 forces at Mt. Jipul, near Ansi, a walled fortress town with an estimated population of around 100,000. Those numbers may be exaggerations, but the context is clear: This was not just a small fortress and Goguryeo sent a lot of troops to reinforce the area.
On the other side, Goguryeo was facing odds that were probably more like 3 to 1, with a massive Tang invasion force, which, since they had split, were attacking from two different directions. Sure enough, the Tang were able to catch the defenders out of position, with the troops that had crossed the sea assaulting from the front while the overland forces attacked Goguryeo’s rear. It is estimated that over 50,000 Goguryeo troops were killed or captured in the battle.
And that left only the fortress of Ansi, with a garrison of maybe 5,000 troops, to face the Tang, who had otherwise swept through previous defenses in relatively short order. It would have been understandable had they capitulated. There were still other fortresses between the Tang armies and the capital of Goguryeo at Pyongyang, not to mention the extremely mountainous terrain between the Liaodong and Korean peninsulas. And yet, the Ansi garrison refused to give in. The Tang forces, for their part, knew they could not leave an enemy to their rear, and so rather than continuing on, they set a siege to the fortress town.
Although we are told that the Tang forces brought siege engines with them, the garrison at Ansi held out. In fact, they held out for three months, and fall was beginning to turn to winter. Winter in northeast Asia would bring snow and mud. Furthermore, the Tang supply lines themselves were fairly long at this point. Eventually, the defenders won out, and the Tang forces turned back. On the march back towards Chang’an, Tang Taizong and his troops were caught in an early winter blizzard, which killed more of the soldiers. Emperor Taizong founded Minzhong Temple—known today as Fayuan Temple, in modern Beijing—to commemorate his fallen soldiers.
Although the Tang forces retreated, it is hard to say that Goguryeo was truly victorious in the outcome of the war. Many Gogouryeo troops perished in the fighting, while Tang could now regroup. Goguryeo was unlikely to be a major and immediate threat to Silla, as they would need to continue to maintain troops and rebuild the fortresses taken by the Tang, but that didn’t mean that Silla was off the hook, either.
Through this all, Baekje had taken the opportunity to harass Silla’s western border. They sent wave after wave against Silla, whose forces in that area were under the command of general Kim Yusin. The Samguk Sagi mentions that his forces would turn back one attack, and he’d be almost back home, when another attack would come and he would have to go back out. In one particularly poignant moment, he even got so close as to see his house, but he could not stop, and so he marched straight past the gates as he prepared to repel yet another invasion from Baekje.
Winter brought a pause to the fighting, and in 646, things seem to have been relatively calm, if still quite tense, as all sides recovered from the events of the previous year. Nonetheless, this is seen as the start of what is known as the Goguyreo-Tang war, a series of conflicts that would continue for approximately the next 20 years. Goguryeo, for their part, attempted to normalize relations with the Tang, even sending two women—specifically the Annals state that they were two beautiful women—as a peace offering. Tang Taizong politely refused them, however, claiming he wouldn’t dare to separate them from their families. In reality, he was rebuilding his forces, preparing for another assault, but that would take time. In the meantime, diplomatic channels remained open, which really demonstrates the political situation in general, at the time. Even if two sides were attacking one another, diplomatic envoys were still being exchanged. Furthermore, though the trade routes may have been slightly less stable, trade continued, regardless.
The following year, 647, Emperor Taizong launched fresh assaults against Goguryeo. This time, rather than a larger army, he instead had them focus on small-scale attacks that would weaken the kingdom of Goguryeo, forcing them to constantly be on guard and to pour resources into supporting their borders. At the same time, Silla suffered tragedy as Queen Seondeok died, and Queen Chindeok took the throne. Later in that year, Baekje troops attacked three Silla fortresses. They were pushed back, but the Silla troops took heavy casualties. As we can see, the fighting continued throughout the peninsula.
Meanwhile, over on the Japanese archipelago, they were busy incorporating the new reforms. Envoys from Silla, Baekje, and Goguryeo would continue to travel to the Yamato court, which one imagines made for some rather tense State dinners.
The year after that, in 648, while Tang forces continued to harass Goguryeo, Baekje attacked and took ten Silla fortresses. Upon hearing this, Silla general Kim Yusin rallied the troops, counterattacked, and destroyed the invading forces. Silla’s Prince Ch’unch’u himself, the one who had previously gone to Goguryeo to ask for support against Baekje, traveled to the Tang court in Chang’an. There he requested assistance against Baekje’s continual harassment of Silla’s borders.
It is unclear how firmly Baekje and Goguryeo were allied together and coordinating attacks, but it does seem clear that they were aligned in their goals. Baekje may not have been in direct conflict with the Tang, but their attacks on Silla likely kept Silla from further harassing Goguryeo, who was actively involved in defending against Tang attacks. So whether there were formal treaties or not, lines were drawn, but these were still independent states with their own goals and aspirations.
And so, when Ch’unch’u’s ship was returning from Chang’an and ran into a Goguryeo patrol, one can understand their apprehension. Ch’unch’u was known to Goguryeo, and if we was captured it is unlikely that he would live long enough to be rescued by an elite Silla death squad once again. And so, his men devised a plan, and a man named On Kunhae put on the clothes of a high official—possibly Ch’unch’u’s own. When the Goguryeo patrol captured the ship, they killed him, believing he was a Silla noble or at least an important envoy. Unbeknownst to them, Ch’unch’u himself had been transferred to a smaller, less assuming ship, which quietly made its way past the patrol and back to Silla controlled territory.
And so, once again, we see us how dangerous things were getting at this point. Travel was risky at the best of times, but now, with the possibility of being intercepted by a hostile country’s forces, who knew what might happen.
Hostilities continued until 649. That year, Tang Taizong passed away, and shortly before he did, he pulled back the troops. His death only brought a brief pause, however, as his son and heir, Tang Gaozong, took the throne and would launch his own series of wars against both Goguryeo and Baekje. In 650, Gaozong received Prince Kim Ch’unch’u once again as an ambassador from Silla, this time with a poem penned by Queen Chindeok herself. In the form of poetic verse, she asked for help against Baekje, who had continued their attacks. Throughout the previous year attacks had continued back and forth. Silla general Kim Yusin again managed to push back and defeat the Baekje forces, but one can only imagine the toll this was taking on Silla’s ability to defend itself over time. This was the content of the note.
Prior to this, Silla really had gone all in on strengthening their ties with the Tang dynasty, going so far as to institute Tang court dress—both in their robes and caps. This point had been specifically negotiated by Prince Ch’unch’u with the previous emperor, Tang Taizong. It sounds as if Silla was trying to have the Tang court recognize their own court nobles and put themselves in a place to receive Tang court rank, though how, exactly, they received said rank is unclear—did it come from the Tang or was it granted by the Queen of Silla.
Either way, it was clearly seen by other nations—or at least Yamato—as an unwelcome statement. In 651, Silla envoys arrived at Tsukushi—modern day Kyushu—wearing their new Tang style clothing and they were turned away. Specifically the Dazaifu sent them back claiming that they weren’t dressed as envoys from Silla should be. On top of this, we are told that Kose no Omi then suggested that rather than go to war over this, they should just make a show of force when the envoys came back. And let me reiterate that: according to the Nihon Shoki this was such an affront that Yamato was considering whether they should launch a punitive military strike against Silla for sporting the wrong fit. Talk about a fashion disaster!
In the end, they took Kose no Omi’s advice, which was that the next time Silla arrived they would have ships lined up all along the Seto Inland Sea as the envoys made their way to Yamato so that there was no doubt in the envoys’ minds about just what Yamato could do.
This is a great demonstration of how something we might consider innocuous was clearly a Big Deal for the people at the time. I suspect that there were at least two possible reasons for why this was, besides just considering themselves the arbiters of fashion. For one, remember that Yamato considered Silla to be subordinate to them, at least in their worldview. Just like they had been concerned about at least maintaining the fiction that Nimna was still an active and independent entity, this broke the illusion that Silla was a tributary of Yamato.
At the same time, it may have just been that they were putting on airs and it was seen as impersonating and even speaking for the Tang court. After all, if a Tang envoy showed up, I doubt that Yamato would turn them away.
In either instance, we can see the lines being drawn, with Silla taking a clear stance in connecting themselves with the Tang court while Goguryeo, Baekje, and even Yamato were still in contact with them, but from a more independent capacity. In 652, for instance, we know that Goguryeo again sent tribute to the Tang court, no doubt in an attempt to normalize relations. Still, the alliances were firming up.
In 653 we have two items of interest: one from the Samguk Sagi and one from the Nihon Shoki. In the Samguk Sagi it explicitly mentions that Baekje and Wa formed an alliance. This is significant in that the Samguk Sagi really doesn’t mention Wa nearly as often as we would expect it to, while the Nihon Shoki is constantly discussing Baekje and Yamato relations. I imagine that there must have been a significant escalation of Wa involvement around this time for the Samguk Sagi to mention it.
On the other hand, the Nihon Shoki doesn’t really mention it. Sure, there are annual tributes mentioned from Baekje and Silla—and occasionally Goguryeo—but they were more focused on another event: an embassy that the Yamato court sent to the Tang dynasty. This was the first embassy to be sent in some time—at least according to the Nihon Shoki—but it was quite the affair.
Two ships were prepared. The first ship was led by Kishi no Nagani and his assistant, Kishi no Koma, along with the envoy, Nunobara no Mita. They were accompanied by numerous students and student priesets, all sons of court nobility, including Jou’e, the son of none other than Nakatomi no Kamatari the “Naidaijin” or central prime minister. In total, there were 121 people on board the ship.
The other ship was led by Takada no Nemaro and his assistant, Kamori no Womaro, as well as their accompanying envoy, Hashi no Yatsute. Along with various students, they had 120 on board the ship. Two ships, each with an individual in charge of the particular embassy, meant that even if they met with an accident along the way, they would have someone to carry on the mission. And that foresight proved unfortunately necessary when the ship carrying Takada no Nemaro sank in the straits of Takashima off the coast of Satsuma. The ship went down and only five men survived, largely by lashing themselves to a plank and drifting ashore at Takashima island. There, one of the survivors, Kadobe no Kogane, gathered bamboo and made a raft, by which they made it to Shitojishima. They surived six days and nights without any food, but they made it. When he heard about it, the sovereign congratulated Kogane and rewarded him with rank and various presents for his work to bring people back home.
Another mission, launched the following year, shows that being lost at sea wasn’t the only danger for international travelers back in the day. In the 2nd month of 654, Takamuku no Kuromaro led another embassy to the Tang court. He was the Controlling Envoy, though the Chief Ambassador was Kahabe no Maro, assisted by Yenichi no Kusushi, a name that Aston suggests translates to something like “Doctor Yenishi”. A list of other names are given as well of those who were also on the mission. More sobering is the outcome of the mission, where we are told what happened to everyone. Though they reached the Tang court, not everyone would make it back. According to the author Yuki no Hakatoko—an interesting tidbit in that they seem to be giving us the author of one of the accounts that they used in the compilation of the Nihon Shoki, and we’ll come back to him in a later episode—according to Hakatoko, the student priest Enmyou died in Tang, while the student priests Chisou and Chikoku both died at sea. Another person named Chisou, but using different characters, returned in a Silla ship in 690. Gakusho died in Tang and Gitsu died at sea. Joye returned in 665 in the ship of Liu Tekao. And then others—about 12 total—along with two individuals who were considered Japanese born abroad, came back in 654 with returning envoys. We are even told that Takamuku no Kuromaro, one of the figures who helped set up the government and played a major role in diplomatic relations with the continent, passed away on this mission as well.
So going on one of these missions may have given you some awesome opportunities to see the world like nobody else, but they were anything but guaranteed. For many people, it was a one way ticket, and we should keep that in mind when we hear about the people going on them.
There were other intricacies to deal with as well—including navigating the pathways to the Tang court. You may remember that Yamato was allied with Baekje in some way. And yet the 654 mission we are told went by way of Silla and then anchored in Laichou, on the Shandong peninsula. Later that same year, the previous mission, with Kishi no Nagani and others, returned to Yamato escoted by envoys from both Silla and Baekje. While the narrative largely focuses on what they obtained, one imagines there were probably some tensions in all of that. After all, just a year before we are told that Baekje and allied with Wa—which is to say Yamato—against Silla. So had Silla not yet heard about the alliance? Or was that just considered par for the course at the time?
The year 654 would have more direct considerations for all concerned, however. In that year, Queen Chindeok of Silla died, as did Karu of Yamato. In Silla, the new King was none other than Prince Kim Ch’unch’u, known to history as King Muyeol. As we touched on, earlier, Ch’unch’u was intimately familiar with the Tang court and had spoken directly with the Tang emperor, so this likely only further cemented ties between the Tang and Silla. Meanwhile, in Yamato, Queen Takara Hime, aka Kyougyoku Tennou -slash- Saimei Tennou, was re-ascending the throne, rather than making way for Prince Naka no Oe, a truly interesting state of affairs.
Moving forward, the alliances would continue to solidify, though diplomatic missions would continue to travel between the various countries. After all, they didn’t exactly have many other means of communicating with each other—no email or telephones back then.
Tang Gaozong would continue to attack and harass Goguryeo, though Yeon Gaesomun would continue to fend off attacks, while Baekje and Silla would continue their struggles as well. Both Goguryeo and Baekje would ally against Silla, who in turn would call upon the might of the Tang empire. All in all, it was a time of great conflict, generally known as the Tang-Goguryeo War, and it was a long-term conflict punctuated with times of peace in betwetween the various offensives. Yamato was less directly involved, but still affected. After all, they were closely aligned with Baekje, and they had to wonder what would happen if Silla came out victorious. Would they be cut off from the continent entirely? Or would they be forced into a new state of having to send tribute to Silla as an inferior country if they wanted access to continental goods and knowledge? While we know how it played out, today, at the time the outcomes were far from certain.
All of that will continue to provide a backdrop for the second reign of Takara Hime, aka Saimei Tennou. A part of me wonders if this wasn’t also part of the reason to move the capital back into Asuka, in the Nara Basin. I imagine that a capital sitting on the edge of the water, relatively speaking, while good for trade and foreign relations, also felt rather exposed if anyone were to sail a fleet down the Seto Inland Sea. Or it may have just been a return to the more familiar lands of Asuka.
As conflict on the continent continued to escalate, Yamato would not be able to stay unaffected. The question is whether or not they would be ready when and if anything came their way. It was a tense period, certainly.
And we’ll get more into that as we move forward in the next episode with the second reign of Takara-hime, aka Saimei Tennou. Until then thank you for listening and for all of your support.
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And that’s all for now. Thank you again, and I’ll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan.

References

Kim, P., & Shultz, E. J. (2013). The 'Silla annals' of the 'Samguk Sagi'. Gyeonggi-do: Academy of Korean Studies Press.
Kim, P., Shultz, E. J., Kang, H. H. W., & Han'guk Chŏngsin Munhwa Yŏn'guwŏn. (2012). The Koguryo annals of the Samguk sagi. Seongnam-si, Korea: Academy of Korean Studies Press.
Best, J. (2006). A History of the Early Korean Kingdom of Paekche, together with an annotated translation of The Paekche Annals of the Samguk sagi. Cambridge (Massachusetts); London: Harvard University Asia Center. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1tg5q8p
Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4