Korea 750 CE

What is happening in Korea in 750CE

The whole Korean peninsula has now come under the control of Silla. This state, armed with a powerful military system and allied with the Tang empire, first defeated its two rivals (in 660 and 668) and then drove out the Tang from the peninsula.

Silla has become a bureaucratic state under an absolute monarch, modelled on that of the Tang. The aristocracy has lost much of its power, though its members staff the senior posts of the civil service. Buddhism is the state religion, but prospective officials are given a Confucian education. The Silla capital of Kyongju has become a city full of Buddhist temples and royal palaces.

After Koguryo’s conquest by Silla, a group of refugee Koguryo nobles established a new state called Po-Hai. This state considers itself to be a continuation of Koguryo. Contemporary records describe it as prosperous and highly civilized.

Next map, Korea in 979