Koryo as an Independent Realm: The Emperor's Clothes?

This article examines the status of the mid-Koryŏ polity as an independent realm. Often ideological extremes are contrasted with one another, and one or the other is seen as representing Koryŏ's deÞning quality, but this article argues the necessity of examining Koryŏ from a pluralist point of view. Koryŏ's pluralist ideology is reßected in the way it looked at itself and its neighbors and in its policies. In order to clarify middle Koryŏ's status as an independent realm, issues closely connected to Koryŏ identity, such as the clothes of the ruler, state rituals, foreign policies, and ruling ideologies, are scrutinized.