Two Shilla Intellectuals in Tang: Cases of Early Sino-Korean Cultural Connections

Tang Studies 23-24 (2005-06) T w o Shilla Intellectuals in T ang: C ases of E arly Sino-K orean C ultural C onnections YOUNG KYUN OH ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY The Tang Empire (618-907) established a visible territory under its military and political influence and, perhaps more importantly but less obviously, a cultural territory integrating its neighboring states into the sphere of Chinese civilization, sharing such Chinese cultural products as social system, thought, education, language, writing system, and so forth. Outside its cultural territory, Tang also emerged as one of the cultural centers of the world, by interacting and forming a network with other contemporaneous cultural institutions.! Shilla *JT:m (57 B.C.-A.D. 935), as one of Tang's immediate neighbors, was an active member of the institution, a voluntary participant in the Tang cultural territory. What does it mean, however, to live on the periphery of a powerful cultural center like the Tang Empire? How did Tang deal with her neighbors to incorporate them into her cultural territory? This paper will discuss some facets of the cultural interaction and exchange practiced between Tang and 1 The terms "network" and "institution" are employed here more loosely than they should be, but the conceptualization of these theoretical entities is described in more detail as "world institutions" and "world network" by Adshead, the former being defined to be more functionally cohesive than the latter; and the latter is the "coexistence of severalworld institutions and, depending on their strength, some interaction between them." See S. A. M. Adshead, Tang China: the Rise o/the East in World History (New York:PalgraveMacmillan, 2004),3-4. Rather specifically,the Tang "network" here denotes the interaction between Tang proper, its neighboring peoples outside the political territory or in the periphery-whose successrelied largelyon the voluntary affiliationwith Tangand the cultures residing in regions, such as India and Persia, more remote from Tang than the peripheral states but trying to be associated somehow with Tang society. I interject the notion of territoriality (as in "cultural territory") in what followssimply in order to bring out the senseof "encounter" between cultures of different memories and dispositions. 119 Oh: Two Shilla Intellectuals its neighbors-Tang and Shilla in particular-through the lives of two Shillans who went to Tang in an effort to gain some insight into the early stage of Sino-Korean cultural association. The rise of Tang roughly coincides with the end of Korea's Samguk shidae .=:~ffif1i;(Three Kingdoms Period, 57 B.C.-A.D. 668), during which the Korean peninsula was divided into Koguryo ~1:i]1I (37 B.C.-A.D. 668), Paekche Ef~ (18 B.C.-A.D. 660), and Shilla, and the beginning of the first unified monarchy occupying the main part of the peninsula, commonly referred to as UnifiedShilla m-*JT~ (668-935). For the next three centuries, Tang and Shilla enjoyed flourishing exchange in almost every aspect of their societies. 2 The most fundamental medium of cultural exchange has always been the exchange of people. Records of incidents involving people moving from the Korean peninsula to Tang China appear as early as the reign ofTaizong **(r. 626-649). For example, Taizong forcibly relocated 70,000 Koguryo people to Tang territory following his invasion ofKoguryo in 645,3 and 28,200 households in 668 to various locations south of the Yangtze and Huai Rivers after conquering Koguryo in alliance with Shilla.4 Also, in 660, the Tang army arrested more than 12,000 people from Paekche and moved them to Tang lands after overthrowing their kingdom.5 Koreans also migrated from Shilla to Tang, but, unlike the cases of Koguryo and Paekche, Shillans moved to Tang voluntarily and their 2 The Unified Shilla period (676-935) is also called Northern and Southern Kingdoms Period (Nambukkuk shidae 1¥i::lt~[f,f{i;), which comprises Parhae m$ (698-926) occupying the northern part of the peninsula and Shilla in the south. In addition, criticism of the term "Unified Shilla" is gaining support, mainly for the reason that Shilla did not unifY the entire peninsula or the previous three kingdoms completely. 3 Sima Guang Cf]}i!~7\:; (1019-1086), Zizhi...