Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/285

 Chapter IX. COREA. During the interval since the Tang dynasty swept like a tornado over Qaoli and Baiji — ^levelling the cities, rooting out the villages, and converting the cultivated fields to blood-stained wastes till, in 905, that dynasty ceased to rule over China, — the foundations of the modem Corea were being quietly, slowly, but steadily laid. The Tang broke up Gaoli ; and those who could, fle3 across the Toomun, and to Changbaishan into Bohai land. Kitan destroyed the extensive kingdom founded by Bohai ; which doubtless, in its turn, threw many myriads of fugitives south into Gaoli soil, which was then at peace because a desert What with immigration, and what with the natural increase of its inhabitants, when acres were numerous and men few, Gaoli had, in 918, so far recovered that Goongcha, a Buddhist priest^ believing that the affairs of cities and country required the control of monarchy, assumed the title and power of king of Gaoli in Kaichow city, north-west of the present capital, and south-east of Fingyang, the ancient capital It would appear, however, that he was scarcely able to keep order in his dominions; for, in 923, he was murdered by his general, Wang Jien, who reigned in his stead ; making Kaichow his eastern and Fingyang his western capital He was a scion of the ancient Gaoli royal house ; and what was better, was of a generous and merciful disposition, and the people had rest This not merely proves the re-peopled state of the country, but shows its former lawless- ness; which indeed was but the rule universal over all those countries subject to the influence of the decaying power of Tang, which were once welded together by its living vigour. But the history of every dynasty is similar in China. Each in its turn