Five States and Seven Fiefdoms
The Five States and Seven Fiefdoms period (Menghean: 오웅 칠국 / 五雄七國, Oung Chilguk), also translated as the Five Kingdoms and Seven States period and sometimes abbreviated as the Five Kingdoms or Five States Period, was a period of Menghean history stretching from 278 to 542 CE. It began with Prince Tae Jo's declaration of rebellion against the collapsing Meng dynasty, and ended with the flight of Chŏllo's royal family in the face of the advancing Chikai nomads, who would go on to establish the short-lived Jin dynasty. During this period, the country was divided into five major kingdoms struggling for control over the country, and a number of minor states and fiefdoms scattered around the periphery. It was the longest period of disunity and internal conflict in dynastic Menghean history, with the exception of the period of division that preceded the Jun dynasty.
The term "Five States and Seven Fiefdoms" is something of a misnomer, as there were only five major states for part of the period. From the early 5th century to the early 6th century, Chikai was a protectorate of Tae and Donghae was a Tae possession. This span of time is occasionally referred to as the "Three States and Five Fiefdoms" period. The identities of the Seven Fiefdoms also changed repeatedly over the course of the period, with subsequent historians providing different lists of their names and locations; like the Five States, the minor fiefdoms changed hands repeatedly in wars with their major opponents.
Marked by two and a half centuries of nearly continuous war, the Five States and Seven Fiefdoms period brought enormous destruction to Menghe and its people. The Jin dynasty's first census in 558 counted only a third as many people as the Meng dynasty's final census in 246, indicating not only a reduction in the population but also a reduction in the state's ability to count it. Beyond the usual ravages of war, canals and dykes fell into disrepair, intensifying floods and famines, and long-distance trade declined to a trickle. The resulting damage was influential in allowing nomads from outside to set up their own dynasty, an accomplishment not repeated in subsequent Menghean history. On the other hand, the constant pressure of war also brought forth rapid improvement in governing techniques, taxation policies, and weaponry, reminiscent of the pace of development during the Warring States period.
Though contemporary writers lamented it as a dark age of bloodshed and strife, the Five States and Seven Fiefdoms period later became a favorite period for romanticized history and drama because its subject matter provided a wide array of heroes, villains, and important events. During the Sŭng, Yi, and Myŏn dynasties, it was a favorite setting for poems, novels, and plays, and in modern times it remains popular as a setting for movies, television series, and video games. This cultural impact has spread beyond Menghe's borders to Themiclesia, which was occupied by the retreating Chŏllo aristocracy, and Dayashina, which imported Menghean literary classics in subsequent centuries.
Timeline of major events
- 275 CE: Crown Prince Gyŏng, heir to the Meng throne, is found dead, likely poisoned by court eunuchs. General Chŏn Tak responds by launching a rebellion from his power base in Tae'an.
- 278: The Meng capital of Yŏng'an falls to Tae forces, and the young Emperor flees south to Chŏllo.
- 283, 284, 287, and 291: Chŏllo armies under Jin Sŏng make four attempts to retake Yŏng'an, but are driven back each time.
- 352: A Chŏllo campaign to take Yŏng'an finally succeeds in liberating the city. The victory is largely symbolic, as Insŏng and Tae'an have already emerged as larger commercial and political centers.
- 384: A Batu army succeeds in capturing Yŏng'an. It is recaptured by Chŏllo forces in 402.
- 435: The city of Jangpyŏng falls to a Tae invasion. The State of Tae subsequently annexes Donghae.
- 437 and 439: Chok and Wi, respectively, fall to Tae invasions from the north.
- 442: A second Tae expedition reaches Jingyŏng, the Chikai capital. The State of Chikai remains nominally independent, but becomes a puppet state of Tae.
- 445: The State of Tae launches a surprise invasion of Batu, seizing most of the lower Meng river valley.
- 446: Tae makes a new thrust toward Yŏng'an and retake the city.
- 447: Tae incursions into Batu make deep progress but are ultimately turned back. A Chikai attack on the state of Suk also fails.
- 448: Genral Sun Chaek retakes Yŏng'an for Chŏllo, aided by Batu's decision to enter the war as an ally.
- 455: Chŏn Yŏm dies in a power struggle, bringing Tae's southward campaigns to a temporary end.
- 463: Chikai stops sending tribute to Tae. Two years later, it defeats a Tae army sent to restore control.
- 518: Tae'an falls to Chikai forces. Khagan Ambagyan establishes the Jin dynasty with the captured city as his capital.
- 536: Yŏng'an falls to Jin-Chikai forces, changing hands for the seventh time in 300 years.
- 542: Jin-Chikai forces reach Insŏng. Emperor Wŏn and his court flee westward to a new exile in Themiclesia.
The Five States
Both dynastic and modern historians agree on the identities of the Five States, which are reproduced below. These were the five largest kingdoms involved in the struggle for control of Menghe, as opposed to the Seven Fiefdoms, which were relatively minor. The individual states' relative strength waxed and waned over the centuries; Chikai was a protectorate of Tae between 379 and 521, and Tae conquered Donghae in 412, only to lose control of it again in 507. Likewise, while Chŏllo and Batu were fierce rivals at the outset of the period, they banded together in 428 to repel Tae's campaign driving southwest. Nevertheless, Donghae and Chikai are universally counted among the Five States, the former because it rivaled Tae for control of the north, and the latter because it ultimately emerged victorious.
Tae
The State of Tae (泰) was the first of the Five States to break away from the Meng dynasty's control. It was located to the west of Lake Jinjunghae, in what is today known as the Haesŏ Region, and it forms the core of today's Taehwa province. It was founded by Chŏn Tak (千卓), a talented commander who saw an opportunity to seize power in the midst of a palace power struggle. With access to the rich ore deposits of the upper Chŏnsan mountains, Tae was known for its metalworking, and produced skilled commanders and motivated soldiers.
In most dramatized histories of the Five States and Seven Kingdoms, the State of Tae is portrayed as the antagonist, and its generals as cruel, bloodthirsty villains. Tae was the aggressor in the Fall of Meng, the Donghae War, and the war with Chŏllo and Batu, all three of which form favorite subject material for poets and writers. Ra Gwan-jung was the first to popularize this narrative, and it became the dominant view during the Sŭng, Yi, and Myŏn dynasties, all of which originated from power bases in the center or south.
Favorable accounts of Tae first surfaced in the late Sŭng dynasty, where they were written as implicit critiques of the late Sŭng court. Poems sympathetic to Chŏn Tak's rebellion became more common during periods of dynastic decline, and were sometimes clear enough allegories to earn death sentences for their writers. Kim Ryung-sŏng read these poems extensively early in his life and consciously modeled himself on Chŏn Tak, and his own rebellion in 1865, followed by the State of Sinyi which emerged from it, bore strong parallels to Tae's history. A self-proclaimed "Tae Army" even emerged in the Menghean War of Liberation, fighting from a power base in the Chŏnsan Mountains from 1946 to 1949.
Chŏllo
Chŏllo (千鷺) was for a time the largest of the Five States, stretching across a broad swath of the Southern Plain. This region was named Chŏllo, or "thousand herons," during the Meng dynasty, in reference to the vast flocks of large marsh birds which congregated in its rivers and wetlands. Its vast grasslands were also home to some of the best horsemen in East Hemithea, second only to the Chikai and Dzhungar nomads beyond the Chŏnsan mountains. Chŏllo soldiers rode into battle in black-and-blue uniforms, a color scheme which reflected the traditional fashion and readily available dyes of the area.
Most romanticized histories of the Five States period portray Chŏllo most favorably, casting it as the protagonist in a war to restore Meng civilization. It was ruled by a surviving branch of the Meng dynasty's royal family, and thus had the most legitimate claim to continuity of any of the warring factions. It also had a somewhat ironic history: long viewed as a barbarian state beyond the Meng cultural sphere, and only annexed in the 1st century CE, an unexpected twist of fate turned it into the last guardian of the Meng emperor and his bloodline. A similar phenomenon would repeat itself in the 6th century, when Chŏllo fell to the Jin nomads and the court fled west to a new exile in Themiclesia.
Donghae
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Donghae (東海) ran along the east coast of the country. It derived its name from the region it occupied, which in turn derived its name from the East Menghe Sea alongside it. At its height in 390, it stretched from Baekjin in the north to Haeju in the south, occupying what is today known as the Donghae region of Menghe. This glory, however, was short-lived; in 435, the state of Tae led an army into its northeast, razing the capital at Jangpyŏng after a prolonged siege and annexing the rest of its territory shortly afterward. Donghae would break away again in 520, as Tae crumbled in the face of a Chikai incursion from the north, but it too would fall to Chikai forces shortly afterward.
Batu
The state of Batu is written in Gomun characters as 巴土, but this is almost certainly a phonetic rendering of its name in a local dialect. It occupied the southeastern corner of Menghe, stretching across what are now Sanchŏn and Ryonggok Provinces. At its peak, it reached as far inland as Gangwŏn, bisecting the area southeast of the Chŏnsan mountains. Initially, it was the main rival of the State of Chŏllo, fighting for control of the Meng river valley; but when a stronger State of Tae attacked from the north, Batu and Chŏllo allied together to repel the threat.
Batu was founded by Gwan Po, an illiterate farmer who emerged first as a rebel leader and then as a warlord, eventually carving out a large kingdom of his own in the mountains. Gwan Po's campaign to seize power represents an early case of successful guerilla warfare, beginning with strategic barricades and ambushes on the winding mountain roads and escalating to the siege and capture of major cities. For its humble origins and its transcribed name, Ra Gwan-jung referred to it as the "kingdom of earth."
Chikai
Chikai was a semi-nomadic state located on the northwest side of the Chŏnsan mountains, in the same area that hosted the Proto-Chikai civilization. Like Batu, its name originated in a non-Menghean language; references to northwestern nomads calling themselves Chikai predate the Meng dynasty. Unlike the Dzhungar nomads living further west, the Chikai had a number of permanent settlements, including the capital at Jinjŏng, and worked farms along the Baek river, yet they also herded horses and goats in the more marginal plains further from the river itself. They were skilled horsemen and archers, firing arrows from horseback at a time when most other states still relied on crossbowmen riding chariots, and also had a fairly advanced knowledge of metalworking with a partial sedentary base to exploit it.
For much of the early Five States period, the Chikai were a relatively marginal power, rarely venturing beyond the Chŏnsan range in force. They did not consider themselves part of the Meng cultural sphere, having only been tributaries of the Meng for a short time, and were initially content to enjoy their newfound autonomy. After a Tae expedition took their capital in 442, however, they reluctantly acknowledged their new tributary overlords and allied with Tae in the fight against Chŏllo and Batu.
Seven Fiefdoms
Although the term "Five States and Seven Fiefdoms" became ubiquitous in historical records during the Kang dynasty, it is unclear exactly which seven fiefdoms it refers to. When the Meng dynasty collapsed, it opened the way for dozens of minor kingdoms and warlords to emerge at the periphery of the major states, and as the centuries passed, some of these states were conquered and others emerged anew.
The "initial version" appears in the work of Kang-dynasty historian Wŏn Jin, whose History of the Five Kingdoms lists the seven largest minor states which emerged from the collapse of the Meng dynasty. These are:
- Gi (杞), at the source of the Meng and Ryongtan rivers, in what is now Gangwŏn province;
- Je (齊), south of Lake Jijunghae, in what is now Haenam province;
- Wi (魏), north of the State of Batu, in what is now South Donghae province;
- Chok (蜀), east of Lake Jijunghae, in what is now Goyang province;
- O or Oh (吳), occupying a strip of coastline south of the State of Batu;
- Suk (肅), in the mountains northwest of Chŏllo; and
- Hwal (越), in the plains west of Chŏllo.
Ra Gwan-jung's Tales of the Five Kingdoms adopts the same "seven fiefdoms" nomenclature, but provides a differing list of states, as his work focuses on the period in which Tae challenged Chŏllo and Batu for control of the Meng river valley. All of these states make some appearance in his historical novel, and modern historians have confirmed that all seven existed in the times and locations he describes. Yet they differ from Wŏn Jin's list in several ways. Je and Oh disappear, conquered by adjacent states, and Hwal is referred to as "Eastern Hwal" to distinguish it from different peoples labeled Hwal further west. He also adds three new states, which either did not exist in 285 CE or were too minor to merit mention.
- Baekgang (白江) is a new state in the far north, close to today's Sinbukgang province along the lower Baek river;
- Chok (蜀) is still east of Lake Jijunghae, but has lost territory, including its former capital, to Tae;
- Wi (魏), north of the State of Batu, has also lost territory to its neighbors;
- Gi (杞) is in the same general location as the former Gi, but it gained some territory at Tae's expense;
- Sansŏ (山西) is another new province, populated by settlers who have moved from Suk state beyond the Chŏnsan mountains;
- Suk (肅), in the mountains northwest of Chŏllo, is now an ally of Chŏllo; and
- Dong Hwal (東越), in the plains west of Chŏllo, has lost territory to Chŏllo and now pays it tribute.
History
Collapse of the Meng dynasty
By the middle of the 3rd century CE, the once-powerful Meng dynasty had entered into a period of decline. A long period of prosperity had resulted in overpopulation, and with it, the subdivision of farmland into ever smaller parcels. As corruption diverted funds out of water management offices, dykes and canals fell into disrepair, and flooding intensified the existing land shortage.
More urgent were the country's political problems. Under a string of young or disinterested emperors, the court eunuchs who served as regents and advisors to the throne amassed enormous political influence, running the country from behind the scenes - often for their own benefit or the benefit of their faction. With the court in disarray, regional administrators and military commanders were able to build up their autonomy in the countryside, often by collaborating with the various factions of central officials.
Events came to a head in 275 CE, when the ambitious and idealistic Prince Gyŏng was found dead in the imperial palace after a feast - poisoned, according to subsequent histories, by court eunuchs who feared that upon inheriting the throne he would usher in a purge of corrupt officials and centralize power in the hands of the Emperor. With Gyŏng dead, the title of Crown Prince passed to his younger brother Ri Byŏn, the neglected second child of the corpulent Emperor Hwan. A thin and sickly child who was often ill and had little taste for politics, Ri Byŏn seemed to be the ideal puppet for court eunuchs intent on consolidating their power.
When news of Prince Byŏn's promotion to Crown Prince reached the provincial capital of Tae'an, General Chŏn Tak, who served concurrently as administrator of the province of Taeju, announced that he would not accept such an outcome. Accounts of General Chŏn's rationale have been heavily dramatized by subsequent writers and historians, presenting conflicting perspectives; favorable histories say that he believed the corrupt Meng court had lost the Mandate of Heaven and wished to set the country back on the correct path, while unfavorable ones hold that he was a self-interested tyrant who saw an opportunity to carve out his own domain. Whatever the case, Chŏn had amassed considerable political and military power in the decades leading up to Prince Gyŏng's assassination, and the armed forces of the Haesŏ region promptly fell in line behind him, forming the State of Tae.
Panicked by the sudden rebellion against his authority, Emperor Hwan dispatched an army to retake the city of Tae'an, but Chŏn Tak ambushed them en route and inflicted a decisive defeat. The State of Tae had a smaller army at the outset of the war, but Chŏn himself was a skilled commander with decades of experience, and the Imperial forces were demoralized by news of court affairs and by the eunuchs' constant interference in the chain of command. Before long, Chŏn Tak's forces had consolidated their control over the new territory, and in 278 they reached the Meng capital of Yŏng'an. Fearful for their lives, the court eunuchs devised a plan to unlock the city gates in exchange for amnesty, but Jin Sŏng, a commander in the city garrison, uncovered their plan and killed the ringleaders. Seeing that there was no way to hold the city against the oncoming forces, he took Prince Byŏn and fled under the cover of darkness, hoping to set up a new capital elsewhere. This is the date conventionally used as the end of the Meng dynasty and the start of the Five States and Seven Fiefdoms.
Fragmentation into warring states
<imgur thumb="yes" w="400" comment="Map showing the Five States and Seven Fiefdoms as they appeared in 285, during Jin Sŏng's campaigns to retake Yŏng'an.">MfpG6V1.png</imgur>
News of Yŏng'an's fall and the prince's flight spread like wildfire across Menghe. Rather than taking over the post of puppeteer, as some thought he would, Chŏn Tak executed the remaining court eunuchs and imprisoned Emperor Hwan. Presented with a power vacuum, regional strongmen around the country proclaimed the independence of their domains and made their own claims to the throne. Warlords and bandits set up their own bases of power in the countryside, and some became strong enough to march on the cities.
Three such states rose above and beyond the others. The semi-nomadic Chikai kingdom, which had paid annual tribute to the Meng dynasty in return for protection against nomadic tribes further west, broke free of the Meng tribute circuit as soon as Yŏng'an fell. In the northeast, the regional commander of the Donghae region imitated Chŏn Tak's power grab, using his existing influence network to set up an independent state similar in extent to today's North Donghae province. And in the southeast, the "peasant general" Gwan Po forged a power base in the rugged mountains and expanded it to form a new domain, the State of Batu. These states joined Tae and Chŏllo to bring the total to five, and they would exist with periods of subjugation throughout the remainder of the period.
Prince Byŏn and Commander Jin Sŏng took refuge at Ryuyang, the provincial capital of Chŏllo Province. The city's administrator, Dong Yun, agreed to host the exiles and support their war for the throne, on the sole condition that he be allowed to serve as chief regent for civil affairs. Jin Sŏng reluctantly agreed, and the State of Chŏllo was formed. Despite his poor health, Ri Byŏn proved to be a noble and compassionate ruler, earning the posthumous name Emperor In (仁帝); the city of Ryuyang was later renamed Insŏng in his honor.
Dramatized histories of the early Five States period focus on Chŏllo's campaign to retake Yŏng'an, the former Meng capital, from the State of Tae. Chŏllo's skilled horsemen were able to defeat two Tae incursions into Chŏllo territory, a development which convinced Chŏn Tak to consolidate his gains in the south and focus on expansion in the north. To prevent the capital from falling, Tae marshaled local labor to build the Long Wall, a stone-and-packed-earth fortification stretching along the outermost ridge; this was intended to prevent Chŏllo mounted armies from freely crossing into the area. Jin Sŏng, appointed "capital-retaking general," nevertheless made four attempts to retake the city, in 283, 284, 287, and 291. The third attempt made it as far as the city gates, but fell into a trap laid by Chŏn Tae himself, forcing Jin Sŏng and the young Emperor to narrowly escape again.
After the costly failure of the fourth expedition, which barely made it past the Long Wall before being turned back, Dong Yun forbade any subsequent offensives into the north, advising the still-young Ri Byŏn to bide his time. By the late 280s, Chŏllo also faced a more pressing threat from Batu, which had made large gains to the west and was now encroaching on Chŏllo's border. For the next few decades, Chŏllo and Batu would be locked in conflict over control of the Ryongtan river and its role as a vital transport route, leaving the State of Tae free to focus on consolidating its control of the north.
The major states consolidate their power
This state of affairs continued into the middle of the 4th century CE, with Chŏllo and Batu locked in a state of on-and-off war around the Ryŏngtan river valley and Tae gradually expanding its control in the north. The State of Donghae also embarked on a number of offensive wars, expanding its control to the north and south. Caught between Donghae, Batu, and Tae, the minor states of Wi and Chok lost territory, and the state of Je ceased to exist. Chŏllo, meanwhile, subdued the highland tribes to the north and annexed most of what was once Hwal's territory, forcing the defeated state to shift westward as it took up more territory elsewhere. Batu annexed the state of O, removing the last real threat to its southerly capital at Daegok.
By the middle of the 4th century, the State of Tae was beset by internal divisions, and Chŏllo military planners decided to take the initiative with a new attack on Yŏng'an. Having captured the entirety of the Ryongtan river, including a buffer on the far bank, they launched an offensive in the spring of 352 and succeeded in defeating the Tae garrison and surrounding the city. Dishonored by such a rapid defeat after almost a century of successful defenses, the garrison commander committed suicide, and his troops opened the gates in return for fair treatment after their surrender.
Emperor Myŏng celebrated this victory as a major triumph in the restoration of the Meng dynasty, but it was relatively short-lived. The State of Batu took Yŏng'an in 384, less than 30 years later, after a series of campaigns that included a disastrous manmade flood on the Grand Gangwŏn Canal in 379. A fierce struggle for control of the Twin Rivers followed, with Chŏllo and Batu relentlessly waging war up and down the Ryongtan. The minor state of Gi, at the source of both rivers, allied with Batu during this period in exchange for a guarantee of its continued autonomy; the Meng emperors still viewed it as a rebelling province. A Chŏllo army succeeded in retaking Yŏng'an in 402, but the city was never safe from Batu forces, who were never far downstream on the Meng river and could use its navigable stretch to ferry troops and supplies to the capital.
Tae defeats Donghae and Chikai
Tae's period of internal division and instability ended in 431 when a new faction of the Chŏn family, led by Chŏn Yŏm, came to power. Wasting no time in turning his energy against external foes, Chŏn Yŏm gathered a large army and led it on a direct campaign into Donghae, besieging the capital at Jangpyŏng. After the city fell, he ordered it razed to the ground. The fortress which replaced it would later develop into the city of Kimhaesŏng, precursor of today's Donggyŏng. As soon as he had consolidated his control of the Donghae region to the south, Chŏn Yŏm regrouped his forces and led them against the states of Chok and Wi, dispatching each one in a year-long campaign.
The capitulation of Donghae, Chok, and Wi tipped the balance of power, making Tae the largest state in population and military might. Yet Chŏn Yŏm was not content to attack until Tae's last rivals to the north were subdued. In 442, he led a major campaign into Chikai territory, seizing the capital at Jingyŏng and presenting the Khan with a surrender proposal: if Chikai accepted Tae as a suzerain state and supplied tribute and warriors to its cause, Tae would allow the Khan to directly rule all land northwest of the Chŏnsan mountains. The Chikai leadership gave in, and Tae inherited from them what was likely the best mounted army on the Hemithean continent.
With Chikai's fall, Tae and its protectorate states controlled almost all of what is today northern Menghe, and seemed poised to establish a new unified dynasty. Wasting little time beyond what was necessary to raise and organize a new army, Chŏn Yŏm launched a new offensive against Batu in 445, crossing the Meng river at multiple points and driving the defenders back into the mountains. According to Wŏn Jin's History of the Five Kingdoms and other works referencing it, this Tae offensive was marked by the widespread use of "fire bombs," which frightened Batu warriors and broke their battle formations.
Tae's offensive against Chŏllo and Batu
<imgur thumb="yes" w="400" comment="Map showing Tae's campaign against Donghae, Chikai, Batu, and Chŏllo, with the dates of troop movements and major battles marked on the map.">DdV86My.png</imgur> With the lower reaches of the Meng river valley under his control, Chŏn Yŏm was able to implement the second stage of his plan. He concentrated his forces into a large combined army based in Haenam province, poised to drive into Yŏng'an and then push beyond it into the Chŏllo plain. Yet rather than attacking exclusively by land, as the defenders had expected, he also built a large fleet of river ships to supply his army and ferry warriors upriver. As in the initial campaign against Batu, both the land and naval components included explosive bombs and siege engines designed to throw them, a technological advancement which Chŏn Yŏm hoped would allow him to break the city walls and scatter Chŏllo cavalry. Ra Gwan-jung reports that the size of Chŏn's army totaled 850,000 men and 200 ships, but this is almost certainly an exaggeration; nevertheless, even by conservative estimates the force numbered in the low hundreds of thousands.
In the fall of 446, after the Meng river's monsoon-fed flooding had calmed, Chŏn put his plan into action. Unwilling to leave the eastern flank undefended in case a Batu force took part, the garrison commander at Yŏng'an divided his army and deployed it outside the city, only to suffer a crushing defeat as his forces north of the river were cut off from behind by the riverine fleet. Once again, the Emperor was forced to flee the city, and Chŏllo's capital was moved back to Insŏng.
After establishing a buffer zone on the Ryongtan river and retaking the Long Wall forts, Chŏn Yŏm turned his attention to Batu, which had stayed out of the Yŏng'an campaign. In 447, he moved part of his force downriver and then marched it inland, but soon found that he had underestimated the challenging terrain of the southeastern highlands. After clearing four of the five passes on the road to the Batu capital of Daegok, his advance guard was surrounded and destroyed. A Tae fleet moving along the coast met with a similarly disastrous fate, dashed against the rocky coast when a typhoon blew it toward the shore amidst blinding rain. When Chŏn called off his campaign at the end of the year, Batu remained independent, though it had suffered serious incursions to the north and was fighting perilously close to its main urban centers.
Simultaneously with his attack on Batu, Chŏn had arranged for a Chikai army to strike Chŏllo from behind, moving southwest along the rear of the Chŏnsan range and then attacking through Sŏnmun pass. On the way there, they overran the minor Sansŏ kingdom, and cut the Lapis Road connecting Menghe to Jindan. Though long wary of their powerful rivals to the east, the minor states of Suk and Dong Hwal rallied to Chŏllo's defense, ambushing the mounted Chikai invaders as they made their way through the treacherous mountain terrain. Unwilling to commit the rest of his force to the same route, the Chikai commander withdrew to Sŏnmun pass, where he set up camp for the remainder of the war.
With the threat to the rear eliminated, Chŏllo was once again able to focus on retaking Yŏng'an. General Sun Chaek, who had replaced the previous garrison commander, gathered a large force downriver on the Ryongtan, hoping to make a direct offensive against the city while Tae forces were still recovering from their attack on Batu. Yet while Sun Chaek had little intelligence about the disposition of Tae forces, Tae spies in Batu reported his movements to Chŏn Yŏm, who devised a cunning plan to defend Yŏng'an with three-quarters of his army while sending another quarter through Pyŏnghyŏng pass to cut off Sun's army from behind. The encirclement and total destruction of the counterattack, which Ra Gwan-jung reports as consisting of 450,000 troops, would leave Chŏllo defenseless against a Tae incursion. Yet just as Sun Chaek set off on his campaign, the State of Batu dispatched messengers to Chŏllo warning them of Chŏn's plan, and even diverted a crack force of soldiers under the command of U Jin to block Pyŏnghyŏng pass. According to legend, U Jin defended the narrowest section of the pass himself, buying time for his soldiers to regroup and close the gates behind him. With the flanking force defeated and Batu reinforcements behind him, Sun Chaek proceeded to engage and defeat Chŏn Yŏm's main army, reclaiming Yŏng'an for Chŏllo.
Though originally brought together in an alliance of necessity, Chŏllo and Batu continued to cooperate in the "War of the Two Alliances" against Tae. Batu regained control of its territory south of the Meng river, and Chŏllo set up a new buffer area north of Yŏng'an. Tae ceased its southward offensives in 455, when Chŏn Yŏm lost out in a power struggle at home and was replaced by a less ambitious emperor. To maintain the new border, Chŏllo built its own set of hilltop walls and forts under Emperors Jomun and Kangje, and Batu allowed riverine traffic to travel to Yŏng'an unhindered. The two southern states entered into a period of relatively friendly relations, though the Meng Emperors' plans to one day reunify the country cast a shadow over their wartime cooperation.
Nomadic incursions
Chŏn Yŏm's failed offensive and the fallout it precipitated at home weakened the State of Tae and undermined its image of invincibility. Chikai kings were resentful at being treated like disposable cannon fodder in the flanking offensive through Sŏnmun pass, and stopped sending tribute to Tae in 463. When a Tae army marched into Chikai territory to extract concessions two years later, it was defeated not long after it crossed the border. From this point onward, Chikai was effectively independent, and it still possessed its territorial gains in the far west.
By the late 5th century, Chikai nomads were staging regular incursions into Tae territory, raiding border settlements and merchant caravans. Yet it was only under Ambagyan, who became khagan in 512, that the State of Chikai turned from raiding to outright conquest. Tae'an fell in 518, and the rest of western Tae soon followed. Shortly after the fall of Tae'an, Donghae broke away under King Myŏng, but his reign did not last long: Chikai armies overran the northern half country between 523 and 525, though holdouts of Donghae control persisted in what is now South Donghae province.
Having consolidated control over all of Menghe north of the Meng river, Ambagyan moved his capital to Tae'an, which he renamed Sanggyŏng (上京). In an effort to establish his legitimacy as a member of the civilized world, he required that court documents use the Menghean script, adopted the Menghean-style name Sullyul Dŏkgwang (述律德光), and named his new empire the Jin dynasty (辰朝). In the years to come, the Jin would adopt still more Meng customs and traditions, though contemporary scholars still viewed it with contempt as a foreign dynasty.
Control over the State of Tae gave the Chikai access to steelworking, repeating crossbows, and early explosive weapons, which they quickly integrated into their already powerful mounted armies. Ambagyan's successor, Sullyul Hyŏn, turned his attention to the southern states of Chŏllo and Batu, hoping to expand his realm even further. Chŏllo also precipitated a conflict by sending expeditionary armies northward into Haenam province in the late 520s, under the orders of Emperor Hyomu. Chikai attacked these forces in 531, driving them back to the Meng river and the gates of Yŏng'an. Though they brought fewer soldiers than Chŏn Yŏm, the Chikai made extensive use of mounted archers in hit-and-run attacks, a tactic which Chŏllo commanders struggled to counter. Cut off and besieged, the garrison at Yŏng'an surrendered in 536, opening the way for Chikai cavalry to pour through the Meng-Ryongtan gap and onto the South Menghe Plain. Here, their mounted archers inflicted decisive defeats on Chŏllo cavalry, who were mainly armed with swords and lances. The rear-line capital at Insŏng fell in 542, bringing with it the surrender of the State of Chŏllo. The last Meng Emperor and the closest members of his court fled to the west, following the Lapis Road to Themiclesia, where they ruled from exile in a largely ceremonial capacity.
With the fall of Chŏllo, the Jin dynasty became the first Menghean dynasty in two and a half centuries to rule over nearly all of what is today Menghe. The State of Batu never truly fell to the Jin, whose nomadic armies struggled to fight effectively in the narrow valleys and passes of the southeast. Yet with the loss of the Meng river valley and much of the south coast, the new Batu state was a shadow of its former extent, and it would play a relatively minor role in the Jin dynasty's fall 137 years later.
Economic and social effects
The Five States and Seven Fiefdoms period was enormously destructive, as it spawned dozens of total wars between parity powers fought on Menghean soil. According to official imperial censuses, the population dropped by as much as two-thirds between the early 3rd century and the late 6th century, though this likely had more to do with plague, famine, and a decline in the quality of record-keeping than deaths on the battlefield. Trade, especially river traffic, also declined, as the major states fought for control of the country's strategic river valleys, and repair on dykes around the front lines all but ceased, setting off ruinous floods during the monsoon season.
Externally, the period of division and warfare left the four interior Menghean states drained, exhausted, and bankrupt. This, in turn, left them vulnerable to external threats. It is notable that the Chikai were the only nomadic group in Menghean history to break through to the Southern Plain and subjugate the entire country, a feat which no previous or subsequent nomadic tribe would be able to replicate. Many historians believe that the steady erosion from centuries of war was decisive in opening the way for the Chikai incursion and the foundation of the Jin dynasty, and that a unified Menghe likely would have repelled the invasion and carried on as usual.
In the long run, heavy fighting also shifted the economic dynamics of East Hemithea. The upper Meng and Ryongtan river valleys saw the heaviest fighting, and suffered enormously for it. The city of Yŏng'an changed hands no fewer than six times over the course of the Five States and Seven Kingdoms period, and dozens more battles were fought outside its city walls. The elaborate network of dams, dykes, and retaining walls built during the Meng dynasty fell into disrepair, some due to neglect and others due to deliberate sabotage. By the rise of the Kang dynasty, the Gangwŏn region, once the cradle of Menghean civilization, had become an impoverished and depopulated backwater.
In its place, two new economic centers emerged. The lower Rogang river was left untouched through three centuries of fighting, with the exception of the Chikai incursion at the end of the period. Indeed, under the leadership of Chŏllo, the capital of Insŏng grew into one of the largest cities in the world, and the city of Dongchŏn, where the Rogang river met the South Menghe Sea, emerged as a major trading center. A similar process took place in the heartland of the former State of Tae, albeit on a smaller scale; Tae'an, later renamed Hwaju, emerged as a major center of metalworking and industry, and its downriver port of Pyŏngchŏn became a key transshipment site on the Lapis Road.
Constant warfare also led to a number of improvements in military technology and civil administration. The Menghean repeating crossbow, which had its origins in the first Warring States Period, underwent major improvements in the late 3rd century, many of them attributed to Chŏn Tak himself but more probably the work of his engineers. To subsequent Menghean commanders, Chikai's rapid conquest of the other states signaled the decisive importance of mounted archers; subsequent dynasties, especially the Kang and Yi, were enormously successful in fielding their own missile cavalry forces and recruiting Chikai nomads as front-line fighters. Historical manuscripts even mention the use of "fire bombs" in Tae armies, especially during their 5th-century invasions of Donghae, Batu, and Chŏllo; this may be a reference to an early form of gunpowder.
Cultural legacy
The Five States and Seven Fiefdoms provided an abundance of source material for Menghean writers, poets, and artists in the centuries that followed. The period came with ready-made politics and intrigue, warriors and generals, emperors and princesses, and involved battles between armies numbering in the hundreds of thousands. It also provided artists with an opportunity to explore deeper moral and philosophical questions in Menghean culture, such as the justness of overthrowing an inexperienced sovereign and the importance and limits of loyalty to one's cause.
Ra Gwan-jung, a Sŭng-dynasty novelist, was the first to write a comprehensive historical drama of this period, the classic Tales of the Five Kingdoms. Other works proliferated soon afterward, including poems referencing specific events and theatrical performances acting out sections of Ra's account. The collapse of the Meng dynasty, Jin Sŏng's efforts to restore it, the War of the Two Alliances have received the most attention from writers and playwrights, though some works have explored the less-known decades of the two-and-a-half-century conflict. As time went on and dramatized accounts mixed with historical ones, authors embellished the real events, characters, and actions of the period, forming heroes and villains that have endured across the centuries.
Today, the Five States and Seven Fiefdoms period still provides popular subject matter for works of historical fiction. Menghean novels, movies, video games, TV series, anime, and manga have all drawn on the Five States period, sometimes as meticulously researched historical works and sometimes integrating fantasy elements. Many prominent heroes today have Chŏndo Sŏngindan in their names, and a few, including Gwan Po of Batu, are worshipped as Sindo gods of war, tactics, or invention.
References to the Five States and Seven Fiefdoms period even occasionally appear in Menghean military language. The JCh-8 main battle tank, for example, bears the service nickname Ujin, after the famously strong and loyal Batu warrior.
List of Meng emperors in Chŏllo
While the surviving branch of the Ri family did not rule over the entirety of Menghe, and had limited power even in Chŏllo itself, its members continued to refer to themselves as Emperors, in reference to their belief that they were the rightful rulers of all of Menghe. Subsequent historians assigned them greater status than the self-proclaimed emperors of Tae, Batu, and Donghae, as they were part of a former imperial line, and histories of the Five States period generally used the later Meng emperors' reign periods when listing historical calendar dates.
| Meng sovereigns in Chŏllo | |||||
| Tyrannian name | Personal name | Reign | Posthumous name | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emperor In of Meng | Ri Byŏn | 李辯 | 278-335 | Inje | 仁帝 |
| Emperor Sun of Meng | I Bo* | 李保 | 335-348 | Sunje | 順帝 |
| Emperor Myŏng of Meng | I Jang | 李庄 | 348-376 | Myŏngje | 明帝 |
| Emperor Min of Chŏllo** | I Ŏb | 李鄴 | 376-385 | Minje | 愍帝 |
| Emperor Pyŏng of Chŏllo | I Hyŏk | 李奕 | 385-413 | Pyŏngje | 平帝 |
| Emperor Ae of Chŏllo | I Hŭn | 李欣 | 413-439 | Aeje | 哀帝 |
| Emperor So of Chŏllo | I Gwing | 李宏 | 439-440 | Soje | 少帝 |
| Emperor Jomu of Chŏllo | I Chong | 李聰 | 440-467 | Jomuje | 昭武帝 |
| Emperor An of Chŏllo | I Ho | 李祜 | 467-481 | Anje | 安帝 |
| Emperor Gyŏng of Chŏllo | I Hyu | 李休 | 467-472 | Gyŏngje | 景帝 |
| Emperor Hye of Chŏllo | I Chung | 李衷 | 472-479 | Hyeje | 惠帝 |
| Emperor Hoe of Chŏllo | I Chi | 李熾 | 479-491 | Hoeje | 懷帝 |
| Emperor Jomun of Chŏllo | I Su | 李壽 | 491-498 | Jomunje | 昭文帝 |
| Emperor Kang of Chŏllo | I Ak | 李岳 | 498-513 | Kangje | 康帝 |
| Emperor Hyomu of Chŏllo | I Bi | 李丕 | 513-540 | Hyomuje | 孝武帝 |
| Emperor Wŏn of Jindan*** | I Ye | 李睿 | 540-542 | Wŏnje | 元帝 |
* The surname 李 is pronounced "Ri" in Central and Eastern Menghe but "I" in southern Menghe. The change here reflects this.
** From Emperor Min onward, the dynasty formally changed to "of Chŏllo," a change brought about at the insistence of court officials.
*** I Ye set up a new kingdom in Jindan, today Themiclesia, in 543, when he arrived there at the end of a long exodus. He ruled there until 558, and was given the posthumous name Emperor Wŏn.
List of important figures
- Emperor In of Meng
- Born as Ri Byŏn (李辯) in 268, the future Emperor In was a thin and sickly child, and was initially passed over for the throne in favor of his elder brother Crown Prince Gyŏng. Both court eunuchs and rebelling generals considered him unfit for the throne, and he was forced to flee the capital when Tae troops arrived in 278. Once in Chŏllo, he proved to be a wise and noble statesman, earning the posthumous name Inje (仁帝) or "Humane Emperor." Most romanticized histories of the early Five States period depict him as a kind-hearted protagonist beset by hardship.
- Jin Sŏng
- Jin Sŏng (陳盛) was the commander of the palace guard prior to the fall of the Meng dynasty, and one of the first heroes in Ra Gwan-jung's Tales of the Five Kingdoms. As Tae armies were closing in on Yŏng'an, he killed the traitorous eunuchs and fled the city with Ri Byŏn; later, he led four campaigns to retake the capital, but was turned back each time.
- Chŏn Tak
- A powerful regional administrator with a network of ties around the Haesŏ region, Chŏn Tak (千卓) rebelled against the Meng dynasty in 275 and established the State of Tae. He was a talented general and tactician, and dynastic historians attributed to him a number of inventions, including the improved repeating crossbow. Later views of Chŏn Tak are mixed, with some portraying him as a power-hungry villain pursuing personal gain and others portraying him as a noble general motivated to save the country.
- Chŏn Yŏm
- A direct descendant of Chŏn Tak, Chŏn Yŏm (千炎) led the State of Tae during its subjugation of Chikai and Donghae and its failed campaign against Batu and Chŏllo. Like his ancestor, he was a brilliant tactician, but also criticized by future historians for his cruelty and aggression. He died in 455, at the end of an internal power struggle triggered by his failure on the front lines.
- Sun Chaek
- Sun Chaek (孫策) was a Chŏllo general during the War of the Two Alliances. After the former garrison commander of Yŏng'an was stripped of his post for his failure to defend the city, Sun Chaek led the campaign to retake it, succeeding in 448. It is said that at the Battle of Jŏgbyŏk he defeated a Tae force of 600,000 men through a combination of cunning strategy and inspiring leadership.
- U Jin
- U Jin (吳鎭, sometimes written Ujin) was a warrior in the state of Batu during the War of the Two Alliances. He was famous for his strength, bravery, and humility, and fought with a wŏldo. He fought Tae forces during their march on Daegok, then held Pyŏnghyŏng pass against Tae forces seeking to encircle Sun Chaek's army. It is said that at the narrowest point in the pass, he threw down his banner and stood at the center of the road, single-handedly defending the pass and buying time for his men to regroup further back.