Establishing a pluralist society in medieval Korea, 918-1170 : : history, ideology, and identity in the Koryo dynasty / / by Remco E. Breuker.

• Superior document: Brill's Korean studies library ; v. 1
• Author: Breuker, Remco E., 1972-
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's Korean studies library ; v. 1.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (500 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This book offers no less than a radically different view of the Koryŏ state. Until now scholarship failed to recognize the complicated historical descent, byzantine international relations and multiple incommensurable worldviews of the early Korean Koryŏ state (918-1170). Instead, it subjected these to reductionist categories favouring reified particulars over broader views. Asking how Koryŏ meaningfully dealt with its environment, Remco Breuker rejects the reduction of Koryŏ intellectual abundance to analytical categories, and emphasizes the functional importance of Koryŏ’s pluralism in allowing the notion that realities were scattered, inconsistent and plural. Here is a convincing argument that Koryŏ’s pluralism decisively contributed to the formation of a region-transcending communal identity that enabled Koryŏ to engage in a civilizational competition with neighbouring Chinese and Manchurian states, while maintaining a dynamic but stable society domestically.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / R. Breuker -- Introduction / R. Breuker -- Chapter One. Collective Names And Designations / R. Breuker -- Chapter Two. A Historic Territory In Koryo / R. Breuker -- Chapter Three. Shared Ideas Of Descent / R. Breuker -- Chapter Four. Tracing Legitimation / R. Breuker -- Chapter Five. The Koryo Ruler, Common Focus Of Obedience And Worship / R. Breuker -- Chapter Six. Koryo Diplomacy / R. Breuker -- Chapter Seven. Pluralist Literati In Koryo / R. Breuker -- Chapter Eight. The Origins Of Koryo Pluralism / R. Breuker -- Chapter Nine. The Oldest Extant History And The Perpetuation Of A Pluralist Past In Shared Memories And Histories / R. Breuker -- Chapter Ten. The Ten Injunctions / R. Breuker -- Chapter Eleven. Myoch’Ong’s Challenge: The Bid For The ‘Impossible Good’ / R. Breuker -- Bibliography / R. Breuker -- Bibliography: Works In Classical Chinese / R. Breuker -- Index / R. Breuker.