中國과 韓國의 王朝交替에 대하여

DYNASTIC CHANGES IN CHINA AND KOREA - A Comparative Study of Factors causing the Changes -

Since the unification of China by Ch’in, China experienced the rise and fall of almost seventy states. Factors causing the dynastic changes can be divided, for the purpose of a general anlalysis, into four categories: 1) ideogical (Confucian ideology of the Mandate of Heaven; the idea of a sage every five hundred years; the permutation of the five primary elements, namely wood, fire, earth, metal and water, which successively produce or destory each other; the belief in prophecy; various religious beliefs; the idea of reviving the ancient Han dynasty, etc.); 2) personal (imperial consorts and their families; imperial family members; eunuchs, and civil and military officials); 3) economic, social and political (administrative efficiency; political cliques and struggles; natural disasters; local powers; secret societies and rebellious groups, etc.); and 4) foreign and other external influences. There were fewer than ten dynasties in Korea throughout her history. The factors causing dyanstic change in Korea were similar to those in China, but the influence of the factors in Korea were, generally speaking, weaker than in China. This was one of the reasons why the dyansties in Korea lasted much longer than those in China. Korea had been, to go into further details of the reasons, more centralized; local powers in Korea were weak; rebellious forces or secret societies were not strong enough to destroy the existing rulers; northern peoples wanted to invade and destory China but never tried wholly to destory Korea, and Sino-Korean tributary relations played a role in maintaining political stability in Korea.