몽골 제국의 ‘주변국’ 통치와 고려의 위상 - 통혼 제도를 중심으로 한 비교사적 검토 시론

The Mongol Empire’s Rule over ‘Peripheral States’ and the Status of Goryeo : A Preliminary Comparative Historical Study on the Marriage Alliance System

This study examines the relationship between Goryeo and the Mongol Empire in the 13th-14th centuries through a comparative analysis with other peripheral polities including the Uighurs, Armenia, and Tibet, aiming to clarify Goryeo’s distinctive status within the Mongol world order. Moving beyond the limitations of existing scholarship that has primarily focused on bilateral Goryeo-Mongol relations, this research adopts a comparative historical approach to comprehensively examine the Mongol Empire’s peripheral governance policies. The analysis reveals that Goryeo exhibited unique characteristics within the Mongol Empire’s gürgen system — the mechanism of peripheral control through marriage alliances. The Uighurs, despite their initially close relationship with the Mongols, experienced instability due to internal political changes within the empire. Armenia showed varied regional responses and was largely limited to one-time marriage arrangements. Tibet, while forming complex relationships based on religious distinctiveness, maintained limited continuity in marriage alliances. In contrast, Goryeo maintained a relatively more continuous and stable marriage relations from the 1270s onward, with Goryeo princes securing the dual status of both gürgen (sons-in-law) and keshig (imperial guards) — a unique arrangement not found elsewhere. Additionally, compared to other peripheral states, Goryeo maintained relatively greater political stability and territorial integrity. This suggests that Goryeo occupied a special position that transcended the typical distinction between the Mongol Empire’s “inner circle” and “outer circle.” This study contributes to our understanding by moving beyond traditional frameworks of tributary-investiture systems or simplified Mongol world order theories, instead illuminating Goryeo’s distinctive status within the diversity and complexity of the Mongol Empire’s peripheral policies.