Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/260

236 KUJUN. kingdom was broken up into a number of " savage or independent clans, each with its own petty chie£ The former name of Mogo was now replaced by that of Niijun, which general designation embraced the scattered inhabitants of what had been the kingdom of BohaL The Eitan, or liao dynasty, never conquered the regions east of the Hoorha ; which were therefore called unripe or savage Nujun; the west of that river being called the ripe or civilized Nujun, because subject to Liao ; and not because, as Du Halde states, they were in reality more civilized. But the Liao gradually lost its dominating influence over those remote regions, and that portion of the "unripe Nujun which dwelt around the foot of Changbaishan, east of Ninguta, in the land of the original Bohai, and the older Yilow, gradually assumed form again. The Shangking (upper capital) of Bohai had been somewhere in this neighbourhood. In the end of the tenth century, the Nujun of this district became so important as to send tribute to the Sung emperor. Immediately after Kitan made the present Yoongping of Ohihli (then Liaosi) their central capital (Joongking), they had a tussle with Gaoli. The latter had been, ever since the disruption of Bohai, subject to the insults of Kitan ; and, seeing no hope of deliverance from the Sung dynasty, yet unable to stand alone, they found it necessary to acknowledge the supremacy of the Liao dynasty. To this effect they sent messengers to Joongking, the arrival of whom much delighted the Eitan ; who, however, desired the king to come in person to render homage. Not knowing what sort of reception he might meet there, he feigned illness. On this refusal, the Eitan demanded all the country still belonging to Corea west of the Taloo, together with the chow cities of Hing, Tie, Dong, Long, Owei, and Oo. Some Niijun men, intimately acquainted with the state of Gaoli, had previously gone to the Liao courts and laid before it a plan whereby the treasures and a rich portion of the coimtiy of Oaoli could fall into its hands, if it marched along the Nujun border. This, perhaps, had some influence in determining the Liao to march an army against Gaoli, when the latter refused to