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A Scholar From a Fallen Kingdom
Choe Seung-ro was a Confucian scholar, writer and senior official whose policy proposals helped define the direction of Korea’s Goryeo dynasty during its formative years.
Born in 927 in Gyeongju, the capital of the declining Silla kingdom, Choe came from a family of educated officials. His father, Choe Eun-ham, belonged to Silla’s “head-rank six” class, an elite group whose members could serve in government but faced limits within the kingdom’s rigid hereditary hierarchy.
When Silla’s last king surrendered to Goryeo’s founder in 935, Choe followed his father into the new kingdom and settled in Songdo, the Goryeo capital known today as Kaesong.
Medieval histories surround his infancy with legend. According to the “Samguk Yusa,” a collection of historical tales and Buddhist traditions, Choe’s father hid the baby beneath a pedestal supporting a statue of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara when Later Baekje forces attacked Silla’s capital. Returning six months later, he reportedly found the child alive and clean, with the smell of milk still on his breath. The account uses slightly different written forms of the father’s and son’s names from those found in the official “History of Goryeo.”
A 12-Year-Old Before the King
Choe showed an early talent for scholarship and writing. In 938, at age 12, he read from the “Analects” of Confucius before King Taejo, Goryeo’s founder. The king rewarded him with salt, a saddled horse and grain, and selected him to continue his studies at a royal institution.
Choe appears to have entered literary and scholarly government service relatively early. Unlike many intellectuals from Silla’s head-rank six class who studied in China under the Tang dynasty, he is believed to have received his education in Korea.
Records indicate that Choe handled literary duties during the reign of King Gwangjong, although the extent of his political influence at the time is uncertain. His role remained comparatively limited through the reign of King Gyeongjong. He emerged as a leading political thinker only after King Seongjong took the throne.
The 28-Point Reform Plan
In 982, Seongjong ordered officials of the fifth rank and above in the capital to submit memorials assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the government. Choe, then serving in important administrative positions, responded with a 28-point reform program. Twenty-two of its provisions survive.
The memorial reviewed the rule of the five kings from Taejo through Gyeongjong and addressed border defenses, social problems and Goryeo’s approach to China. Choe also called for reducing Buddhist influence over the royal court. He proposed abolishing certain Buddhist rites, restricting monks’ access to the palace and discouraging the king from excessive religious devotion, arguing that Buddhist institutions had created abuses and placed a burden on state finances.
His larger goal was to organize government around Confucian political principles. Choe envisioned a monarch who took an active role in state affairs while consulting closely with ministers. The king and his officials would restrain one another, preventing either side from exercising unchecked power.
Seongjong accepted most of Choe’s recommendations. They influenced the creation of new political institutions and the reorganization of local administration, making the memorial a key source for understanding both the politics and political thought of early Goryeo.
Confucian Reform Meets Resistance
Choe and other Confucian scholars distinguished between Buddhism as a path for cultivating the individual and Confucianism as a system for governing the state. They moved to suspend the annual Lotus Lantern Festival and Palgwanhoe, both major Buddhist state observances that required substantial public spending, and sought to replace them with Confucian rites honoring heaven, earth and the state.
The effort met resistance from officials and failed to gain broad public support. After Seongjong’s death, wars with the Khitan increased calls for the Buddhist festivals to return. King Hyeonjong restored both observances. After he held a Lotus Lantern Festival at a temporary palace in Cheongju while fleeing a Khitan invasion, the celebration became formally established as a regular event.
Goryeo’s ceremonial life subsequently appears to have operated through both Buddhist and Confucian traditions, illustrating the limits of efforts to remake the kingdom around a single governing philosophy.
Seongjong’s Senior Adviser
After submitting his reform plan, Choe became a close adviser to the young king. He was promoted in 983 to a top position in the central government and also helped select successful candidates in the civil service examinations, which tested the literary and Confucian learning expected of government officials.
In 988, he rose to an even higher ministerial post, received the title of Marquis of Cheongha and was granted revenue associated with 700 households. He repeatedly asked to retire, but Seongjong refused his requests.
Choe died on June 17, 989, at age 63. Seongjong provided an extensive funeral offering and granted him the posthumous rank of grand preceptor. Choe was later enshrined at Seongjong’s royal shrine, received additional honors and was given the posthumous name Munjeong.
Choe remains one of early Goryeo’s most significant political figures because his 28-point memorial identified specific problems facing the young dynasty and offered a Confucian blueprint for addressing them. Its influence extended beyond individual policies, advancing a model of government in which the monarch and ministers worked together while checking each other’s power.
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