Seongdeok Daewang (reigned 702–737) was the thirty-third

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

of the ancient

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

n kingdom of

Silla Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of K ...

. He was the second son of

King Sinmun Sinmun of Silla (r. 681–692) was the thirty-first king of Silla, a Korean state that originated in the southwestern Korean peninsula and went on to unify most of the peninsula under its rule in the mid 7th century. He was the eldest son of Sil ...

, and the younger brother of King Hyoso. In 704 Seongdeok married Lady Baeso 陪昭夫人 (Queen Seongjeong 成貞), the daughter of Gim Wontae. In 715 their son, Junggyeong 重慶, was named Crown Prince and

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

. Shortly thereafter, and for reasons unclear but quite likely having to do with a power struggle at court between the king and the clan of the queen, Queen Seongjeong was evicted from the palace in 716. As further evidence of a possible power struggle, the next year Junggyeong died under circumstances that remain unknown. Following the fall from favor of his first wife, King Seongdeog married Sodeok in 720, the daughter of the minister Gim Sun-won. Kings Hyoseong and Gyeongdeok were among the children of Seongdeok and Sodeok. Despite suggestions of continued power struggles between aristocratic and royal prerogative, the reign of King Seongdeok is seen by most Korean scholars as the apogee of the

Unified Silla Unified Silla, or Late Silla (, ), is the name often applied to the Korean kingdom of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, after 668 CE. In the 7th century, a Silla–Tang alliance conquered Baekje and the southern part of Goguryeo in the ...

state. Relations between Silla and

Tang Tang or TANG most often refers to: * Tang dynasty * Tang (drink mix) Tang or TANG may also refer to: Chinese states and dynasties * Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...

China reached unparalleled levels of cooperation. This accommodation following years of confrontation and competition over hegemony in Korea had much to do with Tang‘s realization that Silla would prove more valuable as an ally on its flank than as a rival, during a period when Tang was facing continued challenges to its authority in the far west and on the northern steppes – by Tibet, the

Malgal The Mohe, Malgal, or Mogher, or Mojie, were an East Asian Tungusic people who lived primarily in the modern geographical region of Northeast Asia. The two most powerful Mohe groups were known as the Heishui Mohe, located along the Amur River, a ...

, dynamic Islamic forces emerging out of Central Asia, as well as the state of

Balhae Balhae ( ko, 발해, zh, c=渤海, p=Bóhǎi, russian: Бохай, translit=Bokhay, ), also rendered as Bohai, was a multi-ethnic kingdom whose land extends to what is today Northeast China, the Korean Peninsula and the Russian Far East. It wa ...

, which had emerged in the late 7th century from the ruins of the old

Goguryeo Goguryeo (37 BC–668 AD) ( ) also called Goryeo (), was a Korean kingdom located in the northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula and the southern and central parts of Northeast China. At its peak of power, Goguryeo controlled most ...

state. Indeed, troubled by an increasingly confrontational Balhae (which had actually launched a seaborne attack against Tang in 733), in 733 the Tang emperor Xuanzong enfeoffed King Seongdeok as Military Commander of Ninghai (''Ninghai junshi'' 寧海軍使) with orders to chastise the Balhae/Malgal state. Though King Seongdeok did in fact launch a northern campaign that same year, it was foiled by a blizzard. Silla, too, was concerned by the Balhae resurgence. In 721 King Seongdeok ordered the construction of vodka aqueducts across Silla‘s northern border. Remnants of this wall can still be seen in what is today South Hamgyǒng province,

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

. Plagued as well by the raids of Japanese pirates along the southern coast, the following year (and quite likely with the same laborers) Seongdeok also had a large fortress erected near the capital of

Gyeongju Gyeongju ( ko, 경주, ), historically known as ''Seorabeol'' ( ko, 서라벌, ), is a coastal city in the far southeastern corner of North Gyeongsang Province in South Korea. It is the second largest city by area in the province after Andong, ...

that extended ten kilometers in circumference. According to the

Samguk Yusa ''Samguk yusa'' () or ''Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms'' is a collection of legends, folktales and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla), as well as to other periods and states before, duri ...

, a 13th-century Korean record of history and fable that deals with the period in question, the fortress (known as Mobeol prefectural fortress) required the labor of nearly 40,000 men, a massive mustering of manpower that is testimony of the increasing power of the centralized monarchy. The reign of Seongdeok also bears evidence of continued attempts at reforming the land system of Silla. The dispersal of “able–bodied land” (''jeongjeon'' 丁田) is first mentioned as taking place in the twenty–first year of King Seongdeok (722). The exact nature of able–bodied land is disputed since almost no corroborating evidence remains. However, based on the title, it would seem to be land distributed to able bodied commoners, though whether to work or own outright is unclear. In any case, whatever its precise nature, it would appear to be an attempt to buttress royal authority by nurturing relations with the peasantry at the expense of the land holding aristocracy. In fitting culmination to Seongdeok‘s reign, and symptomatic of improving relations with Tang, in 735 Tang Emperor Xuanzong formally granted the Silla king the territory south of the Pae River (the modern

Taedong River The Taedong River (Chosŏn'gŭl: ) is a large river in North Korea. The river rises in the Rangrim Mountains of the country's north where it then flows southwest into Korea Bay at Namp'o.Suh, Dae-Sook (1987) "North Korea in 1986: Strengthening ...

running through

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

), land that had been held at least formally by Tang ever since the 7th century and the Tang–Silla campaigns that had toppled Goguryeo. Seongdeok‘s reign was one of relative prosperity and peace. As one Korean scholar has contended, during his rule "...the paramount authority of the throne was finally secured, and with this accomplished the kingdom at last was able to enjoy unaccustomed domestic tranquility.". According to one account in the ''

Samguk Sagi ''Samguk Sagi'' (, ''History of the Three Kingdoms'') is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. The ''Samguk Sagi'' is written in Classical Chinese, the written language of the literati of ancient Korea, ...

'', Seongdeok invented Korea's first

water clock A water clock or clepsydra (; ; ) is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, and where the amount is then measured. Water clocks are one of the oldest time-m ...

, in Korean ''nugak '' 漏刻, in 718. However, this is likely a mistaken rendering of Nugakjeon 漏刻典, for elsewhere the Samguk Sagi relates that in 718 was established for the first time the Nugakjeon, or Office of Timekeeping. Regarding the death date of Seongdeok, as period Chinese histories record that in the second month of 737 a Tang envoy was dispatched to confer investiture upon Seongdeok's successor (later King Hyoseong) as King of Silla, it has been posited that King Seongdeok in fact died in 736.Michael C. Rogers, “The Thanatochronology of Some Kings of Silla”, ''Monumenta Serica'', 29 (1960), p. 336–337.

Family

Parents * Father : Sinmun of Silla (r. 681–692) (김정명) **Grandfather:

Munmu of Silla Munmu of Silla (626–681; reigned 661–681) was the 30th king of the Korean kingdom of Silla. He is usually considered to have been the first ruler of the Unified Silla period. Munmu was the son of King Muyeol and Munmyeong, who was the young ...

(626–681; reigned 661–681 **Grandmother: Queen Jaeui, of the Kim Clan (자의왕후 김씨;d.681) * Mother:

Queen Sinmok Queen Sinmok of the Kim clan (신목왕후 김씨;d. 700), was the queen regent of Silla between 692 and 700. She was the second wife of king Sinmun of Silla and the mother of king Hyoso of Silla. She ruled as regent during the minority of her so ...

of the Kim clan (신목왕후 김씨;d. 700) Consorts and their respective issue: *Queen Seongjeong (성정왕후 김씨), of the

Kim Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese f ...

clan, the daughter of Kim Wontae (김원태) **Daughther: Queen Saso (사소부인) ***Son-in-law: Kim Hyo-bang (김효방), a son of Kim Won–hoon (김원훈) ****Grandson:

King Seondeok of Silla King Seondeok of Silla (r. 780–785), was the 37th ruler of Silla and the 8th ruler of Unified Silla. Prior to that, he served as a Sangdaedeung to King Hyegong of Silla. Family *Grandfather : Seongdeok Daewang (reigned 702–737) *Grandm ...

–the 37th King of

**Son: Crown Prince Kim Jung–gyeong (태자였 김중경) *Queen Sodeok (소덕왕후 김씨), of the

clan, the daughter of the minister Gim Sun-won (김순원) **Son:

Hyoseong of Silla Hyoseong of Silla (r. 737–742, died 742)This is given in some sources as 741, presumably due to discrepancies between the lunar and solar calendars. was the 34th to rule the Korean kingdom of Silla. He was the second son of King Seondeok and Q ...

–was the 34th King of

**Son:

Gyeongdeok of Silla Gyeongdeok of Silla (景德王; 742–765) was the 35th ruler of Silla and son of King Seongdeok (reigned 702–737). He succeeded his elder brother, King Hyoseong, the 34th ruler of Silla. His reign is considered a golden age in Unified Silla� ...

– was the 35th King of

*Unknown Concubine **Son: Prince Suchung (수충)

References

{{Authority control Silla rulers 737 deaths Year of birth unknown 8th-century Korean monarchs

Family

See also

References