Choe Chiwon - Early Life and Study in Tang

Early Life and Study in Tang

Choe Chiwon was born in the Saryang district of the Silla capital of Gyeongju in 857. He was of the so-called "head rank six" (yukdupum 六頭品) class, a hereditary class in Silla's stringent bone rank system affixed to those of mixed aristocratic/commoner birth. As a member of head rank six, Choe was restricted in the level of office he could attain. Towards the end of Silla many in the head rank six ranks began to seek opportunities of advancement beyond the traditional confines of the Silla social-political order. One outlet was to become a Buddhist monk. Another was to take up the study of Confucianism. China's Confucian bureaucracy had been adopted to a limited degree by Silla following its unification of the peninsula in 668. Confucianism was well suited to the administration of territory and the buttressing of central authority (that is, royal absolutism). The adoption of Confucian administrative norms and Silla's closer ties with Tang China demanded a highly educated corps of scholar-officials. To meet this need the Silla monarchy turned to the frustrated talents of the head rank six class. Royal support of the head rank six also gave the monarch more leverage against an increasingly hostile aristocracy.

In the early years following unification head rank six students matriculated at Silla's own "National Confucian Academy," established in the late 7th century. By the 9th century, however, ambitious Silla students aspired to seek their education at the very source, in the Tang capital of Chang'an (present day Xi'an). It was in the course of the 9th century that the Choe clan of Gyeongju nurtured close ties with the Silla monarchy, and as a result many of the Choe clan were sent to matriculate in China with the ultimate goal of passing the Chinese civil service exam and returning to serve the Silla court.

According to the 12th century Korean history the Samguk Sagi, when Choe was twelve years of age, in 869, his father sent him to study in Tang, seeing him off with the admonition that if he did not pass the Chinese imperial examination within ten years he would cease to be his son. Within the decade Choe did indeed pass the highest of China's civil service exams, the coveted jinshi (進士) degree, and was duly appointed to a prefectural office in the south. Choe went on to serve in China for nearly a decade, even becoming intimate with Emperor Xizong of Tang China (r. 873-888). Choe also won merits for his service under the Tang general Gao Ping in his struggle against the Huang Chao rebellion, a failed uprising which nonetheless ushered in the final years of the crippled Chinese dynasty. With the rebellion put down and peace at least temporarily restored Choe's thoughts turned towards home. One surviving poem, written earlier while Choe was heading to his first official post in China ("ten years of dust" being his ten years spent in preparing for the exam), gave vent to his emotions regarding the native land and family he had not seen in a decade:

海內誰憐海外人
問津何處是通津
本求食祿非求利
只爲榮親不爲身
客路離愁江上雨
故園歸夢日邊春
濟川幸遇恩波廣
願濯凡纓十載塵 Who is there within China to sympathize with him without?
I ask for the ferry that will take me across the river,
Originally I sought only food and salary, not the benefits of office,
Only my parents’ glory, not my own needs.
The traveler's road, rain falling upon the river;
My former home, dreaming of return, springtime beneath the sun.
Crossing the river I meet with fortune the broad waves.
I wash ten years of dust from my humble cap strings.

The Samguk Sagi again tells us that Choe - the consummate Confucian - was thinking of his ageing parents when he requested permission from the Tang emperor to return to Silla. This he was duly granted and he returned home in 885. He was then 28.