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Tablet and Certificate - Koryŏ King’s Investiture Documents

  • The Review of Korean History
  • 2017, (126), pp.149-202
  • Publisher : The Historical Society Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > History

Jung Donghun 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study examines the change in the format of the investiture documents bestowed to Koryŏ King from Chinese dynasties during the 10th to 14th centuries. Through the act of investiture, Chinese emperor recognized the feudal lords’ fief and his related rights. At the time of appointment, an investiture documents such as tablet 冊, certificate 誥命, and proclamation 制書 were issued. Amongst them, the one with the most authority was the tablet. The range of subjects which were given the tablet was gradually declined. A tablets can be understood as documents endowing the appointee with a title of nobility 爵位, like empress, the crown prince, and the princes. On the other hand, certificate of appointment was a document appointing all official positions. As members of the bureaucratic system, and as subjects with a bureaucratic position, they did not receive tablets. For the Koryŏ king, the tablet was always used as the document of investiture, by Chinese dynasties from the Five Dynasties period through Song, Khitan, and Jin eras. Meanwhile during the Yüan dynasty period, the Koryŏ king was invested as both the imperial son-in-law and the King of Koryŏ, while also being appointed to the seat of minister of the branch secretariat for the Eastern campaign. It should be noted that a certificates called Xuānmìng 宣命, which was different from previous investiture documents, was used for the occasion. And in the Ming dynasty, tablets were no longer used and only certificates of appointment Gàoming 誥命 were bestowed. The reason that tablets were used as appointment documents for the king of Koryŏ was because their position was recognized as a noble one, just like those of the members of the Chinese imperial family. But at the same time, the Koryŏ king was also recognized as a bureaucratic member of the Yüan government, as a minister of a branch secretariat, so they received corresponding appointment certificates as well. And during the Ming period, only one of their dual positions (the latter) was recognized. As a result, only the bureaucratic title, the certificate was bestowed to Koryŏ king.

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