ousted by the Ming, a similar movement soon
followed in Korea. The Mongolized dynasty of Korye was deposed and
another, which professed to trace its lineage back to Silla, mounted
the throne and gave the country the name of Chosen.

This revolution was mainly the work of the Confucianist party in the
nobility and it was not unnatural that patriots and reformers should
see in Buddhism nothing but the religion of the corrupt old regime of
the Mongols. During the next century and a half a series of
restrictive measures, sometimes amounting to persecution, were applied
to it. Two kings who dared to build monasteries and favour bonzes were
deposed. Statues were melted down, Buddhist learning was forbidden:
marriages and burials were performed according to the rules of
Chu-hsi. About the beginning of the sixteenth century (the date is
variously given as 1472 and 1512 and perhaps there was more than
one edict) the monasteries in the capital and all cities were closed
and this is why Korean monasteries are all in the country and often in
almost inaccessible mountains. It is only since the Japanese
occupation that temples have been built in towns.

At first the results of the revolution were beneficial. The great
families were compelled to discharge their body-guards whose
collisions had been a frequent cause of bloodshed. The public finances
and military forces were put into order. Printing with moveable type
and a phonetic alphabet were brought into use and vernacular
literature began to flourish. But in time the Confucian literati
formed a sort of corporation and became as troublesome as the bonzes
had been. The aristocracy split into two hostile camps and Korean
politics became again a confused struggle between families and
districts in which progress and even public order became impossible.
For a moment, however, there was a national cause. This was when
Hideyoshi invaded Korea in 1592 as part of his attack on China. The
people rose against the Japanese troops and, thanks to the death of
Hideyoshi rather than to their own valour, got rid of them. It is said
that in this struggle the bonzes took part as soldiers fighting under
their abbots and that the treaty of peace was negotiated by a Korean
and a Japanese monk.[899]

Nevertheless it does not appear that Buddhism enjoyed much
consideration in the next three centuries. The Hermit Kingdom, as it
has been called, became completely isolated and stagnant nor was there
any