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According to East Asian political ideology, a ruler is a mediator between the people and Heaven. Rulers gain the Mandate of Heaven, permission to rule. However, if the rule is ineffective, Heaven sends signals in the form of natural anomalies, which show that a crisis period has arrived, and the people have the right to revolt against the king. Heaven sends good omens to a future king, showing that the person will lead the country to prosperity. This work aims to understand how crises were reflected in the chronicles Samguk Yusa and Samguk Sagi, which were used as primary sources. Two rulers of Unified Silla were selected for analysis – kings Hyegong (765-780 CE) as an example of crisis and Wonseong (785-798 CE) as the one of sustainability.
From the first months of Hyegong's reign, chronicles provide records of abnormal events: appearance of two suns, birth of a calf with five legs, earthquakes, severe hail, drought. Even after the general amnesty of the king in order to appease Heaven, the anomalies continued; through such records the chroniclers emphasize the inevitability of an unfortunate end to the king's reign.
King Wonseong was the founder of the ruling house of Silla in the late period. Wonseong's reign is marked by the stabilisation of the political situation and the implementation of social reforms. By describing Wonseong's prophetic dream of becoming a ruler, the chroniclers emphasise that Heaven itself placed Wonseong on the throne, adding legitimacy to the ruler. In the Samguk Sagi, Wonseong's reign is marked by good omens: Venus - a symbol of the fortune of a new dynasty - rose, and dragons appeared on the shores.
Crisis was seen as a reflection of imbalance in the universe, related to the ruler's misconduct. In the chronicles, crisis situations are shown through natural disasters, and sustainability is emphasised by good omens - all this is related to the East Asian concept of the Mandate of Heaven.
| Keywords | Mandate of Heaven, natural anormalies, legitimacy, chronicles, Silla, Korea |
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| arinamrachkovskaa@gmail.com |