{"id":89949,"date":"2026-10-26T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T01:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thekoreantoday.com\/bucheon\/2026\/10\/26\/history-lives-on-silla-series-episode-12-kim-chunchu\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T10:00:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T01:00:35","slug":"history-lives-on-silla-series-episode-12-kim-chunchu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thekoreantoday.com\/bucheon\/2026\/10\/26\/history-lives-on-silla-series-episode-12-kim-chunchu\/","title":{"rendered":"[History Lives On – Silla Series] Episode 12: Kim Chunchu"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n
\u65b0<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n

THE KOREAN TODAY<\/p>\n

History Lives On<\/h1>\n
<\/div>\n

The Silla Chronicle<\/h2>\n

Episode 12: Kim Chunchu’s Diplomacy – The Birth of the Silla-Tang Alliance<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

An alliance is not an act of affection but of calculation. Yet to make that calculation work, someone first has to persuade the world’s most powerful people. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

In 642 CE, Daeyaseong, a key western fortress of the Korean kingdom of Silla, fell to Baekje. The commander Kim Pumseok and his wife Gotaso, the daughter of the noble Kim Chunchu, were killed. The Samguk Sagi records that Kim Chunchu stood leaning against a pillar all day, not recognizing people who walked past him. A private tragedy had become a national emergency. <\/p>\n

Baekje pressed from the west and Goguryeo from the north. How could a smaller state survive? Kim Chunchu chose words over swords, carrying his case to Goguryeo, to Japan, and finally to Tang China. Think of Byzantium courting the Franks, or Venice negotiating with Constantinople: when a small power sits between giants, who it befriends decides whether it exists at all. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\ud83c\udf0d Western Historical Parallel <\/h4>\n

In the very years Chunchu was crossing the Yellow Sea, the Byzantine Empire was losing Egypt and Syria to the Rashidun Caliphate and Sasanian Persia was collapsing after the Battle of Nahavand (642). In Britain, King Oswald of Northumbria fell in battle against Mercia the same year. Everywhere, weak states were choosing between submission, resistance and alliance with a rising power. Silla’s choice resembles the Franks’ later alliance with the papacy: a smaller power trading deference for protection and legitimacy. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\u25c6<\/span> The Ancient Landscape <\/h3>\n
\n

Seventh-century East Asia was reshaping itself. Tang China, rising from the ruins of the short-lived Sui, was consolidating under Emperor Taizong. Goguryeo, which had repelled several Sui and Tang pressures, dominated the north of the Korean peninsula and much of Manchuria. In 642, the Goguryeo general Yeon Gaesomun staged a coup, killed King Yeongnyu and his supporters, and seized power, commonly explained as a backlash against a conciliatory Tang policy. <\/p>\n

That same year, Baekje’s King Uija captured dozens of Silla’s western fortresses, including Daeyaseong. Silla sent an envoy to Tang the following year (643) but no help came right away. Kim Chunchu first went to Goguryeo. According to tradition, Yeon Gaesomun demanded the return of territory once held by Goguryeo, Chunchu refused and was detained, then escaped through rumors of a Silla rescue force under General Kim Yu-sin, a bribe, and the clever fable of the turtle and the hare. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

“Silla asked Goguryeo for troops, but Goguryeo would not agree.” (paraphrase of the account; not a verbatim quotation) <\/p>\n