history of kuk sool won:
1:4 The Silla Dynasty: 668-935 CE

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The SILLA dynasty began gradually to decline towards the end of the 9th century CE. Several reasons were to contribute to this. Prominent HWA RANG were encouraged to study the fine arts and politics to a greater extent and to disregard their martial arts training. Weak and corrupt rulers allowed internal power struggles between court officials and noblemen to continue. This in turn caused divided loyalties and a drop in morale among the troops and a decline of the HWA RANG code. Robbery and violence became commonplace as bandits roamed the countryside unchecked, which in turn caused civil unrest. Uprisings and rebellions began to spread and became increasingly difficult to contain. Events were also taking place in the territories that were formally known as PAEKCHE and KOGURYO that were eventually to bring down the SILLA dynasty
Figure 17: Painting depicting a tiger faced warrior	In the north (previously KOGURYO), an exiled SILLA prince named KUNG YE, together with a rebel-bandit named YANG KIL TUN, successfully led a rebellion, gaining territory north of the Han River (circa 890 CE). KUNG YE called his territory KORYO, an abbreviation of KOGURYO, and the name from which the modern Korea is derived. In 918 CE, KUNG YE died (there are references of a coup) and one of his generals came to power. General WANG KON moved the capital of KORYO to SON GAK KUN, where he was crowned as the first king of KORYO, becoming known as King TAE JO, the founder of KORYO. Over the following years, King TAE JO proceeded to have a royal residence and many Buddhist temples built.
	Meanwhile, the south (previously PAEKCHE) was under the command of a SILLA general named CHIN HWON. He was also known as the 'Tiger-Spirit' general. As legend has it, when he was a baby, his mother, while taking food to his father, laid the infant down among some bushes. Unknown to the parents a tigress found the infant and played with him, as she would her own cub, thus, when the infant grew up, he had the face and spirit of a tiger.
General CHIN HWON, aware of the unpopularity of the Queen CHIN SONG (888-898 CE), 51st monarch of SILLA, rose in revolt, knowing that many thousands of people would follow him. He successfully re-established PAEKCHE as a kingdom.
Several years later, in 926 CE, King CHIN HWON mounted an attack on the SILLA capital KYONG JU. King KYONG'AE (924-927), 55th SILLA king, who was merrymaking at the time, sent an envoy to KORYO asking for assistance from King TAE JO, but the ferocity of the attack by the tiger-spirit general was too much, and KYONG JU fell. The king was murdered and the city ravaged. Before King CHIN HWON left KYONG JU in triumph, taking with him many treasures, he installed a distant cousin of the murdered king, KONG AE, on the throne of SILLA.
SILLA continued to rule the Korean peninsula for another nine years under King KYONG AE's successor, King KYONG SUN (927-935), 56th and last SILLA king. However, it was inevitable that, due to the decline of the HWA RANG order in SILLA, the new, powerful KORYO, and their King TAE JO, would succeed in taking over the entire peninsula.
In 935, King KYONG SUN surrendered and abdicated the throne of SILLA in favour of King TAE JO of KORYO. Thus ended the once mighty SILLA dynasty after 992 years as a kingdom, and 268 years of total domination of the entire Korean Peninsula.

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history of kuk sool won: 1:4 The Silla Dynasty: 668-935 CE

history of kuk sool won:
1:4 The Silla Dynasty: 668-935 CE