ABSTRACT
The 518 years of the Yi Dynasty constitute one of the longest recorded histories of dynastic succession on the East Asia mainland. Korea had brilliant periods of artistic splendor and innovation. The international rivalries in the nineteenth century required a weak buffer state in the region, allowing the Korean regime to continue until Japan, with Western acquiescence, annexed Korea in 1910. Official Korea in Yi dynasty was essentially a yangban enclave or whatever faction of it was in power at the time, severely curtailed the theoretically absolute power of the monarch. As the dynasty consolidated its power, Buddhism was downgraded, and temple construction was prohibited in the capital, Seoul. Change and ferment were occurring internally in Korea, however. In reaction to economic decline, and spurred by the introduction of Western thought, there developed a syncretic religion called the Tonghak, which combined Western and Korean elements.
