Sinmun of Silla

Sinmun of Silla
Hangul	신문왕
Hanja	神文王
Revised Romanization	Sinmun Wang
McCune–Reischauer	Sinmun Wang
Birth name
Hangul	김정명 style 일소
Hanja	金政明 style 日怊
Revised Romanization	Gim Jeong-myeong style Ilso
McCune–Reischauer	Kim Chŏng Myŏng style Ilso

Monarchs of Korea Silla (Post-unification)

Munmu 661–681 Sinmun 681–691 Hyoso 692–702 Seongdeok 702–737 Hyoseong 737–742 Gyeongdeok 742–765 Hyegong 765–780 Seondeok 780–785 Wonseong 785–798 Soseong 798–800 Aejang 800–809 Heondeok 809–826 Heungdeok 826–836 Huigang 836–838 Minae 838–839 Sinmu 839 Munseong 839–857 Heonan 857–861 Gyeongmun 861–875 Heongang 875–886 Jeonggang 886–887 Jinseong 887–897 Hyogong 897–912 Sindeok 912–917 Gyeongmyeong 917–924 Gyeongae 924–927 Gyeongsun 927–935

Sinmun of Silla (r. 681–692) was the thirty-first king of Silla, a Korean state that originated in the southwestern Korean peninsula and went on to unify most of the peninsula under its rule in the mid 7th century. He was the eldest son of Silla's unifier-king, Munmu and Queen Jaeui. Sinmun's reign may be characterized by his attempts to consolidate royal authority following unification and to reorganize and systematize the governing appartus of the newly enlarged Silla state.

Sinmun was named crown prince by Munmu in 665. He came to power in the immediate wake of Silla's unification of the peninsula following its defeats of rival Baekje and Goguryeo with military aid from Tang China, and then its check of Tang ambitions to establish its hegemony over the peninsula. It was in late summer 681, not long after coming to power (the official period of mourning was in fact still in effect for the recently deceased King Munmu), that a serious revolt broke out against royal authority. The so-called "Kim Heumdol 金欽突 Revolt", named after its leader, a high-ranking Silla official, though a serious challenge to royal authority on the part of a clique of aristocratic officials, also provided Sinmun with the motive to solidify his power through a purge of certain aristocrats. The causes of Kim's revolt are disputed. Kim Heumdol was the father-in-law of Sinmun, who had married his daughter. The failure of Sinmun to produce a male heir through her, and the subsequent erosion of Kim's favor and influence at court may have been a key factor. Other scholars see in it a more serious challenge on the part of military leaders (some of whom were also implicated), who following the successful conclusion of the wars of unification saw their own influence and status erode. Still others see the source of aristocratic grievance being the rising influence of non aristocratic officials, who were increasingly being used to staff government posts. In any case, the 681 revolt was soon put down and Kim Heumdol and those implicated were executed.

Further evidence of Sinmun's ambitious attempts to buttress central authority lies in a 689 royal edict that eliminated the official salary system, called the nogeup 錄邑, or "stipend village", wherein in lieu of salary officials were allotted pieces of land and their attendant population whereby to extricate their income. In place of the nogeup Sinmun instituted a system wherein officials were allotted only "office land" (jikjeon 職田) from which they were allowed to procure only taxes on grain. This was clearly meant to sever the landed power base of aristocratic officialdom. In time, however, this royal initiative would prove no match against an aristocracy united in its determination to protect the sources of its power. Eventually (though not in Sinmun's reign) the old stipend village system would be revived.

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