Chapter Seven
Post-Conquest Puyŏ Survivals
he series of misfortunes culminating in the final Murong assault on Puyŏ in 346 Tshattered what remained of that state’s government structure and resulted in a wide- spread dispersal of its populations. Although the state itself ceased to exist as an inde- pendent polity at this time, its people and its name continued to appear in historical records in a variety of forms and circumstances for many centuries, down to the present. This chapter will explore these later historical manifestations of Puyŏ, focusing on three primary topics. These topics include the dispersal of the Puyŏ people, the struggle for control over former Puyŏ territory, and the persistence of the Puyŏ name as political cachet wielded by later state-builders asserting claims of political or cultural legitimacy in Manchuria and Korea. Although the foundation myths of some of these later states maintained that those states were founded by Puyŏ refugees, such claims cannot easily be demonstrated to have a historical basis. It is possible instead that the leaders of later states had much to gain by creating fictive associations between themselves and the legacy of Puyŏ.
The Dispersal of Populations
The invasion of Puyŏ that preceded the 346 strike delivered by Murong Huang had already severely disrupted the Puyŏ social organization.1 The many captives carried away by the Xianbei armies would therefore have been for the most part groups who were
1. Zizhi tongjian 97:3069 (Mudi, Yonghe 2/1) notes that after the earlier assault the populations of Puyŏ’s villages dispersed and scattered, and some groups, including the ruling elite, “moved westward near Yan but did not set up defenses.” As noted previously, surviving sources do not specify the year of the pre-346 invasion. 232 Chapter Seven
already displaced and disoriented prior to the Xianbei invasion. In addition to those Puyŏ remnants removed to Murong-held territories in 346, historical sources indicate that some Puyŏ groups fled to the north, whereas others appear to have withdrawn to the Okchŏ region in the east. Still other groups remained in the former Puyŏ territories and continued to live under Koguryŏ domination. In this section three instances of Puyŏ migration will be addressed, including the activities of Puyŏ elites in central China, the Damolou refugees in Heilongjiang, and the Eastern Puyŏ groups who withdrew to the Tumen valley.
Puyŏ Elites in the Central Plains As discussed above, in 346 the king of the Former Yan state, Murong Huang, sent his sons Jün and Ke against the vulnerable Puyŏ refugee encampments and quickly over- whelmed them. The Puyŏ captives, said to have numbered in excess offift y thousand, constituted a very significant proportion of the total Puyŏ population, and though that number included the Puyŏ king Hyŏn and the remainder of his court, the far greater percentage must have represented peasant populations. These captives were removed to supplement the sparsely populated territories held by the Murong, which in 346 included the commanderies of Changli, Liaodong, and the northern part of Liaoxi, an area that approximates the extent of today’s Liaoning Province.2 Beginning in 349, however, the Murong surged southward and in less than half a decade had taken the North China plain, an event that brought into being the first of several Murong independent states headed by claimants for sovereignty over all of China. As the Murong moved into central China, the captured Puyŏ populations moved with them, and historical records allow us to trace the activities of a few Puyŏ elite individuals as their fortunes paced the vicissi- tudes of a succession of Murong states. Murong Huang did not long survive the destruction he wrought upon the remnants of the Puyŏ state, for he died in 349 and was succeeded by his son Jün 儁, who shortly afterward commenced the invasions of North China.3 In 350 the Yan capital was removed from Longcheng 龍城 to the city of Ji 薊 (Beijing) after the Later Zhao territories in the Central Plains had been secured. Murong Jün broke all pretense of loyalty to the Eastern Jin court in 353 by declaring himself to be emperor, and in 357 he moved his capital again to the city of Ye 鄴 (near Anyang) in central China.4 The fortunes of Former Yan turned upon the death of Murong Jün in 360, for the new emperor, Murong Wei 慕容暐, was an eleven-year-old child subject to the influence of competing factions within the Murong leadership. Yan’s authority was maintained for a time due to the effective regency of Murong Ke and the military prowess of his younger brother, Murong Chui 慕容垂 (326–
2. The portions of the old Liaoxi Commandery that lay to the south of today’s Shanhaiguan were in 346 still held by Later Zhao, which fell into disorder in 349 and collapsed the following year. Murong Huang’s territories in 346 were limited to an area somewhat lesser in extent than today’s Liaoning Province. 3. Jün had directed the 346 attack on Puyŏ. For a survey of the history of the Former Yan state in English, see Schreiber 1949–55 and 1956. 4. Ye had served as the capital of the Later Zhao state.