Wang-gön answered by sending one of the highest officials to escort the ex-king to Song-do. The royal procession was ten miles long, as it slowly wound its way out of the deserted city amidst the clamorous grief of the people. Wang-gön met him in person at the gate of Song-do. He did not want the ex-king to bow to him but the courtiers had decided that as the country could have but one king this must be done. So the new arrival did obeisance. Wang-gön gave him his daughter to wife and made him prime minister, set aside the revenues of an entire district to his use and conferred high rank upon the Sil-la courtiers.
And so ended the ancient kingdom of Sil-la which had existed for 992 years, from 57 B.C. to 935 A.D. Her line of kings included fifty-six names, which gives an average of about eighteen years to each reign. From that day the capital of Sil-la was called simply by the name Kyöng-ju. We believe that history shows few instances of greater generosity, forbearance, delicacy and tact than are shadowed forth in the life of this same Wang-gön. Does history show a nobler act than that of providing a comfortable home where his old enemy Kyŭn-whŭn might spend his last days in comfort and ease? Does it show more delicacy than was shown by Wang-gön when he took every means to cover the chagrin of the retiring king of Sil-la by treating him as a royal guest?
Kyŭn-whŭn’s sons defeated.... Buddhist teachers from China.... The Emperor recognizes Koryŭ.... Wang-gön refuses to treat with the Kitans.... makes ten rules.... king marries his sister.... plot detected.... practical Shogunate.... Buddhism flourishes.... P‘yŭng-yang.... Chinamen take office in Koryŭ.... slavery.... examinations.... Chinese favored.... official garments.... incapable king.... retrogression.... reform.... Confucianism.... Kitan growing.... bureau of history reorganized.... equilibrium between Confucianism and Buddhism.... Uk is banished.... quarrel with Kitan.... concession.... dispute.... China refuses aid.... the provinces.... the “Emperor” of Kitan gives the king investiture.... first coinage.... reforms.... conspiracy crushed.
Before leaving the kingdom of Sil-la to be swallowed up in antiquity we must notice a few corollaries. We will notice that Sil-la was the first power to gain the control of the whole peninsula. It was the language of Sil-la that became at least the official language of the entire country. The _yi-t‘u_, or system of diacritical marks, tended to stereotype the agglutinative endings, so that we find to-day the general characteristics running through the grammar of Korean are those which characterized the language of ancient Sil-la. This fact, clearly grasped, goes a long way toward opening a way for the solution of the question of the origin of the language.