gave to Koreans the only canons of art that they possessed. The leisure of the monastic life fostered such little literature as they enjoyed, and on the whole it is not to be wondered at that in time the kings came to wish that they were monks too, and that some of them actually went so far as to take the tonsure.
Korea to-day is full of relics of those times. There are thousands of monasteries throughout the land, many of them falling to pieces, but still showing remains of former grandeur. These were built on the most beautiful sites in the land, and this alone would be sufficient to show that the monks had an eye to art. There are many moss-grown pagodas and other monuments on which one can spell out in Chinese characters, or more often in Thibetan characters, the record of past glories.
Strange to say, the institution of slavery grew to great proportions in Koryu days. We say strange, because such a class of society is not recognised by Buddhism usually. Slavery was made the punishment for many misdemeanours, and the ranks of slaves were swelled to such proportions and they were treated so badly, that on more than one occasion they arose in revolt and were put down only after thousands had been killed.
One of the most curious customs of Koryu was that the kings always took their own sisters to wife. This has its parallel in Egypt under certain of the dynasties. The idea seems to have been to keep the royal blood as clear from plebeian strain as possible; but, of course, it defeated its own purpose, for in time the kings of Koryu became practically imbeciles, at least so feeble in mind that they were the mere tools of designing monks, who exerted for the time being all the powers of royalty. Time would fail to tell of half the plots and counterplots, poisonings, stabbings, stranglings and every other form of murder and sudden death that deface the annals of Koryu. It is. no wonder that when the time came for a new dynasty to ascend the throne the whole Buddhist system, which was mainly to blame for the shameful state of affairs, was outlawed, and no Buddhist monk was allowed to enter the gate of the capital.
