Silla

Origins and formation

Silla was a Korean kingdom on the southern and central peninsula, dated by its history page from 57 BCE to 935 CE. With Paekche and Goguryeo it formed the Three Kingdoms. The page calls the founder Hyeokgeose a semi-mythological figure and says the foundation story, an egg and a white horse, was not attested in Silla’s own time. Chinese notices instead describe early Silla as Goguryeo refugees under a king from Mahan. The kingdom began as Saro, a chiefdom inside the Jinhan confederacy. By the second century it was a distinct polity in the southeast, and through the third century it was probably the strongest member of that confederacy rather than a peninsula-wide state. The guide’s “three kingdoms vied for centuries” starts from that contest. It does not start from a verified coronation in 57 BCE.^{[1] [3]}

Naemul of Silla, in the late fourth century, established a hereditary monarchy and used the title Maripgan. The page also says the Samguk sagi still calls him Isageum, and that Maripgan is a fifth- and sixth-century title in another summary of the royal names. Beopheung, ruling 514–540, made Buddhism the state religion. Jinheung, ruling 540–576, built a strong army, broke a long alliance with Paekche, and established the Hwarang. The ability in the game uses the word Maripgan. The historical word is a royal title. It is not yet a trade agreement.^{[1] [3]}

Defining periods

In the seventh century Silla allied with Tang. In 660, under Muyeol, the alliance took Paekche. In 668, under Munmu and the general Kim Yu-sin, it took Goguryeo. Silla then fought Tang for nearly a decade to expel Chinese forces that meant to plant colonies, and it held a unified kingdom as far north as modern Pyongyang. The north of old Goguryeo reemerged as Parhae. The guide says Silla finally unified the peninsula in the seventh century. The dated events are 660 and 668, and the war with Tang continues after 668. Unification is not a single New Year.^{[1] [3]}

The guide then says three hundred years passed before Goryeo could challenge Silla’s supremacy. The history page’s end is more broken than that round number. Royal power rose and then failed. Hyegong was assassinated in 780. Later kings were figureheads. The Later Three Kingdoms produced Later Paekche and Taebong. Silla submitted to Goryeo in 935. From 668 to 935 is not three hundred years. The guide’s interval is a sketch. The page’s handover is 935. The published Goryeo essay is the later kingdom that received that handover, not this antiquity unification. Alliances with Japan and China, which the guide mentions, are real in the page’s narrative of Goguryeo, Paekche, and Tang. They are not a standing treaty with a published Heian or Han essay, and those essays are not used as substitutes.^{[1] [3]}

Legacy and interpretation

The page calls Unified Silla prosperous and says Seorabeol, present-day Gyeongju, was the fourth-largest city in the world at the time. It also says that after nearly a thousand years Silla fragmented and handed power to Goryeo. The guide’s legacy is an era of architectural brilliance after unification. Brilliance is the guide’s word. The page’s concrete legacy is a capital, a bone-rank aristocracy, female monarchs, and a bureaucracy that tried Chinese models and then lost ground to noble families. Three reigning women, called yeowang, are part of that aristocracy. They are not a wonder.^{[1] [3]}

The bone-rank system, from at least the sixth century, fixed status, clothing, house size, and marriage. Sacred bone and true bone were the royal classes. Sacred-bone eligibility for the throne ended when Queen Jindeok, the last sacred-bone ruler, died in 654. The English tradition “Revised Bone-Rank” pays culture and science for imported resources. A resource bonus is not the end of sacred bone in 654. The Chinese tree uses the bone-rank vocabulary as civic names and attaches different effects, including the alliance trade route, to those nodes. The two pages do not describe one tree. This essay does not merge them.^{[1] [3] [4]}

A closer look

The English ability, Maripgan, gives both leaders a free trade route between capitals when an alliance is formed, and those routes remain after the alliance ends. It also adds influence for each civilization with which the player has a trade route. The Chinese ability text, as retrieved, says only that resources grant more culture. The alliance rule appears instead inside the Chinese civic tree. A route that survives a broken alliance is a rule. The history page’s alliances with Goguryeo, Paekche, and Tang were broken, reversed, and fought. None of them is described as a trade route that outlived the war. The English traditions Beopseong, Seorabeol, Strategic Allies, and The Golden Road pile happiness, gold, food, and science onto resources and allied routes. The Chinese page uses its own labels, arranged in a different order.^{[1] [3] [4]}

Hwarang were an elite group of young men in Silla from the mid sixth century to the early tenth, gathered for study, arts, and Buddhist teaching as well as war. Chinese sources, the hwarang page says, mentioned their physical beauty. The English unit is a ranged unit with extra movement and range that “counts as a Calvary unit,” the page’s spelling, and that has higher bombard strength than the unit it replaces. The Chinese unit is also ranged, also counts as cavalry, and is worded as a stronger attack. A youth band is not a bombard stat, and this essay does not correct the English spelling into a second unit. The quarter is a Dragon Temple, with a Lecture Hall and a Pagoda. The Chinese page names the quarter and the buildings in its own words. The merchant is a Sangdaedeung, historically the head of the Hwabaek council, who on the guide is paid gold when a trade route is created. A council president and a merchant are not the same office.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

In Civilization VII

The English wonder is Emile Bell. It grants influence, a diplomatic endeavor called the Ginseng Agreement that gives food to both players’ cities, and a diplomatic attribute point. The Chinese wonder uses the name of a royal bell. It grants the same endeavor, says the food goes to both capitals, requires rough terrain, and says the wonder is available in the main game. The English page does not say the wonder is base-game content. As with Assyria, a Chinese wonder line is not a base-game label for the civilization. This essay does not date the bell.^{[3] [4]}

The English page says Silla is part of the Right to Rule Collection DLC bundle, and that owning the bundle or the Founders Edition means the content is already owned. The Chinese page titles the civilization with its Chinese name, places it in the classical age, and its footnote names the collection and the Founders Edition. The apex on the English page is Antiquity, which is the codex age, even though the kingdom’s history runs to 935. The catalog follows the guide’s apex. The dates in this essay follow the history page. The first step back from the alliance ability is to keep the semi-mythological founding, the Maripgan title, 660, 668, and the handover of 935 apart from a trade route that refuses to end.^{[1] [3] [4]}