Abstract

The study of Korean history in the 13th and 14th centuries, when Eurasia was unified with the rise of the Mongol Empire, is still dominated by a dichotomous view of Mongol interference and Goryeo resistance. However, the relationship with the Mongol Empire imposed constraints and burdens on the Goryeo state, but it also provided new opportunities for the Goryeo people. The state to-state relationship between Goryeo and the Mongol Empire had a profound effect on the lives of the people who lived during this period. The individual trajectories that various groups of Goryeo people, including women, eunuchs, monks, and scholars, followed in the Mongol Empire after their voluntary or involuntary journeys to the Mongol Empire under these external circumstances influenced events that, whether they intended it or not, in turn, had a decisive impact on the unfolding of Goryeo and Korean history. While the Goryeo state drew lines and judged their lives based on their attitudes toward the Goryeo state, in the Mongol Empire, where the Goryeo people settled, they formed bonds and networks of relationships that were somewhat independent of such lines and judgments by the Goryeo state. This article aims to overcome the national historical perspectives of interference and resistance that have been central to understanding the Goryeo-Mongol relations by examining the diverse backgrounds of the Goryeo people who traveled to the Mongol Empire and the trajectories of their lives there from their perspectives.