The Unified Silla Period

The Unified Silla Period, 668 to 935 CE, began after the kingdom of Silla, with Tang Chinese support, conquered its rival kingdoms Baekje and Goguryeo and then expelled Tang forces that had attempted to occupy the peninsula themselves, establishing the first political unification of most of the Korean peninsula under a single native state. The period was a golden age of Korean Buddhist art and architecture, producing the Bulguksa temple complex and the Seokguram grotto and its monumental Buddha statue near the Silla capital of Gyeongju, both later recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites, alongside advances in printing technology including the Mugujeonggwang Dharani Sutra, among the oldest surviving printed documents in the world. Silla maintained active trade and diplomatic contact with Tang China and Japan, and Buddhist monks and scholars traveled widely across East and Central Asia. Royal authority weakened steadily from the late ninth century amid aristocratic infighting and regional rebellions, and the kingdom fragmented into the Later Three Kingdoms before being absorbed into the new Goryeo dynasty in 935.