Chang's Home-Coming and the Opening of Chunhaejin


It is considered that Chang Po-go came back to his home country before 828. The reason he came back from Tang was to crack down on slave trading ships which sell Shilla People by force, in the sea near Shilla. When he was in the service at Mooryunggun, he already had witnessed slave trading scenes where Shilla People were brought to slave ships forcibly and sold to everywhere, and he felt infuriated.

At that time, slave trading was flourishing even if there was a repeated ban on the trade by the Tang government. The so-called 'Shilla Slave' were traded everywhere along the coast of China. Shilla thought this was a serious problem and asked Tang to clam down on the trading. In 816, China issued a ban prohibiting the trade of Shilla slave, but slave trading was not eradicated.

According to the historical book 'Sam-Gook-Sa-Ghi' (Historical stories on three kingdoms period), changpogo came from Tang in April 828 (the 3rd year of Hungduk King) and told Chang Po-go, "When I was in China, I saw our people were used as slaves. We must prohibit pirates from kidnapping and taking our people to the West by setting up military posts at ChungHae (Blue Sea)." The King gave him 10,000 soldiers to place them at ChungHaejin. (a military base)

He ruled as a maritime prince by preventing slave trade; cracking down on pirates unifying small societies of Shilla people who were scattered around the southwest seashore, and controlling sea power and international trading among three nations. Under his authority, the staffs of Chunghaejin eliminated slave trading, reduced the number of migrating people to foreign countries, and maintained social stability in the southwestern coastal areas.