THE KINGDOM OF Silla (ca. 300– 935 CE) was the most important of the early Korean states that vied for supremacy in the Early Middle Ages because: it conquered the other polities on the peninsula through an alliance with Tang China (618– 907 CE) in the mid seventh century, it enjoyed vigorous diplomatic and cultural relations with Tang from the seventh to the early tenth century, and its literary and epigraphic remains are more robust than other early Korean states. For much of the twentieth century, research on early Korea, including Silla, was divided between competing approaches: the first half of the century was dominated by Japanese scholars who executed their studies beginning during the colonial period. Some scholars advanced politically driven interpretations of early Korean history and assertions of Korean backwardness or slavish emulation of China to justify Japanese colonial acquisitions and its forceful approach to modernization policies. In the second half of the twentieth century, nationalistic Korean scholars responded by emphasizing a rhetoric Korean “uniqueness” in government and cultural practices. Both of these approaches have ultimately obscured our understanding of Silla history. Scholars adhering to an empirical approach to the study of early Korean history have sought a middle path emphasizing source-critical analysis. Conventional Western scholarship on Silla has generally followed empirical scholarship, but it also evinces some uncritical influences inherited from the other approaches. The Silla kingdom, particularly during the “Unified Silla period” (ca. 668– 935 CE), is typically described as an East Asian state that merely copied or mimicked its larger neighbour Tang China. Support for this view typically has been found in Silla's frequent tribute-bearing missions, loyal military support, and apparent emulation of Tang institutions during the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. Some scholars have gone so far as to speculate that the Silla capital, present-day Kyŏngju in southeastern Korea, was— like Nara (Heijōkyō) and Kyōtō (Heiankyō) in Japan— arrayed in chequerboard shape and modelled on the Tang capital Chang’an. Korean scholars, both nationalistic and empirical, on the other hand, have emphasized internal developments that gave rise to the autocratic power or despotism of the Silla royalty during the middle Silla period (654– 780 CE).