Choe Chung-heon

Who he is

Name

Choe Chung-heon (Ch'oe Ch'ung-hon)

Title

Minister of War with charge of the Ministry of Personnel; meritorious subject (Chungseong jwari gongsin)

Since

Killed Yi Ui-min in April to May 1196; deposed Myeongjong in the 9th month of 1197; sole master of the house after his brother's death (late 1197 or early 1198)

Born

1149 (probably Gaegyeong or Gyeongju)

Family

Ubong Choe clan; son of the supreme general Choe Won-ho and Lady Yu; claims descent from the Silla scholar Choe Chi-won

Confidence

high

English and Chinese Wikipedia; the Choe Goryeosa biography not opened

Overlord

The king in form; no one in fact. Allegiance runs to Sinjong, who owes him the throne.

What it holds

• The appointment of officials, civil and military, through the Ministry of Personnel
• The confiscated estates, houses and slaves of Yi Ui-min and his clan
• His household, kin and retainers (see Choe household and Choe's party)
• A general's seat in the Jungbang
• (Not yet: the Tobang guard of 1200, the Gyojeong-dogam of 1209)

How it was acquired

By force in 1196 and by the confinement of a king in 1197; made lawful by Sinjong's grant of the merit title in 1197 and by a string of titles and offices that follow.

Allies and rivals

Allies: nephew Pak Jin-jae, kinsman No Seok-sung, Baek Jon-yu, Choe Yun-gwang, the generals Yi Gyeong-yu and Choe Mun-cheong (Chinese Wikipedia). Dead rivals: Yi Ui-min (1196), his brother Chung-su (1197 to 1198). Possible rivals: the generals of the Jungbang, the monks, the Myeongjong line.

How things stand that morning

Master of the state. He holds no title that touches the throne and signs nothing as regent. On 1 January the Tobang is not yet raised, and Manjeok's plot (1198) is behind him. The English Choe page gives a long title for 1200 (Jeongguk gongsin, Samhan daegwang, Daejung daebu, Sangjanggun, Juguk) that falls during 1200 and is not his on 1 January.

Wealth

Yi Ui-min's confiscated estates, gifts, the revenue of appointments, the produce of private farms worked by slaves; no figures in our sources.

Military

His house soldiers and the officers who follow him; no standing guard until the Tobang (1200). The Jungbang generals are not his by right, only by fear and favour.

Threats

• Plots on his life (the cause of the Tobang)
• Monks (a captured plot, undated)
• Generals who want his place
• Slave and peasant risings (Manjeok 1198, put down; Jinju in the spring of 1200 and Gyeongju in 1202 are the likely course, not yet begun)
• Kin: Pak Jin-jae rebels in 1207

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. Sinjong 3 (1200), month not pinnedRestores the Tobang.Depends on: Repeated plots against him Stopped by: His fall first
2. During 1200Receives the long title Jeongguk gongsin, Samhan daegwang, Sangjanggun, Juguk.Depends on: Sinjong's grant Stopped by: None

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201 to 1203Commissioner of the Security Council and Chief Censor (1201); handles civil and military appointments from his own house (1202); vice-director of the Secretariat and Junior Preceptor of the Crown Prince (1203).Depends on: His hold on the court Stopped by: A rival general or a rising he cannot answer
2. 1204Chooses Huijong after Sinjong's abdication; the court consults Ki Hong-su at his house.Depends on: Sinjong's illness Stopped by: Choe's death
3. 1207 and 1209Pak Jin-jae rebels and is exiled; the Gyojeong-dogam is set up (1209).Depends on: Choe's quarrel with his nephew; the need for a tax-collecting board Stopped by: Choe's death

Places of note

• Choe's house in Gaegyeong: His residence, where appointments are made from 1202 and where the Tobang will stand guard

Where the sources disagree

• English Sinjong page calls him 'regent 1197 to 1204': a modern label; he held no regency, his first named organ (the Gyojeong-dogam) is of 1209.
• English Choe page gives 1196 offices as 'Left Minister of State' and 'Chief Inspector': we cannot reconcile them with the Chinese page and give only the 1199 office from the Chinese page.
• The English page's wife 'Princess Jeonghwa, daughter of King Gangjong' cannot be right (Gangjong b. 1152); we give no list of wives.

Evidence: English and Chinese Wikipedia agree on the main sequence; titles and months partly not pinned.

On the map: No land drawn: his estates are not located in any source we read.

Primary sources for Goryeo

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Essentials of the History of Goryeo, Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (1452). The chronological companion to the Goryeosa, finished a year after it and drawing on the same lost records, sometimes with entries the Goryeosa omits. Read online
• Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
• History of Goryeo, Jeong Inji (鄭麟趾), Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (completed 1451, from the Goryeo veritable records and earlier drafts). The official history of Goryeo, compiled by the Joseon state from the lost Goryeo veritable records. Read online
• History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
• History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
• Draft Compilation of the Collected Statutes of the Song, Various; the Song huiyao were compiled by the Song state, the surviving draft reassembled by Xu Song from the Yongle dadian in the nineteenth century (the original Song compilations date from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; the surviving extracts were recovered in 1809 to 1820 and printed in 1936). Dated extracts from the Song government's own statute collections, arranged by office. Read online
• Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
• Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country (Yi Gyu-bo), Yi Gyu-bo (李奎報) (poems and prose from the 1190s to 1241; collected and printed by his son in 1241, with a supplement in 1242). The collected poems, letters, memorials and essays of a Goryeo scholar who was thirty-two and still seeking office in 1200. Read online

2 more in the sources library for Korea and Japan.