Eighteen years old on 1 January 1200.
The Choe affair of 1197 to 1198 was about his bed: Choe Chung-su wanted his own daughter as crown princess, drove the princess then in the palace, a Wang-clan girl b. 1185, from the palace and fixed a wedding day; the king was unwilling; Choe Chung-heon stopped him, and Chung-su was killed at Papyeong (Chinese Wikipedia). English Wikipedia adds that the prince, hostile to the Choe brothers, planned to have Chung-heon kill Chung-su, was found out and had to beg forgiveness.
His principal wife by the time he is king is Lady Im of the Jangheung Im clan (Queen Seongpyeong); which of the two women is in the palace on 1 January is not pinned. He is deposed by Choe in 1211 and exiled to Yeongjongdo.
Who he is
- Name
- Wang Yeong (later King Huijong, r. 1204 to 1211)
- Title
- Crown prince
- Since
- Crown prince from Sinjong's accession (1197)
- Born
- 21 June 1181 (English Wikipedia)
- Family
- Eldest son of Sinjong and Queen Seonjeong
- Confidence
- high
English Wikipedia (Huijong, Choe Chung-heon pages); Chinese Wikipedia (Choe)
What it holds
- The crown prince's household (Donggung) and estates
Allies and rivals
Distrusts the Choe brothers; the Jangheung Im clan is his grandmother's house and his later wife's.
How things stand that morning
Heir with no power. A hostage of Choe's good will.
Threats
- Choe's changing his mind about the succession
- Plots in the palace
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.
- Sinjong 7 (1204)Becomes Huijong at Choe's choice.Depends on: Sinjong's abdication Stopped by: Choe preferring another
Where the sources disagree
- Chinese Wikipedia's text calls the prince Wang-yeon and the later king Heongjong (a slip for Wang Yeong, Huijong); English page used.
Evidence: Birth and later reign from English Wikipedia; the wife on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.
On the map: No land drawn.
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.
Sources and studies
- Huijong of Goryeo (English Wikipedia)
- Choe Chung-heon (English Wikipedia)
- Cui Zhongxian 崔忠獻 (Chinese Wikipedia)
- Goryeosa, Goryeosa jeoryo, Samguk yusa, Lee Ki-baik, Shultz: not opened in this run (Wikisource could not be reached); facts marked recollection come from these as remembered
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.