Hereditary lords · Goryeo under King Sinjong and the Choe house · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Gyeongju elite

Gyeongju (the Eastern Capital, Dongkyeong) was Silla's capital until 935.

Its clerks and landed families keep the memory of that state and a big district; the English Gyeongju page notes that relatives of Choe Chi-won shaped early Goryeo and that the Gyeongju Yi clan produced the scholar Yi Che-hyeon later. Choe Chung-heon himself claims descent from Choe Chi-won (English Wikipedia). The town's bad record with Goryeo's rulers includes the killing of King Uijong here in 1173 during Kim Bo-dang's attempt [not yet checked against the source] and the Kim Sa-mi and Hyo-sim rising of 1193 to 1194 (English Wikipedia calls it a Silla restoration movement).

The next rising is the Gyeongju 'Silla restoration' of 1202, which Choe puts down by force (English Choe page). Its leaders are not named in pages we could read.

Who he is

Name
Not one head; not known by name
Title
The clerk families (hyangni) of Gyeongju and the descendants of Silla's ruling houses
Family
Kim, Yi, Choe, Seol, Son, Jeong, Bae and the old Silla royal houses [not yet checked against the source]
Confidence
low

English Wikipedia (Gyeongju: Choe Chi-won's kin, Yi clan); recollection for the rest

What it holds

  • The tax and household registers of the Gyeongju district
  • Local schools and shrines of Silla (Bulguksa, Seokguram and the older temples are under their patronage [not yet checked against the source])

How things stand that morning

Restive but quiet; watched by Choe through the Dongkyeong governor.

Threats

  • Choe's tax demands and the slaves' grievances
  • Collusion of local clerks with rebels (as in 1193 to 1194)

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.

  1. Autumn to winter of Sinjong 5 (1202)The Gyeongju 'Silla restoration' rising; Choe suppresses it harshly (English Choe page).Depends on: Local grievance and weak provincial government Stopped by: A prompt Choe force

Where the sources disagree

  • English Yi Gyu-bo page dates a 'Donggyeong rebellion' to 1199; we read it as the 1202 rising.

Evidence: English Wikipedia pages (Gyeongju, Yi Ui-min, Choe) and recollection; no list of Gyeongju families for 1200 is in our sources.

On the map: Draws the district round Gyeongju as the home ground of its clerks.

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

  1. Gyeongju (English Wikipedia)
  2. Yi Ui-min (English Wikipedia)
  3. Choe Chung-heon (English Wikipedia)
  4. 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.