Sinjong

Who he is

Name

Sinjong (Wang Tak, earlier Wang Min; Duke Pyeongnyang before his accession)

Title

King of Goryeo

Since

9th lunar month of Myeongjong 27 (about September to October 1197 Julian)

Born

1144 (English Wikipedia prints 11 August; the lunar day is not pinned)

Family

Fifth son of Injong and Queen Gongye of the Jangheung Im clan; younger brother of Myeongjong

Confidence

high

English and Chinese Wikipedia; Jin investiture date not pinned

Overlord

The Jin emperor Zhangzong, nominal. Goryeo dates by the Jin reign name (Cheng'an 4 on 1 January 1200).

What it holds

• The royal demesne: the palace at Gaegyeong and the capital district (Gyeonggi) as the king's seat
• The right to grant rank, titles and the merit-subject honours
• The state rites and the royal temples (Heungwangsa, Gukcheongsa)

How it was acquired

Put on the throne by Choe Chung-heon, 9th month of 1197, after Myeongjong was confined in Changnak Palace and his heir sent to Ganghwa (Chinese Wikipedia, Myeongjong page).

Allies and rivals

Owes the throne to Choe and is guarded by him; no known rival except the Myeongjong line (Wang O on Ganghwa). His heir is cool to the Choe brothers (English Wikipedia, Huijong).

How things stand that morning

Figurehead with real ritual standing. Choe, not the king, appoints officials; the king is told after. The Jin patent makes him lawful abroad.

Wealth

Royal estates and palace stores; the court's old tribute from the provinces was a target of Choe's Ten Articles (1196), which asked that offerings to the royal family be forbidden.

Military

None of his own; the palace guards answer to the generals and to Choe.

Threats

• Choe's wish to replace him if he refuses a measure
• His own health: he is ill by 1204
• A Myeongjong restoration party (Wang O on Ganghwa) if Choe falls

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. Sinjong 7 (1204), about January to FebruaryAbdicates at Choe's demand; dies 15 February 1204.Depends on: Illness and Choe's wish to place Huijong Stopped by: Recovery

Places of note

• Main palace, Gaegyeong: Manwoldae palace complex

Where the sources disagree

• English Wikipedia names his birth name Wang Min and 'Wang Tak' in the text: the Chinese page says Tak (晫) was his name after Min (旼); we use Tak.
• Jin investiture: the English page says nothing; we do not give a year as fact.

Evidence: Dates from English and Chinese Wikipedia; queen's father, children beyond the first two and the Jin patent date not pinned.

On the map: Shows only the home district of the throne.

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.