Gyeongju was Silla's capital and is still the greatest town of the south-east.
English Wikipedia says Goryeo named it Gyeongju in 940, made it Donggyeong (the Eastern Capital) in 987, removed the title in 1012 and later made it the seat of Yeongnam province; the brief and the campaign board give it as a secondary capital in 1200, so the title was restored in the 11th century [not yet checked against the source]. Its clerks are the descendants of the Silla elite (Gyeongju elite). Its temples include Bulguksa and Seokguram, Hwangnyongsa (whose nine-storey pagoda the Mongols burn in the 13th century).
King Uijong was killed here in 1173 [not yet checked against the source]; Kim Sa-mi and Hyo-sim rose nearby in 1193 to 1194; and the 'Silla restoration' rising of 1202 will make Gyeongju the first big revolt of Sinjong's reign to bring in troops from the capital.
Who holds it
- Title
- Governor (yusu) of the Eastern Capital
- Confidence
- low
No source we could read names the holder in 1200
Lord in 1200
The Dongkyeong governor (yusu), a Choe appointee; name not known
Overlord
the king at Gaegyeong, in fact Choe Chung-heon
How things stand that morning
Quiet but resentful.
Threats
- A new rising: the Silla restoration of 1202
Council
The governor and the hyangni of the Silla families (Kim, Yi, Choe, Seol, Bae and others [not yet checked against the source]).
Communities
The clergy of Bulguksa and the old Silla houses; schools [not yet checked against the source].
Militia
Local elite units (byeolcho) of the Gyeongju district, who join the 1202 rising (Chinese Wikipedia).
Walls and castle
Silla's ruined Wolseong palace and the Namsan fortresses; no major walls recorded.
Trade and crafts
Irrigated rice, hemp and silk; the east coast ports at Ulju and Pohang's hinterland [not yet checked against the source].
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.
- Autumn to winter of Sinjong 5 (1202)Gyeongju's 'Silla restoration' rising.Depends on: Local grievance and the 1193 precedent Stopped by: Prompt capital force
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Status from English Wikipedia (Gyeongju) and the brief.
On the map: Seeds round the city.
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
- Gyeongju (English Wikipedia)
- Yi Ui-min (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.