Gaegyeong is the capital of Goryeo, below the hill Songak.
Wang Geon made it his seat in 919 and it was renamed Gaegyeong in 960; English Wikipedia says its palace and houses nearly burned in the Khitan war of 1010 and that the city's rank was lowered in 1018 (the capital district, Gyeonggi, dates from that year [not yet checked against the source]). The palace is Manwoldae, whose ruins survive. In 1200 it holds King Sinjong in the main palace, Myeongjong under guard in Changnak Palace, the ministries, the Jungbang, the Gukjagam academy and Choe Chung-heon's house, from which appointments are made.
English Wikipedia counts seventy temples in the capital in the 11th century; Manjeok's plot of 1198 was to rise at Heungguksa and the slaves met on the northern hill. The river port that feeds it is Byeokrando to the west. The city is ruled in form by the Gaegyeong governor and in fact by Choe.
Who holds it
- Title
- King Sinjong; Choe Chung-heon holds the power
- Confidence
- low
No source we could read names the holder in 1200
Lord in 1200
King Sinjong in form; Choe Chung-heon in fact; the Gaegyeong governor under them (name not known)
Overlord
the king at Gaegyeong, in fact Choe Chung-heon
What the town holds
Capital since 919.
How things stand that morning
Calm. The Choe house sits in a capital that has seen four ruling houses since 1170.
Threats
- A palace plot against Choe (the cause of the Tobang)
- Slaves of the capital (Manjeok, 1198)
- A monk rising
Council
No council. The Gaegyeong governor (the capital's magistrate) answers to the king and the Ministry; Choe's house settles anything that matters.
Communities
The clergy of the capital's temples, the scholars of the Gukjagam, the Jin envoys' lodging, Song merchants at the port [not yet checked against the source].
Fairs and markets
Market arcades (sijeon) along the main street [not yet checked against the source]. Feasts: the Palgwanhoe on the 15th day of the 11th month (before 1 January) and the lantern festival (Yeondeunghoe) on the 15th day of the 2nd month, about 2 March 1200 [not yet checked against the source].
Militia
The palace guards and the generals' household soldiers; from 1200 the Tobang, which is not raised on 1 January.
Walls and castle
Palace Manwoldae with its own wall; the town wall and an outer wall of the 1010s and 1020s [not yet checked against the source]; a wooden city in the hills.
Trade and crafts
Court workshops (silk, metal, lacquer), celadon from Gangjin and Buan for the court, tax rice into the granaries, Song goods by Byeokrando [not yet checked against the source].
Places of note
- Manwoldae palace: The palace platform
- Heungguksa and the northern hill: Where Manjeok's slaves gathered in 1198 (site not pinned)
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: English Kaesong and Goryeo pages; the rest recollection.
On the map: Home district of the capital drawn by 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
- Kaesong (English Wikipedia)
- Goryeo (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.