Goryeo under King Sinjong and the Choe house

Who rules

Name

Sinjong (Wang Tak, formerly Wang Min)

Title

King of Goryeo (Gaoli guowang in the Jin patent)

Since

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

Born

1144

Family

Wang clan of Kaesong; fifth son of Injong; younger brother of Myeongjong

Confidence

high

English and Chinese Wikipedia on Sinjong, Choe Chung-heon and Myeongjong; Goryeosa not opened (Wikisource could not be reached)

Overlord

The Jin emperor Zhangzong (era Cheng'an) as nominal suzerain: Goryeo has been a Jin tributary since 1126. No Jin officer sits in Goryeo and the Jin does not interfere in appointments.

What the realm holds

• Gaegyeong (Kaesong) and the capital district (Gyeonggi), with Ganghwa and the Yeseong port of Byeokrando
• Secondary capitals: Seogyeong (Pyongyang), Dongkyeong (Gyeongju), Namgyeong (Hanyang, modern Seoul)
• Circuits: Yanggwang, Gyeongsang, Jeolla, Gyoju, Seohae; frontier zones: Bukgye, Donggye
• Tamna (Jeju) as a county under magistrates and native chiefs
• A claim to Ulleung, with no settlement
• The western and southern island chains (Baengnyeong to Jindo, Heuksan, Wando, Namhae, Geoje)

How it was acquired

Founded by Wang Geon in 918, it took the Later Three Kingdoms by 936. The military coup of 1170 ended civil rule; Choe's coup of 1196 to 1197 ended the generals' scramble by putting one house on top. The Choe house rules until 1258.

Allies and rivals

Jin: nominal suzerain, quiet frontier since the 1120s, licensed border market at Uiju. Song: no state mission since 1127, merchants only. Japan: no state tie; merchants from Tsushima and Hakata at Geumju. Khitan remnants live under Jin rule in Liaodong (their invasion of Goryeo is 1216). Inside: Choe's own relatives, the generals, the Buddhist houses, and the risers of the hills and coasts.

The realm that morning

Held: the peninsula south of the lower Yalu and the long wall (Cheolli Jangseong), with the north-east edge at Jeongpyeong and Hwaju; Jeju as a county. Not held: the Hamhung plain and everything north of Jeongpyeong (Jin's Helan country and Jurchen villages), and the upper Yalu and the Paektu uplands (Jin and Jurchen). Choe rules by appointments and by his own men; the Tobang (private guard) is NOT yet raised (it comes in Sinjong 3, 1200, month not pinned).

Manjeok's plot (1198) is put down. The east (Myeongju, Samcheok) was in revolt in 1199; the campaign board says it was bought off; we could not confirm. Jinju has not risen; Gyeongju is quiet but remembers Kim Sa-mi and Hyo-sim (1193 to 1194).

Wealth

Rice tax from the southern granaries (Jeolla, Gyeongsang) carried by sea and river to Gaegyeong; hemp and ramie cloth, paper, ginseng, celadon (Gangjin, Buan), salt, iron and copper from special villages, Jeju horses and abalone; sea trade with the Song at Byeokrando. Private estates (nongjang) and tax-free temple lands have eaten the old rank-land system; Choe's Ten Articles of 1196 complained of it.

Military

The old central guards (the Two Armies and Six Guards) are nominal. Real force is in the hands of the generals' households and, on the likely course, Choe's guard (the Tobang, raised during 1200 and not in being on 1 January). The frontier armies of Bukgye and Donggye answer to military commissioners (byeongmasa); provincial elite units (byeolcho) and local levies are called out by the circuits. No numbers are given.

Threats

• Choe's own kin and clients (the Chung-su affair of 1197 to 1198 shows how)
• Generals who want his place
• Buddhist houses and armed monks, one of whose plots on Choe is reported without date
• Slave and peasant rising: Jinju in the spring of 1200 and Gyeongju in 1202 (both the likely course, not yet begun)
• The Jin, if the throne is shaken (no sign)

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.

In 1200

1. Sinjong 3 (1200), month not pinnedChoe restores the Tobang, the private guard once kept by Gyeong Dae-seung (1179 to 1183), organised in rotas to guard his house and escort him.Depends on: Repeated plots on his life (Chinese Wikipedia) Stopped by: His death, or a coup of the generals before he builds it
2. Sinjong 3, 4th lunar month (about April to May 1200) [not yet checked against the source]The Jinju slaves and townsmen rise under Jeong Bang-ui; the unrest spreads to Geumju (Gimhae) and Hapju.Depends on: Local clerks' exactions and the slave grievance at Jinju Stopped by: A timely concession by the circuit officer, or the rising being betrayed
3. Spring 1200, month not knownJinul moves his Samadhi and Prajna Society from Jirisan to Songgwangsan (Gilsangsa).Depends on: The abbot's invitation and a patron's help Stopped by: Illness, a rising on the road, or no hall ready
4. 12th month of Sinjong 3 (about December 1200 to January 1201) [not yet checked against the source]Yi Gyu-bo is dismissed from his post at Jeonju.Depends on: A slander against him Stopped by: None needed: minor

Later, on the likely course

1. Sinjong 4 to 5 (1201 to 1202)Choe takes more offices; from 1202 he handles civil and military appointments from his own house (English Wikipedia).Depends on: His hold on the king and the Jungbang Stopped by: A rival general
2. Autumn to winter of Sinjong 5 (1202)Gyeongju's 'Silla restoration' rising; Tamna revolts; Myeongjong dies in Changnak Palace (3 December 1202 in English Wikipedia).Depends on: Gyeongju grievance and Choe's weak grip on the south-east Stopped by: Choe sending a stronger force at once
3. Sinjong 7 (1204), about January to FebruarySinjong, ill, abdicates at Choe's demand and dies 15 February 1204 (English Wikipedia); Huijong succeeds.Depends on: Choe's choice of successor Stopped by: Huijong's dying earlier

Places of note

• Gaegyeong, the capital: Palace (Manwoldae), royal temples and the Choe house
• Seogyeong, the Western Capital: Second capital and the north-west's chief seat
• Uiju, the Yalu gate: Jin embassies cross here; the licensed border market
• Byeokrando, the sea gate: Song merchants and the mouth of the Yeseong river
• Tamna (Jeju): Island county with native chiefs

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry place names Gyeonggi-do, Pyeongan, Hamgyeong, Gangwon-do and Jeolla-do in region labels are later or modern; the units of 1200 are the capital district (Gyeonggi), five circuits and two frontier zones (Bukgye, Donggye). The campaign board's 'Gyeonggi' is the capital district round Gaegyeong only.
• The campaign board entry posu-jiuliancheng: a Jin fort on the Chinese bank; the point falls on the Korean side; we write it as an anchor with realm jin and not as a Goryeo town.
• English Choe Chung-heon page puts Choe Chung-su's death in 1200 in the text and 1197 in the infobox: we settle it as soon after Sinjong's accession (late 1197 or early 1198), before Manjeok's plot (5th month 1198), so he is dead on 1 January 1200 (see Choe Chung-su).
• The campaign board entry says Jinju's storm has not yet broken: agreed. The campaign board entry says the Tobang is raised during 1200: agreed (Chinese Wikipedia, Sinjong 3).
• The campaign board entry gilsangsa-songgwangsan says the society is 'on the road from Jirisan' on 1 January: not confirmed; our recollection is that Jinul is at Sangmuju hermitage on Jirisan and moves later in 1200 (the likely course).

Evidence: The outline of 1196 to 1204 is well attested in English and Chinese Wikipedia, which follow the Goryeosa. The Goryeosa text, Goryeosa jeoryo and the Korean Wikipedia were not reachable (Wikisource and ko.wikipedia refused), so months of events of 1197 to 1200, names of frontier commanders and the local detail rest on recollection and are marked [not yet checked against the source] or 'not pinned'.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The outline is a rough closing of the modern districts and follows no 1200 survey; the north-east edge near Jeongpyeong and the Yalu bank above Sakju are the least certain lines.

Primary sources for this realm

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
• Collection to Break Up Idleness, Yi Illo (李仁老) (completed 1214, printed 1260). The earlier of the two Goryeo books of literary anecdote, by a scholar who survived the military coup of 1170 by taking refuge in a monastery and later served under the Choe regime. Read online
• Supplement to the Collection to Break Up Idleness, Choe Ja (崔滋) (1254). A sequel to the Pahan jip written at the request of the Choe house, by a man born in 1188 who knew the generation of 1200 as a boy and young official. Read online