Jeongjong II of Goryeo
Encyclopedia
Jeongjong of Goryeo (r. 1034–1046) was the 10th ruler of the Goryeo
Goryeo
The Goryeo Dynasty or Koryŏ was a Korean dynasty established in 918 by Emperor Taejo. Korea gets its name from this kingdom which came to be pronounced Korea. It united the Later Three Kingdoms in 936 and ruled most of the Korean peninsula until it was removed by the Joseon dynasty in 1392...

 dynasty of Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

. He was the second son of Hyeonjong
Hyeonjong of Goryeo
Hyeonjong of Goryeo was the 8th ruler of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea. He was a grandson of Emperor Taejo. He was appointed by the military leader Gang Jo, whom the previous Emperor Mokjong had called upon to destroy a plot by Kim Chi-yang.In 1010, The Khitan attacked again during an internal...

, and the younger brother of Deokjong
Deokjong of Goryeo
Deokjong of Goryeo was the 9th ruler of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea. The son of Hyeonjong, he was confirmed as Crown Prince in 1022...

. At the age of four in 1022, he was made Naesaryeong, a position of high rank, and designated the Prince of Pyongyang.

Jeongjong was greatly concerned with national defense, and began constructing fortresses along the northern border in the first year of his reign. In 1037, the country suffered an invasion from the northern Khitan
Khitan people
thumb|250px|Khitans [[Eagle hunting|using eagles to hunt]], painted during the Chinese [[Song Dynasty]].The Khitan people , or Khitai, Kitan, or Kidan, were a nomadic Mongolic people, originally located at Mongolia and Manchuria from the 4th century...

 tribes. In 1044, the Cheolli Jangseong
Cheolli Jangseong
Cheolli Jangseong in Korean history usually refers to the 11th century northern defense structure built during the Goryeo dynasty in present-day North Korea, though it also refers to a 7th century network of military garrisons in present-day northeastern China, built by Goguryeo, one of the Three...

 was completed, an enormous wall across northern Korea. Jeongjong also concerned himself with the material support of the army, distributing state land to indigent soldiers in 1036.

Just before his death in 1046, Jeongjong established primogeniture
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...

 as national law.

See also

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