Yejong of Goryeo
Encyclopedia
- For the later ruler, see Yejong of JoseonYejong of JoseonYejong of Joseon was the 8th king of the Joseon Dynasty Korea. He succeeded his father, King Sejo in 1468, but was too physically ill to govern, and died a year later....
.
Yejong of Goryeo (1079–1122) (r. 1105–1122) was the 16th monarch
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
of the Korean 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.
Biography
He was the eldest son of king SukjongSukjong of Goryeo
Sukjong of Goryeo was the 15th ruler of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea. He was the younger brother of Sunjong. He married Myeongui, the daughter of Yu Hong....
and Queen Myeongui. He succeeded Sukjong upon his father's death.
Among his first decrees, in 1106, was an order breaking up the empire into new administrative divisions.
He was a great promoter of Daoism
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
, preferring its precepts over those of the previously ascendant court religion of Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
. During his reign, Daoist court rituals were introduced from Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
China; many Daoist practices and institutions were established and began to flourish.
Although the early 12th century was a relatively stable period for Korea, Yejong did have to deal with Jurchen
Jurchens
The Jurchens were a Tungusic people who inhabited the region of Manchuria until the 17th century, when they adopted the name Manchu...
incursions in the northern part of the kingdom. He refused the diplomatic overtures of the Jin Dynasty
Jin Dynasty, 1115–1234
The Jīn Dynasty ; Khitan language: Nik, Niku; ; 1115–1234), also known as the Jurchen Dynasty, was founded by the Wanyan clan of the Jurchens, the ancestors of the Manchus who established the Qing Dynasty some 500 years later...
, a rival to China that had been founded in 1115 by the Jurchens, instead sending a large army to repel Jin attacks in Korea's northern regions.
He is also noted for his sponsorship of the arts. In 1114 Yejong sent a request to the Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
Emperor Huizong
Emperor Huizong (Song Dynasty)
Emperor Huizong was the eighth and one of the most famous emperors of the Song Dynasty of China, with a personal life spent amidst luxury, sophistication and art but ending in tragedy....
asking for Chinese musical instruments to be sent to his palace in the Goryeo capital of Gaeseong
Kaesong
Kaesŏng is a city in North Hwanghae Province, southern North Korea , a former Directly Governed City, and the capital of Korea during the Koryo Dynasty. The city is near Kaesŏng Industrial Region and it contains the remains of the Manwoldae palace. It was formally named Songdo while it was the...
, so that he could conduct Confucian
Korean Confucianism
Korean Confucianism is the form of Confucianism developed in Korea. One of the most substantial influences in Korean intellectual history was the introduction of Confucian thought as part of the cultural influence from China...
rituals in the Goryeo court. Huizong, apparently misunderstanding the request, sent a set of musical instruments to be used for royal banquet music. (Huizong had, in 1110, for political reasons, granted Yejong the status of "genuine king," and Goryeo had since then conducted itself with great deference to China.) Two years later, in 1116, Yejong sent another petition in which he reiterated his request for ritual instruments, whereupon Huizong sent an even larger gift of musical instruments (this time yayue
Yayue
Yayue , Wade-Giles ya-yüeh; ; ; ) was originally a form of Chinese classical music that was performed at imperial courts. The basic conventions of yayue were established in the Western Zhou. Together with law and rites, it formed the formal representation of aristocratic political power...
instruments, numbering 428 in total), as well as ritual dance regalia and the appropriate instructions, beginning Korea's tradition of aak
Aak
Aak is a genre of Korean court music. It is an imported form of Chinese ritual music. Aak is often labeled as "elegant music" in contrast with other traditional Korean music...
.
It appears that the gifts of 1114 and 1116 were part of an attempt to gain Goryeo's loyalty against the Jurchen, but this strategy proved unsuccessful; Goryeo remained neutral and the Song capital of Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
fell to the Jin in 1127.
In order to promote government education, Yejong established a foundation called the Yanghyon'go (Foundation for the Training of Talents) and stationed seven specialized lecturers at the Gukjagam
Gukjagam
The Gukjagam, known at times as Gukhak or Seonggyungwan, was the highest educational institution of the Korean Goryeo dynasty. It was located at the capital, Gaegyeong , and provided advanced training in the Chinese classics. It was established in 992 during the reign of Seongjong...
who faithfully carried out this education. He also added a seventh division to the institution in 1104, providing military training. This was the first recorded occasion of a Korean dynasty providing formal training in the military arts. Due to tensions between the aristocracy and the military, it was removed from the curriculum soon after his death, in 1133.
Yejong was also interested in botany, gathering rare plants from all over Korea and sending them to China in exchange for many Chinese plants. Also during his reign, the ceramic industry flourished, with Korean designs predominating over Chinese ones for the first time.
Yejong's reign was characterized by a dilution of his power by strong government advisors and other officials who often squabbled among one another. This, combined with the military difficulties with the Jurchen in the north, caused him to retreat further and further into his books and Daoist rituals. Yejong was succeeded upon his death by his son, Injong
Injong of Goryeo
Injong of Goryeo was the 17th monarch of the Korean Goryeo dynasty. He was the eldest son of king Yejong and Empress Sundeok....
. Injong was the son of Yejong's queen, who was the second daughter of Yi Cha-gyom, the head of the Yi clan of Incheon
Incheon
The Incheon Metropolitan City is located in northwestern South Korea. The city was home to just 4,700 people when Jemulpo port was built in 1883. Today 2.76 million people live in the city, making it Korea’s third most populous city after Seoul and Busan Metropolitan City...
.
Yejong's Veritable Records (sillok) were compiled by three historians (including the Confucian scholar Kim Bu-sik
Kim Bu-sik
Kim Busik was an official and a scholar during Korea's Goryeo period. He is best known for compiling the Samguk Sagi, the oldest extant record of Korean history....
, who had been appointed as Royal Diarist, or ji, in 1121) beginning in 1123.
See also
- Rulers of Korea
- History of KoreaHistory of KoreaThe Korean Peninsula was inhabited from the Lower Paleolithic about 400,000-500,000 years ago. Archeological evidence indicates that the presence of modern humans in northeast Asia dates to 39,000 years ago. The earliest known Korean pottery dates to around 8000 BC, and the Neolithic period began...
- List of Korea-related topics
- Yun Gwan