PoliticsJanuary 1135 – February 1136(Lunar)

Myocheong’s Movement to Move the Capital to Seogyeong

Myocheong and Jeong Ji-sang of the Western Capital urged moving the capital there, proclaiming an emperor and attacking Jin; rebuffed, they rebelled in Seogyeong and were crushed within a year by government forces under Kim Bu-sik.

After Yi Ja-gyeom’s revolt Injong sought renewal. Myocheong and Jeong Ji-sang, natives of Seogyeong (Pyongyang), argued from geomancy that Gaegyeong’s energy was spent and Seogyeong auspicious, and urged moving the capital, styling the king emperor with his own era name, and attacking Jin. A palace, Daehwagung, was even built in Seogyeong, but the Gaegyeong aristocrats led by Kim Bu-sik opposed the plan on Confucian grounds of serving the great power.

In the first month of 1135 Myocheong rose at Seogyeong, naming his state Daewi, his era Cheongae and his army the Heaven-Sent Loyal Army. Kim Bu-sik’s forces took the city in the second month of 1136. Gaegyeong’s aristocracy grew stronger and Seogyeong’s standing fell. The historian Sin Chae-ho called it "the greatest event in a thousand years of Korean history", a clash between independent native thought and Confucian deference to China.

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The map in 1135

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States and rulers at the time: Goryeo — Injong
Places: Pyongyang Fortress, Songak (Kaesong)

People

Myocheong1135
leader · Monk of Seogyeong who urged moving the capital there, proclaiming an emperor and attacking Jin, and rebelled in 1135
Jeong Ji-sang1135
participant · Poet-official from Seogyeong who backed Myocheong and was executed in Gaegyeong when the revolt broke out
Kim Bu-sik1075 – 1151
commander · Confucian aristocrat of Gaegyeong who crushed Myocheong’s revolt and compiled the Samguk sagi in 1145
King Injong1109 – 1146
monarch · Seventeenth king of Goryeo, who faced the revolts of Yi Ja-gyeom and Myocheong and commissioned the Samguk sagi

Before and after

Earlier: 1126 Yi Ja-gyeom’s Rebellion
Later: 1145 Kim Bu-sik Compiles the Samguk sagi

Themes that include this event

Song, Ming and Samurai JapanAD 960 – 1500
The age when the civil-minded Song bought peace from Liao, Western Xia and Jin while the lower Yangtze boomed and Neo-Confucianism took shape, and the Ming, having driven out the Yuan, rebuilt the East Asian order through imperial autocracy, the sea ban and tribute — as Japan passed through the Kamakura and Muromachi warrior governments into the Warring States era, and Korea from Goryeo to Joseon
Pyongyang194 BC – 2007
From Wanggeom-seong of Gojoseon to the inter-Korean summits — capital of Goguryeo, Western Capital of Goryeo, the great city on the Taedong