PoliticsMay 1388(Lunar)

Wihwado Retreat

When the Ming claimed the land north of Cheollyeong, King U and Choe Yeong launched an expedition against Liaodong, but Yi Seong-gye turned the army back at Wihwado, ousted Choe Yeong and seized power.

Yi Seong-gye, who turned back the army at Wihwa Island — royal portrait at Gyeonggijeon, Jeonju
Yi Seong-gye, who turned back the army at Wihwa Island — royal portrait at Gyeonggijeon, Jeonju

Bernard Gagnon · CC0 · Source

The Ming announced it would set up the Tieling Commandery to claim the land north of Cheollyeong once held by the Yuan. King U and Choe Yeong resolved to attack Liaodong. Yi Seong-gye objected with his "four reasons against": a small country should not defy a large one, troops should not be raised in summer, a distant campaign would leave the country open to pirates, and the monsoon would loosen the glue of the bows and spread disease.

Reaching Wihwado in the Yalu, Yi Seong-gye and Jo Min-su turned back in the fifth month of 1388, entered Gaegyeong, exiled (and later executed) Choe Yeong, deposed King U and enthroned King Chang. Power passed to Yi Seong-gye and the new scholar-officials, opening the way to the founding of Joseon.

The map in 1388

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States and rulers at the time
Goryeo — King U
Ming — Hongwu Emperor
Places
Wihwado, Songak (Kaesong)

People

  • Taejo (Yi Seong-gye)1335 – 1408

    leader · Founder and first king of Joseon, formerly a general who fought Japanese pirates and the Red Turbans

  • Choe Yeong1316 – 1388

    related figure · General who fought the Red Turbans and Japanese pirates, won at Hongsan in 1376, and was executed after the Wihwado retreat

  • King U1365 – 1389

    monarch · Thirty-second king of Goryeo, who ordered the Liaodong expedition and was deposed after the Wihwado retreat

Before and after

Later
1391 The Gwajeon Law

Related works

  • TV drama: Jeong Do-jeonDramatizedTV drama · 2014 · KBS1
  • TV episode: Naked Korean History Episode 1: Why Did Yi Seong-gye Become a Traitor to Goryeo?TV episode · 2022 · Kim Kyung-soo · tvN STORY

Dramatized works (films, dramas, novels) may differ from the historical record.

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