Person1316 – 1388

Choe Yeong

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

Under Gongmin he helped repel the Red Turban invasions and recover Gaegyeong, and under U he crushed the Japanese pirates at Hongsan. When Ming demanded the land north of Cheollyeong and planned to set up the Cheollyeong Commandery, he argued for an expedition to Liaodong and became its supreme commander. But when Yi Seong-gye turned back the army at Wihwado, Choe was seized, exiled and executed. He is said to have lived by his father's dying words: "Look upon gold as if it were stone."

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5 related events

1350 – 1389Japanese Pirate Raidscommander
From about 1350 Japanese pirates (wokou) raided Goryeo’s coasts and interior year after year; commanders such as Choe Yeong, Choe Mu-seon, Yi Seong-gye and Jeong Ji drove them off, and a new military elite rose in the process.
1
1359 – 1362Red Turban Invasionscommander
The Red Turbans, Han Chinese rebels against the late Yuan, invaded Goryeo twice; in the second invasion Gaegyeong fell and King Gongmin fled to Bokju (Andong).
2
1374The Mokho Rebellion and Choe Yeong’s Campaign to Tamnacommander
The Mongol herders (mokho) of the Yuan horse ranches on Jeju refused to hand over horses meant for Ming and rebelled; King Gongmin sent Choe Yeong to crush them.
3
1376Battle of Hongsancommander
Choe Yeong routed Japanese pirates at Hongsan in Buyeo.
4
1388Wihwado Retreatrelated figure
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.

People who appear alongside

Taejo (Yi Seong-gye)1335 – 1408
Founder and first king of Joseon, formerly a general who fought Japanese pirates and the Red Turbans
King Gongmin1330 – 1374
Thirty-first king of Goryeo, who led anti-Yuan reforms, recovered the Ssangseong Commandery and backed Sin Don’s reforms
King U1365 – 1389
Thirty-second king of Goryeo, who ordered the Liaodong expedition and was deposed after the Wihwado retreat
Choe Mu-seon1325 – 1395
Inventor who learned to make gunpowder, built cannon at the Hwatong Dogam and burned the pirate fleet at Jinpo

Themes this person appears in

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
GaeseongAD 901 – 2003
From Wang Geon, lord of Songak, to the Kaesong Industrial Complex — Gaegyeong, Goryeo’s capital for five centuries, and home of the Song merchants
Buyeo2000 BC – 1376
From the Songguk-ri village to Sabi, Baekje’s last capital — the Geum River town where Baekje culture bloomed and fell
AndongAD 930 – 1940
From the Battle of Gochang that helped found Goryeo to Yi Hwang’s Dosan Seowon — home of Goryeo wooden halls and Yeongnam Confucianism
Jeju Island1270 – 1948
From Tamna to Jeju — the Sambyeolcho’s last stand, Yuan horse ranches, castaways and exiles, and the island of April 3