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Empress Gi

Goryeo woman sent to Yuan as tribute who became empress of Emperor Shun; her brother Gi Cheol and the pro-Yuan faction rode on her power

A daughter of Gi Ja-o, she was taken to Yuan as a tribute woman and served as a palace maid before winning Emperor Shun’s favour and rising to empress; her son became the Yuan crown prince. Leaning on her power, her brother Gi Cheol and the Gi clan lorded it over Goryeo until they were purged in King Gongmin’s anti-Yuan reforms of 1356. Yuan then tried to depose Gongmin and enthrone Prince Deokheung, sending troops in 1364, but they were defeated by Choe Yeong, Yi Seong-gye and others.

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2 related events

  1. 1
    1270 – 1356Period of Yuan Interferencerelated figure

    For some eighty years after the return to Gaegyeong, Goryeo was a son-in-law state of the Yuan under its interference: its institutions were downgraded, territory lost, and pro-Yuan magnates rose to power.

  2. 2
    1351 – 1374Reforms of King Gongminrelated figure

    As the Yuan gave way to the Ming, King Gongmin purged the pro-Yuan faction, recovered the Ssangseong Commandery, and, through Sin Don, curbed the magnates to restore royal power.

Related works

  • TV drama: Empress KiDramatizedTV drama · 2013 · MBC

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

People who appear alongside

  • King Chungnyeol1236 – 1308

    Twenty-fifth king of Goryeo and the first to marry a Yuan princess; Goryeo was drawn into the invasions of Japan

  • King Chungseon1275 – 1325

    Twenty-sixth king of Goryeo, who founded the Mangwondang library in Dadu where Goryeo and Yuan scholars met

  • Kublai Khan (Emperor Shizu of Yuan)1215 – 1294

    Fifth Great Khan and founder of the Yuan dynasty, who made peace with Goryeo and launched the invasions of Japan

  • King Gongmin1330 – 1374

    Thirty-first king of Goryeo, who led anti-Yuan reforms, recovered the Ssangseong Commandery and backed Sin Don’s reforms

  • Gi Cheol1356

    Brother of the Yuan Empress Gi, a pro-Yuan magnate purged by King Gongmin in 1356

  • Sin Don1371

    Monk empowered by King Gongmin who ran the Directorate for Land and Slave Rectification

  • Yi Saek1328 – 1396

    Late Goryeo Neo-Confucian who, as head of the Seonggyungwan under King Gongmin, trained Jeong Mong-ju and Jeong Do-jeon

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

  • Turkic-Islamic Empires and Other Civilizations1000 – 1533

    From the Ghaznavid raids on India to the Mughal Empire and Suleiman I — five centuries in which Turkic-led Islamic empires took western Asia and India, while Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas raised civilisations of their own

  • Central Government Through the AgesAD 250 – 1899

    From the noble councils of the Three Kingdoms to the State Council, the Border Defense Council and the Gabo cabinet — how central government shifted between aristocratic consensus and royal power

  • Educational Institutions Through the AgesAD 372 – 1943

    From the Taehak and Gukhak to the Gukjagam and Seonggyungwan, modern schools and the colonial education ordinances — state schools that trained officials and the private schools that filled the gaps

  • Jeju Island1270 – 1948

    From Tamna to Jeju — the Sambyeolcho’s last stand, Yuan horse ranches, castaways and exiles, and the island of April 3