King Gongmin

Where they went

7 related events

1. 1351 – 1374Reforms of King Gongminleader

   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.

2. 1
   1356Recovery of the Ssangseong Commanderymonarch

   King Gongmin sent Yu In-u and others against the Ssangseong Commandery, recovering the land north of Cheollyeong after 99 years, with help from inside by Yi Ja-chun and his son Yi Seong-gye.

3. 2
   1359 – 1362Red Turban Invasionsmonarch

   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).

4. 3
   1363Mun Ik-jeom Brings Cotton to Koreamonarch

   Mun Ik-jeom, returning from an embassy to the Yuan, brought cotton seeds, and his father-in-law Jeong Cheon-ik grew them successfully; cotton cloth soon transformed how ordinary people dressed.

5. 4
   1365 – 1374Tombs of King Gongmin and Queen Noguk (Hyeonneung and Jeongneung), Kaesongrelated figure

   Twin tombs of King Gongmin and Princess Noguk. Gongmin himself built his queen’s tomb, and its zodiac retaining stones and civil and military statues became the model for Joseon royal tombs.

6. 5
   1366Sin Don’s Directorate for Land and Slave Rectificationmonarch

   Sin Don, empowered by King Gongmin, set up a directorate that returned land illegally seized by the magnates to its owners and freed people wrongly enslaved.

7. 6
   1374The Mokho Rebellion and Choe Yeong’s Campaign to Tamnamonarch

   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.

Related works

People who appear alongside

• Sin Don1371

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

• 
  Taejo (Yi Seong-gye)1335 – 1408

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

• Choe Yeong1316 – 1388

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

• Gi Cheol1356

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

• 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

• Yi Saek1328 – 1396

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

• Mun Ik-jeom1329 – 1398

  Envoy to Yuan who brought cotton seeds home and, with his father-in-law Jeong Cheon-ik, grew cotton successfully

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

• 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

• Changes in Tombs2000 BC – 1374

  From dolmens to the tomb of King Gongmin — stone-mound, stone-mound wooden-chamber, stone-chamber and brick tombs, and how burial changed by kingdom and age

• Intangible and World Heritage2000 BC – 1850

  From the dolmens to Namhansanseong on the World Heritage List, from Jongmyo ritual music to ssireum on the Intangible Heritage lists — where each came from and when it was inscribed

• 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

• 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