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Person1154 – 1183

Gyeong Dae-seung

General who killed Jeong Jung-bu in 1179 and took power, first creating the private guard Dobang

A young general from Cheongju, he seized power in 1179 at twenty-six by killing Jeong Jung-bu, his son Jeong Gyun and their allies. Fearing the other generals, he kept a band of about a hundred sworn men at his house as a bodyguard, the Dobang, which Choe Chung-heon later greatly expanded. He kept the Jungbang at arm’s length and leaned towards civil officials, but died of illness in 1183, after which Yi Ui-min returned from hiding in Gyeongju and took power.

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1 related event

  1. 1
    1170Military Coup of 1170related figure

    Generals including Jeong Jung-bu, Yi Ui-bang and Yi Go, long slighted by civil officials, struck at Bohyeonwon, killing civil officials and deposing King Uijong; military regimes ruled for the next century.

People who appear alongside

  • Jeong Jung-bu1106 – 1179

    General who led the military coup of 1170 and ruled through the Jungbang until killed by Gyeong Dae-seung

  • Yi Ui-bang1174

    General who led the military coup of 1170 with Jeong Jung-bu and Yi Go and then held power

  • King Uijong1127 – 1173

    Eighteenth king of Goryeo, deposed by the military coup of 1170 and killed in 1173

  • King Myeongjong1131 – 1202

    Nineteenth king of Goryeo, enthroned by the generals; his reign saw military infighting and uprisings until Choe Chung-heon deposed him

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