Volta
PersonAD 780

King Hyegong

36th king of Silla, enthroned at eight and killed amid aristocratic revolts, ending the direct line of King Muyeol

With the queen dowager as regent, royal power weakened and true-bone nobles rose one after another, beginning with Daegong’s revolt in 768 (the "revolt of the ninety-six gakgan"). He restored the official titles King Gyeongdeok had changed and completed the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok in 771. In 780, when Kim Ji-jeong rebelled and surrounded the palace, Kim Yang-sang and Kim Gyeong-sin put down the revolt, but the king and queen died in the fighting. The Samguk sagi dates Late Silla from this point.

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2 related events

  1. 1
    AD 771Completion of the Divine Bell of King Seongdeokmonarch

    King Hyegong completed the great bell begun by Gyeongdeok in memory of his father Seongdeok; it is also known as the Emille Bell.

  2. 2
    AD 780Death of King Hyegong and the Start of Late Sillamonarch

    King Hyegong died during Kim Ji-jeong’s revolt and Kim Yang-sang, who crushed it, became King Seondeok; the direct line of King Muyeol ended and Silla’s Late Period began.

People who appear alongside

  • King GyeongdeokAD 765

    35th king of Silla, who sinicized official titles and place names but restored the nogeup stipend villages; Bulguksa and Seokguram were begun in his reign

  • King SeongdeokAD 737

    33rd king of Silla, who granted jeongjeon fields to commoners and restored relations with Tang

  • King Seondeok (Kim Yang-sang)AD 785

    37th king of Silla, who put down Kim Ji-jeong's revolt and succeeded Hyegong, opening Silla's Late Period

  • King WonseongAD 798

    38th king of Silla (Kim Gyeong-sin), who created the Dokseo Sampumgwa to select officials by their reading of the Confucian classics

  • Kim Ji-jeongAD 780

    Silla true-bone noble whose revolt of 780 besieged the palace, in the course of which King Hyegong was killed

Themes this person appears in

  • Crafts and MetalworkAD 346 – 1392

    From the Seven-Branched Sword to mother-of-pearl lacquer — Three Kingdoms crowns, censers and daggers, the great bell of Unified Silla, Goryeo silver inlay and najeon

  • Gyeongju57 BC – 1860

    Silla’s capital for a thousand years — tombs, pagodas, temples and bells from every age of Silla, and the birthplace of Donghak