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PersonAD 665

Yeon Gaesomun

Grand Mangniji of late Goguryeo who seized power in a coup and stood firm against Tang

Head of the Western Division, he was put in charge of building the Thousand-li Wall against Tang in 642. That year, using a military review as a pretext, he killed more than a hundred ministers and King Yeongnyu, set the king’s nephew on the throne as King Bojang and made himself Grand Mangniji. He brought Daoist priests and the Daodejing from Tang and promoted Daoism. He rejected Kim Chun-chu’s plea for help, and when Emperor Taizong of Tang invaded in 645 using the coup as a pretext, the attack was stopped at Ansi Fortress. After his death the power struggle among his sons Namsaeng, Namgeon and Namsan led to Goguryeo’s fall.

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3 related events

  1. 1
    AD 631 – AD 647Building the Thousand-li Wallparticipant

    Bracing for Tang, Goguryeo built a line of fortifications over a thousand li long from Buyeo Fortress in the north to Bisa Fortress in the south, taking sixteen years.

  2. 2
    AD 642Yeon Gaesomun’s Coupleader

    Yeon Gaesomun killed King Yeongnyu and his opponents, enthroned King Bojang and ruled as Dae-mangniji (supreme minister).

  3. 3
    AD 645Siege of Ansi Fortressrelated figure

    Emperor Taizong of Tang took the Liaodong fortresses, but Ansi held out for 88 days and forced him to withdraw.

Related works

  • TV episode: Naked Korean History Episode 21: How Did Yeon Gaesomun Bring Goguryeo to Its Fall?TV episode · 2022 · Lim Ki-hwan · tvN STORY

People who appear alongside

  • King BojangAD 682

    Last king of Goguryeo, enthroned by Yeon Gaesomun, who surrendered in 668

  • Emperor Taizong of TangAD 598 – AD 649

    Second Tang emperor whose 645 invasion of Goguryeo stalled at Ansi Fortress

Themes this person appears in

  • Wars of Korean UnificationAD 598 – AD 676

    From Goguryeo's wars with Sui and Tang to Silla's unification — eighty years of East Asian war on the peninsula

  • Sui, Tang and the East Asian WorldAD 317 – AD 979

    From the divided Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Gupta age through the Sui and Tang empires to the founding of the Song — the age when an East Asian world sharing law codes, Buddhism, Confucianism and Chinese characters took shape, and Korea and Japan built their states on its model