King Dongcheon (209–248, r. 227–248[1]) was the 11th monarch of Goguryeo, the northernmost of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.
| Dongcheon 동천 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taewang | |||||||||
| King of Goguryeo | |||||||||
| Reign | May 227 – September 248 A.D. | ||||||||
| Predecessor | Sansang | ||||||||
| Successor | Jungcheon | ||||||||
| Crown Prince of Goguryeo | |||||||||
| Reign | January 213 – May 227 A.D. | ||||||||
| Coronation | January 231 A.D. | ||||||||
| Predecessor | Nammu | ||||||||
| Successor | Yeonbul | ||||||||
| Born | Go Uwigeo/Wigung/Gyoche September 209 A.D. Gungnae Seong | ||||||||
| Died | September 248 A.D. Gungnae Seong | ||||||||
| Burial | Siwon | ||||||||
| Issue | Yeonbul Yemul Sagu | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| House | Go | ||||||||
| Dynasty | Goguryeo | ||||||||
| Father | Goguryeo | ||||||||
| Mother | Lady Sohu | ||||||||
| Occupation | King | ||||||||
| Dongcheon of Goguryeo | |
| Hangul | 동천왕 or 동양왕 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 東川王 or 東壤王 |
| Revised Romanization | Dongcheon-wang or Dongyang-wang |
| McCune–Reischauer | Tongch'ŏn-wang or Tongyang-wang |
| Birth name | |
| Hangul | 우위거 or 위궁 or 교체 |
| Hanja | 憂位居 or 郊彘 |
| Revised Romanization | Uwigeo or Wigung or Gyoche |
| McCune–Reischauer | Uwigŏ or Wigung or Kyoch'e |
Family
edit- Father: King Sansang (산상왕; 山上王)
- Grandfather: King Sindae (신대왕; 新大王)
- Mother: Little Consort (소후; 小后)
- Consorts and their respective issue(s):
- Unknown queen
- Prince Yeonbul (연불; 然弗)
- Prince Yemul (예물, 預物; d. 248)
- Prince Sagu (사구, 奢句; d. 248)
- Unknown concubine; the people of the East Sea offer a beautiful woman to the king
Background
editHe was the grandson of Goguryeo's eighth ruler, Sindae and the son of the tenth ruler, Sansang.[1] His mother was King Sansang's royal concubine, from the Jutong-chon of Gwanno-bu. He was made crown prince in 213, and rose to the throne upon Sansang's death.[2]
Reign
editIn 238, Dongcheon was able to ally with the Wei, one of the three Chinese kingdoms in the northwestern area,[3] in order to destroy the Gongsun family and erase its influence over Liaodong Peninsula and other areas bordering Goguryeo. The war on the Gongsun was a victory, but Goguryeo's ally, Wei, eventually became a new threat.[2]
Goguryeo consolidated its power and began to threaten the Chinese commanderies, under the nominal control of Wei. In 242, Dongcheon attacked a Chinese fortress near the mouth of the Yalu River leading to the Goguryeo–Wei War; in 244, Wei invaded Goguryeo and sacked Hwando.[4][2][5] Dongcheon was forced to flee the capital.[2] After staying in Okjeo, his forces managed to return to the long-standing capital of Hwand, in which many structures were severely destroyed, only to move its capital to present-day Pyongyang in 246.[6] The exact location of the new capital is still disputed.[2][5]
Then, according to the Korean book the Samguk sagi, a Goguryeo general named Yu Yu (유유; 紐由) approached the Wei encampment and fooled the Wei commanders into thinking that Goguryeo had come to surrender. Yu Yu took this chance to murder an officer and then committed suicide, causing great confusion and discord in the Wei army.[7] King Dongcheon received news of Yu Yu's death and ordered that a memorial be made for Yu Yu the Patriot. Then, he led his armies in the attack to push the Wei forces out of Goguryeo territory. General Mil U (밀우; 密友) and Yu Okgu (유옥구; 劉屋句) also repulsed the Wei forces. The Goguryeo forces won this battle, and regained all of the territory that had been lost from defeats against the Wei.[8] This passage was not paralleled in Chinese records, and Hiroshi Ikeuchi points out its errors: the author of this passage in Samguk sagi regarded the region of South Okjeo and Lelang as identical, while in fact they are on opposite sides of the peninsula;[9] also, the references to the "Eastern Department" for Yu Yu and Mil U are anachronistic, since Goguryeo did not divide the country into departments until the middle of the Goguryeo dynasty — that is, after Dongcheon's reign.[10] As such, Ikeuchi considered the Samguk sagi's stories to be highly fictional.[11]
In 243, he named his son Yeonbul the crown prince and successor to the throne. He attacked Silla, another of the Three Kingdoms to its south, in 245 but made peace in 248. The records are found in Samguk sagi under the annal of Isageum (Silla's ruler) that Dongcheon invaded the northern area of Silla, but the validity of a peace agreement has not been fully explained, since given that Goguryeo was under harsh attacks from the northern area, an invasion of Goguryeo into Silla would be logically incomprehensible. It is well accepted that this invasion indicated a sudden inflow of refugees from Goguryeo into a bordering area with Silla.[12]
Death and succession
editDongcheon fell ill and died during the fall of 248 after 22 years of rule. His tomb is said to be in South Pyongan Province near Pyongyang, North Korea. He is said to have been so loved that many people followed him in death. Crown Prince Yeon-Bul succeeded his father as King Jungcheon immediately after his father's death.[13]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ a b Pae-yong, Yi (2008). Women in Korean history. Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press. pp. 124–126. ISBN 9788973007721. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
- ^ a b c d e "King Dongcheon". KBS Radio. Korean Broadcasting System. Archived from the original on 12 April 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
- ^ Hong, Wontack (2006). Korea and Japan in East Asian history: a tripolar approach to East Asian history. 9788985567039. p. 77. ISBN 9788985567039.
- ^ Tennant, Roger (2012). History Of Korea. Routledge. p. 22. ISBN 9781136167058. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
- ^ a b Yi, Hyŏn-hŭi; Pak, Sŏng-su; Yun, Nae-hyŏn (2005). New history of Korea. Jimoondang. pp. 124–125. ISBN 9788988095850. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
- ^ Kim, Bushik. Samguk sagi. Archived from the original on 2017-10-29. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
- ^ Hubert & Weems, p. 59
- ^ Kim, Bushik. Samguk sagi.
- ^ Ikeuchi, p. 116
- ^ Ikeuchi, p. 117
- ^ Ikeuchi, p. 118
- ^ Lee, Yoonsup (2014). 다시 읽는 삼국사1 (in Korean). 책보세. pp. 76–77. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
- ^ Kim, Bushik. Samguk sagi.
References
edit- Hubert, Homer B. & Weems, Clarence Norwood (Ed.) History of Korea Volume 1. Curzon Press, 1999. ISBN 0-7007-0700-X.
- Ikeuchi, Hiroshi. "The Chinese Expeditions to Manchuria under the Wei dynasty," Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko 4 (1929): 71-119.
- Tennant, Charles Roger (1996). A history of Korea (illustrated ed.). Kegan Paul International. ISBN 0-7103-0532-X. Retrieved 2012-02-09.