Founding of Goryeo

Overview

Goryeo was founded in 918 when generals of Taebong drove out Gungye and proclaimed the Chief Minister Wang Geon (877–943) as king in the sixth lunar month. According to the Goryeosa, Wang Geon ascended the throne at the Pojeong Hall in Cheorwon on the sixth month's byeongjin day (the 15th, equivalent to 25 July in the solar calendar), adopting the dynastic name Goryeo (高麗) and the era name Cheonsu (天授). In the first month of the following year, he moved the capital south of Songak (present-day Kaesong), his own power base. In 935 Goryeo received the surrender of Silla, and in 936 it overthrew Later Baekje, achieving the Unification of the Later Three Kingdoms.

Background

Wang Geon's rise

Wang Geon, the eldest son of Wang Ryung (Yonggeon), a local magnate of Songak, was born in 877 in a house south of Songak. In 896 he and his father submitted to Gungye, after which he became the castellan of Songak, and in 898 he was appointed Jeonggi Daegam. In 900 he pacified Gwangju, Chungju, Cheongju and other areas, and in 903 he led a naval force around the west coast and took Naju. In 909, as Grand General of the Navy, he captured boats that Gyeon Hwon was sending to Wu Yue at Yeomhae County, and with 2,500 troops he captured Jindo. He then defeated Gyeon Hwon's navy at Naju and captured Neung Chang, a maritime leader of Ahae County. In 913 he rose to Chief Minister concurrently with the rank of Pajinchan, reaching the highest post in Taebong.

Gungye's tyranny

In 911 Gungye changed the state's name to Taebong and proclaimed himself Maitreya Buddha; using the Mind-Reading Method he suspected his ministers and had them killed. He also murdered his wife Lady Kang and two of his sons. The Goryeosa records that Wang Geon, too, was summoned by Gungye and suspected of treason, but that Choe Eung of Jangju deliberately dropped his brush and gave him a hint, so that he survived by falsely confessing guilt (around 914). In the third month of 918 there was an incident in which an ancient mirror bought in the market by Wang Chang-geun, a merchant from Tang, bore an omen-prophecy, interpreted as meaning that Wang Geon would become the new king; the literati who interpreted it reportedly did not dare to report the truth to Gungye.

Course of events

Proclamation (night of 14 June 918)

On the night of the sixth month's eulmyo day (the 14th), Hong Yu, Bae Hyeon-gyeong, Sin Sung-gyeom and Bok Ji-gyeom, generals of the Gijang, secretly plotted and went to Wang Geon's house to declare their intention to make him king. Wang Geon refused resolutely, but his wife Lady Yu (Queen Sinhye) personally brought armor and dressed him, and the generals escorted him out. They sent men on horseback to shout that "the Lord Wang has now raised the righteous banner," and those who hurried to join them could not be counted; more than 10,000 people had arrived at the palace gate ahead of them, beating drums and waiting.