Kim Bodang's Rebellion

Overview

Kim Bodang's Rebellion was an anti-military uprising launched in the eighth lunar month of 1173 (3rd year of King Myeongjong) by Kim Bodang (金甫當), Commander of Military Affairs of the Northeast Region, in the Donggye (東界). Because that year was the Gye-sa year, it is also called the Gyesa Rebellion. Kim Bodang sought to subjugate Jeong Jungbu and Yi Uibang, the leaders of the Military Coup of 1170, and to put the deposed King Uijong back on the throne, but he failed. As a result, King Uijong was murdered in Gyeongju, and many civil officials who had survived the coup were killed. (The dates in this article are according to the lunar calendar.)

Background

After the 1170 military coup, Kim Bodang was appointed Vice Minister of Public Works and Gangui Daebu (Grand Master of Remonstrance), both at senior fourth rank. He was dispatched to the Northeast Region as Commander of Military Affairs while serving as Gangui Daebu. The Northeast Region (Donggye) was a border zone covering present-day North Hamgyong Province and northern Gangwon Province, where the military commander handled both military and administrative affairs. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture holds that the main cause of the uprising was resentment among the civil officials, who had responded passively to the coup, toward the unilateral governance of Yi Uibang and others.

Course of Events

Kim Bodang plotted with the Byeongma Noksa Yi Gyeongjik, Jang Sunseok, and others, and in the eighth lunar month of 1173 raised troops in the Donggye. His younger brother Kim Jidang and others bound to him by personal connections, as well as men who had served as palace eunuchs under King Uijong, joined in. The Korean Wikipedia records that Yu Injun, Bae Yunjae, Han Eonguk, and others also joined.

Kim Bodang sent Jang Sunseok, Yu Injun, and others southward. They escorted King Uijong, who was in exile (buche) on Geoje, out and moved him to Gyeongju. It was an attempt to restore the old system of rule. However, the cause of restoring King Uijong did not win broad support from other civil officials or the common people.

The military regime struck back immediately. Yi Uibang sent Yi Uimin and Park Jonwi to Gyeongju, and Jang Sunseok and others were defeated, captured, and killed. Kim Bodang was also captured and executed. It is said that before his death he declared that "there is no civil official who did not take part in this plot." Using this remark as a pretext, the military leaders massacred on a large scale even the civil officials who had escaped harm during the coup.

Murder of King Uijong

According to the Goryeosa jeolyo, in the tenth lunar month of that winter, Jeong Jungbu and others had Yi Uimin kill the former king Uijong in Gyeongju. The record states that Yi Uimin dragged Uijong out to the pond north of Gonwon Temple (坤元寺) and broke his spine with his bare hands, killing him. The corpse was wrapped in a quilt and thrown into the pond, and later the hojang Pil-in and others prepared a coffin and buried it by the water's edge. For this service, Yi Uimin rose to the rank of Daejanggun. Some sources date the murder to the first day of the tenth lunar month.