Yŏn Kaesomun

Yŏn KaesomunSome Chinese and Korean sources stated that his surname was Yŏngae () and personal name was Somun (), but the majority of sources suggest a one-syllable surname and a three-syllable personal name. (; 594–666) was a powerful military dictator in the waning days of the Goguryeo kingdom, which was one of the Three Kingdoms of ancient Korea. He is remembered for his successful resistance against Tang China under Emperor Taizong and his son Emperor Gaozong.

Traditional Korean histories from Joseon painted Yŏn Kaesomun as a despotic leader, whose cruel policies and disobedience to his monarch led to the fall of Goguryeo. Early Korean nationalist historians, most notably the 19th-century Korean historian and intellectual Shin Chae-ho, instead termed Yŏn Kaesomun the greatest hero in Korean history, inspired by his achievements in defending Goguryeo against Chinese onslaughts. In popular culture Yŏn Kaesomun is often remembered as an exceptional soldier-statesman without equal in Korean history.

Biography

Yŏn Kaesomun was born into the influential and distinguished Yŏn family as the first son of Yŏn T'aejo, "Mangniji" (, a position equivalent to a modern era office of prime minister) of Goguryeo during the reigns of King Pyeongwon and King Yeongyang. His grandfather Yŏn Chayu was also a prime minister.

Information about Yŏn Kaesomun comes largely from the ''Samguk sagi''s biographical accounts of King Yeongnyu, King Bojang, and Yŏn Kaesomun himself, and tomb engravings and biographical accounts, from the New Book of Tang, dedicated to his sons Yŏn Namsaeng and Yŏn Namsan.

Tang Chinese historical records give Yŏn Kaesomun's surname as Ch'ŏn ( zh, labels=no, c=泉, p=Quán in Chinese, meaning "water spring"), because Yŏn ( zh, labels=no, t=淵, p=Yuān in Chinese, meaning "riverhead") was the given name of Emperor Gaozu ( zh, labels=no, p=Lǐ Yuān, t=李淵), the founding emperor of Tang, and thus subject to the naming taboo by Chinese tradition. Yŏn Kaesomun is also sometimes referred to as Kaegŭm (). In the Nihon Shoki, he appears as Iri Kasumi (). Since both Yŏn Kaesomun and Iri Kasumi are transcriptions intending to approximate the phonetic value of the original pronunciation, his actual name can be reconstructed as "Eol Kasum".

Very little is known of Yŏn Kaesomun's early days, until he became the Western Governor (), where he oversaw the building of the Cheolli Jangseong, a network of military garrisons to defend Liaodong from Tang.

Yŏn Kaesomun had at least three sons: (eldest to youngest) Yŏn Namsaeng, Yŏn Namgŏn, and Yŏn Namsan.

Overthrow of the throne

In the winter of 642, King Yeongnyu was apprehensive about Yŏn Kaesomun and plotted with his other officials to kill him. When Yŏn Kaesomun discovered the plot, he arranged a lavish banquet to celebrate his rise to the position of Eastern Governor () to which one hundred of the opposing politicians of the nation were invited. Yŏn Kaesomun ambushed and killed all one hundred politicians present, and then proceeded to the palace and murdered King Yeongnyu. According to traditional Chinese and Korean sources, Yŏn Kaesomun's men dismembered the king's corpse and discarded it without proper ceremony.

After placing King Bojang (),a nephew of King Yeongnyu, on the Goguryeo throne, Yŏn Kaesomun appointed himself the "Tae Mangniji" (; generalissimo) and assumed absolute de facto control over Goguryeo affairs of state until his death around 666.

Yŏn Kaesomun's coup d'état came as the culmination of a lengthy power struggle between those in the government who favored appeasement toward Tang China and those who advocated military confrontation; Yŏn Kaesomun belonged to the hard-liners. Traditional Chinese and Korean historians assumed that Yŏn Kaesomun's motive was simply his thirst for power, but many modern Korean historians assert that his motive was to make Goguryeo assume a tougher stance against Tang China, as opposed to King Yeongnyu who submitted to Tang for a peaceful diplomatic relationship. Yŏn Kaesomun's role in the murder of King Yeongnyu was taken as the primary pretext for the failed Tang invasion of 645.

Wars with China

The series of wars between Goguryeo and Tang China comprise some of the most important events in the ancient history of Northeast Asia, leading to the Tang–Silla alliance, the ultimate demise of powerful Goguryeo, and the unification of the Korean Peninsula under Silla control. Yŏn Kaesomun was a central protagonist in this series of conflicts, as well as its primary cause.

At the outset of his rule, Yŏn Kaesomun took a brief conciliatory stance toward Tang China. For instance, he supported Taoism at the expense of Buddhism, and to this effect in 643, sent emissaries to the Tang court requesting Taoist sages, eight of whom were brought to Goguryeo. This gesture is considered by some historians as an effort to pacify Tang and buy time to prepare for the Tang invasion Yŏn thought inevitable given his ambitions to annex Silla.

Relations with Tang deteriorated when Goguryeo launched new invasions of Silla. In 645, the first conflict of the Goguryeo–Tang War began and Emperor Taizong's noted military acumen enabled him to conquer a number of major Goguryeo border fortresses.

Eventually, however, Emperor Taizong's invasion was met with two major setbacks. First, his main army was stymied and bogged down for several months at Ansi Fortress due to the resistance of the celebrated commander Yang Manchun. Second, the elite marine force that he sent to take Pyongyang, Goguryeo's capital, was defeated by Yŏn Kaesomun who, according to the ''Joseon Sanggosa'', then immediately marched his legions to relieve Yang Manchun's forces at Ansi Fortress.

Emperor Taizong, caught between Yang Manchun's army in the front and Yŏn Kaesomun's counter-attacking forces closing in from behind, as well as suffering from the harsh winter and dangerously low food supplies, was forced to retreat homeward. Before setting off, Emperor Taizong left behind 100 bolts of silk cloth out of respect to Yang Manchun. The retreat was difficult and many of his soldiers died. Emperor Taizong's campaign against Goguryeo failed. However, he succeeded in inflicting heavy casualties on Goguryeo. Upon returning home, Emperor Taizong founded the Minzhong Temple, the oldest temple in Beijing, to commemorate his soldiers who died in Goguryeo. He invaded Goguryeo again in 647 and 648, but was defeated both times, and thus was unable to accomplish his ambition of conquering Goguryeo in his lifetime.

Conquering Goguryeo had been an obsession with Emperor Taizong, and after his death in 649, his son Emperor Gaozong continued his ambition. After the Tang-Silla alliance conquered Baekje, Emperor Gaozong invaded Goguryeo in 661 and 662. One of Yŏn Kaesomun's greatest victories came in 662, when his forces defeated Tang general Pang Xiaotai () and his Lingnan army at the Sasu River (, probably Botong River). Pang Xiaotai and all his 13 sons were killed in combat. Famed Tang general Su Dingfang, who was instrumental in conquering Baekje, was unable to overcome Pyongyang's defenses and was forced to withdraw due to harsh snowstorms. With increasing domestic turmoil in China, Tang was once again forced to retreat.

However, Goguryeo's population and economy were severely damaged due to the long years of continuous warfare. Yŏn Kaesomun died in 666 of a natural cause, and Goguryeo was thrown into chaos and further weakened by a succession struggle among his sons and younger brother, with his eldest son defecting to Tang and his younger brother defecting to Silla. Tang mounted a fresh invasion in 667, aided by Silla and the defector Yŏn Namsaeng, and was finally able to conquer Goguryeo in 668.

Death

The most likely date of Yŏn Kaesomun's death is that recorded on the tomb stele of his eldest son Yŏn Namsaeng on the twenty-fourth year of the reign of King Bojang (665). However, the ''Samguk sagi'' records the year as 666, and the Nihon Shoki gives the year as the twenty-third year of the reign of King Bojang (664).

Legends

According to a local Chinese legend in the 19th-century Funing County Annals (): during a campaign, Emperor Taizong was scouting ahead of his army and was almost captured when he discovered Yŏn Kaesomun's encampment and was recognized by the latter, but narrowly escaped by hiding in a decrepit well; later, Emperor Taizong had a pagoda () erected near the location.

Historical depictions

Tang and Silla sources portrayed Yŏn Kaesomun as a brutal and arrogant dictator who carried five swords at a time, and had men prostrate themselves so that he could use their backs to mount and dismount his horse.

In popular culture

Yŏn Kaesomun sometimes appears as a door god in Taoist temples in partnership with the Tang general Xue Rengui. In some Chinese legends, Xue Rengui and Yŏn Kaesomun are the reincarnations of the White Tiger's Star and Azure Dragon's Star, respectively.

Film and television

*Portrayed by Chu Tit-wo in TVB's 1985 series The General That Never Was
*Portrayed by Jo Kyung-hwan in the 1992 KBS TV series ''Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms''.
*Portrayed by Lee Won-jong in the 2003 film '' Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield'' and its 2011 sequel '' Battlefield Heroes''.
*Portrayed by Yoo Dong-geun, Lee Tae-gon and Eun Won-jae in the 2006–2007 SBS TV series ''Yeon Gaesomun''.
*Portrayed by Kim Jin-tae in the 2006–2007 KBS TV series '' Dae Jo Yeong''.
*Portrayed by Ko In-beom in the 2011 MBC TV series '' Gyebaek''.
*Portrayed by Choi Dong-joon in the 2012–2013 KBS TV series '' The King's Dream''.
*Portrayed by Choi Min-soo in the 2013 KBS2 TV series ''The Blade and Petal''.
*Portrayed by Yu Oh-seong in the 2018 film '' The Great Battle''.

Literature

Yŏn Kaesomun (under the name ''Gai Suwen'') appears in Peking opera as the archvillain of the famed Tang general Xue Rengui, who rescues Emperor Taizong from Yŏn Kaesomun's pursuit.

Yŏn Kaesomun appears in numerous classical Chinese literature about Xue Rengui, who rescues Emperor Taizong from certain death at the hands of Yŏn Kaesomun himself.

Age of Empires: World Domination, a mobile game produced in collaboration with series owner Microsoft, includes Yŏn Kaesomun as a selectable hero of the Korean civilization.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yŏn, Kaesomun
Military history of Korea
Goguryeo generals
7th-century government officials
603 births
666 deaths
Chinese gods
7th-century Korean people