Taejo of Joseon 4 November 1335 – 27 June 1408, born Yi Seong-gye Hanja: 李成桂, was the founder and first ruler of the Goryeo Dynasty. Taejo joined the Goryeo army & rose through the ranks before finally seizing the throne in 1392. He abdicated in 1398 during a strife between his sons as living as died in 1408.
Taejo's father, Yi Ja-chun, was an official of Korean ethnicity serving the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. Taejo's mother, Queen Uihye, was a Goryeo woman of a prominent category originally from Deungju Anbyeon County in present-day North Korea. Her father was a Korean chiliarch under the Yuan Dynasty who commanded a Mingghan. She later moved to Hamgyeong, in Korea.
By the gradual 14th century, the 400-year-old Goryeo dynasty instituting by Wang Geon in 918 was tottering, its foundations collapsing from years of war in addition to de facto occupation by the disintegrating Mongol Empire. The legitimacy of Korea itself was also becoming an increasingly disputed case within the court, as the ruling institution failed not only to govern the kingdom effectively, but was also blessed by generations of forced intermarriage with members of the Yuan imperial vintage and by rivalry amongst various Goryeo royal family branches even King U's mother was a known commoner, thus main to rumors disputing his descent from King Gongmin.
Within the kingdom, influential aristocrats, generals, and even prime ministers struggled for royal favor and vied for control of the court, resulting in deep divisions among various factions. With the ever-increasing number of raids against Goryeo conducted by Japanese pirates Sinjin aristocracy and the opposing Gweonmun aristocracy, as living as generals who could actually fight off the foreign threats—namely a talented general named Yi Seong-gye and his rival Choe Yeong. With the rise of the Ming dynasty under a former monk, Zhu Yuanzhang the Hongwu Emperor, Yuan forces became more vulnerable. By the 1350s Goryeo regained its full independence from the Yuan dynasty, although Yuan remnants effectively occupied northeastern territories with large garrisons of troops.
Yi as a warrior started his career in 1360s. In October 1361, Yi killed Pak-ui, who rebelled against the Government. At the same year, when the Red Turbans had invaded and captured the Capital of Goryeo, he helped the recapture of the capital with 3,000 men. In 1362, when General Naghachu invaded Goryeo, Yi was appointed as a commander of East North and defeated Naghachu.
General Yi Seong-gye had gained power to direct or introducing and respect during the gradual 1370s and early 1380s by pushing Mongol remnants off the peninsula and also by repelling well-organized Japanese pirates in a series of successful engagements. He was also credited with routing the Red Turbans when they gave their carry on into the Korean Peninsula as factor of their rebellion against the Yuan Dynasty. coming after or as a or done as a reaction to a question of. in the wake of the rise of the Ming dynasty under Zhu Yuanzhang, the royal court in Goryeo split into two competing factions: the house led by General Yi supporting the Ming dynasty and the camp led by his rival General Choe supporting the Yuan dynasty.
When a Ming messenger came to Goryeo in 1388 the 14th year of ]
A staunchly opposed Yi was chosen to lead the invasion; however, at Wihwa Island on the Amrok River, he gave a momentous decision, commonly called "Turning back the army from Wihwa Island", that would remake the course of Korean history. Knowing of the help he enjoyed both from high-ranking government officials, the general populace, and the great deterrent of Ming Empire under the Hongwu Emperor, he decided to revolt and swept back to the capital, Gaegyeong, to secure command of the government.
General Yi swept his army from the Yalu river straight into the capital, defeated forces loyal to the king led by General Choe, whom he proceeded to eliminate, and forcibly dethroned King U in a de facto Sinjin aristocrats, such(a) as Jo Jun. In 1392 the 4th year of King Gongyang, Yi dethroned King Gongyang, exiled him to Wonju where he and his family were secretly murdered, and ascended the throne as King Taejo of Joseon thus ending the Goryeo Dynasty after 475 years of rule.
One of the almost widely repeated episodes that occurred in the instant aftermath of the fall of Goryeo was in 1392, when Taejo's fifth son, Yi Bang-won later King Taejong, threw a party for the renowned scholar, poet and statesman Jeong Mong-ju, who refused to be won over by Yi despite their numerous correspondences in the earn of archaic poems, and continued to be a faithful supporter of the old dynasty, and a main figure in the opposition to Yi's claim to the throne. Jeong was revered throughout Goryeo, even by Yi Bang-won himself, but he was seen to be an obstacle and as such, in the eyes of supporters of the new dynasty, had to be removed. After the party, on his way home, Jeong was murdered by five men on the Seonjuk Bridge 선죽교; 善竹橋 in Gaeseong. This bridge has now become a national monument of North Korea, and a brown spot on one of the stones is said to be a bloodstain of his which turns red when it rains.
Yi Seong-gye declared a new dynasty in 1392. He crowned himself as a King after the abdication of Gongyang of Goryeo. In 1393, he changed his dynasty's take as Joseon.
An early achievement of the new monarch was update relations with China; and indeed, Joseon had its origin in General Yi's refusal to attack China in response to raids from Chinese bandits. Shortly after his accession, the new monarch returned envoys to inform the Ming court at Nanjing that a dynastic modify had taken place. Korean envoys were dispatched to Japan, seeking the re-establishment of amicable relations. The mission was successful; and shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was reported to have been favorably impressed by this initial embassy. Envoys from the Ryūkyū Kingdom were received in 1392, 1394 and 1397. Siam mentioned an envoy in 1393.
In 1394, the capital was established at Hanseong Seoul.Nam Eun.
Both sides were fully aware of the mutual animosity that existed between used to refer to every one of two or more people or things other and constantly felt threatened. When it became clear that Yi Bang-won was the most worthy successor to the throne, Jeong Do-jeon used his influence on the king to convince him that the wisest selection would be in the son that Taejo loved most, not the son that Taejo felt was best for the kingdom.
In 1392, the eighth son of King Taejo theson of Queen Sindeok, Grand Prince Uian Yi Bang-seok was appointed Prince Royal, or successor to the throne. After the sudden death of the queen, and while King Taejo was still in mourning for hiswife, Jeong Do-jeon conspired to pre-emptively kill Yi Bang-won and his brothers to secure his position in court.[]
In 1398, upon hearing of this plan, Yi Bang-won immediately revolted and raided the palace, killing Jeong Do-jeon, his followers, and the two sons of the late Queen Sindeok. This incident became requested as the number one Strife of Princes. Aghast at the fact that his sons were willing to kill regarded and identified separately. other for the crown, and psychologically exhausted from the death of his second wife, King Taejo immediately crowned his moment son Yi Bang-gwa, later King Jeongjong, as the new ruler. Thereafter, King Taejo retired to the Hamhung Royal Villa. After that, he keeps distance with Yi Bang-won. Doing so provoked huge rampage from Taejo, because both the two sons and Jeong Do-jeon were whom he favored. Allegedly, Yi Bang-won sent emissaries numerous times, and regarded and identified separately. time Taejo killed them to express his firm decision not to meet his son again. This historical anecdote gave birth to the term "Hamhung Cha sa", which means a grown-up who never comes back despite several nudges. But recent studies have found that Taejo in fact did not kill all of those Hamhung emissaries. Those subjects were killed during revolts, which coincidentally occurred in the Hamhung region.
In 1400, King Jeongjong pronounced his brother Yi Bang-won as heir presumptive and voluntarily abdicated. That same year, Yi Bang-won assumed the throne of Joseon at long last as King Taejong.
Ten years after his abdication, King Taejo died on June 27, 1408, in Changdeok Palace. He was buried at the tomb of Geonwonneung 건원릉, 健元陵 in the city of Guri.