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Choe U

Son of Choe Chung-heon who set up the Jeongbang personnel office and moved the court to Ganghwa in 1232

He succeeded Choe Chung-heon in power. He set up the Jeongbang in his own house to control appointments, gathered civil scholars in the Seobang and created the Night Patrol (Yabyeolcho), which was split into Left and Right Patrols and joined by the Sinuigun to form the Sambyeolcho. After the Mongol invasion of 1231, he moved the capital to Ganghwa the next year to continue resistance and set up the Tripitaka Directorate to carve the Tripitaka Koreana. Around this time the Sangjeong gogeum yemun was printed with metal type.

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4 related events

  1. 1
    1196 – 1258Choe Chung-heon and the Choe Military Regimeparticipant

    Choe Chung-heon killed Yi Ui-min and seized power, founding a Choe family regime that lasted four generations and some sixty years, with the Directorate of Decree Enforcement as its supreme organ.

  2. 2
    1232Moving the Capital to Ganghwaleader

    To fight a long war against Mongol domination, Choe U moved the capital from Gaegyeong to Ganghwa Island, where the court remained for 39 years until 1270.

  3. 3
    1234Metal-type Printing of the Sangjeong gogeum yemunrelated figure

    Yi Gyu-bo’s collected works record that, after the move to Ganghwa, 28 copies of the ritual code Sangjeong gogeum yemun were printed with metal type. No copy survives.

  4. 4
    1236 – 1251Carving the Tripitaka Koreanaleader

    Hoping the Buddha’s power would drive out the Mongols, Goryeo set up a Tripitaka directorate on Ganghwa and spent 16 years carving more than 80,000 woodblocks, now kept at Haeinsa in Hapcheon.

People who appear alongside

  • King Gojong of Goryeo1192 – 1259

    Twenty-third king of Goryeo, who reigned through the Mongol invasions from Ganghwa Island

  • Yi Gyu-bo1168 – 1241

    Writer of the Lay of King Dongmyeong whose collected works record the metal-type printing of the Sangjeong gogeum yemun

  • Choe Chung-heon1149 – 1219

    General who seized power in 1196, founding the four-generation Choe military regime and its Directorate of Decree Enforcement

  • Choe Hang1257

    Son of Choe U and third ruler of the Choe military regime, who kept up resistance to the Mongols from Ganghwa

  • Yi Ui-min1196

    General of low-born origin who ruled for over a decade until killed by Choe Chung-heon

  • King Myeongjong1131 – 1202

    Nineteenth king of Goryeo, enthroned by the generals; his reign saw military infighting and uprisings until Choe Chung-heon deposed him

Themes this person appears in

  • Printing and Documentary HeritageAD 751 – 2011

    From the Dharani Sutra to the May 18 archives — woodblock and metal-type printing, and the records inscribed on the Memory of the World

  • Ganghwa Island1000 BC – 2011

    From dolmens to the Treaty of Ganghwa — Goryeo’s refuge capital and the stage of Korea’s opening, the island the kingdom fell back on in every crisis

  • JinjuAD 685 – 1923

    Centre of western Gyeongsang — site of the sieges of Jinju, the 1862 peasant uprising and the butchers’ equality movement