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Person1236 – 1308

King Chungnyeol

Twenty-fifth king of Goryeo and the first to marry a Yuan princess; Goryeo was drawn into the invasions of Japan

He married Princess Jeguk, daughter of Khubilai, the Yuan emperor Shizu. From then on royal posthumous names began with Chung (loyal), and the government offices were downgraded, for example to the Cheomuibu and Miljiksa. The Yuan set up the Branch Secretariat for the Eastern Campaigns to invade Japan, and Goryeo supplied troops and ships for the campaigns of 1274 and 1281. Goryeo recovered the Dongnyeong Prefecture, while a falconry office was set up to send hawks to the Yuan. In his reign Iryeon wrote the Samguk yusa and Yi Seung-hyu the Jewang ungi.

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5 related events

  1. 1270 – 1356Period of Yuan Interferencemonarch

    For some eighty years after the return to Gaegyeong, Goryeo was a son-in-law state of the Yuan under its interference: its institutions were downgraded, territory lost, and pro-Yuan magnates rose to power.

  2. 1
    1274 – 1281Goryeo-Yuan Invasions of Japanmonarch

    The Yuan, using Goryeo as its spearhead, twice invaded Japan, and both times its fleets were wrecked by storms. Supplying ships, troops and grain placed a heavy burden on Goryeo.

  3. 2
    1280Branch Secretariat for the Eastern Campaignsmonarch

    The Yuan set up the Jeongdong Haengseong in Goryeo to prepare the invasion of Japan; it outlived the campaigns as an instrument of interference in Goryeo’s affairs.

  4. 3
    1281Iryeon’s Samguk yusamonarch

    The monk Iryeon compiled the Samguk yusa, recording the Dangun founding legend of Gojoseon, Buddhist history, folk tales and hyangga songs — an assertion of Korean historical identity under Yuan domination.

  5. 4
    1287Yi Seung-hyu’s Jewang ungimonarch

    Yi Seung-hyu wrote the Jewang ungi, a verse history of China and Korea, and presented it to King Chungnyeol. It made Dangun the founder of Korean history.

People who appear alongside

  • Kublai Khan (Emperor Shizu of Yuan)1215 – 1294

    Fifth Great Khan and founder of the Yuan dynasty, who made peace with Goryeo and launched the invasions of Japan

  • King Chungseon1275 – 1325

    Twenty-sixth king of Goryeo, who founded the Mangwondang library in Dadu where Goryeo and Yuan scholars met

  • Empress Gi

    Goryeo woman sent to Yuan as tribute who became empress of Emperor Shun; her brother Gi Cheol and the pro-Yuan faction rode on her power

  • Iryeon1206 – 1289

    Monk who compiled the Samguk yusa, preserving the Dangun legend, Buddhist history and folk tales

  • Yi Seung-hyu1224 – 1300

    Official under King Chungnyeol who wrote the Jewang ungi, tracing Korean history to Dangun

Themes this person appears in

  • Song, Ming and Samurai JapanAD 960 – 1500

    The age when the civil-minded Song bought peace from Liao, Western Xia and Jin while the lower Yangtze boomed and Neo-Confucianism took shape, and the Ming, having driven out the Yuan, rebuilt the East Asian order through imperial autocracy, the sea ban and tribute — as Japan passed through the Kamakura and Muromachi warrior governments into the Warring States era, and Korea from Goryeo to Joseon

  • Turkic-Islamic Empires and Other Civilizations1000 – 1533

    From the Ghaznavid raids on India to the Mughal Empire and Suleiman I — five centuries in which Turkic-led Islamic empires took western Asia and India, while Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas raised civilisations of their own

  • The Mongol Conquests1206 – 1294

    From the rise of Genghis Khan to the Yuan conquest of the Song — eighty years in which the Mongols swept Eurasia from Goryeo to Hungary

  • Central Government Through the AgesAD 250 – 1899

    From the noble councils of the Three Kingdoms to the State Council, the Border Defense Council and the Gabo cabinet — how central government shifted between aristocratic consensus and royal power

  • Writing Korean HistoryAD 375 – 1931

    From the Seogi, Guksa and Sinjip to the Joseon sanggosa — history-writing as royal display, Confucian record, assertion of independence and nationalist scholarship

  • Jeju Island1270 – 1948

    From Tamna to Jeju — the Sambyeolcho’s last stand, Yuan horse ranches, castaways and exiles, and the island of April 3