Volta
Person1275 – 1325

King Chungseon

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

The son of Chungnyeol and a Yuan princess. Early in his reign he abolished the Jeongbang and set up the Sallimwon to pursue reform, but was forced out by Yuan interference and later returned to the throne. He introduced a state monopoly on salt and named the noble lineages eligible to marry into the royal family. He ruled largely from the Yuan capital, where in 1314 he founded the Mangwondang library, letting scholars such as Yi Je-hyeon associate with Yuan scholars and helping bring Neo-Confucianism to Goryeo.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

3 related events

  1. 1
    1023 – 1308Sacheondae and Seoungwan — Astronomy in Goryeomonarch

    Goryeo set up the Sacheondae as its astronomical office and later merged it with the Taesaguk into the Seoungwan.

  2. 2
    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.

  3. 3
    1290Arrival of Neo-Confucianismrelated figure

    Under King Chungnyeol, An Hyang brought Neo-Confucianism from the Yuan; through Yi Je-hyeon and Yi Saek it became the creed of new scholar-officials such as Jeong Mong-ju and Jeong Do-jeon.

People who appear alongside

  • King HyeonjongAD 992 – 1031

    Eighth king of Goryeo, who weathered the second and third Khitan invasions and began the first Tripitaka

  • King Chungnyeol1236 – 1308

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

  • 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

  • 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

  • An Hyang1243 – 1306

    Scholar who brought Zhu Xi’s writings from Yuan and first introduced Neo-Confucianism to Goryeo

  • Baek I-jeong1247 – 1323

    Scholar who studied Neo-Confucianism in Yuan while attending King Chungseon and taught it to Yi Je-hyeon and others

  • Yi Je-hyeon1287 – 1367

    Neo-Confucian scholar who studied with Yuan scholars at the Mangwondang and wrote the Saryak and Yeogong paeseol

  • Yi Saek1328 – 1396

    Late Goryeo Neo-Confucian who, as head of the Seonggyungwan under King Gongmin, trained Jeong Mong-ju and Jeong Do-jeon

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

  • 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

  • Jeju Island1270 – 1948

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