Person1371

Sin Don

Monk empowered by King Gongmin who ran the Directorate for Land and Slave Rectification

Appointed in 1365, he took charge of government. The next year he set up the Directorate for Land and Slave Rectification, returning land illegally seized by the powerful families to its owners and freeing those wrongly enslaved, which won him popular support. He provoked the hostility of the powerful families and was executed in 1371 on a charge of treason.

Where they went

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2 related events

  1. 1351 – 1374Reforms of King Gongminparticipant

    As the Yuan gave way to the Ming, King Gongmin purged the pro-Yuan faction, recovered the Ssangseong Commandery, and, through Sin Don, curbed the magnates to restore royal power.

  2. 1

    Sin Don, empowered by King Gongmin, set up a directorate that returned land illegally seized by the magnates to its owners and freed people wrongly enslaved.

People who appear alongside

  • King Gongmin1330 – 1374

    Thirty-first king of Goryeo, who led anti-Yuan reforms, recovered the Ssangseong Commandery and backed Sin Don’s reforms

  • Gi Cheol1356

    Brother of the Yuan Empress Gi, a pro-Yuan magnate purged by King Gongmin in 1356

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • Educational Institutions Through the AgesAD 372 – 1943

    From the Taehak and Gukhak to the Gukjagam and Seonggyungwan, modern schools and the colonial education ordinances — state schools that trained officials and the private schools that filled the gaps