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Powerful and Controversial Military Dictator in the Waning Days of Koguryo, Which Was One of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea

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Powerful and Controversial Military Dictator in the Waning Days of Koguryo, Which Was One of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea Mr Paul Wanklyn 5th Dan Yon-Gae Yon-Gae is named after a famous general in the Koguryo Dynasty, Yon Gae Somoon. The 49 movements refer to the last two figures of 649AD, the year he forced the Tang Dynasty to quit Korea after destroying nearly 300,000 of their troops at Ansi Sung. 49 Movements. Yon-Gae Somoon (correctly spelt Yeon Gaesomun of 603–666) was a powerful and controversial military dictator in the waning days of Koguryo, which was one of the Three Kingdoms of ancient Korea. Yeon is also remembered for successful military conflicts with Tang Dynasty China under Emperor Li Shimin and his son Emperor Gaozong. Their failure to Yeon was the only defeat that Emperor Li Shimin ever suffered on the battlefield. Traditional Korean histories paint Yeon as a despotic leader, whose cruel policies and disobedience to his monarch led to the fall of Koguryo however, his achievements in defending Koguryo against Chinese onslaughts have inspired Korean nationalist historians, most notably the 19th century Korean historian and intellectual Sin Chaeho, to term Yeon “The greatest hero in Korean history”. Many Korean scholars today echo Sin and praise Yeon as a soldier-statesman without equal in Korean history. Tang and Silla sources have constantly portrayed Yeon as a brutal and arrogant dictator who carried five swords and would have men prostrate themselves so that he might use theirs backs to mount and dismount his horse. Yeon Gaesomun was the first and oldest son of Yeon Taejo, the Prime minister of Koguryo during the reigns of King Pyeongwon of Koguryo and King Yeongyang of Koguryo. It is known that the Yeon family was always of high rank and status in Koguryo. Yeon's grandfather Yeon Ja-Yu was also a prime minister of Koguryo. Information about Yeon Gaesomun comes largely from the Samguk Sagi's (Book of the Three Kingdoms) accounts of King Yeongnyu and King Bojang (Koguryo vols. 8-10) and its biography of Yeon Gaesomun (vol. 49), surviving tomb engravings belonging to his sons Yeon Namsaeng and Yeon Namsan, and the biographies of those same sons that appear in the New Book of Tang. Very little is known of Yeon's early days but, it is said that, at the time of his rise in power, he seduced the people by claiming that he was born under water. He later became the Governor of the Western province where he oversaw the building of the Cheolli Jangseong (Thousand Li Wall), a network of military garrisons to defend the Liaodong area from Tang invaders. Yeon Gaesomun's 642 coup d'etat came as the culmination of a lengthy power struggle between the military and the executive officials, between those who favoured appeasement to Tang Dynasty and to those who advocated military confrontation, and Yeon was belonged to the hard liners. Traditional Chinese and Korean historians believed that his motive was simply his thirst for power. With the rise of Korean nationalism, many revisionist Korean historians now assert that his motive was to make Koguryo assume a tougher stance against Tang China. At the time the emperor was basically submitting to Tang for a peaceful diplomatic relationship. In 642, Yeon arranged a lavish banquet to celebrate his rise to the position of Eastern Governor to which one hundred of the opposing politicians of the kingdom were invited. Yeon's soldiers ambushed and killed all one hundred ministers present. Yeon then proceeded to the palace and murdered the king. According to traditional Chinese and Korean sources, Yeon's men dismembered the dead king's corpse and discarded it without proper ceremony. After placing King Bojang, a nephew of King Yeongnyu, on the Koguryo throne, Yeon appointed himself “Dae Mangniji”, the highest possible rank of military minister; associated with supreme command of military affairs, and leader of political affairs. Subsequently, in this role Yeon went on to assume control over Koguryo’s affairs of state until his death around 666. His role in the murder of the Koguryo king was taken as the primary pretext for the failed Tang invasion of 645. Yeon was instrumental in bringing Taoism to Koguryo. Whilst reporting to the King, Yeon said “I have heard that in China, the three ways of thought exist side by side but, in our country, Taoism is unknown”. The King then sent an envoy to Tang China to obtain the learning’s from them, the Tang court then sent a Taoist adept, Shu-ta, with seven other envoys and a copy of the “Tao Te Ching” (the way and it’s virtue) back to Koguryo where Yeon turned a Buddhist monastery into a Taoist temple. The most likely date of Yeon's death is that recorded on the tomb stele of Namsaeng, Yeon Gaesomun's eldest son in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Bojang (665) however, the Samguk Sagi records the year as 666 and states that Yeon apparently died of natural causes. Yeon Gaesomun had at least three sons, Yeon Namsaeng, Yeon Namgeon, and Yeon Namsan. After his death, the country was weakened by a succession struggle between his brother and three sons, and in 668 Koguryo fell relatively swiftly to the Silla-Tang armies. In the summer of 2006, the South Korean television station SBS began a 100 episode drama on the life of Yeon Gaesomun. Its production costs were very high, about 40 billion South Korean won which is the equivalent of nearly 22 Million pounds. .
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