Gyeon Hwon

Infobox Korean name
hangul=견훤
hanja=甄萱
rr=Gyeon Hwon
mr=Kyŏn Hwŏn

Gyeon Hwon (867?-936, reigned 900-935) was the king and founder of Hubaekje, one of the Later Three Kingdoms of Korea. Some records render his name as "Jin Hwon" (진훤). He was also the progenitor of the Hwanggan Gyeon clan. Substantial accounts of his life are preserved in the "Samguk Sagi", which presents a single narrative, and the "Samguk Yusa", which presents excerpts about him from various sources.

Background and Family

Records say that his original last name was Lee, not Gyeon. Most accounts agree that Gyeon Hwon's father was Ajagae, a farmer of the Lee clan, and that he was born in what is today Gaeun-eup in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang province, as the oldest of six children. His mother was from the Gwangju area, and her exact identity is not known; according to history, Ajagae had two wives, first one called Lady Sangwon and the other Lady Namwon, and that Gyeon Hwon was born to his first wife. However, many folklores and legends say that his mother was from Gwangju, and gave birth to her firstborn son after having physical contact with a worm disguising as human. Folklores also say that Gyeon Hwon grew up drinking the milks of tiger. Ajagae later led a local peasant revolt and declared himself a general.

Early Life and Founding of Hubaekje

At the time, the Silla court was heavily corrupted and widespread famine drove many of the people into rebel forces. The Silla government had no control over the local nobles, bandits and rebel leaders, who maintained semi-independent status throughout the kingdom. Even though the nation was falling into disaster, Queen Jinseong was not able to handle the problem; the government was controlled by the corrupt officials and royal family members, who only sought to increase their personal possessions, rather than trying to take care of the troubles.

Gyeon Hwon is said to have left home at 15 to join the Silla army, at which time he changed his family name from Lee to Gyeon. After becoming the commander of Silla forces in the Jeolla region, he marshalled local peasants to his cause, as well as defeating and incorporating the local pirates. Then Gyeon Hwon seized the city of Gwangju, which was a provincial capital, in 892. In 900, Gyeon Hwon declared himself the king of Hubaekje ("later Baekje") and established his capital at Jeonju. He swore to avenge King Uija, the last king of Baekje. From that time forth, his life largely coincides with the history of his short-lived kingdom. Sending an embassy to the Chinese kingdom of Wuyue, he was confirmed by the Wuyue court as a legitimate ruler.

Reign

After coronating himself as ruler of Hubaekje, Gyeon Hwon sent his army to present-day Hapcheon, which is located southwest of the Silla capital Gyeongju, but the campaign failed and the army retreated. Then in 910, when Wang Geon, the general of the rivalring kingdom of Majin, which was established by Gung Ye, attacked and captured the city of Naju, the very city that Gyeon Hwon started his rebellion, he made an attempt to retake the city from Wang but it was not successful.

In 918, Gung Ye, after long period of misrule, was dethroned and murdered by his army commanders, who crowned Wang Geon as their new ruler, marking the beginning point of Goryeo Dynasty. Although Wang was the sworn enemy of Hubaekje, Gyeon sent envoy to Goryeo capital Kaesong and congratulated Wang Geon's coronation.

In 920, Gyeon sent another major expedition to Hapcheon area and finally succeeded in taking over the region, forcing King Gyeongmyeong into alliance with Goryeo. Then he invaded the present-day Andong area, but his troops were defeated by local Silla guards. Gyeon was forced to make peace with Goryeo after the battle, through exchanging one of the royal family members as prisoners. However, when his nephew Jin Ho died, he killed the Goryeo prisoner Wang Sin, cousin of Wang Geon, and resumed to war against Goryeo.

In 927, Gyeon Hwon led his army himself and directly attacked the Silla capital of Gyeongju. King Gyeongae was unprepared to this attack, and was having a feast at the Poseokjung with many of his officials and wives when he was captured and murdered by the invading army of Hubaekje. Then Gyeon established Kim Bu as the next Silla king, who became King Gyeongsun. On his way back, he was met by the forces led by Wang Geon, and easily defeated the Goryeo army, killing many of Wang's notable generals and warriors. One year later he took over the city of Jinju from Silla.

Decline and Fall

However, the heavy defeat of the Hubaekje troops at the battle near present-day Andong marked the turning point; Hubaekje was not able to recover from the loss. In 932, Gong Jik, one of the most important generals of Hubaekje, surrendered to Goryeo with all of his troops and fortress. Gyeon attempted to reverse the current by sacking the Goryeo capital of Gaesung, but his army suffered another defeat in the year of 934.

Gyeon Hwon took numerous wives after becoming king, and had numerous children by them in addition to the eight sons and a daughter borne by his first wife. In 935, as his kingdom reeled from military defeats, he decided that his fourth son Geumgang should succeed him, rather than his firstborn son Singeom. Singeom, together with his brothers Yanggeom and Yonggeom, imprisoned Gyeon Hwon and killed Geumgang. Gyeon Hwon escaped from prison and fled to his old enemy Wang Geon in Goryeo, who welcomed him and provided him with land and slaves. At Gyeon Hwon's request, the following year he and Wanggeon led the massive Goryeo army which defeated Hubaekje at Seonsan.

Later in 936, Gyeon Hwon died of an inflamed tumor.

Diplomacy

Unlike his rival Gung Ye, Gyeon Hwon was active in diplomacy; he was formally confirmed by the Chinese kingdoms of Wuyue and Later Tang as legitimate ruler of Baekje. In addition, he sought an alliance with newly-formed Liao Dynasty in the north, which was founded by the Khitans, in order to surround Goryeo from both north and south. However the khitan envoys were murdered by the Chinese in their way back, so the alliance was failed. Also, Gyeon sent envoys to Japan twice during his reign, for mainly commercial reasons; the Jeolla region, where Gyeon Hwon began his kingdom, was center of trade in East Asia during the period, and had already served as the base for traders such as Jang Bogo. With his experience in diplomacy and trade from being the army officer at Naju, he had great diplomatic skills.

However, even though with all of his diplomatic, military and trade abilities he was not able to emerge as the new leader of the Korea, and instead Wang Geon reunited the Koreans. The major reason lies within the fact that while Wang was from the wealth local merchant/noble family, while Gyeon had no local support, since he was the military officer sent to the province by the Silla government. Consequently, his Hubaekje government system was not very much different from the one of Silla; however that kind of the government system proved not to be effective in controlling the local landlords and merchants, and Hubaekje was not able to exercise influence over many of its people, giving the way for Goryeo to incorporate the kingdom.

ee also

*History of Korea
*List of Korea-related topics