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King Dongcheon of Goguryeo (209 - 248, r. 227-248) was the 11th monarch of Goguryeo, the northernmost of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.
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Background
He was the grandson of Goguryeo's eighth ruler, Sindae and the son of the tenth ruler, Sansang. His mother was Emperor Sansang's second queen, from the Jutong-chon of Gwanno-bu. He was made crown prince in 213, and rose to the throne upon Sansang's death.
Reign
Dongcheon played off the rivalries among the Chinese powers Gongsun Yuan, Eastern Wu, and Cao Wei. In 234, Dongcheon sent an envoy to Wei to make peace. In 236, an ambassador, Hao Wei, from Wu arrived at Goguryeo and asked for peace. Dongcheon imprisoned the ambassador for months before finally beheading him and sending the head to Wei.
In 238, Dongcheon was able to ally with the Wei in order to destroy the Gongsun family and erase its influence over Liaodong Peninsula and other areas bordering Goguryeo. Dongcheon sent an army to attack Yodong fortress in 242 to successfully expand Goguryeo territory.
The war on the Gongsun was a victory, but Goguryeo's ally, Wei, eventually became a new threat, and Dongcheon ordered an attack on the Wei in the same year. In 246, Wei sent an invasion force of 10,000 to Goguryeo and took the capital city of Hwando, forcing Dongcheon to temporarily move the capital to Pyongyang in 247. From Pyongyang, Dongcheon clashed with the Wei forces, and reclaimed the lost territory.
Then, a Goguryeo general named Yu Yu (유유, 紐由) approached the Wei encampment and fooled the Wei commander into thinking that Goguryeo had come to surrender. Yu Yu took this chance to murder the commander and then committed suicide, causing great confusion and discord in the Wei army. King Dongcheon received news of Yu Yu's death and ordered that a memorial be made for Yu Yu the Patriot. Then, he led his armies in the attack to push the Wei forces out of Goguryeo territory. General Mil U (밀우, 密友) and Yu Okgu (유옥구, 劉屋句) also repulse the Wei forces. The Goguryeo forces won this battle, and regained all of the territory that had been lost from defeats against the Wei.
In 243, he named his son Yeonbul the crown prince and successor to the throne. He attacked Silla, another of the Three Kingdoms to its south, in 245 but made peace in 248.
Death and succession
Dongcheon fell ill and died during the fall of 248 after 22 years of rule. His tomb is said to be in South Pyongan Province near Pyongyang, North Korea. He is said to have been so loved that many people followed him in death. Crown Prince Yeon-Bul succeeded his father as King Jungcheon immediately after his father's death.
See also
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- This page was last modified on 17 September 2008, at 00:15.
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