Yeon Namsaeng

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Yeon Namsaeng 淵男生 연남생 (634-679) was the eldest son of the Goguryeo military leader and DaeMagniji Yeon Gaesomun (603?-665).

Namsaeng won merits for his role in resisting the 645 Tang Dynasty invasion of Goguryeo. At the age of nine his father began to bequeath him official positions. He first became seonin 先人 and subsequently held the titles of jungli sohyeong 中裏小兄, jungli daehyeong 中裏大兄, and jungli uidu daehyeong 中裏位頭大兄 (obscure Goguryeo titles whose exact nature is unknown). Eventually he rose to become Mangniji 莫離支 and then Dae Mangniji 大莫離支 (active head of state).

In the power struggle that ensued following the death of his father around 665, Namsaeng could not prevail against his younger brothers Yeon Namgeon and Yeon Namsan and fled to Tang. From there he led a Tang-sponsored military campaign against Goguryeo with hopes of regaining power.

He died in the domains of the Tang-established Protectorate General to Pacify the East, or Andong Duhufu 安東都護府, the Chinese administration established in P’yongyang following the fall of Goguryeo in 668 and meant to administer the former Goguryeo domains. Namsaeng was buried on Mt. Mang 邙山 in Luoyang 洛陽, Tang’s eastern capital.

Namsaeng's tomb stele, along with that of his brother Namgeon, has been discovered. Namsaeng's biography (Quan Nan Sheng 泉男生傳) appears in the Xin Tangshu (New History of Tang), book 110. The Chinese rendering of Namsaeng’s family name is Cheon 泉 (Chinese Quan) rather than Yeon 淵, most likely because Yeon (Chinese, Yuan) was the given name of Tang Gaozu 高祖 (Li Yuan 李淵), founder and first emperor of Tang, and taboo to apply to another by Chinese tradition.