Chungseon of Goryeo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chungseon of Goryeo

Hangul	충선왕
Hanja	忠宣王/益知禮普花
Revised Romanization	Chungseon wang
McCune-Reischauer	Ch'ungsŏn wang

Courtesy name

Hangul	중앙
Hanja	仲昻
Revised Romanization	Jung-ang
McCune-Reischauer	Chungang

Chungseon of Goryeo (1275-1314, r. 1298 and 1308-1313) was the 26th king of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea. He is sometimes known by his Mongolian name, Ijirbuga(益知禮普花). Adept at calligraphy and painting, rather than politics, he generally preferred the life of the Yuan capital Beijing to that of the Goryeo capital Kaesong. He was the eldest son of King Chungnyeol; his mother was a Yuan royal, Princess Gyeguk.

In 1277, Chungseon was confirmed as Crown Prince; in the following year he travelled to China and received his Mongolian name^{[citation needed]}. In 1296, he was married to the Yuan Princess Botapsillin. However, the king already had three Korean wives, the daughters of the powerful nobles Jo In-gyu, Hong Mun-gye, and Seo Won-hu.

Chungseon's mother died in 1297, and this was followed by a violent purge brought on by allegations that she had been murdered. Perhaps upset by these evens, King Chungseon petitioned Yuan to abdicate the throne, and was accordingly replaced by Chungseon in 1298. However, faced with intense plotting between the faction of his Mongolian queen and his Korean queen, Chungseon returned the throne to his father shortly thereafter.

After his father's death in 1308, Chungseon was obliged to return to the throne and made efforts to reform court politics, but spent as much time as possible in China. He retired from the throne in 1313, and was replaced by Chungsuk of Goryeo. Chungseon was briefly sent into exile after the death of the Yuan emperor Renzong (仁宗), but was permitted soon thereafter to return to Beijing, where he died.