Munjamyeong of Goguryeo
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King Munjamyeong of Goguryeo (? - 519, r. 491-519) was the 21st monarch of Goguryeo, the northernmost of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. He was the grandson of King Jangsu (413-490). Though Munjamyeong's father Gochudaega Joda (고추대가 조다, 古鄒大加 助多) had been named Crown Prince by King Jangsu, Joda died before assuming the throne.
By the time Munjamyeong assumed the throne in 491, Goguryeo had relocated its capital from the area around modern Ji'an along the upper Yalu River to P'yongyang (the modern capital of North Korea). This move came in the context of heightened rivalries with the other two of the Three Kingdoms, the then-allied Silla and Baekje.
Munjamyeong nurtured close relations with the various petty Chinese dynasties that had emerged following the fall of the Han, notably the Wei, Qi, and Liang, accepting feudal titles from them, while continuing a policy of aggressive confrontation with both Baekje and Silla to its south.
The 12th century Korean history the Samguk Sagi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms) relates that the remnants of the Buyeo state submitted to Goguryeo in 494 after their defeat by the Malgal. By the early 6th century Goguryeo under Munjamyeong was feeling the pressure of Malgal, Silla and Baekje aggression. A tribute mission sent to the Wei in 504 was lacking in certain products, notably the gold previously gotten from Buyeo and jade acquired from a region in the peninsula's south that had now been taken by Baekje (Samguk Sagi, "Annals of Goguryeo", book 19, thirteenth year of Munjamyeong). For this it earned Wei's reproach.
In 498, he constructed the Buddhist temple Geumgangsa.
Throughout the King's reign, until his death in 519, tribute continued to be paid to the various Chinese dyansties while border disputes with Baekje and Silla intensified but without any conclusive results. Munjamyeong was succeeded by his eldest son Anjang.
