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The military regime of Choi's family and the political power supporting group(retainers) called ‘Mungaek' in goryo dynasty

Kim, Seon-ah 1

1서강대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

During the military regime in Goryeo Dynasty, the most notable political group was the Choi's family through the four generations. The Choi’s family group had led the era of the Goryeo military regime by long-term seizure of power. For their seizure of power, the Mungaek, a group of entourage played a significant role in taking powers of the Choi family because the family trained a group of aides in order to utilize the them for protecting the Choi’s regime and supporting their plan by military force. The Mungaek(retainers) can be defined as people who lodged in the Choi family, guarded the regime for hoping compensations in return. The Mungaek(retainers) actually played a very important role in the reign of the Choi family. It seemed that Choi Chung-heon categorized his aides into three classes, the upper, middle and low Mungaek(retainers), and let the upper group control the others. For example, Choi Chung-heon commanded the middle and low Mungaek(retainers) through members of the upper Mungaek (retainers) such as Choi Chung-su, Park Jin-jae, Kim Yak-jin and No Seok-sung. However, Choi Chung-heon prevented the upper Mungaek (retainers) from taking other groups in order to expand their own power by using force or sending them into exile. Further, Choi Chung-heon did not give governmental posts to the middle and low Mungaek(retainers) to control them. In other words, Choi Chung-heon gave preference to military groups who supported him, but contained the expansion of rival groups’ power in this way. He seemed to select outstanding individuals from existing Mungaek(retainers) and enrolled them on the Dobang (residence reinforcements). Choi-u who succeeded Choi Chung-heon sent the majority of Choi Chung-heon’s Mungaek(retainers) into exile, and replaced them with the people who were trustworthy to him. In particular, many of literati joined the Mungaek(retainers). After Choi-u seized the power, he organized various Mungaek(retainers) groups such as Yabeolcho(Night Patrol), Jeongbang(the Supreme Military Council) and Seobang(Household Secretariat), and enrolled the literati on Jeongbang(the Supreme Military Council) or Seobang(Household Secretariat), not on Dobang(residence reinforcements). Among the most representative powers of Mungaek (retainers) at that time, there were Park-hweon, Kim-Chang and Yu Cheon-woo. The Mungaek(retainers) of Choi woo or Choi-Hang broke off into Dobang(residence reinforcements), Seobang(Household Secretariat) and Yabeolcho(Night Patrol). Choi-u or Choi-hang dispatched their Mungaek(retainers) in the Yabeolcho(Night Patrol). Lee Yu-jeong, a member of Choi-u’s Dobang(residence reinforcements), was one of Choi-u’s Mungaek(retainers) and the leader of Yabeolcho(Night Patrol). Song Gil-yu who was Yabeolchojiyu, the leader of Yabeolcho(Night Patrol), served for Choi-hang by flattery. Lee Yu-jeong was a member of Choi-u’s Dobang(residence reinforcements) and the leader of Sambyeolcho(Three Elite Patrols) at the same time. Indeed, Mungaek(retainers) of the Choi family commanded even Yabeolcho(Night Patrol). Choi-ui succeeded Choi-hang’s power with much turbulance. This procedure was different from Choi-u’s case having eliminated his opponents and managed to acquire his own influence. When Choi-hang transferred his power to Choi-ui, Choi-hang appealed to his Mungaek(retainers) for the necessity of the power succession. In this regard, it can be maintained that Choi-hang’s Mungaek(retainers) were succeeded as Choi-u’s Mungaek(retainers); however, it is also arguable that there was concern over the forces who opposed to the power succession. Further, Choi-hang’s death was known to the public only after Choi-ui ascended the throne with support of Yabeolcho(Night Patrol), Sineuigun(Army of Transcendent Righteousness), Seobang(Household Secretariat), 3beon, Dobang(residence reinforcements) and the 36th ‘beon’(order). This shows that Choi-ui had a very unstable status from the very beginning of his regime. Consequently, Choi-ui was assassinated by powerful Mungaek(retainers) of the Choi family such as Kim-jun and Park Seong-jae, as the result of that the regime of the four generation of Choi's family finally had collapsed.

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