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恭愍王
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Gongmin-wang
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Kongmin-wang
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ruled
Goryeo (
Korea ) from
1351 until
1374 .
Goryeo was dominated by Yuan Dynasty when King Gongmin took over the throne. He was force to
spent many years in Yuan court as a virtual prisoner before becoming a king. He even married mongol princess
Noguk .
Following the repulsion of the
Mongol forces that had occupied the whole of the
Korean Peninsula since the
Mongol Invasions Of Korea of 1238, Gongmin began efforts to reform its government. His first act was to remove all pro-Mongol aristocrats and military officers from their positions. These deposed people formed a dissident faction which plotted an unsuccessful coup against the king. High
official
Cho Il Shin even try to take over the government, but this rebellion was put down by general Choi Yong.
A second internal problem was the question of land holdings. The land-grant system had broken down, and Mongol-favoured officials, along with a handful of landed gentry, owned the vast majority of agricultural land, which was worked by tenant farmers and bondsmen. King Gongmin's attempt at land reform was met with opposition and subterfuge from those officials who were supposed to implement his reforms, however, as they were landowners themselves.
Another problem was that the
Japanese Pirates who had been troubling the peninsula for some time were no longer hit-and-run bandits, but had become well-organised military marauders that raided deep into the country. Generals
Choi Yong and
Yi Seonggye were called upon by Gongmin to combat them.
Goryeo's entrenched bureaucracy never forgave King Gongmin for his reform efforts. They interpreted his policy of cutting all ties with the
Yuan and establishing relations with
Ming China as a direct threat to their status and feared that further attempts at reform might yet be made.
Kaesong 's deposed pro-Mongol faction battled to protect its position and hoped to renew ties with the Mongols who had helped them gain and hold their wealth in the first place. The disgruntled influential landowners took on an ugly character in 1374, when a military hero and high official named
Yi In-Im led a small yet powerful anti-Ming faction that assassinated King Gongmin, replacing him with the eleven-year-old
King U .
Although he did not receive a temple name of an emperor, because the political situation of the time following his death did not recognize him as such, he proclaimed himself an emperor as a part of reformations he undertook in order to reinstate Koryo's position as an independent nation.
It was during the reign of Gongmin that a Goryeo diplomat stationed in China named
Mun Ik-Jom managed to smuggle
Cotton seeds back into Goryeo, introducing them to the Korean peninsula for the first time.
Korean TV drama "Sin Don" features King gongmin's rule.
