Gwangjong of Goryeo

Gwangjong (925 – 4 July 975), personal name Wang So, was the fourth monarch of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea.

Biography Birth and early life Gwangjong was born in 925 as Wang So, fourth son of King Taejo, who had founded Goryeo in 918. His mother was Queen Sinmyeongsunseong of the Chungju Yu clan, who also gave birth to princes Wang T'ae, Wang Yo, Wang Chŏng, Jeungtong, as well as the princesses, Princess Nakrang and Princess Heungbang. Moreover, Gwangjong had twenty half-brothers and seven half-sisters from his father's other marriages.

As he had three older brothers, Mu, T'ae and Yo, he was far from the succession to the throne; however, Wang T'ae died early, and Wang Mu died in 945, three years after being crowned king, leaving the throne to Wang Yo, who ruled Goryeo for four years as Jeongjong. Before dying, he decided to make Wang So his heir instead of his one and only son, Prince Gyeongchunwon.

According to his contemporary Ch'oe Sŭng-no, Gwangjong "was careful and laconic, but bold if he had to seize an opportunity." He had excellent appearance and qualities, and he received a special love from his father. The second one was , a general who promoted the appointment of Hyejong to Crown Prince and continued to support him later, becoming a threat to Jeongjong's coronation.

His first reform was the law of emancipation of slaves in 956. The noble families had many slaves, mainly prisoners of war, who served as private soldiers; they numbered more than commoners and didn't pay taxes to the crown, but to the clan they worked for. By emancipating them, Gwangjong turned them into commoners, weakening the noble families' power, and gaining people who paid taxes to the king and could become part of his army. This reform won his government the support of the people, while nobles were against it; even queen Daemok tried to stop the king as the law affected her family, but to no avail.

Regarding foreign policy, Gwangjong maintained the close connection between China and Goryeo which was made by Taejo of Goryeo, focusing on the relationship with Later Zhou and the Song dynasty. Many diplomats were sent back and forth between the two countries, as well as many goods. Gwangjong also built diplomatic relationships with Wuyue. with his advice, Gwangjong instituted the national civil service examination in 958, with the goal to expel officials who gained court positions due to family influence or reputation rather than by merit. The examination, based on the Tang's civil service exam and the Confucian classics, In 960, the king introduced different colours for court robes to distinguish officials of different ranks.

During Gwangjong's reign, medical centers known as taebiwŏn , which provided free medicines to poor patients, were set up in Kaesong and Pyongyang, later expanding in the provinces as the hyemin'guk . Taejo had established regional granaries to face the times of drought, and Gwangjong added chewibo , stores which charged interest on grain loans, which was then used for poor relief. These measures, even if in modified forms, kept on working for the next 900 years, parallel to better cultivation methods to keep up with the growth of population. and the Cheongpyeongsa Temple in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, in 973. The king also created an exam for Buddhist priests, called sŏnggwa , to link the government and the church, and he attempted to make peace between the Zen and textual schools to unify them under a single order, but he didn't have much success. Gwangjong also mistrusted his eldest son Wang Ju, who was five years old at the time. while his temple name Gwangjong means "shining emperor". His tomb, called Heolleung , is located on the north side of Songaksan, in Kaepung County, North Korea. The site inspection in 1916 found a severely damaged tomb, but the stairway and the foundation stone are preserved.

He was succeeded by his only son Wang Chu, who became the fifth king of Goryeo, Gyeongjong. and, in order to restrain the power of wealthy people and influential vassals, he encouraged consanguineous marriages to avoid troubles with maternal relatives.

His reforms contributed greatly to the formation of a new political order in the newborn kingdom of Goryeo, but they were mainly limited to politics; the restructuring of the local government, and the reorganization of national economy and social system were comparatively weak. He was always wary of the possibility of hostile acts, and killed nobles and relatives recklessly. In the memorial he drew up for the sixth king of Goryeo, Seongjong, he wrote:He treated those under him with much propriety, and never lost his eye for judging people. He did not hold his royal relatives and high nobles too close, always restraining the mighty and powerful. He never neglected the humble, and accorded favors to widows and orphans. For eight years after he ascended the throne, the government was clean and equitable, meting out no excessive rewards or punishments. From the time he employed Shuang Chi, he leaned heavily toward the literati, dispensing excessive favors and courtesy to them. Thereupon, even the untalented came forward, upsetting the order of seniority and advanced quickly, becoming high ministers in less than two years. [...] As he neglected government affairs, important issues related to state security were ignored, but parties and banquets continued without interruption [...], and the initial virtue of the king gradually disappeared. [...] The population supplies were increasingly spent on buying honors. For this reason, the king didn't recover his previous zeal and diligence for state affairs, even when he met his counselors. Their disgust, therefore, deepened day by day. [...] Moreover, the king exceeded in his devotion to Buddhism and overestimated Buddhists. [...] In clothes and food, he spared no expense. In weighing up the merits of public works, he ignored the choice of the appropriate time. There was no respite in devising clever initiatives. Even according to a rough estimate, each year's expenses were equivalent to T'aejo's expenses for a decade. In his last ten years, many innocent people were killed. [...] For sixteen years, from the eleventh (960) to the twenty-sixth year (975) of Kwangjong's reign, the intriguing and the wicked competed to advance, and slanderous accusations raged. The true gentlemen were badly tolerated everywhere, while petty people reached their goals. — Ch'oe Sŭngno Portrayed by Jung Seung-woo in the 2009 KBS2 TV series Empress Cheonchu. Portrayed by Jang Hyuk in the 2015 MBC TV series Shine or Go Crazy. Portrayed by Lee Joon-gi in the 2016 SBS TV series Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo.