History of The Joseon Dynasty - Elimination of The Vestiges of Goryeo

Elimination of The Vestiges of Goryeo

In the beginning of his reign, Yi Seonggye, now King Taejo, intended to continue use of the name Goryeo for the country he ruled and simply change the royal line of descent to his own, thus maintaining the façade of continuing the 500 year-old Goryeo tradition. However, after numerous threats of mutiny from the drastically weakened but still influential Gwonmun nobles, who continued to swear allegiance to the remnants of the Goryeo Dynasty, now the demoted Wang clan, and the overall atmosphere in the reformed court that a new dynastic title was needed to signify the change, he declared a new dynasty in 1393 under the name of Joseon (meaning to revive an older dynasty also known as Joseon, founded previously) and renamed the country the "Kingdom of Great Joseon", although it came to be simply referred to, even by historians today, by the title of its ruling house.

With the declaration of the new royal house were voiced concerns of what solution to apply to the remaining descendants of the deposed Wang family. King Taejo and his officials especially felt that if the legitimacy of their rule was ever questioned by the remaining members of the Goryeo Dynasty, they might have to suppress a mass rebellion or even risk the loss of the recently gained throne. In the end, Taejo had his prime minister Jeong Do-jeon summon all of the Wang family members to the coast of the Yellow Sea and instruct them to board a ship bound for Ganghwa Island, where they were to supposedly live quietly out of the sight of the government. However, the entire ploy was a trap, and a pre-instructed crew member on board smashed a hole in the hull as soon as the ship had entered sufficiently deep waters. The ship sank, and the last of the Goryeo Dynasty were lost by drowning. According to an urban legend, after the fate of the Wang family members gullible enough to board the doomed ship reached their relatives on the mainland, most of them changed their surnames from Wang (王) to Ok (玉) by adding an extra brush stroke and thus hiding their true descent.

After the demise of the last portions of the Goryeo Dynasty came calls for a new capital. Although Gaegyeong had served well as the seat of government for over 400 years, it was already something of a tradition for new dynasties in Korea to move their capitals to a new location considered fortuitous according the Chinese feng-shui philosophy of geomancy. Gaegyeong had also long since considered to have lost its share of energy to maintain any kind of permanent capital. As a result, three sites were officially brought into consideration: the foot of Mt. Gyeryong and the cities of Muak and Hanyang. The location near Mt. Gyeryong was quickly rejected after some time due to its relatively rough terrain and lack of convenient communication, while the site at Muak was seriously considered before it was decided by King Taejo that Hanyang was the most fitting candidate for the new capital. Hanyang outranked its rivals in various aspects; not only was it was easily accessible from sea and land, and geographically the center of the Korean Peninsula, but the fertile Han River valley on which the ancient city was situated historically had been the most contested region between the Three Kingdoms of Korea. For centuries, Hanyang had also been argued to be blessed, and Korean geomancers claimed the city was occupying a sacrosanct place flowing with geomantic energy. Hanyang was also conformed to Sino-Korean tradition; it had a larger mountains in the north and a smaller mountains in the south for defense, while in between there was a large plain, and thus the city would fit the customary north-south axis. In 1394, Hanyang was declared the new capital and formally renamed "Hanseong". That year, the foot of Mt. Bugak was chosen for the foundation of the main palace. Development and construction of the entire city and its complicated system of avenues, gates, walls, civilian residences, educational facilities, government buildings, and five main palace complexes began in 1394 as well. The official royal residence Gyeongbok Palace was completed in 1395, while the less important Changdeok Palace was completed in 1405. Other royal palaces followed suit, and by the end of the first half of the 15th century all of the capital had been completed and was in working order.