King Bojang

Biography

Accession under Yeon Gaesomun

Bojang was a younger brother of King Yeongnyu. In 642, Yeon Gaesomun staged a coup, killed Yeongnyu, and installed Go Bojang as king. Yeon then exercised authority as the senior military and political leader known as the makniji. Although Bojang held the throne, he did not independently direct most major state and military decisions.

Goguryeo continued to cooperate with Baekje and apply military pressure on Silla. Silla appealed to Tang for help, and Tang’s court urged Goguryeo to stop the conflict. Yeon refused, contributing to the deterioration of relations between Tang and Goguryeo. In 643, Emperor Taizong of Tang conferred on Bojang the titles of Pillar of State, Duke of Liaodong, and King of Goguryeo. The Goguryeo court also sent people to Tang to study Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist teachings. In 644, after Yeon campaigned against Silla, Bojang ordered him to return.

Tang’s campaigns against Goguryeo

In 645, Emperor Taizong launched a major campaign against Goguryeo, citing Yeon’s seizure of power and attacks on Silla. Tang forces crossed the Liao River, captured Liaodong Fortress, and besieged Ansi. Goguryeo’s defenders resisted, and the Tang army withdrew in the autumn. Further campaigns followed over the next two decades. Yeon Gaesomun directed Goguryeo’s military response, while Bojang remained king without becoming the principal commander.

Under Emperor Gaozong, Tang continued its attacks. Yeon Gaesomun died in 666, and his sons Yeon Namsaeng, Yeon Namgeon, and Yeon Nam-san struggled for control. Their conflict destabilized Goguryeo. Yeon Namsaeng defected to Tang and cooperated with the Tang campaign. From 667 to 668, Tang forces advanced along several routes, taking fortresses and moving toward the capital.

The fall of Goguryeo and transfer to Tang

In 668, Tang and Silla forces besieged Pyongyang. Bojang sent members of the royal house and senior officials to surrender; the Goguryeo state then came to an end. Bojang was captured and transferred to Tang territory. Emperor Gaozong initially appointed him to an office, including the title Siming Taichangbo. His son Go Deokmu also entered Tang service.

Tang’s control of the former Goguryeo territories remained difficult. The court organized local administrations and established the Protectorate-General to Pacify the East at Pyongyang. Population movement and resistance continued to shape the region. The settlement of Bojang and other members of the former ruling house formed part of this wider effort to incorporate conquered territory.

Governorship in Liaodong, exile, and death

During the Yifeng era, Tang Gaozong appointed Bojang governor of Liaodongzhou and king of Joseon and sent him to the An-dong region. The appointment made use of his royal status to govern the former Goguryeo population. Bojang later contacted Mohe groups and sought to revive Goguryeo. When the plan was discovered, the Tang court recalled him and exiled him to Qiongzhou. He was sent to Sichuan in 681 and died the following year. Tang posthumously appointed him Minister of the Guards and arranged for his burial near the tomb of Qilibi Khan.

Major Activities

A nominal monarch in late Goguryeo

Bojang’s long reign covered the period from Yeon Gaesomun’s seizure of power to the destruction of Goguryeo. The distinction between the king’s formal position, court authority, and military command is essential to understanding the period. Much of the kingdom’s policy was directed by Yeon and, after his death, by his sons. Bojang’s record therefore reflects the constraints on royal authority as well as the political history of the final decades of Goguryeo.

Tang policy toward a conquered royal house

After the conquest, Tang first gave Bojang an office and later appointed him to govern in Liaodong. The policy used the former king’s status as an instrument of frontier administration. His contacts with Mohe groups and subsequent exile show the limits Tang placed on political activity by the former ruler. His life is closely connected to the movement of Goguryeo people and Tang’s effort to govern the northeast.

His career around the fall of the state can be set out by year: in 666 (first year of Qianfeng, Tang) Yeon Gaesomun died and his sons contended, shaking the Koguryo court; in 668 (first year of Zongzhang) Tang and Silla forces entered Pyongyang, and Gao Zang surrendered and was sent to the Tang court; in 676 (first year of Yifeng), according to one account, the Tang appointed him commander of Liaodong and King of Joseon and sent him back to Andong, another account giving 677 and the Old Book of Tang saying only "in the Yifeng period"; in 681 (first year of Kaiyao) he was exiled to Qiongzhou after his dealings with the Mohe were discovered, the exact year resting chiefly on the two sources; and in 682 (first year of Yongchun) the Old Book of Tang records his death "early in Yongchun", the Tang granting him posthumously the title of minister of the imperial insignia. His passage from last king to Tang-appointed local governor and then to exile for dealings with the Mohe shows how Tang treatment of the former Koguryo ruler and people moved from settlement to precaution after the conquest.

As to the Tang treatment of the former king of Koguryo, the course divides into settlement and precaution: after his surrender in 668 he was sent to the Tang court and afterwards given the titles of commander and king of Joseon with orders to return to his former territory, which belongs to the former; while his exile to Qiongzhou in 681 after dealings with the Mohe were discovered and his death there in 682 with posthumous honours belong to the latter. The change is connected with the Tang position in northeast Asia: the relations between the old Koguryo followers, Silla and the Mohe were unstable, so that the Tang employment of the former king was constrained. The record of the changes in the Koguryo court, with the death of Yeon Gaesomun and the contention of his sons, also offers a clue to the internal causes of the state's fall.

After his death the Tang administration of the former Koguryo lands continued under the protectorate of Andong.

The changes in his Tang titles, from commander of Liaodong to King of Joseon, and his later exile, show how the situation on the Korean peninsula shaped Tang policy in the northeast in the later seventh century.

As to the Tang administration of northeast Asia, after the conquest of Koguryo the protectorate of Andong was established over its former lands, while Gao Zang as former king was given the titles of commander and King of Joseon with orders to return thither, an arrangement intended both to conciliate the old subjects through their former ruler and to guard against his dealings with neighbouring forces such as the Mohe; the records of his exile and posthumous honours appear in the Old and New Books of Tang and the Comprehensive Mirror with slight differences of year, which the entry sets out as the sources give them.

The differences in the records of his titles and his end are material that must be used side by side in studying the politics of northeast Asia in the seventh century.

His appointment as King of Joseon accords with the Tang policy of conciliating the former Koguryo lands.

His surrender came almost at the same time as the Tang conquest of Koguryo, so that his personal fate cannot easily be told apart in time from the end of the Koguryo state; his later settlement and exile fall within the usual Tang handling of the clans of conquered states.

Personal Relations

• King Yeongnyu: Bojang’s elder brother, killed during Yeon Gaesomun’s coup in 642.
• Yeon Gaesomun: The makniji who installed Bojang and held effective power for much of his reign.
• Yeon Namsaeng, Yeon Namgeon, and Yeon Nam-san: Yeon Gaesomun’s sons, whose conflict weakened Goguryeo.
• Emperors Taizong and Gaozong of Tang: Tang rulers during the wars and Bojang’s settlement in Tang.
• Go Deokmu: Bojang’s son, who served in Tang.
• King Munmu of Silla: Silla ruler during the Tang-Silla alliance against Goguryeo.

Historical Assessment

Traditional records

The Old Book of Tang, New Book of Tang, and Zizhi Tongjian place Bojang in the history of Yeon Gaesomun’s rule, Tang’s campaigns, the fall of Goguryeo, and the Tang settlement of the former king. The Samguk Sagi records his accession and the end of the Goguryeo royal line from the perspective of Goguryeo’s annals.

Later assessments

Later histories generally identify Bojang as the last king of Goguryeo. Accounts focus on Yeon Gaesomun’s dominance, the internal struggle among Yeon’s sons, and the Tang-Silla conquest. Bojang’s later captivity and exile also became examples of the constrained position of a conquered ruler under a new dynasty.

Modern scholarship

Modern studies examine Bojang through late Goguryeo’s political structure, the power of the Yeon family, the Tang-Silla wars, and the administration of conquered territory. They consider the relationship between the throne and the office of makniji, Tang’s use of the former king in Liaodong, and the resettlement and political reorganization of Goguryeo communities.