Jang Bogo
| Jang Bogo | |||||||
| Korean name | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hangul | 장보고 also 궁복 | ||||||
| Hanja | 張保皐 also 弓福 | ||||||
|
|||||||
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization | Jang Bogo also Gungbok |
| McCune–Reischauer | Chang Pogo also Kungbok |
Jang Bogo (787-846, alternately 841), also known as Gungbok, rose to prominence in Korea in the late Unified Silla period as a powerful maritime figure who for several decades effectively controlled the West Sea (Yellow Sea) and Korean coast between southwestern Korea and China's Shandong peninsula. His impressive fleet of ships was centered on the island of Wando off Korea's southwestern tip. So influential a figure did Jang become in late Silla politics that he was granted official office as Maritime Commissioner of the Cheonghaejin Garrison (on Wando) and came near to marrying his daughter into the Silla Royal House before his assassination in 846. He was worshipped as a god following his death.
Though he was a man of Silla, Jang Bogo's origins are unknown. One of the few sources on his life is the 12th century Samguk Sagi ("A History of the Three Kingdoms"), which contains a brief biography of Jang compiled three centuries after his death. The biography relates that Jang Bogo was adept in martial arts and that Jang's companion Jeong Yeon (정년, 鄭年) could swim five li (about 2.5 km) underwater without taking a breath. The history further records that as young men the two companions, Jang Bogo and Jeong Yeon, traveled to Tang China. Their skills in horsemanship and the handling of spears soon won them military office. They were both named Junior Generals of Wuning District (武寧軍小將) (in what is today Jiangsu province).
By the ninth century thousands of Silla subjects were living in Tang, centered mostly around merchant activities in coastal Shandong and Jiangsu provinces, where they established their own Silla communities often led by Silla officials. Wealthy benefactors (including at one point Jang Bogo himself) even established Silla Buddhist temples in the region, as related by the 9th-century Japanese monk Ennin, whose journal constitutes one of the other rare sources on Jang Bogo.
Apparently, while in China Jang Bogo had become incensed at the treatment of his fellow countrymen, who in the unstable milieu of late Tang often fell victim to coastal pirates or inland bandits. In fact, Silla subjects living in Tang had become a favored target of bandits, who sold their captives into slavery. In 823 the Tang emperor went so far as to issue an edict stopping the slave trade and ordering the return of all abducted Koreans to Silla. Shortly after returning to Silla around 825, and by now in possession of a formidable private fleet headquartered at Cheonghae (Wando), Jang Bogo petitioned the Silla king Heungdeok (r. 826-836) to establish a permanent maritime garrison to protect Silla merchant activities in the Yellow Sea. Heungdeok agreed and in 828 formally established the Cheonghae (淸海, "clear sea") Garrison at what is today Wando island off Korea's South Jeolla province. The Samguk Sagi further relates that Heungdeok gave Jang an army of 10,000 men to establish and man the defensive works. The remnants of Cheonghae Garrison can still be seen on Jang islet just off Wando's southern coast.
...
Wikipedia