Alch'ŏn
Silla politician (fl. 6th–7th centuries)
Kim Alch'ŏn (aka So Alch'ŏn, 577?–686?) was a Silla politician who served as a general during Queen Seondeok's reign, and as Sangdaedŭng from 647 to 654, during Queen Jindeok's reign. He was the first politician to serve in Silla's highest military and political office, respectively.
Birth and Ancestry
Little is known about Alch'ŏn's early life and ancestry. The genealogy book of the Jinju So clan suggests that Alch'ŏn was born in 577 in Saryang-bu, Gyeongju, and died in 686. According to genealogy records Alch'ŏn was also the 25th great-grandson of So Bŏldori (소벌도리; 蘇伐都利), who was a chief from Saro-guk, and the 14th great-grandson of King Adalla of Silla.
A famous legend about Alch'ŏn's bravery relates that once, Alcheon was out in the forest together with the other hwarangs. Suddenly, a tiger appeared and was about to attack them. The Hwarangs were terrified and started to panic, but Alcheon just smiled and attacked the tiger alone and killed it with his bare hands.
Career
In 636, Alch'ŏn, who was then a general, received orders from Queen Seondeok to drive off the Baekje forces in Yeoguen-gok. Alch'ŏn and his 500 men ambushed and decimated Baekje general Uso's invading force near Doksan Fortress.
“Alch'ŏn” enters the record as silla politician (fl. 6th–7th centuries). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Alch'ŏn, Silla and politician can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Alch'ŏn” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Alch'ŏn, Silla and politician provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q485133. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alch'ŏn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.