Gojong of Goryeo
King of Goryeo (1192-1259)
Gojong (1192–1259), personal name Wang Cheol, was the 23rd king of the Korean Goryeo dynasty, ruling from 1213 to 1259. Gojong's reign was marked by prolonged conflict with the Mongol Empire, which sought to conquer Goryeo, ending only to settle peace in 1259. During his reign actual power rested with the Choe family of military dictators.
Biography
Although ascending to the throne in 1213, Gojong did not wield much power due to decades of military rule over Goryeo. In 1216, the Khitan invaded Goryeo but was defeated. In August 1232, Gojong moved the capital of Goryeo from Songdo to the island of Ganghwa and started the construction of significant defenses there, in order to better defend from the Mongol threat. Gojong resisted the Mongol invasion for nearly thirty years before the kingdom was forced to make peace with the Mongols in 1259; Gojong died soon after.
In 1251, the carving of the Tripitaka Koreana, a collection of Buddhist scriptures recorded on some 81,000 wooden blocks, was completed. The work was perhaps motivated by Gojong's hopes to change fortunes through the act of religious devotion; however the originals were later destroyed by the Mongols — the existing Tripitaka is a replica of Gojong's original, and was commissioned around one hundred years after the originals were lost.
Gojong was married to Queen Anhye, daughter of Huijong, the twenty-first king of Goryeo.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Gojong of Goryeo” as king of Goryeo (1192-1259). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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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 Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q368892. VIAF identifies the subject as 67888055. The Library of Congress control number is n85044650. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1192, 1259, 1213 and 1216.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gojong of Goryeo” 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.