고려 공양왕대의 천도론

Abstract

King Gongyang has been regarded as a king without real power. This is because he had been crowned as king by the force of Yi Seong-gye in a situation without any expectation. Recently, there have been studies trying to prove that King Gongyang had made an effort to strengthen the royal authority. However, there was no such study which claimed that the royal authority was strong enough to have overcome the force of Yi Seong-gye, which had held real power after the Wihwado Hoegun(Troop Withdrawal from the Wihwa Island). King Gongyang was a king who had to command the death of King U and King Chang in a state of lethargic due to continuous demand of the force of Yi Seong-gye, which had made his accession possible relating ‘the Kim Jeo affair’. What is worse, about 6 months after the accession, the force of Yi Seong-gye made King Gongyang feel that he was in danger because they had tried to purge the opposition forces much more severly regarding ‘the Yun I and Yi Cho affair’. In such a situation King Gongyang carried forward the Hanyang Cheondo(the Transfer of Capital to Hanyang) project. The ostensible reason was the 'Theory of the Auspicious Effect of a Site' posed by the Seoungwan(書雲觀; Bureau of Astronomy). Even though the King took it as an opportunity to ask opinions about the Cheondo to his surrounding people, nobody agreed. All the more, not only Yun Hoe-jong, Bak Ui-jung and Kim Sa-hyeong who were part of the force of Yi Seong-gye, but also Gang Hoe-baek and An Won who were punished as they were grouped into the force of Jeong Mong-ju, and Yi Sil who could not be classified into a certain force during the reign of King Gongyang period disagreed to the King's opinion. Nevertheless, the Hanyang Cheondo project was carried out in a matter of 2 months. However, afterwards, the Hwando(Return to the Capital) to Gaegyeong was done in a matter of 5 months. The result after analyzing the political activities during the Late Goryeo Period and the Early Joseon Period is that the people who had opposed the Cheondo did not belong to a certain political force. There were people from the force of Yi Seong-gye and also the force of Jeong Mong-ju. This means that their faction's point of view was not the reason for opposing the Cheondo project. Rather, it seems that they were in an opposing position because they were Sejok(世族; Hereditary Families) of Gaegyeong and Scholar-officials(士類) with knowledge of Neo-Confucianism. However, what is unusual is that the 5 out of those 6 people did not show any particular political activities during the reign of King Taejo and King Jeongjong. According to the record, it is thought that not only Yi Sil, Gang Hoe-baek and An Won who were punished for being a counterforce right after the Eastablishment of the States, but also Bak Ui-jung and Yun Hoe-jong who can be classified as the force of Yi Seong-gye could not have carry out even ordinary political activities. On the contrary, it was found out that Yu Gu, who prepared for the welcoming ceremony of Hanyang Cheondo, had actively carried out political activities during the reign of King Taejo. Therefore, it can be inferred from the analysis that the core force of Yi Seong-gye's effort to carry out the Cheondo project played a key role in realizing it, rather than King Gongyang's own will. Maybe the reason that even a temporary Cheondo was possible was that the core force of Yi Seong-gye tacitly wanted to be away from Gaegyeong while carrying out Yoksong Hyongmyong(Confucian revolution). Of course, this may be a rapid inference since it is only based on the remaining public activity record. However, it can be thought as a rather realistic understanding if the situation at that time, that King Gongyang could not carry out the Cheondo project only with his own will, is understood. Much teaching is required.