Background
General Gyeong Dae-seung was born to Gyeong Jin into the Cheongju Gyeong clan in the year 1154.
慶大升
General Gyeong Dae-seung was born to Gyeong Jin into the Cheongju Gyeong clan in the year 1154.
Unlike his predecessors, General Gyeong was determined to fix the Goryeo"s problems and help the people prosper. His popularity with the people aroused the jealousy of King Myeongjong of Goryeo. His military dictatorship over Goryeo signified a brief period of peace within the war-ravaged kingdom.
At the time of his birth, the warrior-class of the nation was highly undermined and deprived of the luxuries that its civilian and scholar counterparts were able to see excessively.
The young Gyeong began his military training at the age of 15, and served under the regimes of both Yi Ui-bang and Jeong Jung-bu. When his father died, he took charge of his household and began helping the poor, and made the decision of using the private army that his father had built.
At the age of 26, Gyeong had overthrown the powerful Jeong military regime and had become the undisputed military dictator of Goryeo. Gyeong did not allow such things to overcome his original purpose for taking power.
Gyeong Dae-seung became very popular among the people and received the name, "Righteous, young general." Emperor Myeongjong became jealous of Gyeong"s popularity and power, and rejected the young general as merely another bloodthirsty barbaric warrior who was greedy for power.
This attempt failed and Gyeong was military dictator over Goryeo for five years until he became ill (possibly tuberculosis) that eventually killed him. Gyeong Dae-seung died in August 1183. With the death of Gyeong, Yi Ui-bang"s former lieutenant Yi Ui-minimum returned to Kaesong and took power over Goryeo, undoing Gyeong"s legacy.