The Incheon Yi clan (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 인천 이씨,

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

: 仁川李氏) is a

Korean clan Bon-gwan (or Bongwan) is the concept of clan in Korea, which is used to distinguish clans that happen to share the same family name (clan name). Since Korea has been traditionally a Confucian country, this clan system is similar to ancient Chinese ...

. Historically known as the Gyeongwon Lee clan or Inju Lee clan, it was one of the most powerful clans in the early Goryeo period due their status as in-laws of the ruling

House of Wang The following is a family tree of Korean monarchs. Goguryeo Baekje Silla Silla (57 BC – 935 CE) was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. I ...

. According to the 2015 South Korean census, there were 83,855 members of this clan.

Name and Origin

An ancestor of the clan, a 23rd generation descendant of

King Suro Suro (수로) or Sureung (posthumous name: 수릉, 首陵, 42?–199), commonly called Gim Suro, was the legendary founder and Hero King of Geumgwan Gaya (43–532), in southeastern Korea.Heo Hwang-ok A commemorative Rs. 25.00 postage stamp on Princess Suriratna (Queen Heo Hwang-ok ) was issued by India in 2019. A commemorative Rs. 5.00 postage stamp on Queen Heo Hwang-ok (Suriratna) was issued by India in 2019. Heo Hwang-ok, also known a ...

, was Heo Gi (許奇). He was sent to

Tang China The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

as an ambassador of

Silla Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of K ...

. Emperor Xuanzong bestowed the surname "Yi" on Heo Gi because he helped him escape from the

An Lushan Rebellion The An Lushan Rebellion was an uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763), with an attempt to replace it with the Yan dynasty. The rebellion was originally led by An Lushan, a general office ...

. When Yi Heo Gi (李許奇) returned to Silla,

King Gyeongdeok Gyeongdeok of Silla (景德王; 742–765) was the 35th ruler of Silla and son of Seongdeok of Silla, King Seongdeok (reigned 702–737). He succeeded his elder brother, King Hyoseong, the 34th ruler of Silla. His reign is considered a golden age ...

awarded him the title "Prince of Soseong" (邵城伯)''.'' Later,

Yi Heo-gyeom Yi or YI may refer to: Philosophic Principle * Yì (义; 義, righteousness, justice) among the 三綱五常 Ethnic groups * Dongyi, the Eastern Yi, or Tung-yi (Chinese: , ''Yí''), ancient peoples who lived east of the Zhongguo in ancient Ch ...

, a 10th generation descendant of Yi Heo Gi and the grandfather of

Queen Wonseong Queen Wonseong of the Ansan Gim clan (; d. 15 August 1028) or formally called as Grand Queen Mother Wonseong () was a Korean queen consort as the 3rd wife of King Hyeonjong of Goryeo who became the mother of his successors, Deokjong and Jeongj ...

, began the Incheon Yi clan.

Dominance in the Early Goryeo period

The Gyeongwon Lee clan was thought to have been local aristocrats or hojok from Gyeongwon County (modern-day Incheon). The clan was able to use their marriage ties to the Ansan Kim clan, who were in-laws to the royal family, to become royal in-laws themselves. Yi Ja-yeon, the grandson of Heo-gyeom, married three daughters to King Munjong. One of those three, Queen Inye, became the mother of three kings,

Sunjong Sunjong, the Emperor Yunghui (; 25 March 1874 – 24 April 1926), was the second and the last Emperor of Korea, of the Yi dynasty, ruling from 1907 until 1910. Biography Crown Prince of Korea Sunjong was the second son of Emperor Gojong a ...

, Seonjong, and Sukjong. From 981 to 1146, the Gyeongwon Lee clan had 27 officials in the central bureaucracy, 12 of whom were first or second grade officials. This was more than any other clan in during that time period. In 1095, Yi Ja-ui attempted to replace King Heonjong with his nephew, Wang Gyun. However, Prince Gyerim (later King Sukjong) and his allies killed Yi Ja-ui on August 29, 1095 before it could happen.

References

External links

* {{Cite book, title=Doosan Encyclopedia 외래귀화성씨 外來歸化姓氏, publisher=

Doosan Encyclopedia ''Doosan Encyclopedia'' is a Korean language encyclopedia published by Doosan Donga (두산동아). The encyclopedia is based on the ''Dong-A Color Encyclopedia'' (동아원색세계대백과사전), which comprises 30 volumes and began to be p ...

, url=http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=1129680&cid=40942&categoryId=31639&mobile

Name and Origin

Dominance in the Early Goryeo period

See also

References

External links