Yang Gil (

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 ...

: 양길;

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 ...

: 梁吉) was a head of rebel forces in

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 ...

Hugoguryeo Taebong (; ) was a state established by Gung Ye () on the Korean Peninsula in 901 during the Later Three Kingdoms. Name The state's initial name was Goryeo, after the official name of Goguryeo, a previous state in Manchuria and the northern K ...

King

Gung Ye Gung Ye ( – 24 July 918, r. July 901 – 24 July 918) was the king of the short-lived state of Taebong (901–918), one of the Later Three Kingdoms of Korea. Although he was a member of the Silla royal family, he became a victim of the power st ...

was once under his command. Historians are uncertain about his birth, death or family line. At the time, the monarch of Silla was Queen Jinseong. In 889, the state coffers of Silla were empty, so the queen sent envoys to the provinces to press her subjects into paying taxes. As a result, rebel forces began uprising all over the country, and Yang Gil was their major driving force. The extent of Yang Gil's power is uncertain, but it is thought to have been considerable given the fact that Gung Ye was among his men. Yang Gil had the favor of Gung Ye, so Yang Gil entrusted him with all his work, gave him his soldiers and sent him on a military expedition eastward. According to the

Samguk Sagi ''Samguk Sagi'' (, ''History of the Three Kingdoms'') is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. The ''Samguk Sagi'' is written in Classical Chinese, the written language of the literati of ancient Korea, ...

, Gung Ye's army's strength reached about 600 men, who are believed to have been soldiers given to him by Yang Gil. Once Gung Ye's power had increased, he left Yang Gil's army and founded the Hugoguryeo nation. In retribution, Yang Gil tried to attack him, but failed. Little is known of Yang Gil's fate after this.

References

Yang Gil
Global Encyclopedia / Daum Silla people {{Korea-bio-stub