Yeonggyu (, d. 1592) was a

Korean Buddhist Korean Buddhism is distinguished from other forms of Buddhism by its attempt to resolve what its early practitioners saw as inconsistencies within the Mahayana Buddhist traditions that they received from foreign countries. To address this, the ...

monk and militia leader who fought in the

Imjin war The Imjin River ( in South Korea) or Rimjin River ( in North Korea) is the 7th largest river in Korea. It flows from north to south, crossing the Demilitarized Zone and joining the Han River downstream of Seoul, near the Yellow Sea. The river i ...

. He was killed in the third battle of

Geumsan Geumsan County (''Geumsan-gun''; Korean: 금산군) is a county in South Chungcheong Province (Before 1963, Geumsan was in Jeollabuk-do), South Korea. History Administrative district name, Geumsan-gun, have nowadays was originate from the union of ...

in 1592.

Life

Yeonggyu was an abbot who headed a Buddhist temple in

Chungcheong Chungcheong (''Chungcheong-do''; ) was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Chungcheong was located in the southwest of Korea. The provincial capital was located at Gongju, which had been the capital of the kingdom o ...

province. In 1592, he received an appeal from

Seosan Daesa Hyujeong (, 1520-1604), also called Seosan Daesa (서산대사, 西山大師) was a Korean Seon master. As was common for monks in this time, he travelled from place to place, living in a succession of monasteries. Buddhist monks had been forced to ...

, his former teacher, calling on him to resist the invasion force of Japanese regent

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

, which had landed at

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

. Yeonggyu recruited monks into a militia to resist the invasion. His force joined with a

righteous army Righteous armies, sometimes called irregular armies or militias, are informal civilian militias that have appeared several times in Korean history, when the national armies were in need of assistance. The first righteous armies emerged during th ...

led by

Jo Heon Jo Heon (, 1544 – 1592) was a Joseon official and militia leader in Korea at the time of the Imjin war. He believed that Japan under Toyotomi Hideyoshi posed a threat to Korean security, but his warnings were not heeded. When war broke out in ...

. Together, they took the fortress of

Cheongju Cheongju () is the capital and largest List of cities in South Korea, city of North Chungcheong Province in South Korea. History Cheongju has been an important provincial town since ancient times. In the Cheongju Mountains, specifically in the ...

from the Japanese. Jo and Yeonggyu planned to recapture the capital from the Japanese, but their officers instead argued they should attack

, a town the Japanese commander

Ankokuji Ekei , he was a military monk and descendant of the Takeda clan of Aki province. He served Mōri clan and later Toyotomi clan. Biography Although it is certain that he was from the Aki Takeda clan, there are various theories about his birth year and ...

was planning to turn into a fortress. The two leaders assented and moved to liberate Geumsan. Jo Heon's forces attacked on 22 September, but all were killed, including their leader. Yeonggyu's forces attacked in the days after. He too was killed, and the battle ended in a Korean defeat.

Legacy

Yeonggyu's monk fighters and Jo Heon's volunteers are commemorated by a shrine on the site of the battles of Geumsan. Yeonggyu was posthumously awarded with the post of ''T'ongchong Taebu'' by the Korean court.

Notes

References

* * {{cite book , first2=Nukii , last2=Masayuki , title=The East Asian War, 1592–1598: International Relations, Violence and Memory , last1=Lewis , first1=James B., editor , publisher=

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, date=January 2, 2015 , isbn=978-1138786639 People of the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598) 1592 deaths Joseon Buddhist monks