Taejong (Korean: 태종; Hanja: 太宗; 16 May 1367 – 10 May 1422),[i][ii] personal name Yi Bang-won (이방원; 李芳遠), was the third monarch of the Joseon dynasty of Korea and the father of Sejong the Great.

[2][3] During his early years, he assisted his father in gathering the support of the commoners and of many influential figures in the government; Yi Pang-wŏn also helped in the founding of Joseon by assassinating powerful officials who remained loyal to Goryeo, most prominently Chŏng Mong-ju.

This conflict arose chiefly because Jeong Do-jeon, as the principal architect of the ideological, institutional and legal foundations of the new dynasty, saw Joseon as a kingdom led by its ministers by virtue of the king's appointment.

In 1398, following the sudden death of Queen Sindeok, Yi Pang-wŏn led a coup d'état while King Taejo was still in mourning for his second wife.

His revoking of the right to keep independent forces effectively severed the upper class' ability to muster large-scale revolts, and drastically increased the number of soldiers employed by the national army.

Shortly thereafter, Taejong installed a new department known as the Sinmun Office, to hear cases in which aggrieved subjects felt that they had been exploited or treated unjustly by officials or aristocrats.

[citation needed] Taejong promoted Confucianism as the state ideology, thus demoting Buddhism, which consequently never recovered the glory and great power it had enjoyed during the Goryeo period.

He was buried alongside Queen Wongyeong at Heolleung (헌릉), part of the Heonilleung burial ground, in present-day Seocho District, Seoul, South Korea.