[11] By the late 14th century, the 400-year-old Goryeo dynasty established by Wang Kŏn in 918 was tottering, its foundations collapsing from years of war and de facto occupation by the disintegrating Mongol Empire.
The ruling house not only failed to govern the kingdom effectively but was also affected by rivalry among its various branches and by generations of forced intermarriage with members of the Yuan imperial family.
Influential aristocrats, generals, and ministers struggled for royal favor and vied for domination of the court, resulting in deep divisions between various factions.
[2] General Yi had gained prestige during the late 1370s and early 1380s by pushing Mongol remnants off the peninsula and also by repelling the well-organized Japanese pirates in a series of successful engagements.
[citation needed] A staunchly opposed Yi Sŏng-gye was chosen to lead the invasion; however, at Wihwa Island on the Amnok River, he made a momentous decision known as the Wihwado Retreat (위화도 회군; 威化島 回軍; lit.
Aware of the support he enjoyed from both high-ranking officials and the general populace, he decided to revolt and return to Gaegyeong to secure control of the government.
Yi Sŏng-gye, now the undisputed power behind the throne, soon forcibly had a distant royal relative named Wang Yo (posthumously King Gongyang) crowned as the new ruler, even among opposition from Goryeo loyalists.
After indirectly enforcing his grasp on the royal court through the puppet king, he proceeded to ally himself with Sinjin scholar-officials such as Chŏng To-jŏn and Cho Chun.
[13] Among his early achievements was the improvement of relations with the Ming; this had its origin in Taejo's refusal to attack their neighbor in response to raids from Chinese bandits.
After the sudden death of the queen in 1396 and while Taejo was still in mourning for his wife, Chŏng To-jŏn began conspiring to preemptively kill Yi Pang-wŏn and his brothers to secure his position in the royal court.
[citation needed] Upon hearing of this plan in 1398, Yi Pang-wŏn immediately revolted and raided the palace, killing Chŏng To-jŏn, his followers, and the two sons of the late Queen Sindeok.
This historical anecdote gave birth to the term Hamhung Chasa (함흥차사; 咸興差使) which means a person who never comes back despite several nudges.
Although Taejo overthrew Goryeo and expelled officials who remained loyal to the previous dynasty, many regard him as a revolutionary and a decisive ruler who eliminated an inept, obsolete and crippled governing system to save the nation from foreign forces and conflicts.
However, some scholars, particularly in North Korea,[22] view Taejo as a mere traitor to the old regime and bourgeois apostate while paralleling him to General Ch'oe Yŏng, a military elite who conservatively served Goryeo to death.
[27] Those who saw the publication petitioned the Ming for redress including, among others, left chanseong Yi Kye-maeng and minister of rites Nam Gon, who wrote Jonggye Byeonmu (종계변무; 宗系辨誣).