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The Birth and Social Status of Chang Po-go
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| There are a few remains on Chang Po-go's birth.
In a book called 'Fan Chuan Wen Ji' in Chinese(Beon-Cheon-Moon-Jip
in Korean) written by a Chinese poet Toumu(or Doomok in Korean)
during the Tang Dynasty of China, Chang Po-go was appointed
as a ‘Goon-Joong-So-Jang’(a junior commander in
Army, Jun Zhong Xiao Jiang in Chinese) at the age of 30, and
it seems that he was born in around 790. |
General View of Cheong-Hae-Jin(Wan-do
Is.), Chang's Main Base in Korea |
According to the record of 'Sam-Gook-Sa-Ghi'(A History of Three
Kingdoms), when King Moonseong of Shilla Dynasty wanted to marry
Chang Po-go's daughter as his second wife, the court officials
opposed the marriage for reason that Commissioner Chang was
from an island. From this record, it is presumed that he was
from 'Heado'(an island name) or from a coastal area, and his
social status might have been a commoner or a person of low
class family.
His hometown is assumed to be Cheong-Hae-Jin, today's Wando
island in Southwestern part of Korean Peninsula. This assumption
is based on the fact that he chose Cheong-Hae-Jin as the headquarters
of his Maritime Kingdom and on the story of his hometown junior.
According to the story, when Jeong Nyeon who was a junior from
Chang's hometown lost his job at Tang in China, after suffering
from starvation and cold at Si Zhou area, he decided to come
back to his hometown. “It's better to die fighting for
my country than to die from hunger and cold. Not to mention,
now I can die in my hometown, and I wish nothing more,"
said Jeong. He then came back to Cheong-Hae-Jin.
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