Yŏn Kaesomun

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Yŏn Kaesomun (Korean: 연개소문; Hanja: 淵蓋蘇文; 594–666) was a powerful military dictator in the waning days of the Goguryeo kingdom, one of the Three Kingdoms of ancient Korea. Traditional Korean histories from Joseon painted Yŏn Kaesomun as a despotic leader, whose cruel policies and disobedience to his monarch led to the fall of Goguryeo. His successful resistance against Tang China under Emperor Taizong and his son Emperor Gaozong inspired early Korean nationalist historians, most notably the 19th-century Korean historian and intellectual Shin Chae-ho, to term Yŏn Kaesomun the greatest hero in Korean history. In popular culture Yŏn Kaesomun is often portrayed as an exceptional soldier-statesman without equal in Korean history.

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