Hoengcheon

Hoengcheon was the earlier name of Hoengseong, an inland county of Gangwon. In 1389, near the end of Goryeo rule, an appointed supervisor was established here. Joseon reorganised the district as a county under a magistrate in 1413. The following year its name became Hoengseong because Hoengcheon sounded too similar to neighbouring Hongcheon. Its history thus followed a local administrative centre with its own changing jurisdiction.

After the Japanese invasions, the county magistrate also held command of Gangwon's central military division. In 1627, Yi Ingeo and his followers seized the county office and its weapons before advancing toward Wonju, where government troops defeated them. The court punished Hoengseong by abolishing the county and incorporating it into Wonju; its separate status was restored in 1636. By the eighteenth century, administration again extended across a network of villages. The gazetteer Yeojidoseo, compiled in 1760, described eight townships and fifty-five villages, recording households and distances from the government office.