Seogyeong

Seogyeong, the 'Western Capital', is Pyongyang, the old city on a broad alluvial plain beside the Taedong River. Its history stretches back to the kingdoms of Gojoseon and Goguryeo, and Wang Geon, the founder of Goryeo, restored the abandoned town and made it a second capital. Under King Injong the monk Myocheong urged the king to move the court here, but the proposal collapsed against the opposition of the court nobles led by Kim Bu-sik.

In the winter of 1359 the Red Turban bands crossing the Yalu seized Pyongyang before Goryeo troops drove them back. Under the Joseon dynasty the city was the seat of the governor of Pyongan and the administrative heart of the northwest. In 1592 Japanese troops took it as King Seonjo fled north to Uiju; Ming and Joseon forces recaptured it in 1593 after the Siege of Pyongyang. The Manchu invasions of the early 17th century brought a further occupation, but its markets and riverside walls recovered, and its merchants traded with Qing China along the northern road.