36th monarch of Silla (r. 765–780)
Hyegong of Silla (758–780), personal name Kim Kŏn-un, was the 36th ruler of the Korean kingdom of Silla. Being the only child between King Gyeongdeok and Lady Manwol (Queen Gyeongsu), Hyegong was the last descendant of King Muyeol to sit on the throne. Because of this, Hyegong's reign is often regarded as the end of the middle period of the Silla state.
Hyegong became king at the age of 8, and did not adapt well to the role.[1] According to Samguk Sagi, Hyegong's dissolute life as a young monarch kept the palace in disarray. They faced rebellions led by high officials (Kim Daegong and others) in 768, 770 and 775. Faced in 780 with another rebellion led by his ichan Kim Chi-jŏng, the monarch dispatched sangdaedeung Kim Yang-sang to put down the uprising, but the rebel forces managed to storm the palace and assassinated Hyegong and other royal family members.[2] Kim Yang-sang, who was an eleventh-generation descendant of King Naemul, then took the throne as King Seondeok.[3]
Records show that Hyegong's behaviour was effeminate and showed either homosexual or bisexual tendency.[4] Records have traditionally described the monarch as "a man by appearance but a woman by nature". In Dongsa Gangmok, Ahn Jeong-bok described Hyegong's reign as "peculiar, for it was said that the king became a man as a woman, and for the king played with girl's toys as a child."[5] Today's historians often speculate that Hyegong was a trans woman.[6]
