〈Doijangga〉(悼二將歌) is a song that King Yejong wrote when he saw Gasanghi(假像戱, a sort of a mask play) about two generals, Sin Sung-gyeom and Gim Rak, in Palgwanhoe(八關會). It is considered that King Yejong was impressed by the allegiance of the two generals who devoted their lives for King Taejo, Wang Geon, and wrote 〈Doijangga〉. By the way, King Yejong wrote a poem after seeing a performance of clowns before. The subject in the performance was a person named Ha Gong-jin who saved a king from the invasion of Khitan(契丹). There is something suspicious that King Yejong experienced similar processes twice. This paper examines the background more closely that made King Yejong write 〈Doijangga〉. Through this, this paper tries to find out whether King Yejong wrote 〈Doijangga〉 for the two generals or for some other purposes.
There are several reasons that King Yejong seemed to have some other purposes. First, although the mourning for his queen was right around the corner, he visited Seogyeong and wrote 〈Doijangga〉. He seems to have loved his own dead queen very much. It is said that, on a number of occasions, he visited the temple where the queen’s soul was enshrined and, around the mourning for his queen, revisited there and was very sad. It is a question whether King Yejong had the mourning for the queen at Seogyeong. The second is that Seogyeong was the place with an unusual political meaning to him. He ordered his people to subjugate the Jurchen(女眞) soon after his enthronement and, at this point, he went Seogyeong and observed a ceremony for going to war, in person. In addition, he promulgated a royal edict for reforms in National Administration to Seogyeong. At this time, he had a bad relationship with his subjects and thus he planned to strengthen his royal authority through this promulgation.
King Yejong visited Seogyeong which was a politically meaningful place to him before the mourning for his queen. It seems that the reasons why he visited Seogyeong were the installation of the Crown Prince and two political powers who were in adversarial relation. The two adversarial powers were Yi Ja-gyeom’s party and Han An-in’s party. The members of Yi Ja-gyeom’s party were from great aristocratic families, secured government positions through their ancestor’s virtue, and played their own hands. On the other hand, the members of Han An-in’s party were from poor and humble families, were appointed through the state examination and were clean-handed. At this time, the conflicts between the two parties came to the surface. It seems that King Yejong visited Seogyeong which was a politically meaningful place to him, in order to demand allegiance of the two parties for him, in spite of the upcoming mourning for his queen. It is because he could be reassured by getting an assurance for allegiance from the two parties if and when his little prince would ascend to the throne.
In Seogyeong, King Yejong came to see Gasanghi about the two generals who devoted their lives for the King. King Yejong was deeply impressed by the content in accordance with his own visit to Seogyeong and so wrote and sung 〈Doijangga〉 honoring the two generals. 〈Doijangga〉 is not just for honoring the two generals. 〈Doijangga〉 is King Yejong’s message to the two political parties of the day demanding that they should stop being opposed to each other and give their allegiance to their king.