{ "id": "epmwwd9zq5", "slug": "goguryeo-tang-war", "title": "Goguryeo–Tang War", "updated": "2026-10-15", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history" }, { "id": "society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.korea", "label": "Korea", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.korea" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.korea.kr-three-kingdoms", "label": "Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla) and Gaya (57 BC to 668)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.korea.kr-three-kingdoms" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.korea.kr-three-kingdoms.goguryeo", "label": "Goguryeo", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.korea.kr-three-kingdoms.goguryeo" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia.korea", "label": "China · 500 BC to AD 999: Korea", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia.korea", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500", "label": "China · 500 BC to AD 999", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.history" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia" }, { "id": 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"geo.asia.t500.society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t500.society.history.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t500.society.history.asia.korea", "label": "Korea", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t500.society.history.asia.korea" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t500.society.history.asia.korea.kr-three-kingdoms", "label": "Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla) and Gaya (57 BC to 668)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t500.society.history.asia.korea.kr-three-kingdoms" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t500.society.history.asia.korea.kr-three-kingdoms.goguryeo", "label": "Goguryeo", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t500.society.history.asia.korea.kr-three-kingdoms.goguryeo" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Goguryeo–Tang War (고구려-당 전쟁) was the war of 645 to 668 between Goguryeo and Tang China, ending with the fall of Pyongyang and Goguryeo's destruction in 668.", "snippet": "The Goguryeo–Tang War (고구려-당 전쟁) was the war of 645 to 668 between Goguryeo and Tang China, ending with the fall of Pyongyang and Goguryeo's destruction in 668.", "node": "society.history.asia.korea.kr-three-kingdoms.goguryeo", "markdown": "# Goguryeo–Tang War\n\nThe **Goguryeo–Tang War** (고구려-당 전쟁) was the war fought from 645 to 668 between Goguryeo and Tang China, which ended in 668 when the Silla–Tang allied forces took [Pyongyang](https://www.edgepedia.org/pyongyang) and Goguryeo was destroyed.[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) • [2](https://warhistory.org/ja/article/koguryo-china-wars)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Dates | 645 to 668[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) |\n| Sides | Goguryeo against Tang China, allied with Silla[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) • [2](https://warhistory.org/ja/article/koguryo-china-wars) |\n| Tang commanders | Emperor Taizong (personal command in 645)[3](https://eah.anu.edu.au/40/D-Haeseleer/) • [8](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002611882); general Li Shiji[4](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_005_0040_0020_0020) • [5](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0034848) |\n| Goguryeo leaders | Yeon Gaesomun, effective ruler after his 642 coup; the unnamed lord of Ansi Fortress, traditionally Yang Manchun[3](https://eah.anu.edu.au/40/D-Haeseleer/) • [7](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_009_0020_0010_0040_0010) • [5](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0034848) • [4](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_005_0040_0020_0020) |\n| Decisive battle | Siege of Ansi Fortress, 645; Tang lifted the siege and retreated[5](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0034848) • [2](https://warhistory.org/ja/article/koguryo-china-wars) |\n| Outcome | Pyongyang fell to the Silla–Tang allied army in 668; Goguryeo was destroyed[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) • [2](https://warhistory.org/ja/article/koguryo-china-wars) |\n| Aftermath | Tang then turned on Silla, whose armies expelled Tang forces from the whole peninsula by 676[2](https://warhistory.org/ja/article/koguryo-china-wars) • [6](https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/History/World_History/An_Outline_History_of_East_Asia_to_1200_(Schneewind)/07%3A_Consolidating_Unified_Regimes_(c._500-780)/7.04%3A_The_War_Against_Koguryo) |\n\n## Background and causes\n\nThe fundamental cause, as with the earlier Goguryeo–Sui War, was the expansionist policy of a unified Chinese power.[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) Tensions became extreme when Goguryeo detained Tang envoys in response to Tang diplomatic pressure over Goguryeo's policy toward Silla.[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302)\n\nTang also found a justification in Goguryeo's internal politics. In 642 the official Yeon Gaesomun murdered King Yeongnyu in a coup.[3](https://eah.anu.edu.au/40/D-Haeseleer/) • [7](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_009_0020_0010_0040_0010) Taizong publicly declared that the expedition was to punish Yeon Gaesomun for assassinating King Yeongnyu, and revealed this intent during the war.[8](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002611882) One study argues that Taizong's larger aim was not territorial conquest but drawing states into a Tang-led world order, subordinating their economies to a Tang-directed trade network.[8](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002611882)\n\nThe war is dated from Taizong's invasion of 645.[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) Taizong led the army himself despite much opposition.[8](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002611882)\n\n## Course of events\n\n**645: Taizong's campaign.** In the second month of 645 Taizong led a large army into Liaodong.[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) • [7](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_009_0020_0010_0040_0010) Liaodong Fortress and Baean Fortress also fell.[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302)\n\nGoguryeo sent Go Yeonsu and Go Hyejin with 150,000 Goguryeo and Malgal troops to relieve Ansi; they engaged the Tang army rashly in the open southeast of the fortress, were encircled, and suffered a crushing defeat.[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) • [4](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_005_0040_0020_0020) After this the main Goguryeo army was destroyed and the road to Pyongyang was theoretically open, but the Tang army stopped at Ansi Fortress.[9](https://history-maps.com/podcast/goguryeo-tang-war)\n\n**The siege of Ansi.** The Tang then attacked Ansi Fortress.[5](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0034848) The defenders fought off up to seven Tang assaults a day.[2](https://warhistory.org/ja/article/koguryo-china-wars) With cold weather coming to Liaodong and provisions exhausted, Taizong abandoned the siege and retreated; sources give the siege's length variously as sixty days, 88 days, about four months, or five months.[2](https://warhistory.org/ja/article/koguryo-china-wars) • [5](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0034848) • [3](https://eah.anu.edu.au/40/D-Haeseleer/) • [4](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_005_0040_0020_0020) Taizong is recorded as regretting the expedition.[4](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_005_0040_0020_0020)\n\n**647–668: the later war.** Taizong's strategy in 647–648 has been termed in the literature a long-term attrition strategy, though scholars have reexamined that label.[10](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART001373968) After the fall of Sinseong and Buyeo Fortress in Liaodong, Pyongyang fell to the Silla–Tang allied forces in 668, ending the war with Goguryeo's destruction.[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) • [2](https://warhistory.org/ja/article/koguryo-china-wars)\n\n## Conduct of the fighting\n\nTang operations followed the pattern of the earlier Sui campaigns of 612–614, inheriting elements such as the assault on the Liaodong defensive network of fortresses.[11](https://doi.org/10.35160/sjekh.2026.05.52.379) The 645 army combined a land column under Li Shiji with a naval column, and outside Ansi, Tang forces defeated the much larger Goguryeo relief army through encirclement.[4](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_005_0040_0020_0020) • [1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) • [5](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0034848) Goguryeo's characteristic response was fortress-based defense: holding the Liaodong fortress line, harassing supply routes, and tying down besiegers behind walls, as at Ansi.[4](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_005_0040_0020_0020) • [12](https://journal.kci.go.kr/imhc/archive/articleView?artiId=ART002819049)\n\n## Consequences and political influence\n\nThe war destroyed Goguryeo in 668.[1](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302) Tang then turned on its ally Silla and tried to conquer the whole peninsula and [Manchuria](https://www.edgepedia.org/manchuria), but by 676 Silla armies, including soldiers of the former rival kingdoms Baekje and Goguryeo, had expelled Tang forces from the whole peninsula for good.[6](https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/History/World_History/An_Outline_History_of_East_Asia_to_1200_(Schneewind)/07%3A_Consolidating_Unified_Regimes_(c._500-780)/7.04%3A_The_War_Against_Koguryo) • [2](https://warhistory.org/ja/article/koguryo-china-wars) Tang and Silla then resumed diplomatic relations, with Silla sending frequent embassies to Chang'an and students and monks studying there.[6](https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/History/World_History/An_Outline_History_of_East_Asia_to_1200_(Schneewind)/07%3A_Consolidating_Unified_Regimes_(c._500-780)/7.04%3A_The_War_Against_Koguryo)\n\n## Historians' assessment\n\nAccording to the *Goguryeo–Tang War* podcast, the siege of Ansi is treated as the defining moment of the 645 campaign: with the border fortresses breached and the main Goguryeo army destroyed, the Tang army nevertheless stopped at Ansi and never reached Pyongyang.[9](https://history-maps.com/podcast/goguryeo-tang-war) The resistance of roughly 100,000 people at Ansi tied down the Tang army, prevented a direct strike on the capital, and forced Tang to change its strategy.[4](https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_005_0040_0020_0020) The commander's name does not appear in the basic sources for the battle such as the [Samguk sagi](https://www.edgepedia.org/samguk-sagi); from Joseon-era unofficial histories onward he is known as Yang Manchun, and the name's first known appearance is in the Ming-dynasty novel *Tangshu zhizhuan tongsu yanyi* by Xiong Damu.[5](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0034848) • [3](https://eah.anu.edu.au/40/D-Haeseleer/) Later Chinese novels about the war, including *Xue Rengui zheng Liao shi lue* and *Shuo Tang hou zhuan*, portray Yeon Gaesomun negatively.[13](https://doi.org/10.17265/2159-5836/2016.01.002)\n\n## References\n\n1. 여당전쟁, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0036302\n2. Koguryo-China Wars, War History. https://warhistory.org/ja/article/koguryo-china-wars\n3. D. Haeseleer, \"Tang Taizong in Korea: The Siege of Ansi,\" East Asian History. https://eah.anu.edu.au/40/D-Haeseleer/\n4. 안시성 전투 (보장왕 4년), 우리역사넷. https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_005_0040_0020_0020\n5. 안시성전투, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0034848\n6. \"The War Against Koguryŏ,\" An Outline History of East Asia to 1200. https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/History/World_History/An_Outline_History_of_East_Asia_to_1200_(Schneewind)/07%3A_Consolidating_Unified_Regimes_(c._500-780)/7.04%3A_The_War_Against_Koguryo\n7. 당의 고구려 침공, 우리역사넷. https://contents.history.go.kr/mobile/nh/view.do?levelId=nh_009_0020_0010_0040_0010\n8. 645년 당 태종의 고구려 원정 목적과 의미, KCI. https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002611882\n9. Goguryeo–Tang War Podcast, History Maps. https://history-maps.com/podcast/goguryeo-tang-war\n10. Study on Goguryeo's responses to Tang attacks, 647–648, KCI. https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART001373968\n11. Strategy of Tang's Invasion of Goguryeo in 645, Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies. https://doi.org/10.35160/sjekh.2026.05.52.379\n12. The War Situation of the Goguryeo-Tang War in 661, KCI. https://journal.kci.go.kr/imhc/archive/articleView?artiId=ART002819049\n13. Healing Is Believing: Yeon Gaesomun and Xue Rengui in the Making of Mid-Seventh-Century Tang-Goguryeo War Narratives, Journal of Literature and Art Studies. https://doi.org/10.17265/2159-5836/2016.01.002\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › Korea › Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla) and Gaya (57 BC to 668) › Goguryeo*\n\n*Initially written Sep 24, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/goguryeo-tang-war", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/goguryeo-tang-war.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Goguryeo–Tang War\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/goguryeo-tang-war. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Goguryeo–Tang War](https://www.edgepedia.org/goguryeo-tang-war)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/goguryeo-tang-war](https://www.edgepedia.org/goguryeo-tang-war). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Goguryeo–Tang War\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/goguryeo-tang-war. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Goguryeo–Tang War was the war of 645 to 668 between Goguryeo and Tang China, ending with the fall of Pyongyang and Goguryeo's destruction in 668." }