Chà Âng Tojà Ân (; October 6, 1342 â October 6, 1398), also known by his art name Sambong (), was a prominent Korean scholar-official during the late Goryeo to the early Joseon periods. Chà Âng Tojà Ân was an adviser to the Joseon founder Yi Sà Ânggye and also the principal architect of the Joseon dynasty's policies, laying down the kingdom's ideological, institutional, and legal frameworks which would govern it for five centuries. He was killed by prince Yi Pangwà Ân in 1398 over a conflict regarding the succession of Taejo.
Chà Âng Tojà Ân was born from a noble family, the Bonghwa Chà Âng clan (), in Yeongju, Goryeo. His maternal grandmother was a slave according to the Veritable Records, though the credibility of this account is called into question. His family had emerged from commoner status some four generations before, and slowly climbed up the ladder of government service. His father was the first in the family to obtain a high post. Despite all his difficulties, he became a student of Yi Che-hyà Ân and along with other leading thinkers of the time, such as Chà Âng Mong-ju, his penetrating intelligence started to affect the Korean politics.
Chà Âng Tojà Ân's ties with Yi Sà Ânggye and the foundation of Joseon were extremely close. He is said to have compared his relationship to Yi Sà Ânggye, to that between Zhang Liang and Emperor Gaozu of Han. Chà Âng Tojà Ân's political ideas had a lasting impact on Joseon Dynasty politics and laws. The two first became acquainted in 1383, when Chà Âng Tojà Ân visited Yi Sà Ânggye at his quarters in Hamgyong province. After Yi Sà Ânggye (Taejo of Joseon) founded Joseon in July 1392, he appointed Chà Âng Tojà Ân to the highest civilian and military office simultaneously, entrusting him with all necessary power to establish the new dynasty. Deciding all policies from military affairs, diplomacy, and down to education, he laid down Joseon's political system and tax laws, replaced Buddhism with Confucianism as national religion, moved the capital from Kaesong to Hanyang (present-day Seoul), changed the kingdom's political system from feudalism to highly centralized bureaucracy, and wrote a code of laws that eventually became Joseon's constitution. He even decided the names of each palace, eight provinces, and districts in the capital. He also worked to free many slaves and reformed land policy.
After Joseon was established in July 1392, Chà Âng Tojà Ân soon collided with Yi Pangwà Ân over the question of choosing the crown prince, the future successor to Yi Sà Âng-gye (Taejo of Joseon). Of all princes, Yi Pangwà Ân contributed most to his father's rise to power and expected to be appointed as the crown prince even though he was Taejo's fifth son. However, Chà Âng Tojà Ân persuaded Taejo to appoint his young eighth son Yi Pangsà Âk (Yi Pangwà Ân's half-brother) as the crown prince. Their conflict arose because Chà Âng Tojà Ân saw Joseon as a kingdom led by ministers while the king was to be largely symbolic figure, whereas Yi Pangwà Ân wanted to establish the absolute monarchy ruled directly by the king. Both sides were well aware of each other's great animosity and were getting ready to strike first. After the sudden death of Queen Sindeok in 1398, while King Taejo was still in mourning for her (his second wife and mother of Yi Bang-sà Âk), Yi Bang-wà Ân struck first by raiding the palace and killed Chà Âng Tojà Ân and his supporters as well as Queen Sindeok's two sons including the crown prince, in a coup that came to be known as the First Strife of the Princes. Taejo, who helplessly watched his favorite sons and ministers being killed by Yi Pangwà Ân's forces, abdicated in disgust and remained angry with Yi Bang-wà Ân well after Yi Bang-wà Ân became the third king of Joseon, Taejong of Joseon.
For much of Joseon history, Chà Âng Tojà Ân was vilified or ignored despite his contribution to its founding. He was finally rehabilitated in 1865 in recognition of his role in designing Gyeongbokgung (main palace). Earlier Chà Ângjo published a collection of Chà Âng Tojà Ân's writings in 1791. Chà Âng Tojà Ân's once-close friend and rival Chà Âng Mong-ju, who was assassinated by Yi Pangwà Ân for remaining loyal to the Goryeo Dynasty, was honored by Yi Bang-wà Ân posthumously and was remembered as symbol of loyalty throughout the Joseon Dynasty despite being its most determined foe.
Two ideas set forth by Chà Âng Tojà Ân strained his relationship with Yi Pangwà Ân. Chà Âng believed that the new dynasty, Joseon, should be governed primarily by the neo-Confucianist officialdom and not by absolute monarchy. Such thinking of Chà Âng is detailed in his book Joseon Gyeonggukjeon (), on which the official state legal code, Gyeongguk daejeon, is based. A scene in the Veritable Records describes Yi Sà Ânggye praising Chà Âng for Joseon Gyeonggukjeon, but it is speculated that Yi Sà Âng-gye was not fully literate and did not comprehend the extent of what Chà Âng was suggesting. However, Yi Pangwà Ân, who had passed the civil service examination of Goryeo, would have understood the implications of Chà Âng's thinking.
Chà Âng also pushed for the abolishment of private armies. Shortly after Joseon's founding, Chà Âng and other prominent scholar-officials set out to identify the trappings of Goryeo that precipitated its demise and put forth reform ideas. Unequal land ownership and private armies were generally agreed to have contributed to rampant corruption. Chà Âng argued that land should be returned to the central government (and distributed to small farmers) and that private armies should be abolished, including those of the princes. Yi Pangwà Ân was not pleased according to the records where Chà Âng demanded that all private armies be sent to the central government to be trained for the military campaign into Liaodong that Chà Âng claimed was necessary. None of the princes complied.
In 1398, Chà Âng Tojà Ân was slain by Yi Pangwà Ân in the First Strife of the Princes. It is unclear exactly how he died, and the accounts in the Veritable Records and Sambong chip do not agree on the precise way in which he died. The Veritable Records depict that Chà Âng Tojà Ân begged Yi Pangwà Ân for his life, whereas Sambong chip portrays a more dignified last moment in which Chà Âng left a death poem lamenting his poor judgment and gracefully accepted his death. The credibility of either account is questioned. The story conveyed in the Veritable Records could be a result of the vilification of Chà Âng throughout Joseon history. It is also argued that Yi Pangwà Ân could not have afforded to allow Chà Âng the time to compose a poem in the midst of a full-blown coup.
Chà Âng Tojà Ân was a major opponent of Buddhism at the end of the Goryeo period. He was a student of Zhu Xi's thought. Using Cheng-Zhu school's Neo-Confucian philosophy as the basis of his anti-Buddhist polemic, he criticized Buddhism in a number of treatises as being corrupt in its practices, and nihilistic and antinomian in its doctrines. One of the more famous of these treatises was the Bulssi Japbyeon ("Array of Critiques Against Buddhism"). He was a founding member of the Sungkyunkwan, the royal Confucian academy, and one of its early faculty members.
Chà Âng Tojà Ân was among the first Korean scholars to refer to his thought as Silhak, or "practical learning." However, he is not usually numbered among the members of the silhak tradition, which arose much later in the Joseon period.
Chà Âng Tojà Ân argued that the government, including the king himself, exists for the sake of the people. Its legitimacy could only come from benevolent public service. It was largely on this basis that he legitimized the overthrow of the Goryeo dynasty, arguing that the Goryeo rulers had given up their right to rule.
Chà Âng Tojà Ân divided society into three classes: (a) a large lower class of agricultural laborers and craftsmen, (b) a middle class of literati, and (c) a small upper class of bureaucrats. Anyone outside this system, including Buddhist monks, shamans, and entertainers, he considered a "vicious" threat to the social fabric.
Immediatedly following his death, he was criticized as a betrayer of the Goryeo dynasty and a greedy politician who had attempted to take power from his king. For the next 300 years, he was regarded as a treacherous villain. For example, Song Si-yà Âl, the most reputable philosopher of the 17th century Joseon dynasty, always included a word "insidious" when he mentioned about Chà Âng Tojà Ân. Yi Ik, also a renowned Korean philosopher of the Middle Age of the dynasty, referred to him as "a figure who deserved to be killed" in his book, Seong Ho Sa Seol.
However, with the surge of revisionism in the 18th century, his work started to be assessed with a different angle. Chà Ângjo, 22nd King of Joseon, republished Sambong chip, recognizing his work building the political systems and intellectual foundations of the dynasty.
In addition, the translation of his Chinese poem Plum is included in