Goryeo-born eunuch at the Yuan court; Prince Sangnak; founder of the Sangnak Buwongun branch (per the clan)
| Life | 1267 ~ 1343 |
| Era | 고려 후기(원 간섭기) |
| Clan | 온양 방씨 |
Bang Sin-u (方臣祐, 1267-1343) was a Goryeo-born eunuch who served at the Yuan court. His childhood name was Sogong, and in Yuan he received the name Manggutai. The Onyang Bang genealogy lists him as 13th-generation founder of the Sangnak Buwongun branch, but the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture and studies based on the Goryeosa give his seat as Sangju; the difference arises because the clan regards the Sangju, Gunwi and Sinchang Bang as one lineage merged under Onyang.
According to the shrine stele for him written by Yi Je-hyeon, his great-grandfather was Bang U-hyeon, his grandfather Bang Ryang and his father Bang Deuk-se, and his wife was a daughter of the Privy Council official Yi Gwang-si. Wikipedia describes his father as a clerk of Jungmo-hyeon (today's Modong and Moseo in Sangju), and the eunuchs' biographies of the Goryeosa say his father became magistrate of Sangju thanks to his son.
A palace attendant under King Chungnyeol, he went to Yuan in 1289 with Princess Jeguk. Favored by Empress Yusheng, mother of Emperor Chengzong, he rose through posts such as head of the Treasury Bureau, and under Emperor Wuzong, serving Empress Dowager Xingsheng, he became director of the Directorate of Works and pingzhang zhengshi. When the Goryeo-born Hong Jung-hui falsely accused King Chungseon before the Yuan Secretariat, he defended the king to the empress dowager and had Hong exiled. In 1310 he came to Goryeo on the empress dowager's orders and supervised 300 monks and laymen copying a gold-letter Buddhist canon, and King Chungseon made him Lord of Jungmo. In 1312, when Yuan planned to settle a surrendered northern prince's people east of the Yalu, he persuaded the emperor to drop the plan, arguing that Goryeo was small and mountainous.
He later served as supervisor of the heir's household and head of the empress's household offices, and each time the Yuan court debated establishing a province in Goryeo, he sided with Goryeo and stopped it. King Chungsuk enfeoffed him as Prince Sangnak, raised him to samjung daegwang and granted him a merit-subject title. He returned in 1330 and built Seonheungsa temple, was summoned back to Yuan in 1342, died of illness the next year and was buried on the hill behind Seonheungsa. Having served seven emperors and two empresses dowager, he received 4,000 mu of land in Jiangnan and other rewards. Some clan sources give his death as 1345 or 1350, but the stele and the encyclopedia give 1343. His Sangnak Buwongun branch is described as extinct.
After dying in Yuan in 1343, he was brought back to Goryeo and buried on the hill behind Seonheungsa, the temple he had rebuilt.
As he was a eunuch, his Sangnak Buwongun branch is described as extinct. His brother Bang Sin-je is said to have founded the Gwangnok Daebu-gong branch.