Mid-founder of the Yecheon Gwon clan who changed his surname from Heun to Gwon; Yebin-gyeong
| Era | 고려 후기 |
| Clan | 예천 권씨 |
Gwon Seom (權暹) is honored as the mid-founder of the Yecheon Gwon clan in late Goryeo. His original name was Heun Seom (昕暹); he descended from the Heun, a local gentry family of Yecheon who held the hereditary post of district headman, and is said to have served as Yebin-gyeong. In the genealogy summarized by Wikipedia the family runs from Heun Jeok-sin through Heun Deuk-gyu, Heun Su-chang, Heun Gyeong and Heun Seung-dan, and Seom is recorded as the sixth generation.
The account of the name change is that King Chungmok (r. 1344-1348) came to the throne with the personal name Heun (昕), so a family bearing that character had to change. Seom took the surname Gwon (權) from his maternal side, renamed himself Gwon Seom, and kept Yecheon as his seat. Some sources name his maternal grandfather as Gwon Baek-seo of the Andong Gwon clan.
The timing is disputed. The Mujin edition of the genealogy says Chungmok's reign, while the Goryeosa records that the Heun of Yecheon were granted the Gwon surname under King Myeongjong; Wikipedia suggests they may have taken Gwon, reverted, and changed again. Seom is therefore best read as a symbol of the clan's name change rather than a firmly dated figure.
His line continued mainly through his son Gwon Gun-bo, whose grandson was Gwon Maeng-son. The Yecheon Gwon are a separate-seat clan of the same surname as the Andong Gwon, not a branch of it.
According to the genealogy summarized by Wikipedia, the founder Heun Jeok-sin was a Boseung byeoljang, his son Heun Deuk-gyu a district headman and grandson Heun Su-chang a senior headman. The Heun were thus a native gentry family of Yecheon, and Wikipedia notes that Heun people of the area appear in the Goryeosa jeolyo and inscriptions from the early Goryeo period.
Sources split between King Chungmok and King Myeongjong. The taboo-name explanation rests on Chungmok's name Heun (昕), but it is also pointed out that Myeongjong's early name used the same character, and one genealogy site notes a gap of about 150 years between the two kings. This page records both views without choosing one.
His line passes through his son Gwon Gun-bo to the brothers Gwon Maeng-son and Gwon Yu-son; Yu-son's son Gwon Seon had five sons, the so-called Obokmun.