Late Goryeo official who helped recover Ssangseong; Lord Yongseong
| Life | 1307 ~ 1380 |
| Era | 고려 말 |
| Clan | 한양 조씨 |
Jo Don (趙暾, 1307-1380) was a late Goryeo official of the Hanyang Jo clan, originally named Jo U (趙祐). A grandson of the Ssangseong commander Jo Hwi and son of the second commander Jo Yang-gi, he was born into the family that held the commandery but returned to Goryeo and changed its course. His mother was a lady of the Bak family and his wife a daughter of Yi Hong-bok.
He submitted to Goryeo as a young man and served King Chungsuk. When Goryeo clerks and commoners kept fleeing into Jurchen territory, he went several times to Haeyang (Gilju) to bring them back, and was promoted to the Left and Right Guards. After the king's death he retired to Yongjin, and in 1356, when King Gongmin set out to recover Ssangseong from the Yuan, he actively aided the Goryeo army of the Northeastern Military Commissioner Yu In-u. Detained by his nephew Jo So-saeng, the commander of Ssangseong, he escaped with his brother Jo Cheon-ju, rode two hundred li in one night with his four sons to the Goryeo camp, and sent his eldest son Jo In-byeok to win over the people of Ssangseong. Ssangseong thus returned to Goryeo after 99 years.
For this he was appointed to the Office of Guest Ceremonies and the Court Stables. When the Red Turbans invaded in 1359 he fought under An U, and in 1361, as Minister of Works, he guarded King Gongmin's temporary palace at Andong, becoming a first-rank merit subject for repelling the Red Turbans. After serving as Haeju magistrate, Minister of Rites and honorary Deputy Commissioner of the Privy Council, he retired in 1372 and was enfeoffed as Lord Yongseong under King U. The History of Goryeo records that when he went home in 1379 he told his youngest son Jo In-ok, who wished to follow him, to devote himself to the royal house instead. He died at Yongjin the next year at 73; his biography appears in the History of Goryeo. His four sons Jo In-byeok, Jo In-gyeong, Jo In-gyu and Jo In-ok all rose to high office and laid the foundation of the clan's prosperity.