In the early days of the Goryeo Dynasty, the royal guard was comprised of
the central regular army in the 2-gun-6-wi system, and Nasungeomgun was
in charge of the security inside the palace. However, the military system
became disorganized during the period of military rule and the royal guard
had to rely on military subjects. The military officials suppressed the civil
ministers centering on Jungbang, the guarding organization close to the King
to incapacitate the royal authority and control the state affairs. When the rule
of the three leaders of the military rule became short-lived and Dae-seung
Gyeong is raised to the ruler, he organized a do-or-die squad comprised of
a hundred and more people for his personal safety, and this became the first
dobang. Dobang was disassembled after Dae-seung Gyeong died of disease,
but under the rule of Chung-heon Choe, Dae-seung Gyeong's dobang was
revived and reinforced into 'Yukbeon Dobang' to provide the ruler with personal
protection and intensify the ruling system, and it was quite a large organization
with more refined system.
Yukbeon Dobang was expanded and reinforced into Naeoedobang under the
rule of Woo Choe, the son of Chung-heon Choe, and it was enhanced even
more into Dobang Samsipyukbeon System under the rule of the grandson, Hang
Choe. Dobang can be considered as the guard organization in modern sense,
and it collected information and surveyed the area where guarding is required
and house troops that belonged to Naedobang eliminated the risks that may
follow afterwards to make assurance doubly sure for guarding.
The Choe's regime established Mabyeolcho as a private guard organization
in addition to dobang, and this formed the cavalry and infantry units with
dobang. Yabyeolcho organized by Woo Choe in the reign of King Gojong was
divided into Joabyeolcho and Ubyeolcho, and later Sineuigun was integrated
with them to form Sambyeolcho. Originally, Yabyeolcho was established under
the rule of Woo Choe to prevent crime in the evening, but after Sineuigun
was organized with the ones who were captured by Mongolian army but
escaped, in other words when Sambyeolcho was organized, the organization
displayed much broader influence by covering military and police affairs as
well as punishment and imprisonment.
The guarding organization during the Period of Military Rule in the Goryeo
Dynasty did not have strict distinction between official guard and personal
guard. The private guard in modern days which is the equivalent of personal
guard is characterized by its commerciality, however, house troops and the
members of dobang did not seem to pursued profit. The guard organization
during the period of military rule started from dobang which was organized
for personal safety but gradually developed publicness through the
participation of civil ministers and expansion, and later it played the pivotal
role for social security serving official purpose up to the level where the
distinction between official and private activities was blurred during the period
of Sambyeolcho.