1392
Yi Seonggye founds the Joseon dynasty
The Korean general, having refused to attack Ming China and instead turning his army on the Goryeo court, deposed the last king and was acclaimed monarch. He took the dynastic name Joseon, moved the capital to Hanseong, adopted Neo-Confucianism as state ideology, and inaugurated five centuries of Confucian rule that would last until 1910.
Charles VI of France goes mad in the forest of Le Mans
Riding to attack Brittany, the twenty-three-year-old king suddenly drew his sword and killed four of his own knights, convinced they were plotting against him. He was wrestled to the ground gibbering, unable to recognize his own attendants. The illness would recur for thirty years; France slid into civil war between the king's relatives.
Northern and Southern Courts reunited in Japan
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu negotiated the surrender of the Southern Court at Yoshino, ending fifty-seven years of dual emperors. Go-Kameyama returned the imperial regalia to Kyoto, though the promised alternation of succession between the two lines was never honored. The Ashikaga shogunate now had a single emperor to legitimize it and could devote attention to trade with Ming China.
Yi Seonggye orders burning of Goryeo royal records
The founder of Joseon had the archives of the deposed Goryeo dynasty purged of compromising documents linking him to earlier service under the old regime. Court historians rewrote the narrative to present Yi as a reluctant savior thrust forward by heavenly mandate. The historiographical cleanup reflected an early Joseon commitment to moral self-presentation as Confucian restorers of proper governance.