Hangul: 태사자 or 太四子

Taesaja was a boy idol group that was prominent in the late 1990s. Their name stems from a Chinese video game character in the well-known Japanese video game series Romance of the Three Kingdoms. They officially debuted on October 20, 1997 and were first signed to Masscom. Ultimately, they disbanded in 2001. Taesaja was originally created to be a rival against another boy idol group NRG. Especially due to the fact that both groups debuted 8 days between each other. In addition, they were also apparently going to be a mixed gender group but changed to be an all-boy group. Taesaja, was seen as unique from the other boy idol groups at the time due to them mostly wearing suits and ties instead of hip-hop street wear which many boy bands aimed at in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The group's members were Kim Hyung-jun (김형준 (天)), Park Jun-suk (박준석 (雲)), Lee Dong-yun (이동윤 (雨)) and Kim Young-min (김영민 (風)).

太四子 (1997)

Their first album was released on November 26, 1997. The album was a commercial success and sold around 250,000 copies. There were two singles from the album: 도, which topped No. 6 on the Top Ten Standards. and Time, which was also a big success.

Label: Yejeon Media

Sold On: CD & Cassette

Genre: Pop

Style: Kpop

太四子二 (1998)

The second album was released in August of 1998. It sold over 120,000 copies. 3 singles were released from the album: 애심, 아그작 and Blue Birthday. 애심 was performed live at the 1998 SBS Lyric Showdown and was a hit from the fans.

Label: Yejeon Media
Sold On: CD & Cassette
Genre: Pop
Style: Kpop, Dance-pop

2000-1 (1999)

The third album from Taesaja was released in July of 1999. Two versions of the album were released. One with 12 tracks and the other with 믿는도끼 and 에피소드3 produced by Master Chang/ Sunnyside Chang as bonus tracks. . During this time Masscom was having internal management issues, which was the reason for the group's drop in record sales. 2000-1 sold approximately 73,045 copies. Two singles from the album: 시(詩) and 회심가. 시(詩) did somewhat okay on the Korean charts.

Label: Doremi Records
Sold On: CD & Cassette
Genre: Pop, Electronic
Style Kpop, Dance-pop, Techno

Leaping Out (2000)

Their last official album was released on June 20, 2000. It only sold 4,000 copies. One of the singles Again, was originally named Episode. This change was due to it apparently not being able to be broadcast on TV because of there being suggestive lyrics and profanity in the song that were deemed too controversial. Because of this, Again became a forgotten single. On the other hand, 체념 ranked in the top 20 but did not make it to the top 10 like their other singles in the past.

Label: Doremi Records
Sold On: CD & Cassette
Genre: Pop
Style: Kpop

Still due to internal conflicts of management within Masscom and low record sales, Taesaja disbanded in April of 2001.

Forever History (2001)

A compilation album for the group was released on November 1, 2001. It also composed of remixes of some of their songs. Doremi did not tell the group members that they were going to release the compilation and that they found out about it after it's release. Ironically, the compilation did a little bit better in sales than their last official album. It sold approximately 6,935 copies. The song Forever, which was unreleased as a single was sang live on Bae Cheol-soo's Music Camp as an apparent title song to promote the compilation. Forever was only sung by the main vocalist of the group Kim Young-min.

Label: Doremi Records
Sold On: CD & Cassette
Genre: Pop, Electronic
Style: Kpop, Eurodance, Techno

Taesaja reunited as a group on Sugarman 3 in 2019. In 2020, all members except for Lee Dong-yun created an Instagram account for the group. As for the members after the disbandment, each went their separate ways. Kim Hyung-jun quickly after the disbanding of the group received a large amount of offers from entertainment companies. Kim Hyung-jun became a VJ for Mnet's Dance Expedition and Mnet's Hotline School. He also starred in one short-lived MBC drama called Spirit of The Sun. He also dated girl group member from Cleo, Park Ye-eun for about 5 years. They both created an online store and Hyung-jun was the delivery driver for it. Since then, Hyung-jun has become a businessman by also working as a contractor for a gaming company.

Lee Dong-yun dropped out of the entertainment industry and has his own restaraunt in the U.S. He got married in 2008 but filed for divorce 4 months later. There has been speculation that Dong-yun has evaded military duty, although there is clearly no evidence to say that he has.

In 2003, Park Joon-suk was featured in a Pantech SKY Music Phone Commercial. Joon-suk has stated that he was diagnosed with narcolepsy and suffered from it even when he was in Taesaja. On June 3, 2017 he got married.

Since 2003, Kim Young-min has sung for theme songs and has acted and appeared on quite a few Korean TV shows. Since 2013, Young-min has also been a solo artist releasing 4 singles. In 2020 Young-min and A.R.T. member Park Sung-joon released the single Solitary Man. Additionally, Young-min and The Second Star released the single 기억하려 하다. Alongside, Kim Hyung-jun and Park Joon-suk they have recently been performing as a trio. The most recent activity of Taesaja reuniting as a trio as of 2022 was performing live at the 2022 Time Capsule Super Concert in Yongindae on July 16, 2022.