Empress Myeongseong
Bold textEmpress Myeongseong (
October 19,
1851 –
October 8,
1895) was one of wives of
King Gojong, the 26th king of the
Joseon dynasty (朝鮮王朝; 조선왕조;
joseonwangjo) of
Korea. She ascended the throne as Queen Min ("妃; 민비;
Minbi). Her
posthumous name is 孝慈元聖正化合天明成太皇后; 효자원성정"합천명성태황후;
hyoja weonseong jonghwa hapcheon myeongseong taehwanghu but she is known by the abbreviation 明成皇后 (명성황후;
Myeongseong hwanghu) or Empress Myeongseong. Her name was said to be Min Ja-yeong (민자영; "紫英), since there is no evidence except as explained in "
the TV drama" and
musical .
In
South Korea, influenced by a recent novel,
TV drama and
musical, she is viewed by many as a national heroine like
France's Joan of Arc, for striving diplomatically and politically to keep Korea independent of foreign influence. She was skilled in foreign affairs and diplomacy, and had an ambitious plan to modernize Korea. The
Japanese, who had been eyeing Korea for exploitation since the Meiji Restoration, viewed her as a major obstacle against Japanese ambitions for expansion overseas. Efforts to remove her from politics failed, orchestrated through rebeliions prompted by her father-in-law, the influential regent, failed, compelling the Empress to take a harsher stance against Japanese influence. She was killed in her residence in
Gyeongbokgung on October 8, 1895; it is generally accepted that
Miura Goro, the Japanese minister to Korea, commissioned assassins to murder the Empress, in an act that was the direct precursor to the Japanese invasions of the China which culminated in the
Pacific War.
The Japanese government worked and corporated with her initialy. However, political battle between
Queen MIn and
Daewon-gun, a father of Emperor Gojong, make her policy and promiss changed dramaticaly, forced Japanese government to neutralize her or to remove her from Korea's government.
Daewon-gun and his fellow resorted to appeal to Korea's royal court, but such efforts were eventually repelled, again by Empress Myeoung-Song. As a result,
Daewon-gun and his fellow who were losing political power to Family Min, send three hundred Korean troops to invade the Korean imperial residence and assassinate the empress in
1895.
They killed three women suspected of being Queen Min, and when they verified which was the Queen, they violated her dead body and then burned the corpse. Recent documents discovered in Japan in 1966 show that this was not exactly what happened. The Japanese report states, the last Queen of Korea was stripped naked, her genitals fondled, raped, and then burned alive by
Daewon-gun troops.
The murder of Queen Min by
Daewon-gun troops was witnessed by a Russian officer Sabatin and other foreign envoys who protested heavily to
Daewon-gun. Sabatin graduated from the Russian Imperial Military Academy and came to Korea as an aide to Gen. Dai. Amabe Gentaro (1905-1977) discovered the documents, and all the above information can be verified at the Japanese National Diet Library, Constitutional Government Collection Gallery, Historical Documents Section.
Her role has been widely debated by historians. Some Koreans revere her, Other Koreans that survived
Japanese occupation criticize her for focusing internal political battle more than managing Korean goverment, to be portrayed as a manipulative, weak, feeble ruler who abused her power.
End of an Era
In 1864, King
Cheoljong was dying without a male heir, the result of a suspected foul play by a rival branch of the royal family, the Andong Kim clan, which had risen to power by intermarriage with the royal Yi family.
Queen Cheonin, the queen consort of Cheoljong and a member of the Kim clan, claimed the right to choose the next king. Traditionally, when there was no legitimate male heir to the throne, the eldest Dowager Queen selected the new king. Cheoljong's cousin,
Great Dowager Queen Jo (King
Ikjong's widow) of the Jo house, which too had risen to further prominence by intermarriage with the crown, held this title.
Jo saw an opportunity to advance the influence of the Jo clan, the sole family that truly rivaled the Kim clan in Korean politics. As Cheoljong fell deeper into his illness, the Grand Dowager Queen was approached by Yi Ha-eung, an obscure descendant of
King Yeongjo whose son, named Yi Myeong-bok, the future
King Gojong and Gwangmu Emperor, was a possible successor to the throne (Yi Ha-eung himself was ineligible for the throne due to a law that dictated that any possible heir to the kingdom be part of the generation after the most recent incumbent of the throne). The branch that Yi Ha-eung and Yi Myong-bok belonged to was an obscure line of descent of the Yi royalty that managed to survive the often deadly political intrigue that frequently embroiled the Joseon court by having no affiliation with any factions. Yi Myeong-bok was only twelve years old, and would not be able to rule in his own name until he came of age. The Jo clan also believed that they could easily influence Yi Ha-eung, who would act as regent for the to-be boy king. As soon as news of Cheoljong's death reached Yi Ha-eung through his intricate network of spies in the palace, he had the hereditary royal seal (an object that was considered necessary for a legitimate reign to take place and aristocratic recognition to be received) withdrawn in coordination by Jo, in effect giving her absolute power to select the successor of the dynasty. By the time Cheoljong's death had become an open fact, the Andong Kim clan was powerless according to law as the seal lay in the hands of the Grand Dowager Queen.
In the autumn of 1864, Yi Myeong-bok was crowned King of the Kingdom of Joseon, with his father styled as
Daewon-gun (Great Prince or Regent).
The strongly Confucian
Daewon-gun proved to be a wise and calculating leader in the early years of Gojong's reign. He abolished the old government institutions that had become corrupt under various clan rule, revised the law codes along with the household laws of the royal court and the rules of court ritual, and heavily reformed the military techniques of the royal armies. Within a few short years, he was able to secure complete control of the court eventually received the submission of the Jos and successfully disposed of the last Kims, whose corruption he believed to have ruined the country.
A New Queen
Born into the impoverished and powerless aristocratic clan of the Yeohung Mins, Min Ja-yeong, the future Queen and later Empress Myeongseong, married the boy king and was invested as the Queen of Joseon. Her family posed no threat to
Daewon-gun, and being fatherless, Daewon-gun assumed that Min would not be able to build her own political base.
Min ascended the throne at the age of sixteen styled as Her Royal Highness, Queen Min (Min Daebi). She was an assertive and ambitious female, unlike other queens that came before her. She did not participate in lavish parties, rarely commissioned extravagant fashions from the royal ateliers, and almost never hosted afternoon tea parties with the powerful aristocratic ladies and princesses of the royal family, unless politics beckoned her to. As queen, she was expected to act as an icon to Korean high society, but Min rejected this limitation, reading books reserved for men, teaching herself philosophy, history, science, politics and religion. This tradition of scholarship is characteristic of Min women to this day. She rarely accompanied her husband Gojong, who found entertainment with appointed concubines and gisaengs at his private quarters and the tea houses of Hanseong.
Court Domination
Even without parents, Min was able to secretly form a powerful faction against Daewon-gun as soon as she reached adulthood. At the age of 20, Min began to wander outside her apartments at
Changgyeongung and play an active part in politics. She defended her views against high officials who viewed her as becoming meddlesome. Daewon-gun, deeply rooted in Confucian values, was upset by the queen's aggressiveness.
The political struggle between Min and Daewon-gun became public when the son Min bore for Gojong died prematurely. Daewon-gun publicly stated that Min was unable to bear a healthy male child and directed Gojong to sleep with a royal concubine, Yeongbodang Yi. In 1880, the concubine gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Prince Wanhwagun, whom Daewon-gun titled Prince Successor.
Min responded with a powerful faction of high officials, scholars, and members of her clan to bring down Daewon-gun from power. The Queen's relative,
Min Sung-ho, with court scholar
Choi Ik-hyun, wrote a formal impeachment of Daewon-gun to be presented to the Royal Council of Administration, arguing that Gojong, now 22, should rule in his own right. With the approval of Gojong and the Royal Council, Daewon-gun was forced to retire to his estate at
Yangju in 1882, the smaller Unhyeongung. Min then banished the royal concubine and her child to a village outside the capital, stripped of royal titles. The child soon died afterwards, with some accusing Min of involvement. Min had complete control over her court and placed her family in high court positions.
The Hermit Kingdom Emerges
Japan had been following developments in Korea, known as the
Hermit Kingdom for the past 200 years. Some Japanese aristocrats favored immediate invasion of Korea, but the idea was quickly dropped since it would start a war with
Qing China. When Daewon-gun was ousted from politics, Japan renewed efforts to establish ties with Korea, but the imperial envoy arriving at
Tongrae in 1883 was turned away.
The Japanese government, seeking to emulate the empires of Europe in their tradition of enforcing so-called
Unequal Treaties responded by sending the Japanese battleship Unyo towards
Busan and another battleship to the
Bay of Yonghung on the pretext of surveying sea routes, to pressure Korea into opening its doors. In September of 1884, battleships approached
Ganghwa Island and attacked the local Korean guards. Unyo arrived in Busan and attacked a small division of the royal army. Japan notified Korea that negotiations must now begin. Six naval vessels and an Imperial Japanese Envoy were sent to Ganghwa Island.
A majority of the royal court favored absolute isolationism, but Japan had demonstrated its willingness to use force. After numerous meetings, officials were sent to sign the
Ganghwa Treaty on February 15, 1885, opening Korea to Japan.
Various ports were forced open to Japanese trade, with the rights for the Japanese to buy land within designated areas. Min realized that relations must be developed with other powerful nations to counter the Japanese. The Ganghwa Treaty had been modeled on the treaty the West imposed on
Qing China, and China was no longer the dominant power of Asia.
The Ganghwa Treaty permitted the Japanese to force the opening of
Incheon and
Wonsan to Japanese merchants. For the first few years, Japan enjoyed a near total monopoly of trade, and Korean merchants suffered serious losses.
In 1887, a mission headed by
Kim Gwang-jip was commissioned by Gojong and Min to study Japanese westernization and intentions for Korea.
Kim and his team were shocked at how huge the cities had become.
Kim Gi-su noted that
Seoul and
Busan of Korea were metropolitan centers of East Asia, towering over underdeveloped Japanese cities only fifty years ago. But now, with
Tokyo and
Osaka completely westernized, Seoul and Busan looked like vestiges of the ancient past.
While in Japan, Kim Gwang-jip met the Chinese Ambassador to Tokyo,
Ho Ju-chang and the councilor
Huang Tsun-hsien. They discussed the international situation of
Qing China and Joseon's place in the rapidly changing world. Huang Tsu-hsien presented to Kim a book he had written called
Korean Strategy.China was no longer the hegemonic power of East Asia, and Korea no longer enjoyed military superiority over Japan. The Russian Empire began expansion into Asia. Huang advised that Korea should adopt a pro-Chinese policy, while retaining close ties with Japan for the time being. He also advised an alliance with the United States for protection against Russia. He advised opening trade relations with Western nations and adopting Western technology. He noted that China had tried but failed due to its size, but Korea was smaller than Japan. He viewed Korea as a barrier to Japanese expansion into mainland Asia. He suggested Korean youths be sent to China and Japan to study, and Western teachers of technical and scientific subjects be invited to Korea.
When Kim Gwang-jip returned to Seoul, Min took special interest in Huang's book and commissioned copies be sent out to all the ministers. Min hoped to win
yangban approval to invite Western nations into Korea.
She wanted to first allow Japan to help in the modernization process but towards completion of certain projects, be driven out by Western powers. She intended for Western powers to begin trade and investment in Korea to check Japan.
However, the yangban still opposed opening the country to the West.
Choi Ik-hyeon, who had helped with the impeachment of
Daewon-gun, sided with the isolationists, saying that the Japanese were just like the "Western barbarians" who would spread subversive notions like
Catholicism (which had been a major issue during Daewon-gun's reign that ended in massive persecution).
To the scholars and the yangban, Min's plan meant the destruction of social order. The response to the distribution of "Korean Strategy" was a joint memorandum to the throne from scholars in every province of the kingdom. They stated that the ideas in the book were mere abstract theories, unrealizable in practice, and that the adoption of Western technology was not the only way to enrich the country. They demanded that the number of envoys exchanged, ships engaged in trade and articles of trade be strictly limited, and that all foreign books in Korea should destroyed.
Despite these objections, in 1881, a large fact-finding mission was sent to Japan to stay for seventy days observing Japanese government offices, factories, military and police organizations, and business practices. They also obtained information about innovations in the Japanese government copied from the West, especially the proposed constitution.
On the basis of these reports, Min began the reorganization of the government. Twelve new bureaus were established that dealt with foreign relations with the West, China, and Japan. Other bureaus were established to effectively deal with commerce. A bureau of the military was created to modernize weapons and techniques. Civilian departments were also established to import Western technology.
In the same year, Min signed documents for top military students to be sent to
Qing China. The Japanese quickly volunteered to supply military students with rifles and train a unit of the Korean army to use them. Queen Min agreed but reminded the Japanese that the students would still be sent to China for further education on Western military technologies.
The modernization of the military was met with opposition. The special treatment of the new training unit caused resentment among the other troops. In September 1881, a plot was uncovered to overthrow Min's faction, depose Gojong, and place Daewon-gun's illegitimate son,
Yi Chae-son on the throne. The plot was frustrated by Min but Daewon-gun was kept safe from persecution because he was the father of the King.
Despite constant opposition, Min ignored the pleas of the conservative
yangban and scholars by sending twelve liberal
yangbans to
Tianjin in China to study the making of ammunition, electricity, chemistry, smelting, mechanical engineering, cartography, and other basic subjects related to military affairs. When they returned, the capital Hanseong(modern-day
Seoul) began to acquire street lamps and street cars. A telephone system was installed to enable communication within and among the palaces, and
Gyeongbokgung became the first palace to be completely powered by electricity in all major rooms. Seoul was becoming a westernized city and with the heavy support and influence of Min, the military rapidly modernized.
The Insurrection of 1882
In 1882, members of the old military became so resentful of the special treatment of the new units that they attacked and destroyed the house of
Min Kyeom-ho, a relative of the Queen who was the administrative head of the training units. These soldiers than fled to Daewon-gun, who publicly rebuked but privately encouraged them. Daewon-gun then took control of the old units.
He ordered an attack on the administrative district of
Seoul that housed the
Gyeongbokgung, the diplomatic quarter, military centers, and science institutions. The soldiers attacked police stations to free comrades who had been arrested and then began the ransacking of private estates and mansions of the relatives of the Queen. These units then stole rifles and began to kill many Japanese training officers and narrowly missed killing the Japanese ambassador to Seoul, who quickly escaped to
Incheon. The military rebellion then headed towards the palace but Queen Min and the King escaped in disguise and fled to her relative's villa in
Cheongju, where they remained in hiding.
Numerous supporters of Queen Min were put to death as soon as Daewon-gun arrived and took administrative control of Gyeongbokgung. He immediately dismantled the reform measures implemented by Min and relieved the new units of their duty. Foreign policy quickly turned isolationist, and Chinese and Japanese envoys were forced out of the capital.
Li Hung-chang, with the consent of Korean envoys in
Beijing, sent 4,500 Chinese troops to restore order, as well as to secure China's place in Korean politics. The troops arrested Daewon-gun, who was taken to China to be tried for treason. Min and her husband returned and overturned all of Dawon-gun's actions.
The Japanese forced King Gojong privately, without Min's knowledge, to sign a treaty on August 10, 1882 to pay 550,000 yen for lives and property that the Japanese had lost during the insurrection, and permit Japanese troops to guard the Japanese embassy in Seoul. When Min learned of the treaty, she proposed to China a new trade agreement granting the Chinese special privileges and rights to ports inaccessible to the Japanese. Min also requested that a Chinese commander take control of the new military units and a German advisor named
Paul George von Moellendorff head the Maritime Customs Service.
The American Expedition
In September 1883, Min established English language schools with American instructors. Min sent a special mission to the United States headed by
Min Young-ik, a relative of the Queen, in July 1883. The mission arrived at
San Francisco carrying the newly created Korean national flag, visited many American historical sites, heard lectures on American history, and attended a gala event in their honor given by the mayor of San Francisco and other U.S. officials. The mission dined with President
Chester A. Arthur and discussed the growing threat of Japan and American investment in Korea. At the end of September, Min Young-ik returned to Seoul and reported to the Queen, "I was born in the dark. I went out into the light, and your Majesty, it is my displeasure to inform you that I have returned to the dark. I envision a Seoul of towering buildings filled with Western establishments that will place herself back above the Japanese barbarians. Great things lay ahead for the Kingdom, great things. We must take action, your Majesty, without hesitation, to further modernize this still ancient kingdom."
The Progressives vs. The Sadaedang
The Progressives were founded during the late 1870s by a group of yangban who fully supported Westernization of Joseon. However, they wanted immediate Westernization, including a complete cut off of ties with
Qing China. Unaware of their anti-Chinese sentiments, the Queen granted frequent audiences and meetings with them to discuss progressivism and nationalism. They advocated for educational and social reforms, including the equality of the sexes by granting women full rights, issues that were not even acknowledged in their already Westernized neighbor of Japan. Min was completely enamored by the Progressives in the beginning but when she was informed that they were deeply anti-Chinese, Min quickly turned her back on them. Cutting ties with China immediately was not within Min's gradual plan of Westernization. She saw consequences Joseon would have to face if she did not play China and Japan off by the West gradually, especially since she was a strong advocate of the Sadae faction who were pro-China and pro gradual Westernization.
However, in 1884, the conflict between the Progressives and the Sadaes intensified. When American legation officials, particularly Naval Attaché George C. Foulk, heard about the growing problem, they were outraged and reported directly to the Queen. The Americans attempted to bring the two groups to peace with each other in order to aid the Queen in a peaceful transformation of Joseon into a modern nation. After all, she liked both party's ideas and plans. As a matter of fact, she was in support of many of the Progressive's ideas, except for severing relations with China. However, the Progressives, fed up with the Sadaes and the growing influence of the Chinese, sought the aid of the Japanese legation guards and staged a bloody palace coup on December 4, 1884. The Progressives killed numerous high Sadaes and secured key government positions vacated by the Sadaes who had fled the capital or had been killed.
The refreshed administration began to issue various edicts in the King and Queen's names and they were eager to implement political, economic, social, and cultural reforms. Queen Min, however, was horrified by the bellicosity of the Progressives and refused to support their actions and declared any documents signed in her name to be null and void. After only two days of new influence over the administration, they were crushed by Chinese troops under
Yuan Shih-kai's command. A handful of Progressive leaders were killed. Once again, the Japanese government saw the opportunity to extort money out of the Joseon government by forcing King
Gojong, without the knowledge of the Queen, to sign the
Hanseong Treaty in which Joseon was forced to pay a large sum of indemnity for damages inflicted on Japanese lives and property during the coup.
On April 18, 1885 the
Li-Ito Agreement was made in Tianjin, China between the Japanese and the Chinese. In it, they agreed to both pull troops out of Joseon and that either party would send troops only under condition of their property being endangered and that each would inform the other before doing so. Both nations also agreed to pull out their military instructors to allow the newly arrived Americans to take full control of that duty. The Japanese withdrew troops from Korea, leaving a small number of legation guards, but Queen Min was ahead of the Japanese in their game. She summoned Chinese envoys and through persuasion, convinced them to keep 2,000 soldiers disguised as Joseon police or merchants to guard the borders from any suspicious Japanese actions and to continue to train Korean troops.
Education
Peace finally settled upon the once-renowned "Land of the Morning Calm." With the majority of Japanese troops out of Joseon and Chinese protection readily available, the plans for further, drastic modernization were continued. Plans to establish a palace school to educate children of the elite were in the making since 1880 but were finally executed in May 1885 with the approval of Queen Min. A palace school named
Yugyoung Kung-won was established, with an American missionary,
Dr. Homer B. Hulbert, and three other missionaries who led the development of the curriculum. The school had two departments, liberal education and military education. Courses were taught exclusively in
English using English-language textbooks.
In May 1885, Queen Min also gave her patronage to the first all girls' academy, Ewha Academy, now known under the name of one of Asia's finest elite universities for women,
Ewha University. This was the first time in history that all Korean girls, commoner or aristocratic, had the right to an education. This was a significant social change. In 1887, Queen Min with the help of an American nurse named
Annie Ellers established another school for girls named
Yeondong Academy. The courses at these schools were rigorous and exclusively taught in
English. Queen Min also introduced the concept of a second Western language and hired teachers for
French,
German, and
Spanish to be taught at all the schools established.
Chinese was also emphasized and traditional
Korean along with the classical Korean script of
Hanmun (also known as Hanja, or classical Chinese characters used in Korean, used in Korean much as English uses Greek and Latin) were made part of the compulsory education through high school.
The Protestant missionaries contributed much to the development of Western education in Joseon. Queen Min, unlike
Daewon-gun who had oppressed Christians, invited different missionaries to enter Joseon. She knew and valued their knowledge of Western history, science, and mathematics and was aware of the advantage of having them within the nation. She, unlike the Isolationists, saw no threat to the Confucian morals of Korean society by the advent of Christianity. Religious tolerance was another one of Queen Min's goals and in June of 1885, she approved the establishment of
Baeje Academy, the first Christian school purposely established to educate commoners. In the same year, under the patronage of King
Gojong,
Dr. Horace G. Underwood of the Northern Presbyterian Church of the U.S. founded a school for boys called
Kyeongshin Academy.
Knowing that schools also had to be established outside of
Seoul, Queen Min extended her patronage to a secondary school for boys named
Kwangseon in
Pyongyang and a secondary school for girls called
Sungdok in
Yongbyon. These two became the first modern schools in northern Korea.
The Press
The first
newspaper to be published in Joseon was the
Hanseong Sunbo, an all-
Hanja newspaper that was approved by the King and Queen. It was published as a thrice monthly official government gazette by the
Pangmun-guk, an agency of the Foreign Ministry. It included contemporary news of the day, essays and articles about Westernization, and news of further modernization of Joseon.
In January
1886, under the commission of Queen Min, the
Pangmun-guk published a new newspaper named the
Hanseong Jubo (
The Seoul Weekly). She ordered it to be strictly written in
Hangul with a mixture of
Hanja, a format that has become the standard for many modern Korean newspapers. The publication of a Korean-language newspaper was a significant development, and the paper itself played an important role as a communication media to the masses until it was abolished in
1888 under pressure from the Chinese government. Queen Min and King
Gojong had ensured the freedom of the press, an idea transported from the West that even
Japan and
Qing China did not adopt, and the Chinese grew uncomfortable with the constant criticism of their presence.
A newspaper in entirely
Hangul, disregarding the Korean
Hanja script, was not published until in
1894,
Ganjo Shimpo (
The Seoul News) was published as a weekly newspaper under the patronage of Queen Min and King
Gojong. It was written half in Korean and half in Japanese.
Medicine, Christianity, and Music
The arrival of
Dr. Horace N. Allen under invitation of Queen Min in September 1884 marked the official beginning of Christianity rapidly spreading in Joseon. He was able, with the Queen's permission and official sanction, to arrange for the appointment of other missionaries as government employees. He also introduced modern medicine in
Korea by establishing the first western Royal Medical Clinic of
Gwanghyewon in February 1885.
In April 1885, a horde of Christian missionaries began to flood into Joseon. The Isolationists were horrified and realized they had been finally defeated by Queen Min. The doors to Joseon were not only open to ideas, technology, and culture, but even to other religions. Having lost immense power with
Daewon-gun still in China as captive, the Isolationists could do nothing but simply watch.
Dr. and Mrs. Horace G. Underwood,
Dr. and Mrs. William B. Scranton, and Dr. Scranton's mother,
Mary Scranton, made Joseon their new home in May 1885. They established churches within
Seoul and began to establish centers in the countrysides. Catholic missionaries arrived soon afterwards, reviving
Catholicism which had witnessed massive persecution in 1866 under
Daewon-gun's rule.
While winning many converts, Christianity made significant contributions towards the modernization of the country. Concepts of equality, human rights and freedom, and the participation of both men and women in religious activities, were all new to Joseon. Queen Min was ecstatic at the prospect of integrating these values within the government. After all, they were not just Christian values but Western values in general. The Protestant missions introduced also Christian hymns and other Western songs which created a strong impetus to modernize Korean ideas about music. Queen Min had wanted the literacy rate to rise, and with the aid of Christian educational programs, it did so significantly within a matter of a few years.
Drastic changes were made to music as well. Western music theory partly displaced the traditional Eastern concepts. The organ and other Western musical instruments were introduced in 1890, and a Christian hymnal,
Changsongga, was published in
Korean in 1893 under the commission of Queen Min. She herself, however, never became a
Christian, but remained a devout Buddhist with influences from shamanism and Confucianism; her religious beliefs would become the model, indirectly, for those of many modern
Koreans, who share her belief in
pluralism and
religious tolerance.
Military
Modern weapons were imported from Japan and the United States in 1883. The first military related factories were established and new military uniforms were created in 1884. Under joint patronage of Queen Min and King
Gojong, a request was made to the
U.S. for more American military instructors to speed up the military modernization. Out of all the projects that were going on simultaneously, the military project took the longest. To manage these simultaneous projects was in itself was a major accomplishment for any nation. Not even Japan had modernized at the rate Joseon was and not with as many projects going at once, a precursor to modern
Korea as one of East Asia's Tigers in rapid development into a first class nation during the 1960s-1980s. In October 1883, American minister
Lucius Foote arrived to take command of the modernization of Joseon's older army units that had not started Westernizing. In April 1888,
General William McEntyre Dye and two other military instructors arrived from the
U.S., followed in May by a fourth instructor. They brought about rapid military development.
A new military school was created called
Yeonmu Gongweon, and an officers training program began. However, despite land armies becoming more and more on par with the
Chinese and the Japanese, the idea of a
navy was neglected. As a result, it became one of the few failures of the modernization project. Because a navy was neglected, Joseon's sea borders were open to invasion. It was an ironic mistake since only a hundred years earlier, Joseon's navy was the strongest in all of East Asia, having been the first nation in the world to develop massive iron-clad warships equipped with cannons. Now, Joseon's navy was nothing but ancient ships that could barely fend themselves off from the advanced ships of modern navies.
However, for a short while, hope for the military of Joseon could be seen. With rapidly growing armies, Japan herself was becoming fearful of the impact of Joseon troops if her government did not interfere soon to stall the process, like they had earlier.
Economy
Following the opening of all Korean ports to the Japanese and Western merchants in 1888, contact and involvement with outsiders and increased foreign trade rapidly. In 1883, the Maritime Customs Service was established under the patronage of Queen Min and under the supervision of
Sir Robert Hart of the
United Kingdom. The Maritime Customs Service administered the business of foreign trade and the collection of tariff.
By 1883, the economy was now no longer in a state of monopoly conducted by the Japanese as it had been only a few years ago. The majority was in control by the Koreans while portions were distributed between Western nations, Japan, and China. In 1884, the first Korean commercial firms such as the
Daedong and the
Changdong companies emerged. The Bureau of Mint also produced a new coin called
tangojeon in 1884, securing a stable Korean currency at the time. Western investment began to take hold as well in 1886.
A German,
A.H. Maeterns, with the aid of the
Department of Agriculture of the
U.S., created a new project called "American Farm" on a large plot of land donated by Queen Min to promote modern
agriculture. Farm implements, seeds, and milk cows were imported from the
United States'. In June 1883, the Bureau of Machines was established and
steam engines were imported. However, despite the fact that Queen Min and King
Gojong brought the Korean economy to an acceptable level to the West, modern manufacturing facilities did not emerge due to a political interruption: the assassination of Queen Min. Be that as it may, telegraph lines between Joseon, China, and Japan were laid between 1883 and 1885, facilitating communication.
Early Years
The National Assembly Library of Korea has documents that described how the Empress looked like, how her voice sounded like, and her public manner. She was said to have had a soft face with strong features, a classic pretty but far from the sultry taste
Gojong enjoyed. Her speaking voice was soft and warm, but when conducting affairs of the state, she would immediately assert her points with strength. Her public manner was also formal and heavily adhered to court etiquette and traditional law.
To put it simply,
Gojong and the young Min did not get along at first. Both found each other's ways repulsive, Min preferring to stay within her chambers studying,
Gojong enjoying his days and nights drinking and attending banquets and royal parties. The two, in the beginning, were incompatible. Min was genuinely concerned with the affairs of the state, immersing herself within philosophy, history, and science books that were normally reserved for
yangban men. She once remarked to a close friend, "He disgusts me."
Court officials remarked that when Min ascended the throne, she was extremely exclusive in choosing who she associated with and confided with. In this remark, her relationship with the royal court from the very beginning strongly resembles the relationship of
Marie Antoinette with her court. Both women found court etiquette restricting but both women strictly adhered themselves to traditional laws to impress and to gain respect of the aristocracy. Both women also did not consummate their marriage on their wedding night, as court tradition dictated them to. Adding onto their frusterations, both women found immense difficulty in conceiving a healthy heir. Min's first attempt ended in despair and humilitation; she conceived a male heir but he shortly died after his birth due to poor health conditions. Her second attempt found success, but
Sunjong was never a healthy child, often catching illnesses and lying in bed for weeks. Both,
Marie Antoinette and Min also never were able to truly connect and fall in love with their husbands until their times of troubles brought them together. In the end, both women were destined for tragic endings; one being guillitioned by her people, misunderstood and her name wrongly distorted, the other brutally assassinated by the Japanese.
Her love life has become a folklore amongst Koreans that has been immortalized in songs, TV shows, and even a music video for the popular show on her life,
Empress Myeongseong Hwanghu. Her true love, as the tale dictates, was with a young man she met by chance, days before her royal coronation. She and her court ladies were strolling the streets of Joseon during daylight under official sanction by the royal court, trying to get to
Gyeongbeokgung Palace, when all of a sudden, a group of bandits ran through the royal entourage. A young man knocked the young Min's ceremonial jewel off of her robes. Before he could apologize and give it back to her, fighting began amongst the bandits. A court lady that was superivising Min's entourage suddenly interefered in the conflict and ordered it for to end. Realizing they were dealing with a royal court lady who could yield immense consenquences on them, the bandits stopped abruptly. The royal entourage left the scene and continued their way to the palace, but Min was not able to pull her eyes away from the young man that had accidentally bumped into her. The young man, in return, was not able to pull his eyes away from her. If love at first sight ever exists, it manifested itself in that situation. The young man found the ceremonial jewel and kept it for the rest of his life, inspiring him to one day to be re-united with the woman he fell in love with. The story continues on to say that within a few years, the young man entered royal military service and quickly rose amongst the ranks, and landed the honorable position of Captain of the Royal Bodyguards of the Queen. Min always knew the captain was that young man she had fallen in love with. In an interesting twist, their love resembles the European concept of
courtly love. They loved each other, but denied themselves the wanting of being with each other. They rarely spoke and were never together in their entire lives, yet they constantly looked at each other when time permitted them to. In a tragic, Romeo & Juliet-esque ending, the Captain ended up defending the Empress from the Japanese assassins, engaging them into an impressive sword fight but cheapily killed by numerous bullets by the Japanese commander. He died defending the woman he had loved for so long.
Whether this story is true or not, the Captain of the Royal Bodyguards, did indeed give up his life for the Empress on that fateful night. And he did put on an impressive show with his swordsmanship. His name was
Hong Geh-bong. In the
Ei-joh Report, an official documentation of the assassination of the Empress, it stated that
Hong Geh-bong fought in a tremendously impressive sword fight, killing off dozens of assassins with his skilled swordsmanship. He was, howeverly, savagely killed by the commander of the assassination group by the trigger of his gun, who was growing impatient at the fact that they were being stalled by one man.
Later Years
Min and
Gojong began to grow affectionate for each other during their later years.
Gojong was pressured by his advisors to finally take control of the government and administer his nation. However, one has to remember that
Gojong was not chosen to become King because of his acumen (which he lacked because he was never formally educated) or because of his bloodline (which was mixed with courtesan and common blood) but because the Cho clan had falsely assumed they could control the boy through his father. When it was actually time for
Gojong to assume his responsibilities of the state, he often needed the aid of his wife, Min, to conduct international and domestic affairs. In this,
Gojong grew an admiration for his wife's wit, intelligence, and ability to learn quickly. As the problems of the kingdom grew bigger and bigger,
Gojong relied even more on his wife, she becoming his rock during times of frusteration.
During the years of modernization of Joseon, it is safe to assume that
Gojong was finally in love with his wife. They both began to spend an immense amount of time with each other, privately and officially. They shared each other's problems, celebrated each other's joys, and felt each other's pains. They finally became husband and wife. His affection for her was undying and it has been noted that after the death of Min,
Gojong locked himself up in his chambers for weeks and weeks, refusing to assume his duties. When he finally did, he lost the will to even try and signed away treaty after treaty that was proposed by the Japanese, giving the Japanese immense power. When
Daewon-gun was able to take back some political power after the death of Min, he presented a proposal with the aid of certain Japanese officials to lower Min's status as Empress all the way to commoner in her death.
Gojong, a man who had always been used by others and never used his own voice for his own causes, was noted by scholars as having said, "I would rather slit my wrists and let them bleed than disgrace the woman who saved this kingdom." In a romantic act of defiance, he refused to sign
Daewon-gun's and the Japanese proposal, and turned them away.
The Eulmi Incident (을미사변; 乙未事變) is the term used for the assassination of Queen Min which occurred in the early hours of
October 8,
1895 at
Kyongbok Palace. It is accepted by both the Korean and Japanese governments that the incident involved the Japanese consul to Korea,
Miura Gorō but Korean historians propose that the Japanese government was involved in the incident.
Involved parties
56 people were charged with the assassination of Queen Min but they were all acquitted by a Hiroshima court for lack of evidence except three koreans who was close and loyal to
Daewon-gun who was a father of
Emperor Gojong. The empress had been against
Daewon-gun for dominateing Korean politics main stream line with her family of Min.
An eye-witness account
In
2005, professor Kim Rekho (김려춘; 金麗春) of the
Russian Academy of Sciences came across a written account of the incident by a Russian civilian named
Aleksey Seredin-Sabatin (Алексей Середин-Cабатин) in the
Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (Архив внешней политики Российской империи; AVPRI)
. Seredin-Sabatin was in the service of the Korean government, working under the American General
William Dye who was also under contract to the Korean government. In April, Kim made a request to the
Myongji University (명지대학교; 明知大學校) Library LG Collection to make the document public. On
May 11,
2005 the document was made public.
Almost five years prior to the document's release in South Korea, a translated copy was already in circulation in the
United States, having been released by the Center for Korean Research of
Columbia University on
October 6,
1995 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Eulmi Incident
.
In the account, Seredin-Sabatin mentions that a Chinese acquaintance had warned him against staying at the palace because a plot was being prepared that very night and the main culprits were Korean soldiers . At 4 o'clock that morning, the Colonel of the Palace Guard, Yi Hagyun burst into the office declaring that the whole palace had been surrounded. When Seredin-Sebatin and General Dye headed for the northeastern gates, they saw a mob of three hundred Korean soldiers surrounding the palece, and decided to head back to the inner palace where the alarm had already been raised. General Dye began developing defense measures for the palace but it couldn't be carried out. Most of the officers and guards had disappeared while the remaining guards were uncooperative.
At 5 o'clock that morning, gunshots could be heard in the western palace grounds.
A controversial letter
In
2006, Choi Mun-hyeong (최문형; "文衡), professor
emeritus of
Hanyang University, while searching the Japanese
National Diet Library, came across a letter dated
July 8,
1895 written by Lord Chancellor
Yamagata Aritomo to the Foreign Minister
Mutsu Munemitsu. In the letter, Yamagata writes "it is unbearable... to just watch the situation with our arms unfolded" and expressed his hope that action be taken once decisions had been made at the Cabinet meeting
. Choi claims, on the basis of reading between the lines of the letter, that the letter provides decisive proof that refutes the Japanese government's denial of involvement in the assassination.
Another professor, Han Yeong-u (한영우; "永愚) of
Hallym University has stated that because the Japanese had destroyed all record files related to the incident, it was difficult to find evidence to implicate the Japanese government, hence the importance of the letter.
|
Alleged photo of Queen Min though some claim it is of her servant. Many sketches and drawings appear to be based on this photograph. |
It is generally believed that no photographs of the Queen exist though there are some which are alleged to be of her. One widely circulated photograph is that of a seated woman with an elaborate hair style. Although the woman is alleged to be Queen Min, many people doubt the claim and believe the woman is merely a court lady. The woman's hair style is that of a court dancer, despite its extravegance . Her court regalia also strongly resembles that of a lesser royal court dancer, unadorned with numerous, elegant ornaments and gold printing everywhere that would be expected of a Queen's attire. The clothing also lacks the official, heavily embroidered phoenix on the chest, a symbol of the Queen
.
The
Ei-joh report , an official documentation of the assassination of the Empress, states that the assassins were given official photograph portraits of the Empress to find her, in case she was hiding in non-Empress attire. Documents also note that she was in an official royal family photograph. A royal family photograph does exist, but it was taken after her death, consisting of
Gojong,
Sunjong, and the wife of
Sunjong. It is believed that the Japanese destroyed all photographs of her after her death. There is a rumor that a photograph of the Empress exists in the Japanese archives but the Japanese government has denied its existence .
Another photograph surfaces
|
Screen capture of KBS News showing the purported genuine photograph of Queen Min (Empress Myeongseong). |
There was a report by KBS News in 2003 that a photograph allegedly of the Empress had been disclosed to the public
. The photograph was supposedly purchased for a large sum by the grandfather of Min Su-gyeong which was to be passed down as a family treasure. In the photo, the woman is accompanied by a
retinue at her rear. Some experts have stated that the woman was clearly of high-rank and her clothing appears to be that which is only worn by the royal family. However her outfit lacked the embroideries that decorates the apparel of the empress.
Japanese Illustration
On
January 13,
2005, history professor Lee Tae-jin (이태진; 李泰鎭) of
Seoul National University unveiled an illustration from an old Japanese magazine he had found at an antique bookstore in
Tokyo. The 84th edition of the Japanese magazine
Fūzokugahō (風俗畫報) published on
January 25,
1895 has a Japanese illustration of King Gojong and Queen Min receiving
Inoue Kaoru, the Japanese
charge d'affaires . The illustration is marked
December 24,
1894 and signed by the artist Ishizuka (石塚 ) with a legend
"The [Korean] King and Queen, moved by our honest advice, realize the need for resolute reform for the first time." Lee said that the depiction of the clothes and background are very detailed and suggests that it was drawn at the scene as it happened. Both the King and Inoue are looking at the Queen as though the conversation is taking place between the Queen and Inoue with the King listening.
* Martina Dechler,
Culture and the State in Late Choson Korea (1999) ISBN 0674007743
* Woo-Keun Han,
The History of Korea (1996) ISBN 0893245082
* James Bryant Lewis,
Frontier Contact between Choson Korea and Tokugawa Japan (2003) ISBN 0700713018
*
Andrew C. Nahm,
Introduction to Korean History and Culture (1997) ISBN 0930878086
*
Andrew C. Nahm,
A History of the Korean People: Tradition & Transformation (1996) ISBN 0868158681
* Hongjong Yu,
The Last Empress of the Lost Empire: A Comprehensive Study of Empress Myeongseong Hwanghu (2003) ISBN 0758268921
*
Empress Myeongseong (TV drama)*
The Last Empress (Musical)
*
List of Korea-related topics*
History of Korea*
Joseon Dynasty*
Korea under Japanese rule*
Japanese Raped the Last Queen of Korea Before Burning Her Alive! by Lee Wha Rang (2002)
*
Japanese Document Sheds New Light on Korean Queen's Murder by Yoo Seok-jae, The Chosun Ilbo (January 12, 2005)
*
Making of an Asian hit: A Korean royal tragedy in the Broadway style by Ricardo Saludo, Asia Week (December 18, 1998)
