Empress Myeongseong
Empress Myeongseong was the official wife of Gojong, the 26th king of Joseon and the first emperor of the Korean Empire. During her lifetime, she was known by the name Queen Min. After the founding of the Korean Empire, she was posthumously given the title of Myeongseong, the Great Empress.
The later Empress was of aristocratic background and in 1866 was chosen by the de facto Regent Heungseon Daewongun to marry his son, the future King Gojong. Seven years later his daughter-in-law and her Min clan forced him out of office. Daewongun was a conservative Confucian later implicated in unsuccessful rebellion against his daughter-in-law's faction. He believed in isolation of Joseon from all foreign contact as a means of preserving independence. She, by contrast, was a believer in gradual modernisation using Western and Chinese help. From 1873 to her assassination in 1895 she oversaw economic, military and governmental modernisation.
In the 1880s and 1890s the relationship between Joseon and neighbouring Japan deteriorated. The queen consort was considered an obstacle by the government of Meiji Japan to its overseas expansion. She took a firmer stand against Japanese influence after Daewongun's failed rebellions that were intended to remove her from the political arena. Miura Gorō, Japanese Minister to Korea, backed the faction headed by Daewongun and directly ordered her assassination. On 8 October 1895, the Hullyeondae Regiment loyal to the Daewongun attacked the Gyeongbokgung Palace and overpowered its Royal Guards. The intruders then allowed a group of ronin, specifically recruited for this purpose, to assassinate the queen consort. Her assassination sparked international outrage.
The Japanese-backed cabinet in the winter of 1895–1896 ordered Korean men to cut off their top-knot of hair. This caused uproar, because this style of hair was considered a badge of Korean identity. This topknot edict and the assassination provoked nationwide protests. Gojong and the Crown Prince accepted refuge in the Russian legation in 1896. The anti-Japanese backlash led to the repeal of the Gabo Reform, which had introduced other measures increasing Japanese influence. In October 1897, Gojong returned to Gyeongungung. Whilst there, he proclaimed the founding of the Korean Empire and raised the status of his deceased wife to Empress.
Names and titles
As was the custom in late Joseon society, the woman who came to be Empress Myeongseong never had a personal name. "Min" is the name of her clan. "Empress" was a title conferred after her assassination. Changes in her marital status or the status of her husband are reflected in her own title. In Western terms, she was nameless throughout her life. For the most part, the narrative below refers to her as the queen consort because that was her title during life at the beginning of her political activity, and was her functioning position. For convenience the description queen regent is not separately used.Background
Clan tensions at the death of the King
In 1864, at the age of 32, Cheoljong of Joseon died suddenly under ambiguous causes. Cheoljong was childless and had not appointed an heir. The Andong Kim clan had risen to power through intermarriage with the royal House of Yi. Queen Cheorin, Cheoljong's consort and a member of the Andong Kim clan, claimed the right to choose the next king. Traditionally, the most senior Queen Dowager had the official authority to select the new king. Cheoljong's cousin, Grand Royal Dowager Hyoyu, was the most senior Dowager. She was of the Pungyang Jo clan and the widow of Heonjong of Joseon's father. She had risen to prominence by intermarriage with the Yi family.Alliance between the Pungyang Jo clan and Yi Ha-eung
saw an opportunity to advance the cause of her Pungyang Jo clan, the only true rival of the Andong Kim clan in Korean politics. As King Cheoljong was dying, she was approached by Yi Ha-eung, a distant descendant of King Injo, whose father was made an adoptive son of Prince Eunsin, a nephew of King Yeongjo.The branch that Yi Ha-eung's family belonged to was a distant line of descendants of the Yi clan. They survived the often deadly political intrigue that frequently embroiled the Joseon court by forming no affiliation with any factions. Yi Ha-eung himself was not eligible for the throne due to a law that dictated that a successor had to be part of the generation after the most recent monarch. Yi Ha-eung's second son, Yi Myeong-bok, was a possible candidate for the throne.
The Pungyang Jo clan saw that Yi Myeong-bok, was only 12 years old and would not be able to rule in his own name until he came of age. They hoped to influence Yi Ha-eung, who would be acting as de facto regent for his son.. As soon as news of King Cheoljong's death reached Yi Ha-eung through his intricate network of spies in the palace, the hereditary royal seal required for the selection of a new monarch was taken to or by Grand Queen Dowager Hyoyu. She already was strictly entitled to make the appointment. She thereupon chose her great-grandson, Yi Myeong-bok. The Andong Kim clan was powerless to act because the formalities had been observed.
Accession of a new King
In the autumn of 1864, Yi Myeong-bok was renamed as Yi Hui and was crowned as Gojong King of Joseon, with his father as Regent titled as Grand Internal Prince Heungseon. He is referred to in this article henceforth as Heungseon Daewongun or Daewongun.The strongly Confucian Daewongun proved to be a decisive leader in the early years of Gojong's reign. He abolished the old government institutions that had become corrupt under the rule of various clans, 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 years, he was able to secure complete control of the court, and eventually receive the submission of the Pungyang Jos while successfully disposing of the last of the Andong Kims, whose corruption, he believed, was responsible for the country's decline in the 19th century.
Early life and family
Yeoheung Min clan antecedants
The future queen consort was born into the aristocratic Yeoheung Min clan on 17 November 1851 within the in Seomrak Village, Geundong-myeon, Yeoheung, Gyeonggi Province, where the clan originated.The Yeoheung Mins were a noble clan boasting many high-ranking bureaucrats in its illustrious past, princess consorts, and two queen consorts. These were firstly, Queen Wongyeong and, secondly, Queen Inhyeon.
When her father Min Chi-rok was young, he studied under scholar Oh Hui-sang, and eventually married the scholar's daughter. She became Min Chi-rok's first wife, Lady Oh of the Haeju Oh clan. In 1833 Lady Oh died childless at the age of 36. After three years' mourning, Min Chi-rok in 1836 married Lady Yi of the Hansan Yi clan. She was the daughter of Yi Gyu-nyeon. The future Empress was the fourth and only surviving child of Lady Yi.
Before her marriage, the later empress was known as the daughter of Min Chi-rok, Lady Min, or Min Ja-yeong. At age seven, she lost her father to an illness on 17 September 1858 while he was in Sado city. Lady Min was raised by her mother and Min relatives for eight years until she moved to the palace and became queen. Lady Min assisted her mother for three years while in living in Gamgodang. In 1861 it was decided that Min Seung-ho, would become her father's heir.
Selection as queen consort and marriage
When Gojong reached the age of 15, his father began to seek a bride for his son. Ideally the choice would be a person without politically ambitious relatives and someone who was of noble lineage. After rejecting numerous candidates, the Daewongun's wife, Grand Internal Princess Consort Sunmok and his mother, Princess Consort Min, proposed a bride from their own clan, the Yeoheung Min. The girl's father was dead. She was said to possess beautiful features, a healthy body, and an ordinary level of education.This possible bride underwent a strict selection process, culminating in a meeting with the Daewongun on 6 March, and a marriage ceremony on 20 March 1866. The Daewongun, likely fearing that the Andong Kim clan and the Pyungyang Jo clan, who were political rivalries for the future, may have been influenced favourably towards Lady Min due to her lack of a father or brother. He did not suspect Lady Min herself as politically ambitious, and he was satisfied with the interview. It was only later he observed that she "...was a woman of great determination and poise“ but that he nevertheless allowed her to marry his son. In doing so, he raised to the throne a woman who by 1895 had proven herself to be "his chief foil and implacable enemy."
Lady Min, aged 16, married the 15-year-old king and was invested in a ceremony as the Queen Consort of Joseon. Two places assert claims as the location of the marriage and accession. These are Injeongjeon Hall at Changdeokgung and Norakdang Hall at Unhyeongung. The headdress typically worn by brides at royal weddings was so heavy for the bride that a tall court lady was specially assigned to support it from the back. Directly following the wedding was the three-day ceremony for reverencing of ancestors.
When Lady Min became Queen Consort, her mother was given the royal title of "Internal Princess Consort Hanchang". Her father was given the royal title of "Internal Prince Yeoseong", and was posthumously appointed as Yeonguijeong after his death. Her father's first wife also given the royal title of "Internal Princess Consort Haeryeong".
On the day of their marriage ceremony, Gojong did not go to his wife's quarters to consummate the marriage, but to the quarters of concubine Royal Consort Yi Gwi-in of the Gyeongju Yi clan. This preference would later be approved by the Heungseon Daewongun.
The first impression of the queen consort at the palace was that she was dutiful and docile. Over time, Daewongun changed his view of her. Officials noticed that the new queen consort differed from previous queens before her in her choices and determination. She did not participate in lavish parties, rarely commissioned extravagant fashions from the royal ateliers, and almost never hosted afternoon tea parties with the various princesses of the royal family or powerful aristocratic ladies unless politics required her to do so. Expected to act as an icon for Korea's high society, the queen rejected this role. Instead, she spent her time reading books written using Chinese characters, whose use in Korea was usually reserved for aristocratic men. Spring and Autumn Annals and its accompanying Zuo Zhuan are examples. She furthered her own education in history, science, politics, philosophy, and religion.