Daewongun
| Daewongun | |
|---|---|
 Daewongun | |
| Hangul: | 흥선대원군 |
| Hanja: | 興宣大院君 |
| Revised Romanization: | Heungseon Daewon-gun |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Hŭngsŏn Taewŏn'gun |
| Birth name | |
| Hangul: | 이하응 |
| Hanja: | 李昰應 |
| Revised Romanization: | Yi Ha-eung |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Yi Ha'ŭng |
| Courtesy name | |
| Hangul: | 시백 |
| Hanja: | 時伯 |
| Revised Romanization: | Sibaek |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Sibaek |
| Pen name | |
| Hangul: | 석파 |
| Hanja: | 石坡 |
| Revised Romanization: | Seokpa |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Sŏkp'a |
The Daewongun, or formally Heungseon Heonui Daewonwang, (1820–1898) was the title of Lee Ha-eung, who was the regent of the Joseon kingdom during much of the later 19th century. The Daewon-gun was the father of the penultimate Joseon monarch Gojong, and for ten years before Gojong reached adulthood, and even afterward, he effectively wielded royal power.
Daewon-gun literally translates as "prince of the great court," a title customarily granted to the father of the reigning monarch when that father did not reign himself. While there have been three other Daewon-gun in Joseon Dynasty, so dominant a role did Yi Ha-eung play in the last years of the Joseon dynasty that the term Daewongun usually refers specifically to him.
From obscurity to the throneroom
Yi Ha-eung, best known by his title as regent to King Gojong, Daewongun, was an obscure descendant of Yeongjo, the 21st Joseon King. When it became clear that King Cheoljong, the 25th king, was likely to die without an heir Daewongun approached the Dowager Queen Sinjeong, recommending his son Yi Myeongbok as the next king. Myeongbok was only 12 years old at the time, and the Dowager agreed with Daewongun's strategy of choosing Myeongbok over his elder brother, because it meant a longer period of regency.
Wielding royal power
Yi Myeongbok was crowned King Gojong of Joseon in 1864, and Daewongun stood as the main administrator of the nation, with Dowager Queen Sinjeong in the position of regent. Following in the footsteps of his royal ancestor, King Yeongjo of Joseon (r. 1724-1776), Daewongun instutited measures to once again correct the system of recruiting government officials according to merit and ability, and many other noteworthy reform measures.
One of the most sweeping was the elimination of all but a handful of the thousands of Sowons located throughout the nation. The Sowons were Confucianist academies which had become breeding grounds for rival political factions, and many of which were operating large farming enterprises with slave labor, in abuse of the tax-exempt status they had been granted centuries earlier as instututes of learning.
Daewongun's aim was a country run according to traditional Joseon principles. It was a tall order, because the situation in Joseon had disintegrated substantially since the reforms and improvements made during the reigns of Yeongjo and his grandson Chongjo (r. 1776-1800). Daewongun's interpretation of the proper way to apply the principles also proved problematic in a few areas, which ultimately proved his undoing, and at the same time had seriously detrimental consequences for the country.
Although, in principle, removing the imbalance of treatment in taxation, military service, and other areas that had given the yangban an unfairly priviledged position should have produced a better society, Daewongun failed to calculate how strongly and in what way the affected yangban would respond. Within a few years, he had gained a considerable number of political enemies, over whom he could not ultimately prevail.
Daewongun also failed to recognize that the march of time demanded that Joseon cultivate relations with outside powers in order to survive in the new world order. He tried to keep Joseon pure, free from outside influences. To this end, he authorized the massacre of many Catholic missionaries and converts. While his economic reforms had made him enemies at home, his attacks on the Catholics came to the attention of the French, who already had a substantial military presence in Indochina. A squadron of French navy vessals moved against the Joseon island of Ganghwado on October 13, 1866. Although the Joseon army was able to drive them away, the door to continued unavoidable contact with outside western and Asian powers was opened, and remained open from then on.
Selecting a new Queen
A few years after Gojong took the throne, Daewongun decided it was time for him to marry. The Dowager Queen Sincheong and Daewongun considered many candidates for the royal bride. Finally, they chose a young lady from the Min family, the same clan as Daewongun's own wife. The daughter of Min Chi-rok, Min Jayoung seemed a safe choice—she was well educated, of sufficiently noble birth, and, having been orphaned at the age of eight, she did not have parents whose political ambitions would have to be taken into account.
After the requisite checks and courtship ceremonies, the young King Gojong and Min Jayoung were married in March of 1866, and she became Queen Min.
Changing of the guard
As it turned out, the young Queen was a very intelligent and quick learner, interested in politics and gifted in networking. She gathered a circle of strong allies, and before long Queen Min had enough political clout to start working toward removing Daewongun as the keeper of the royal seal and elevating King Gojong to rule in his own right.
Daewongun and Queen Min engaged in recurrent power struggles for a number of years. She had him sent into exile in 1882, but he returned four years later and was able briefly to regain power in 1895 with Japanese aid.
Later years
There was friction between King Gojong and Daewongung from early on. As time went by, and Gojong's relationship with Queen Min grew closer and closer, his relationship with his father, Daewongun became more and more distant. A possibility exists that Gojong suspected his father of being involved with the Japanese-backed assassination of Queen Min in 1895. In any case, after her death, the relationship between the two men became even more strained, and never improved.
Gojong's son, Emperor Sunjong, on the other hand, felt that his grandfather had made a significant contribution to Jeseon, and in 1908 raised Daewongun to the rank of Imperial Prince, with the title of Heungseon Heoneu Daewon-wang.
See also
- History of Korea
- Rulers of Korea
- List of Korea-related topics
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