Empress Myeongseong

Myeongseong
Empress of Korea
Born	October 19, 1851
	Yeoju County, Gyeonggi Province, Joseon
Died	October 8, 1895, aged 43
	Gyeongbok Palace, Seoul, Korean Empire
Consort	1867 - 1895
Consort to	Gojong of Korea
Issue	Sunjong of Korea
Father	Min Chi-rok
Mother	unknown

Empress Myeogseong (October 19, 1851 – October 8, 1895), also known as Queen Min, married to King Gojong, the 26th king of the Joseon dynasty of Korea. In 1902, she received the posthumous name, 孝慈元聖正化合天明成太皇后; 효자원성정화합천명성태황후; Hyoja Wonseong Jeonghwa Hapcheon Myeongseong Taehwanghu, often abbreviated as 明成皇后; 명성황후; Myeongseong Hwanghu, meaning Empress Myeongseong.

Empress Myeongseong
Empress Myeongseong
Hangul:	명성황후
Hanja:	明成皇后
Revised Romanization:	Myeongseong Hwang-hu
McCune-Reischauer:	Myŏngsŏng Hwang-hu

Early Years

On October 19, 1851 the future empress was born into the aristocratic clan of the Yeohung Mins at Yeoju-gun (여주군 驪州郡), in the province of Kyeonggi (경기도 京畿道) (where the clan originated). The future empress belonged to a (formerly) noble clan.

The clan had boasted of many highly positioned bureaucrats in its illustrious past, even bearing two queens: first, the wife of the third king of the Joseon Dynasty, Taejong, and second, the wife of the 19th king, Sukjong. By Myeongseong's birth, the clan found itself battling poverty, and completely out of power. Dur­ing more uneventful eras, such an impotent clan would never have bred a queen. The political situation Korea provided catalyst for the Min clan’s return and their rise to royalty once more.

The future queen received the name Min Ja-young (민자영) at birth. In every day life before marriage, she answered to the "daughter of Min Chi-rok (閔致祿 민치록)." At the age of eight she had lost both of her parents. Scant information about her mother, nor how she spent her childhood, nor the cause of her parents’ early deaths exists.

Min and Gojong

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."

Min's Love Life

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 frustrations, 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. 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 Gyeongbokgung 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 killed by numerous bullets by the Japanese commander. He died defending the woman he had loved for so long.

While this story is embellished, 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, however, 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.

Becoming a Queen

In 1864, King Cheoljong lay dying without a male heir, the result of 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, the eldest Dowager Queen selected the new king when no legitimate male heir to the throne lived. 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 King Cheoljong fell deeper into his illness, Yi Ha-eung approached the Grand Dowager Queen. An obscure descendant of King Yeongjo, Yi had a son named Yi Myeong-bok who possibly had right to succeed to the throne.

Yi Ha-eung and Yi Myong-bok belonged to 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. Only twelve years old, Yi Myeong-bok would not be able to fully rule 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 withdrawn in cooperation with Jo. That, in effect giving her absolute power to select the successor of the dynasty.

By the time Cheoljong's death became public, the Grand Dowager Queen kept the seal out of the hands of the Andong Kim clan. In the autumn of 1864, Great Dowager Queen Jo crowned Yi Myeong-bok King of the Kingdom of Joseon, with his father styled as Daewon-gun (大院君; 대원군; Daewongun; Grand Internal Prince).

The strongly Confucian Daewon-gun proved a wise and calculating leader in the early years of Gojong's reign. He abolished corrupt government institutions, revised the law codes along with the household laws of the royal court and the rules of court ritual, and reformed the royal armies. Within a few short years, he secured complete control of the court and eventually receive the submission of the Jos while successfully disposing the last of the Kims, whose corruption, he believed, responsible for ruining the country.

A New Queen

At the age of fifteen, his father decided Gojong should marry. He diligently looked for a queen without close relatives, who would harbour political ambitions, yet with the noble lineage needed to justify his choice to the court and the people. One by one, he rejected candidates until the wife of Daewongun proposed a bride from her own clan. His wife described Min persuasively: orphaned, beautiful of face, healthy in body, level of education on the level of the highest nobles in the country.

Daewongun easily arranged the first meeting with his son and the proposed bride as she lived in the neighborhood in Anguk-dong. Their meeting proved a success, and on March 20 1866, the future Queen (and later Empress Myeongseong) married the boy king; their wedding took place at the Injeongjeon Hall at Changdeok Palace.

The wig (which was usually worn by royal brides at weddings) proved so heavy that a tall court lady supported her hair from the back. The wedding ceremony had hardly finished, when another three-day ceremony for the reverencing of the ancestors started.

Invested as the Queen of Joseon, at the age of barely sixteen, Minascended the throne with her husband during the coronation ceremony. She received the title Her Royal Highness, Queen Min (閔大妃 민대비 Min Daebi Queen Min), and "Her Palace Majesty" (중정마마). She possessed an assertive and ambitious nature, unlike other queens that came before her. She disdained 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, court officials expected her to act as an icon to the high society of Korea, but Min rejected that belief. She, instead, read books reserved for men (examples of which were Springs and Autumns (春秋) and Notes of a Jwa on Springs and Autumns (춘추좌씨전)), and taught herself philosophy, history, science, politics and religion. This tradition of scholarship is a characteristic of the Min women to this day. While delving in knowledge and personal matters, Queen Min rarely accompanied her husband Gojong, who found entertainment with appointed concubines and kisaengs at his private quarters, and at the tea houses of Hanseong.

Court Life

Even without parents, Min secretly formed a powerful faction against Daewon-gun as soon as she reached adulthood. At the age of twenty, she began to wander outside her apartments at Changgyeonggung and play an active part in politics. At the same time, the to-be (although not yet titled that) Queen defended her views against high officials who viewed her as becoming meddlesome. The Queen's aggressiveness upset the deeply-rooted-in-Confucian-values Daewon-gun. The political struggle between Min and Daewon-gun became public when the son she bore for Gojong died prematurely.

Daewon-gun publicly declared Min unable bear a healthy male child and directed Gojong to have intercourse 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. Min Sung-ho, Min’s relative, and Choi Ik-hyun, court scholar, wrote a formal impeachment of Daewon-gun to the Royal Council of Administration.

The document argued that Gojong, now twenty-two, should rule in his own right, without the regency of the Daewon-gun. The Royal Council directed the Daewon-gun, with Gojong's approval, 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.

With the retirement of Daewon-gun and the expelled concubine and her son, the to-be Queen gained complete control over her court, placing her family in high court positions. By that action, Min proved herself worthy of the title Queen of Korea. Although her husband, King Gojong, officially ruled Korea, Queen Min showed greater political skill and intelligence than her husband. She had the real power in the Royal Court, a fact that captured the Daewon-gun's attention. He had thought that Queen Min would prove pliable to his will. That hope had quickly dispelled. Instead of a lamb, he had invited a lion into the Royal Court.

The Progressive Movement in Korea (1873-1895)

Japan had been following developments in Korea, known as the Hermit Kingdom for the past 200 years. Some Japanese aristocrats favored an immediate invasion of Korea, the risk of drawing Qing China into war discouraged the attack. Japan renewed efforts to establish ties with Korea with the Daewon-gun ouster from politics, but the royal court turned away their Imperial envoy at Tongrae in 1873. Japan responded in September of 1874 by sending the battleship Unyo towards Busan and another battleship to the Bay of Yonghung. The battleships approached Ganghwa Island and attacked the Korean guard posts. Meanwhile, Unyo arrived in Busan and attacked a small division of the Korean Royal Army.

Japan notified Korea that negotiations must begin. A majority of the royal court favored absolute isolationism, but Japan's willingness to use force persuaded them. In 1876, Japan sent six naval vessels and an Imperial Japanese Envoy to Ganghwa Island to enforce foothold. After numerous meetings, Korean and Japanese officials signed the Ganghwa Treaty on February 15, 1876, opening Korea to Japan.

Japan secured the use of Incheon and Wonsan ports, protection of the Japanese living in the ports, and the right to purchase land in the port area. Japan modeled the Ganghwa Treaty on the European treaty with Qing China that left China vulnerable to colonization. Queen Min realized that relations must be developed with other powerful nations to counter the Japanese. For the first few years, Japan enjoyed a near total monopoly of trade with Korean merchants suffering enormous losses.

A Social Revolution

In 1877, Gojong and Min commissioned a mission headed by Kim Gwang-jip to study Japanese technology and society. They hope the mission would learn Japan's intentions for Korea as well. Kim and his team expressed shocked at the moderization of Japan's cities. Kim Gi-su noted that Seoul and Busan had been the metropolitan centers of East Asia only fifty years ago, far advanced over the underdeveloped Japanese cities. Now, Seoul and Busan looked like vestiges of the ancient past compared to the modern cities of Tokyo and Osaka.

Korea Strategy. 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. Japan had gained military superiority over Korea and China, and China's hegemonic power of East Asia had been challenged. In addition, he Russian Empire had begun 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. Korea, smaller than Japan, had a better chance to succeed. He viewed Korea as a barrier to Japanese expansion into mainland Asia.

He suggested sending Korean youths to China and Japan to study, and inviting Western teachers of technical and scientific subjects to Korea. When Kim Gwang-jip returned to Seoul, Queen Min took special interest in Huang's book and commissioned sending copies to all the ministers. Min hoped to win yangban approval to invite Western nations into Korea. She planned to allow Japan to help modernize Korea but, towards completion of critical projects, to encourage Western powers to drive them out. She intended to allow Western powers to begin trade and investment in Korea as a check on Japan.

Queen Min's Modernization Program. The yangbans' entrenched opposition to opening Korea to the West thwarted her plan. Choi Ik-hyeon, who had helped with the impeachment of Daewon-gun, sided with the isolationists. He contended that the Japanese had become just like the “Western barbarians,” intent upon spreading subversive Western ideas like Catholicism. The Daewon-gun had instigated a massive persecution that led to thousands of martyred Christians in 1866 and 1871. To the yangban, Min's plan meant the destruction of the Confucian social order. Scholars in every province of the kingdom responsed with a joint memorandum to the throne. They deemed the ideas in the book mere abstract theories, impossible to realize practically. They contended that other ways to enrich the country than the adoption of Western technology existed. The yangban demanded a strict limit on the number of envoys exchanged, ships engaged in trade, and articles traded. They called for a ban on the import of all Western books and the destruction of those already in the country

Despite those objections, in 1881, the throne sent a large fact-finding mission to Japan for seventy days to observe 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 their reports, Min inaugurated the reorganization of the government. She approved the establishment of twelve new bureaus to deal with the West, China, and Japan. She commissioned the establishment a bureau to promote commerce, a bureau to modernize military weapons and techniques, and a bureau to import Western technology. In the same year, Min signed a royal to decree to send top military students Qing China for education. The Japanese quickly volunteered to supply military students with rifles and train a unit of the Korean army to use them. Queen Min agreed, reminding the Japanese that she planned to send the students to China for further education in Western military technologies.

The modernization of the military met with opposition. The special treatment of the new training unit caused resentment among the other troops. In September 1881, the government uncovered a plot by the Daewon-gun to overthrow Min’s faction, depose Gojong, and place Daewon-gun’s illegitimate son, Yi Chae-son on the throne. After the foiling of the plot, Daewon-gun escaped trial, prison, or execution by virtue of his status as King Gojong's father.

Despite constant opposition, Min ignored the pleas of the conservative yangban 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. The throne had a telephone system installed between the palaces. Gyeongbokgung became the first palace in Korea completely powered by electricity. Seoul started a transformation into westernized city and the military rapidly modernized with queen Min's full support.

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 a relative of the Queen, Min Kyeom-ho, the administrative head of the training units. Those soldiers then fled to the 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. Those 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. Daewon-gun put to death numerous supporters of Queen Min as soon as arrived and took administrative control of Gyeongbokgung. He immediately dismantled the reform measures implemented by Min and relieved the new units of their duty.

Daewon-gun quickly turned Korea's foreign policy isolationist, forcing the Chinese and Japanese envoys 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, takeing him to China on treason charges. Queen Min and her husband, Gojong, returned and overturned all of Daewon-gun's changes.

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 Moellendorf head the Maritime Customs Service.

The American Journey

In September 1883, Min established English language schools with American instructors. She 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

A group of yangban who fully supported Westernization of Joseon founded the Progressive Movement in Korea during the late 1870s. They worked for an immediate Westernization of Korea, as well as 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, reforms far ahead of their rapidly Westernizing neighbor of Japan.

Min fully supported the Progressives in the beginning but when she learned that they harbored a profound anti-Chinese feeling, Min quickly turned her back on them. Min's plans gradual plan of Westernization called for cutting ties with China later. She saw consequences Joseon would have to face unless she succeeded in using China and Japan to help thwart the West initially, then gradually cutting ties with China and Japan. In addition, she strongly advocated the pro-China, pro-gradual Westernization Sadae faction.

The conflict between the Progressives and the Sadaes intensified in 1884. When American legation officials, particularly Naval Attaché George C. Foulk, heard about the growing problem, they expressed outraged and reported directly to the Queen. The Americans attempted to reconcile the two parties to aid the Queen in a peaceful transformation of Joseon into a modern nation. After all, she liked both party's ideas and plans.

Actually, she supported all the Progressive's ideas, except severing relations with China. The Progressives, frustrated by the Sadaes obstruction and the growing influence of the Chinese, staged a bloody palace coup on December 4, 1884 with the aid of the Japanese legation guards. 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, eagerly moving to implement political, economic, social, and cultural reforms. Queen Min, horrified by the bellicosity of the Progressives, refused to support their actions and declared any documents signed in her name null and void. After only two days of new influence over the administration, Chinese troops under Yuan Shih-kai's command ended the Progressives coup, killing a handful of Progressive leaders.

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. The treaty forced Joseon to pay a large sum of indemnity for damages inflicted on Japanese lives and property during the coup.

On April 18, 1885, China and Japan signed the Li-Ito Agreement in Tianjin. Both nations agreed to both pull troops out of Joseon, agreeing to inform each other of the need to reintroduce troops to Korea only to protect their property or citizens. 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 anticipated the Japanese next move. 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.

The Innovator

Education

Peace finally settled once again upon the "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 continued. In May 1885, Queen Min approved the establishment of a palace school to educate children of the elite, in the making since 1880. American missionary, Dr. Homer B. Hulbert, and three other missionaries developed the curriculum of Yugyoung Kung-won, the palace school. The school had two departments, liberal education and military education. American missionaries taught courses 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.

Ewha Academy marked the first time in history that all Korean girls, commoner or aristocratic, had the right to an education, highlighting a significant social change. In 1887, Annie Ellers establish another school for girls, Yeondong Academy, with Queen Min's support. Rigorous and exclusively taught in English, the schools provided girls with an education comparable with American schools in the 1880s. She hired French, German, and Spanish teachers to teach the girls a second Western language.

The schools traditional Korean, classical Chinese (Hanja) characters 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 understood the advantage of having them within the nation. Unlike the Isolationists, she saw no threat to the Confucian morals of Korean society from Christianity.

Queen Min promoted religious tolerance andn June of 1885, she gave pioneer Methodist missionary, Henry G. Appenzeller, approval to establish Baeje Academy, an all boys school. 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. Those 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.A. 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 of Joseon, and not with as many projects going on 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.A., 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.

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, 1st Baronet 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.A., 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.

Later Life

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 frustration.

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 an act of defiance, he refused to sign Daewon-gun's and the Japanese proposal, and turned them away.

The Eulmi Incident

File:Purported Photograph of Empress Myeong Seong (Not Verified).jpg

It is generally believed that no photographs of Empress Myeong Seong exist though there are some which are alleged to be of her. One widely circulated photograph is that of a seated woman (the above photograph). Although the woman is alleged to be Empress Myeong Seong, many people doubt the claim and believe the woman is merely a court lady.

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 some propose that the Japanese government was behind the assassination. After it had been verified that Queen Min was killed, the Japanese burned her body. It is also believed that Queen Min was raped before her murder.

Involved parties

Scholars generally agree that Miura Goro, the Japanese minister to Korea, commissioned assassins to murder the Empress in her residence in Gyeongbokgung on October 8, 1895. The Japanese government had viewed her as an obstacle. Japanese efforts to remove her from power failed due to Gojong's devotion to her.

The Japanese sent ambassadors to Korea's royal court in an unsuccessful attempt to have her removed. As a result, the Japanese minister to Korea, Miura Goro, faced with losing Korea to other foreign powers, hired Japanese men to invade the Korean imperial residence and assassinate the empress in 1895. They killed three women suspected of being Queen Min. After verifying the identity of the Queenn, they burned her body.

Recent documents discovered (2005) show that Japanese assassins actually dragged the Queen outdoors and publicly hacked to death with a sword. Sabatin, a Russian officer, and other foreign envoys witnessed the murder of Queen Min offering heavy protest. After the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Miura received appointment to a seat at the "Sumitsuin," the advisory board to the Emperor.

56 people were charged with the assassination of Queen Min, but they were all acquitted by a Hiroshima court for lack of evidence. They included:

• Miura Gorō
• Kunitomo Shigeaki (國友 重章)
• Ieiri Kakitsu (家入 嘉吉)
• Kikuchi Kenjō (菊池 謙讓)

In May 2005, 84-year old Tatsumi Kawano (川野 龍巳), the grandson of Kunitomo Shigeaki, paid his respects to Empress Myeongseong at her tomb in Namyangju, Gyeonggi, South Korea. He apologized to Empress Myeongseong's tomb for his grandfather.

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 McEntyre 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 recorded: "The courtyard where the queen's wing was located was filled with Japanese, perhaps as many as 20 or 25 men. They were dressed in peculiar gowns and were armed with sabres, some of which were openly visible. ... While some Japanese were rummaging around in every corner of the palace and in the various annexes, others burst into the queen's wing and threw themselves upon the women they found there. ... I ... continued to observe the Japanese turning things inside out in the queen's wing. Two Japanese grabbed one of the court ladies, pulled her out of the house, and ran down the stairs dragging her along behind them. ... Moreover one of the Japanese repeatedly asked me in English, "Where is the queen? Point the queen out to us!" ... While passing by the main Throne Hall, I noticed that it was surrounded shoulder to shoulder by a wall of Japanese soldiers and officers, and Korean mandarins, but what was happening there was unknown to me."

Photographs and illustrations

File:KBS-Myeongseong.png

Screen capture of KBS News showing the purported genuine photograph of Queen Min (Empress Myeongseong).

Japanese illustration of King Gojong and Queen Min receiving Inoue Kaoru.

The Ei-joh report ^{[citation needed]}, an official documentation of the assassination of the Empress, states that the assassins were given official photograph portraits of the Empress to find her^{[citation needed]}, 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^{[citation needed]} 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 ^{[citation needed]}.

Another photograph surfaces

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.

In popular culture

According to "the TV drama" and musical, her name was Min Ja-yeong (민자영; 閔紫英)^{[citation needed]}, but there is no evidence based on written documents of that name.

Legacy

Her role has been widely debated by historians. Some older Koreans who survived the Japanese occupation criticize her for failing to resist the Japanese militarily. The Japanese portrayal of Empress Myeongseong forms part of the recent controversy over allegations of revisionist history in Japanese school textbooks.

Many in South Korea, influenced by a recent novel, TV drama and musical, view her as a national heroine, for striving diplomatically and politically to keep Korea independent of foreign influence. Skilled in foreign affairs and diplomacy, she set in motion an ambitious plan to modernize Korea. The Japanese viewed her as an obstacle against its expansion overseas. Efforts to remove her from politics failed, orchestrated through rebellions prompted by her father-in-law, the influential regent, compelling the Empress to take a harsher stance against Japanese influence.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Frederick Arthur Mackenzie, The Tragedy of Korea, (1st 1908, Reprinted 2006) ISBN 1-901903-09-5
• Frederick Arthur Mackenzie, Korea's Fight for Freedom, (Revised 2006) ISBN 1-4280-1207-9 (See also Project Gutenberg.)
• Isabella Bird, Korea and her Neighbours (1898, Reprinted 1987 ) ISBN 0-8048-1489-9
• Martina Dechler, Culture and the State in Late Choson Korea (1999) ISBN 0-674-00774-3
• Woo-Keun Han, The History of Korea (1996) ISBN 0824803345
• James Bryant Lewis, Frontier Contact between Choson Korea and Tokugawa Japan (2003) ISBN 0-7007-1301-8
• Andrew C. Nahm, Introduction to Korean History and Culture (1997) ISBN 0-930878-08-6
• Andrew C. Nahm, A History of the Korean People: Tradition & Transformation (1996) ISBN 0930878566
• Hongjong Yu, The Last Empress of the Lost Empire: A Comprehensive Study of Empress Myeongseong Hwanghu (2003)
• Queen Min of Korea: Coming to Power http://www.gkn-la.net/history_resources/queen_min_tmsimbirtseva_1996.htm.

See also

• Empress Myeongseong (TV drama)
• The Last Empress (Musical)
• List of Korea-related topics
• History of Korea
• Joseon Dynasty
• Korea under Japanese rule

External links

• 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)

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