Empress Myeongseongtae (; 17 November 1851 – 8 October 1895), of the Yeoheung Min clan, personal name Min Ja-yeong, commonly known as Empress Myeongseong, was the wife of Gojong, the 26th king of Joseon and the first emperor of the Korean Empire. She was queen of Joseon from 1866 until her assassination in 1895. Known as Queen Min during her lifetime, she was posthumously honored as empress following the establishment of the Korean Empire.
Queen Min was of aristocratic background and in 1866 was selected by the regent Heungseon Daewongun (Grand Internal Prince Heungseon) to marry his son, the newly enthroned King Gojong. Seven years later, his chosen daughter-in-law and her Min clan forced him out of office. The Daewongun was a conservative Confucianist later implicated in an unsuccessful rebellion against his daughter-in-law's faction. He believed that isolating Joseon from all foreign contact was 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 was considered an obstacle by the government of Meiji Japan to its overseas expansion. She had taken a firmer stand against Japanese influence after her father-in-law's failed rebellion that intended to remove her from the political arena. Miura Gorō, the Japanese Minister to Korea, backed the faction headed by the Daewongun and directly ordered her assassination. On 8 October 1895, the Hullyŏndae regiment loyal to the Daewongun attacked Gyeongbokgung and overpowered its royal guards. The intruders then allowed a group of rōnin, specifically recruited for this purpose, to assassinate the queen. Her assassination sparked international outrage.
In the winter of 1895–1896, the Japanese-backed cabinet ordered Korean men to cut off their topknots. This caused uproar, because the hairstyle was considered a badge of Korean identity.: The top-knot was "the distinctive mark of Korean citizenship". This edict and the assassination provoked nationwide protests. Gojong and the crown prince (later Emperor Sunjong) accepted refuge in the Russian legation in 1896. The anti-Japanese backlash led to the repeal of the Kabo Reform, which had introduced other measures increasing Japanese influence. In October 1897, Gojong moved 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 was never known by a personal name. "Min" was the name of her clan. "Empress" was a title conferred after her assassination. Changes in her marital status or the status of her husband reflected in her own title. In Western terms, she was nameless throughout her life.: "She—the most powerful Korean in Korea—is content to be nameless; a sovereign with almost unlimited power, but without a nominal individuality; and to be called merely by the family name of her forefathers, and to be designated only as the daughter of her fathers, the wife of her husband, and the mother of her son." For the most part, the narrative below refers to her as the queen because that was her main title during her lifetime.
Background Clan tensions at the death of the king In 1864, at the age of 32, King Cheoljong died suddenly under ambiguous causes. Cheoljong was childless and had not appointed an heir. The (new) Andong Kim clan had risen to power through intermarriage with the royal house. 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 legal sister-in-law, Grand Queen Dowager Hyoyu, was the most senior dowager. She was of the Pungyang Jo clan and the widow of King Heonjong's father, Crown Prince Hyomyeong.
Alliance between the Pungyang Jo clan and Yi Ha-eung Grand Queen Dowager Hyoyu 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 grandson 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 Jae-hwang, was a possible candidate for the throne.
The Pungyang Jo clan saw that Yi Jae-hwang 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 (technically, Grand Queen Dowager Hyoyu would be regent but in fact she did not intend to play an active role). 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 speaking, entitled to make the appointment.Choe Ching Young. The Rule of the Taewŏn'gun, 1864-1873: Restoration in Yi Korea. Cambridge, Mass.: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1972. She thereupon chose Yi Jae-hwang and adopted him as her son. 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 Jae-hwang was renamed as Yi Hui () and was crowned as 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 the 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. 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 was born into the aristocratic Yeoheung Min clanSome sources say that she was born 25 September; the date discrepancy is due to the difference in the calendar systems. The house she was born in was built in 1687, in the 13th year of King Sukjong, and was rebuilt in 1975 and 1976. In 1904, a stone monument inscribed with the handwriting of her husband Gojong (called the Tangangguribi) was erected on the alleged site used by her for study.The House of Gamgodang is that in which she lived from her birth until she was eight. In 1687, a hut for the king's father-in-law, the father of Queen Inhyeon, Min Yu-jung was built. Only the main building remains today, but the building was restored to its natural state in 1995. In the room where the empress studied as a child, a monument was erected inscribed with the words "Empress Myeongseong Tangangguri" (the village where Empress Myeongseong was born) to commemorate her birth. The inscription, measuring 250 by 64 by 45 cm3, which her husband Gojong erected in 1904 (The Gwangmu Emperor's 8th year (Gapjin), 5th month, 1st day), read 明成皇后誕降舊里碑 명성황후탄강구리비 Myeongseong Hwanghu Tangangguribi The Stone Tablet for The Empress Myeongseong's Birthplace, her Former Village. in Seomrak Village, Geundong-myeon, Yeoju-mok, Gyeonggi Province, where the clan originated.
The Yeoheung Mins were a clan boasting many high-ranking bureaucrats in its past, princesses consort, and two queens. These were firstly, Queen Wongyeong (wife of King Taejong and mother of Sejong the Great) and, secondly, Queen Inhyeon (second wife of King Sukjong).
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. In 1833, Lady Oh died childless at the age of 36. After three years' mourning, Min Chi-rok married a lady of the Hansan Yi clan (later known as Internal Princess Consort Hanchang). She was the daughter of Yi Gyu-nyeon. The queen was the fourth and only surviving child of Lady Yi.
Before her marriage, the queen was known as the daughter of Min Chi-rok, or simply Lady Min. At age seven, she lost her father to an illness on 17 September 1858 while he was in Sado. 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 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 (known at the time as Grand Internal Princess Consort Yeoheung; Yeoheung Budaebuin; ) 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.Based on the existing (lunar) calendar of the time. See The Daewongun, likely fearing that the Andong Kim clan and the Pyungyang Jo clan, may have been influenced favorably 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 he nevertheless allowed her to marry his son.Cumings, Bruce. Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. In doing so, he raised to the throne a woman who by 1895 had proven herself to be "his chief foil and implacable enemy".
At the age of 15, Lady Min married the 14-year-old king and was formally invested as queen. 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, her mother was given the title of "Internal Princess Consort Hanchang" (). Her father was given the title of "Internal Prince Yeoseong" (), and was posthumously appointed as chief state councilor.음서로 벼슬에 올라 장악원과 사도시의 첨정을 지냈으며, 딸이 왕비로 간택되면서 영의정에 추증되고 여성부원군(驪城府院君)에 추봉되었다. 지두환, 241쪽 (Translation: Ji Du-hwan, pg. 241) Her father's first wife was also given the title of "Internal Princess Consort Haeryeong" ().