Heungseon Daewongun

Early life

The Daewongun was born Yi Ha-eung in 1820. He was the fourth son of Yi Ch’ae-jung, a member of the royal family who in 1816 was given the name Yi Gu and the title Prince Namyeon. The Daewongun was a direct descendant of King Injo.

The Daewongun was well schooled in Confucianism and the Chinese classics. He reputedly excelled in calligraphy and painting. His early government career consisted of minor posts that were mostly honorary and ceremonial. For the beginning of his life, his connection to the royal house seemed of little help to him. He was poor and humiliated by the rich in-laws of the royal house.

Rise to power

The Daewongun came to power when his second son, Yi Myeong-bok, was chosen to become king.

In January 1864, King Cheoljong died without an heir. The selection of the next king was in the hands of three dowagers: Queen Sinjeong, mother of King Heonjong; Queen Myeongheon, King Heonjong’s wife; and Queen Cheorin, Cheoljong's wife. The "designation right" resided with Dowager Queen Sinjeong, as she was the oldest of the dowagers.

In an apocryphal story, Queen Cheorin sent a minister to fetch the son of Yi Ha-eung, eleven-year-old Yi Myeong-bok, who was flying a kite in a palace garden. The son was brought to the palace in a sedan chair, where Queen Sinjeong rushed forward and called him her son, thus producing the new Joseon king, King Gojong, adopted son of Crown Prince Hyomyeong. This story may or may not be true.

These facts, however, are known to be correct. On 16 January 1864, Yi Myeong-bok was appointed the Prince of Ikseong by Dowager Queen Sinjeong. The next day, his father was granted the title Daewongun. On 21 January, Yi Myeong-bok was enthroned as King Gojong, and Dowager Queen Sinjeong began her regency. Yi was apparently chosen because "he was the only suitable surviving male member of the Yi clan and closest by blood to the royal house".

Since Gojong was so young, Queen Sinjeong invited the Daewongun to assist his son in ruling. She virtually renounced her right to be regent, and though she remained the titular regent, the Daewongun was in fact the true ruler.

Once Gojong became king, there still remained the question of his marriage. Gojong's mother Yeoheung decided upon a daughter of the Min clan, Lady Min. The Daewongun remarked that Min "was a woman of great determination and poise" and was slightly disturbed by her. However, he allowed her to marry his son, and unknowingly created his greatest political rival.

Reforms

During his regency, the Daewongun attempted several reforms. His main goal was to "crush the old ruling faction that had virtually usurped the sovereign power of the kings earlier in the century".

When he took power in 1864, the Daewongun was determined to reform the government and strengthen central control. He led an anti-corruption campaign, disciplined the royal clans, and taxed the aristocracy, the yangban. Cumings notes that this was not a revolution but a restoration, as the Daewongun was attempting to return to the days of King Sejong in the fifteenth century.

One of the Daewongun's effective acts as regent was the reconstruction of Gyeongbok Palace. The palace had been built during the reign of the first Joseon king. Much of the building was destroyed in a fire in 1533 and the rest was destroyed during the Japanese invasion of 1592. The rebuilding took seven years and five months. It was perhaps the most costly project during the Joseon dynasty.

The Daewongun's reforms were not very successful, as some scholars say he was "too high-handed and tactless". Not only that, but his policies did not have a lasting effect, as once Gojong came of age in 1874, he forced the Daewongun into semiretirement and undid many of his reforms.

Foreign policy

The Daewongun's foreign policy was rather simple, as Cumings describes it: "no treaties, no trade, no Catholics, no West, and no Japan". He instead maintained an isolationist policy.

The Isolation Policy was a policy made to isolate Joseon from all foreign forces except for China which he believed to be the strongest. He tried to refuse Russia's quest to open Joseon's ports to them by using France, but France refused to help - causing the 1866 Byeong-in Persecution. He was involved in the General Sherman incident as well. The Isolation Policy became more entrenched in 1868 when, German merchant Ernst Oppert attempted to take hostage the bones of the Daewongun's father in order to force him to open Korea to trade; and even further so after the 1871 American attack of Gwanghwado.

The Isolation Policy provided immediate benefits of fortifying Korean patriotism as well as protecting their culture of Confucianism. The Heungseon Daewongun was able to protect Joseon from cultural imperialism and westernization and thus protect Korea's heritage from it. However, because he refused to engage in international relations entirely, there was a limited choice of market and slim opportunity for an industrial revolution to occur. Indeed, the Daewongun wanted to avoid engagement with the West - which would have been inevitable if Western countries were allowed to trade freely - as it would erode government influence. The Joseon Dynasty had a strict social hierarchy: the wealth of the yangban nobility resting on the backs of sangmin farm labourers and tenants; the Daewongun wanted to prevent the collapse of this hierarchy as, despite his fame for his fairness and support of civilization, the emancipation of the sangmin would mean the ruin of the yangban, his own class.

The international relations of Joseon worsened as the Daewongun adopted increasingly desperate and harsher measures in order to repel Westernization. The Daewongun made the choice of protecting the world he knew by trying to shut out foreigners, at the cost of delaying development and modernization, and to keep Korea a hermit kingdom. Many Koreans state that had he chose to engage with foreign countries as his daughter-in-law Queen Min advocated, the Japanese rule of Korea could have been avoided. However, others state that the ten years of the Isolation Policy was too small a part of the Joseon Dynasty to derive such a statement from.

Retirement

In 1874, King Gojong came of age. His wife, Queen Min, influenced his decision to "assume the full measure of royal responsibility", an action that forced the Daewongun into semiretirement.

Return to power

The Daewongun enjoyed a brief return to power during the Imo Incident in 1882. On the second day of the mutiny, a group of rioters were received by the Daewongun, "who reportedly exhorted them to bring down the Min regime and expel the Japanese". King Gojong asked his father, the Daewongun to come to the palace. The Daewongun’s appearance, escorted by 200 mutineers, "put an immediate end to the wild melee." Gojong gave the Daewongun "all the small and large matters of the government" and thus the Daewongun resumed his rule. Both Japanese and Chinese forces headed towards Korea to put down the rebellion, and Ma Chien-chung, a Chinese diplomat in Korea, decided that it was time to remove the Daewongun.

The Chinese had three reasons they wanted to remove the Daewongun: First, he attempted to overthrow the pro-Chinese Min faction. Second, "he created a situation which invited the Japanese troops to Korea, thus precipitating the danger of a military conflict between Japan on the one hand and Korea and China on the other." And third, "the Taewongun [Daewongun]-inspired disturbance threatened the foundation of a lawfully constituted government in a dependent nation".

Ma arrested the Daewongun on the charge of disrespect to the emperor for "usurping the power which the emperor had invested in the king of Korea". However, as he was the father of the king, he was dealt with leniently. One hundred Chinese soldiers escorted the Daewongun to a waiting Chinese warship, and from there to Tianjin.

Return to Korea

In the fall of 1885, the Chinese returned the Daewongun to Korea, "despite strong objections from the queen and her followers".

Gabo Reform

In 1894, the Japanese were strengthening their hold over Korea. They needed someone amenable to them to be a leader in Korea during the Gabo Reform. They approached the Daewongun as a potential leader. When he agreed, on 23 July Japanese soldiers liberated him from the house arrest Gojong had placed him under. In exchange for his help, the Daewongun asked for a promise that if the reforms succeeded, "Japan will not demand a single piece of Korean territory". The soldiers took him to the palace, where they approached the king. The Daewongun reproached King Gojong and announced that he would be taking over.

The Japanese became nervous after placing the Daewongun in charge, as he seemed interested "only in grasping power and purging his opponents and did not see the need for a reform policy". By September 1894, the Japanese decided that the Daewongun was not to be trusted. By early October, it became clear that "the plan to use the Taewongun [Daewongun] as a vehicle for the reform program had misfired". A Japanese statesman, Inoue Kaoru, was sent to Korea as the new resident minister, where he told the Daewongun, "You always stand in the way," and forced the Daewongun to promise that he would "abstain from interference in political affairs".

Involvement in Queen Min's Death

In 1895, Japanese officials in Korea were plotting the removal of Gojong's wife, Queen Min. Miura Gorō, Inoue Kaoru's successor as Japanese advisor to the Korean government, and Sugimura Fukashi, a secretary of the Japanese legation, planned the attempt. The two decided to involve the Daewongun in the plot, and after making inquiries, learned that he was "indignant enough to plan a coup" and would cooperate with them. On 8 October 1895, early in the morning, Japanese policemen escorted the Daewongun to the palace. His involvement from that point on is unclear, but on that morning, Japanese agents assassinated Queen Min.

Death

The Daewongun died in 1898.

• Father: Yi Gu, Prince Namyeon (22 August 1788 - 19 March 1836) (이구 남연군)
  • Grandfather: Yi Byeong-won (6 April 1752 - 11 November 1822) (이병원)
    • Adoptive Grandfather: Yi Jin, Prince Eunshin (11 January 1755 - 29 March 1771) (이진 은신군)
  • Grandmother: Lady Jeong of the Yeonil Jeong clan (연일 정씨)
    • Adoptive Grandmother: Lady Hong of the Namyang Hong clan (1755 - 29 March 1821) (남양 홍씨)
• Mother: Princess Consort Min of the Yeoheung Min clan (26 June 1788 - 1831) (군부인 여흥민씨)
  • Grandfather: Min Gyeong-hyeok (1746 - 1815) (민경혁)
  • Grandmother: Lady Han of the Cheongju Han clan (청주 한씨)
• Consorts and their Respective Issue(s):

1. Grand Internal Princess Consort Sunmok of the Yeoheung Min clan (3 February 1818 - 8 January 1898) (순목대원비 민씨)
   1. Yi Jae-myeon, Prince Imperial Heungchin (22 August 1845 - 9 September 1912) (이재면 흥친왕)
   2. Emperor Gojong of Korea (8 September 1852 – 21 January 1919) (대한제국 고종)
   3. Unnamed daughter (? - 1869)
   4. Unnamed daughter (? - 1899)
2. Gye Seong-wol (계성월)
   1. Yi Jae-seon, Prince Waneun (1 August 1842 - 27 October 1881) (이재선 완은군)^
   2. Unnamed daughter (? - 1869)
3. Chuseon (추선) (? - 1885)
4. Lady Seo (? - 7 January 1914) (서씨)
5. Jin Chae-seon (1842 - ?) (진채선)

• Portrayed by Yoo Dong-geun in the 2001-2002 KBS2 TV series Empress Myeongseong.
• Portrayed by Chun Ho-jin in the 2009 film The Sword with No Name.
• Portrayed by Lee Beom-soo in the 2012 MBC TV series, Dr. Jin.
• Portrayed by Kim Nam Gil in the 2015 film The Sound of a Flower.