Heungseon Daewongun

Yi Ha-eung, known by the title Heungseon Daewongun – “Grand Prince Heungseon” – was the father of King Gojong and for ten years the de facto ruler of Korea. He governed with an iron hand, sought to renew the state of the Yi dynasty along Confucian lines and to close it to foreigners. After losing power in 1873, he spent a quarter of a century fighting to regain it from his daughter-in-law, Queen Min (posthumously Empress Myeongseong). In that struggle he was ready to ally himself with anyone who could help him, including the Japanese, whom he had earlier regarded as barbarians. In 1895 it was his name that the assassins who killed the queen made use of. The Daewongun’s fate shows how internal feuds at the Korean court opened the way for Japan to take control of the country.

A poor relation of the dynasty

He was born Yi Ha-eung in Seoul on 24 January 1821, the son of Prince Namyeon, a distant descendant of King Injo. He belonged to the royal family, but to an impoverished branch without influence. In the first half of the 19th century Korea was ruled by the queens’ relatives from the Andong Kim clan, and members of the dynasty who might become candidates for the throne were suspected and persecuted. Yi Ha-eung survived by playing the harmless rake. He was an educated Confucian, a respected calligrapher and painter, and his paintings of orchids were sold to aristocrats. At the same time he was quietly building ties with the widow of a crown prince, Queen Jo, a rival of the Kim clan.

Regent

In January 1864 King Cheoljong died without issue. The dowager Queen Jo, the most senior figure at court, chose Yi Ha-eung’s eleven-year-old son as successor and adopted him. The boy ascended the throne as Gojong, and his father received the title of daewongun, reserved for a king’s father who had not himself reigned. Formally the regency was exercised by the dowager queen; in reality the Daewongun ruled.

His reforms were intended to restore the strength of the monarchy. He removed the Kim clan from power, prosecuted corrupt officials and taxed the yangban aristocracy, which had hitherto escaped such burdens. He closed most of the private Confucian academies, the seowon, which were centres of factionalism and tax privilege, leaving only 47 of them by 1871. His most costly undertaking was the rebuilding of Gyeongbokgung Palace, destroyed during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. The work lasted from 1865 to 1868. It was financed by compulsory “voluntary” contributions and by issuing coins at an inflated face value, which caused inflation. The rebuilt palace was meant to symbolise the rebirth of the dynasty. Less than thirty years later Queen Min was murdered within its walls.

A closed country

The Daewongun’s foreign policy was simple: no treaties, no trade, no Catholics, no West and no Japan. At the beginning of 1866 he launched a great persecution of Catholics. Nine French missionaries were executed, among them Bishop Siméon-François Berneux, along with an estimated eight thousand Korean believers. In the autumn of 1866 a French squadron under Admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze, sent in reprisal, occupied Ganghwa Island for several weeks but withdrew after setbacks. That same year, near Pyongyang, local people and soldiers burned the American merchant ship General Sherman and killed her crew. In 1868 the German merchant Ernst Oppert tried to steal the remains of the regent’s father in order to force the country open. In 1871 an American squadron attacked the forts on Ganghwa, but Korea refused to negotiate and the Americans sailed away. The Daewongun then had stone steles set up throughout the country bearing an inscription proclaiming that not to fight the Western invaders was to make peace with them, and to advise peace was to betray the country.

In the short term, repelling the French and the Americans strengthened his position. In the longer term, isolation cut Korea off from the knowledge and technology that Japan was at the same time eagerly absorbing after the Meiji Restoration. The Daewongun also refused to recognise the new Japanese government, because its letters used titles which, in Korean eyes, belonged to the Emperor of China alone. In Tokyo some politicians then called for war with Korea.

Enemy of his daughter-in-law

In 1866 the Daewongun chose a wife for his son from the Min clan, an orphan with no influential relatives. He misjudged her character. The queen built a faction around herself, and in 1873, when Gojong announced that he would rule in person, the Daewongun had to step aside. The Min clan came to dominate the court, and in 1876 Korea signed a treaty with Japan opening its ports. From then on, the struggle against his daughter-in-law and against the opening of the country became one and the same. In 1881 a plot was uncovered to place his eldest, illegitimate son, Yi Jae-seon, on the throne. The Daewongun’s involvement was never proved, but his son was executed.

In July 1882 soldiers of the old units, who had not been paid, mutinied. The Daewongun supported the mutineers, and when they burst into the palace he took power, announced the death of the queen – who had in fact fled – and reversed the reforms. He ruled for just over a month. China, fearing that the mutiny would provoke Japanese intervention, sent troops. Chinese envoys invited the Daewongun for talks, arrested him and took him by ship to Tianjin and then to Baoding, where he spent three years in seclusion. He returned to Korea in 1885, when China, alarmed by the queen’s rapprochement with Russia, wanted a counterweight to her in Seoul. He was brought back by Yuan Shikai, who took up the post of Chinese resident. The queen, however, kept her father-in-law in isolation.

Japan’s instrument

On 23 July 1894, at the start of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese soldiers occupied the royal palace and raised the Daewongun to power. The old prince was meant to lend credibility to a pro-Japanese government. He accepted the role but had no intention of being a puppet. He opposed the Gabo Reforms and, according to historians’ findings, secretly communicated with Chinese commanders and with the Donghak rebels against the Japanese. In the autumn of 1894 the new Japanese minister, Kaoru Inoue, removed him from government and made him promise not to meddle in politics. In the spring of 1895 his grandson Yi Jun-yong was arrested on a charge of conspiring against the king, and the Daewongun himself was in effect placed under surveillance at his residence outside the city.

That is precisely why, in the autumn of 1895, the Japanese minister Gorō Miura, who was preparing the attack on the queen, turned to him. The Japanese wanted the attack to look like a coup by the Daewongun and mutinous Korean soldiers. The Daewongun’s own role has been disputed for more than a century. According to Japanese sources, including the account of the adviser Ryūnosuke Okamoto, on 5 October he agreed to take part in the coup in return for conditions laid down by the Japanese. Some Korean historians believe that on the night of 7–8 October he was taken to the palace by force. What is known is that before dawn on 8 October a Japanese group collected him from his residence at Gongdeok-ri and that he entered the palace together with the attackers. The queen was murdered, and the Daewongun took power on his son’s behalf. Two days later an edict was issued in the king’s name demoting the dead queen.

Last years

His triumph was short-lived. On 11 February 1896 Gojong fled to the Russian legation and the pro-Japanese government fell. The Daewongun lost what remained of his influence and lived on the sidelines until his death. In January 1898 his wife died, and he himself died on 22 February 1898 at the age of 77. Gojong, who had not forgiven his father for his part in the attack on the queen, did not attend his funeral. According to accounts, however, he wept so loudly that he could be heard beyond the palace walls. In 1907, after Gojong’s abdication, the new emperor, Sunjong, conferred on his grandfather the posthumous title of daewonwang, “grand king-father”.

Significance

The Daewongun is a contested figure in Korea. Some see him as a reformer who purged the state of corruption, strengthened the monarchy and defended the country against foreigners. Others believe that his policy of isolation squandered the decisive decade in which Japan was becoming a modern power and Korea could still have caught up. What is beyond doubt is that his long war with his daughter-in-law split the court into factions that sought help abroad. Because of it, Chinese troops entered Korea in 1882 and Japanese troops in 1894. In 1895 the Japanese used him to murder the queen. Ten years after his death Korea was a Japanese protectorate, and after the annexation of 1910 it became a colony and the base from which Japan moved on Manchuria in 1931.