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The Murder of Empress Myeongseong of Korea
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The Murder of Empress Myeongseong of Korea
In 2001, the Korean television series Empress Myeongseong became a massive hit in many Asian countries. Empress Myeongseong, also known as Queen Min [闵妃], was the wife of Gojong [高宗], the ruler of Korea from 1864 to 1907. Her real life, explored below using primary sources from the Gale archive China and the Modern World, was actually far more complicated and bloody than it appeared in the historical drama.To get more news about empress wanrong, you can visit shine news official website.
Early Life
In 1851, Min was born into a noble household that had come down in the world. Sixteen years later, she married the 15-year-old Gojong under the arrangement of the Korean King Heungseon Daewongun [兴宣大院君] (1820–1898), or Tai-won Kun—a decision that he regretted for the rest of his life. In the eyes of Tai-won Kun, Min was the perfect wife for Gojong: someone from an aristocratic yet powerless family who could easily be manipulated. However, after reaching adulthood, the seemingly submissive queen started to show her ambition and became the de facto ruler of Korea with her extraordinary political skills and intelligence.The Rise of Japan
The Meiji Restoration [明治维新] initiated in Japan in 1868 transformed the country into a modern military power. With its increased military might, Japan was keen to expand its influence over Korea—a tributary state of the Qing Dynasty at that time—and further assert its military power overseas. Such an ambition toward Korea exacerbated its conflict with China and led to the outbreak of the First Sino–Japanese War in July 1894. As Viceroy Li Hongzhang [李鸿章] commented during his peace negotiations with then Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobum [伊藤博文], “Corea was the real cause of the war [the First Sino–Japanese War]; all Chinese troops have now withdrawn from that country to Manchuria . . . .”
1895, a Year of Significance
1895 was a truly eventful year in the history of Asia. In April, the First Sino–Japanese War was concluded by the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki [马关条约], and the first article of the treaty provided for the independence and autonomy of Korea, thus ending Korea’s tributary relationship with the Qing Dynasty. However, the question is whether this article could guarantee Korea’s true independence and autonomy, or was simply a pretext for Japan to tighten its grip on the country.Meanwhile, Japan wanted to instigate a series of reforms in Korea; however, Gojong and Queen Min seemed reluctant to cooperate, as shown in a letter to the British Foreign Office from then Commander-in-Chief, China Station in March 1895:
Similarly, in May 1895, Sir Ernest Satow, then plenipotentiary of the British government to Japan, wrote in his diary that Japanese reforms were not accepted by the Korean government, and that although Gojong was anxious to launch reforms, he feared that the Korean government would be weakened by Japanese interference.1 This can be found in Volume 5 of Diaries and Travel Journals of Ernest Satow published by Gale.Japan was not the only country that coveted the land of Korea; Russia, too, yearned for the possession of the country due to its geographic significance. A letter to the Earls of Rosebery and Kimberley illuminated the reason: The Russian port Vladivostok [海参崴] was blocked with ice during winter, which paralyzed its trade and railroad extension through Siberia to the Japan Sea. Therefore, Russia needed a port in Korea, which would be “open at all seasons of the year . . . as an outlet for its Siberian and Manchurian trade.”
The Eulmi Incident: Queen Min’s murder
The dawn of October 8, 1895 saw the end of Queen Min’s life. The 44-year-old queen was assassinated viciously, an event known as the Eulmi Incident [乙未事变]. Afanasii Ivanovich Seredin-Sabatin, a Russian architect serving as an aide to the American General William McEntyre Dye in Seoul, gave an eyewitness account of the murder.At around 4 a.m., Sabatin and General Dye were woken up by strange and loud noises from the inner court of the Gyeongbokgung palace [景阳宫] and went there to figure out what was happening—a group of Japanese soldiers had invaded the palace, searching for the queen. It was a truly brutal scene: the Japanese soldiers were “dragging women [Korean ladies in the palace] by the hair of the head, hurling them off the veranda, and kicking them as they fell.”
A couple of hours later, Sabatin sensed that he was no longer safe to stay in the palace and needed to flee. On his way out, he was seized by a Korean official and a group of Japanese soldiers, who asked him where the queen was while dragging him across the courtyard. As Sabatin recounted, “I protested that I did not know, and they were proceeding to handle me pretty roughly when the Japanese [individual] again came up. I appealed to him for protection, and when he had heard what the others had to say, he also asked me in English where the Queen was. I repeated that I did not know and asked for an escort to take me out of the palace.” Eventually, Sabatin was released and managed to escape.