Empress Myeongseongtae (Korean: 명성태황후; Hanja: 明成太皇后; 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. 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.
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. For the most part, the narrative below refers to her as the queen because that was her main title during her lifetime.
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 (r. 1623–1649), whose father was made an adoptive son of Prince Eunsin, a grandson of King Yeongjo (r. 1724–1776).
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. 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.
In the autumn of 1864, Yi Jae-hwang was renamed as Yi Hui (이희) 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.
The future queen was born into the aristocratic Yeoheung Min clan 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 (오희상), 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