Joseon
Template:cleanup The Joseon Dynasty usually prefixed with the title "Great"(also known as Chosun or Choson), the House of the Junju Yi-Shi, The Royal Family of the Joseon Dynasty, or Ishi Wangjo, was the final ruling Imperial dynasty of Korea lasting from 1392 until 1910. It was founded by the Korean clan Yi in the Korean peninsula, preceded by the Goryeo Dynasty.
Officially founded by Yi Seonggye, the leading General of the Armed Forces during the overthrow or coup d'etat of the last king of the Goryeo Dynasty. The name Joseon comes from the ancient founding dynasty of Korea, "Gojoseon", which was founded circa 4800 BC. The 600 year old dynasty came to an end with the Japanese invasion and political manipulation backed by internal betrayal and treason. A living descendent of the Joseon Dynasty, His Imperial Highness, the Crown Prince Yi Seok remains despite Japan's past efforts to assimilate and end the pure Korean royal blood line. A more closer-in-bloodline royal Prince exists, Prince Yi Gu, but his preceding father Crown Prince married a Japanese woman, thus making him impure.
History
Beginnings
"Note: This section is historically inaccurate and gramatically problematic. For example, there was no said-alliance with China, the Mongols never really annexed Korea, and the word superlative is used inappropriately. Furthermore, Yi Seongye's coup was not a Chinese backed coup-- in fact, Ming-Joseon relations would be strained until the early 15th Cenutyr. Someone please fix this article. I will when I have time if no one does it. --thevizier 21:07, 5 May 2005 (UTC)"
The Joseon Dynasty began with an alliance with China to overthrow the Mongols and their superlative cavalry who had invaded Korea in 1231. The royal dynasty at the time, Goryeo, found refuge on Kanghwa island, near current day Seoul after a fight.
Seoul (or Han Yang, later and Hang Sung)at that time was a multiple-rivered city, with tributaries from the Han river, as the old maps indicate. The Mongols annexed Korea during a brief period in the 1370s. Yi Seonggye, in a Chinese alliance under the Emperor's approval and logistics support, returned to start a rebellion against King U, who was the last King under the incompetent Goryeo, and establish the Yi dynasty.
As had occurred numerous times in China, the capital city under King Yi (Wong Yi) was moved to Hanyang-gun, Seoul on the mighty Han river. Under the political situation of that time, King Yi paid tribute to the Chinese emperors: in return extensive trade began, China offered both support, training and protection when required; and the ginseng trade developed, as well as profitable exchanges in medicine, technology and science, and an entire Korean educated Confucian class developed with startling speed.
Early Japanese invasions
In 1592 and 1597 Korea was invaded by Japanese daimyo at the direction of their overlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi and their troops. The war is generally referred to as the Imjin War (임진왜란 壬臣倭亂). Factional infighting in the Joseon court and the inability to assess Japanese military capability, and failed attempts at diplomacy lead to poor preperation on Joseon's part, leading to disastrous military fiascos that left most of the southern peninuslar occupied within months, with both Pyongyang and Seoul captured. Local guerilla resistance however slowed down the Japanese advance and the decisive naval victories by Admiral Yi Sunsin left control over sea routes in Korean hands, severely hampering Japanese supply lines. Eventually, with the help of a large Chinese aid force from the Ming, these invasions were eventually repelled. --thevizier 21:00, 5 May 2005 (UTC)
The following section needs to be better written During the war, Koreans developed powerful firearms and high-quality gunpowder, and the first cannon-bearing ironclad warships in world history. Following these events the kingdom became increasingly isolationist, as its rulers sought to cut off a great deal of contact with foreign countries during the Mongol invasion and vanquishing of the Ming Emperors, and the onslaught of the Manchu invaders who became the Qing Dynasty Emperors. The Koreans, wisely, decided to build tighter borders, exert more controls over inter-border traffic, and wait out the initial turbulence of the Manchu overthrow of the Ming.
As trade continued globally, any assumption of Korea being isolated is utterly an error. Korea had extensive exchange with both China and Japan, up to 50 trade missions a year going to Japan, and extensive trade through Mongolia and northwards, however at times this was limited to missions appointed by the king in order to instill order, and prevent piracy.
Middle Joseon
China after the Ming dynasty collapsed falled into a foreign policy where the new Manchurian rulers, the Qing Dynasty emperors, decided to avoid the creation of foreign trading enclaves on Chinese soil in favour of keeping the traditional entrepot for the foreign hongs in Macau, which handled the tremendous trade in Chinese silks to Japan bringing in massive amounts of silver in return.
The decision being that foreign trade was relegated to the southern provinces, and the northern areas, which historically were the most unstable, were kept safe from the influence of foreigners, and the trade carefully regulated. This decision affected Korea as Korea historically was under the protection of China in the sense of being a "little brother" to the "elder brother" protection of the Emperor: the foreign policy of Korea was to a large extent regulated by China, and so was the foreign trade.
Foreign trade restrictions helped strengthen Korea as without Chinese naval forces the huge wealth of Korea in natural resources, relatively sophisticated technology, ceramics innovations, and the key medicinal trade in ginseng would have been lost to Japanese hands much earlier than it eventually was. At this time a relatively sophisticated economy developed and the first western visitor, Hendrick Hamel, a Dutchman arrived.
More than a century later, in the 17th century, the Manchus defeated the Ming dynasty, and the Korean rulers agreed to pay tribute to the new Q'ing dynasty emperors. Tribute at this time involved two way trade missions with China.
The Manchus themselves shared much with Koreans as the Korean language is linked to the Turkic-Mongolian languages, and the language of the educated classes in Korea was continuously classic Chinese until late in the 20th century. Linguistically as well as intellectually, China had a large interrelation with Korea in all the most important levels: a joint foreign policy, joint trade policy, exchange of technologies, shared religions in Confucianism, Daoism, [[Buddhism], and even folkish animism (both Korea and China have historically believed in the world of the "spirits"); and again joined by the extensive ceramic, ginseng, and horse and weapon trade. Infantry weapons of broadswords and iron fittings were provided by Korean iron mines.
Decline and collapse
In the 19th century tensions mounted between Qing China and Japan and culminated in the The First Sino-Japanese War (갑오전쟁 甲午戰爭, 1894-1895 ), much of it fought on the Korean peninsula. Japan, after the Meiji Restoration 明治維新, had forced Joseon to sign the Kanghwa Treaty Treaty of Kanghwa in 1876 and encroached upon Korean territory in search of fish, iron ore, natural resources, as well as establishing a strong economic presence in the peninsula, heralding the beginning of Japanese imperial expansion in East Asia.
Chinese defeat in the 1894 war led to the Treaty of Shimonoseki Treaty of Shimonoseki, which officially guaranteed Korea's "independence from China" effectively granted Japan direct influence over Korean politics. The Joseon court in 1894, pressured by the encroachement of larger powers, felt the need to reinforce national integrity and declared the beginning of the "The Great Han Empire" (대한제국 大韓帝國), with King Kojong assuming the title of Emperor (황제 皇帝), ostensibly to put himself on the same level as the Chinese and Japanese Emperor in attempt to assert Korea's indepedence. Technically, 1894 marks the end of the Joseon period, as the official name of the state was changed. However, the Yi Dynasty would still reign, albeit perturbed by Japanese intervention, until the Japanese annexation of the Korean peninsula in 1910.
Note: I have not yet had the time to revise much of the remaning section, and in general, this article needs significant revamping. I would have also taken the liberty to delete the section on Yi Seok, as it is poorly written and not very relevant to the topic, but I feel it would be better if someone revised it and moved it to the Yi Seok article.
The growing Japanese influence in Northeast Asia threatened Russia's hegemony in Manchuria and led to the Russo-Japanese Warin 1904. Russia's inability to defend its naval ports, and the collapse of Russia's navy in the historic battle of Port Arthur, in which Japan defeated and indeed destroyed Russia's imperial navy in a decisive surprise attack, led to a great weakening of Korea's umbrella of protection. Japan had advanced strongly enough and determinedly enough to reward its expansionist elements by giving them blanket licences for foreign occupation, leading to continuous and vicious attacks on Korea that were both encouraged and neglected by the West.
England and Europe as a whole, including Germany, had a vested interest in Russia being reigned in; Germans, English and Americans saw that Japan was a rich trade market to be penetrated under a series of forced trade agreements, while China, under the decaying infighting of the late Qing emperors and empresses, and the incredible corruption of a series of exchequers and merchants, literally abandoned their naval defences and left the entire north coast undefended after a series of internal thefts of monies for naval construction. Japan saw this as an opportunity to strike hard on the edges of the north Chinese empire as England struck repeatedly to force the reopening of the opium trade in the south (through the HK "hongs", trading houses such as the Jardines, Sassoons, and the like; and in cooperation with the American traders in their Yankee Clippers fast ships). Indeed there were vast fortunes importing opium fueling lassitude, corruption, and intrigue and simultaneously weakening officials and strengthening merchants with foreign ties in south China, and taking out huge sums of the silver reserves China had been paid for the past three centuries for the silk trade.
The symmetry of the opium wars to the south — England forcing trade in Indian and Afghani opium against the Emperor's edicts — and Japanese naval strikes in the north led Korea to be increasingly seen as a strategic foothold into north China, just as Macau and Hong Kong were Portuguese and English trade enclaves into south China.
Reasons
Note: Half of what is in this section has no direct relevance to the topic at hand. It should be under the Russo-Japanese War if anything. This does not explain the reasons for the decline of the Joseon dynasty at all- --thevizier 21:05, 5 May 2005 (UTC) If China could be broken into two by a matched set of attacks with the collapse of the Shanghai bankers and financiers — who were in the middle — China could be opened to foreign trade once and for all, and permanent trade zones established and dominated by the west and Japan. South China would be hived off to the coastal European powers; central China to the European inland powers; and north China (what eventually became occupied Manchuria) to the Japanese, being taken away from a long history of Russian influence.
That is what did happen towards the end of the 19th century: south China to Hainan Island (and eventually what became Vietnam) became under the military control of Europe; and north China above Shanghai became to be under the military control of Japan. Russia was vanquished to the north; Portugal and Spain were vanquished to the south; and a joint English and American control of south Chinese trade took off to immensely profitable levels. This becoming the era of the famous "clippers" or sailing ships from Boston financiers that led to great fortunes being made in the tea and opium trade, and the importation of huge numbers of Chinese and Korean ceramics into western Europe and America.
In a complicated series of manoeuvres and counter-manouevres, Japan smashed the Russian fleet at the Battle of Port Arthur in 1905. Both the fleets of China and Russia had given Korea sufficient protection to prevent a direct invasion, but this ambuscade of the Russian fleet gave Japan free reign over north China and Korea was left at the mercy of the greatest Pacific naval power of the time in that area: Japan. This was done in a series of wars that had the implicit and continuing help of both Germany and England in designing Japanese warships, assistance in naval strategy, and also in participating in clearing Russian influence on the north Pacific coast, and isolating the Russian navy into Vladivostok.
A naval defeat that became a central factor in the collapse of the Russian navy and culminated in the anarchist movements within the navy that launched the Russian revolution, and the collapse as well of the Russian Imperial monarchy, thus further entrenching after 1917 Japanese power in the region - forcing thirty years later a Russian hegemony to establish control and a buffer zone protecting an exposed flank in the region along similarly with China.
Korea thus became a colony, although designated as a protectorate. By forcing Emperor Gojong of Korea to abdicate his throne and assassinating his wife, Queen Min of Joseon, Japan annexed the country entirely as a colony in 1910.
Emperor Gojong's forcible abdication followed, by some years, the assassination of Queen Min by Japanese mercenaries in 1895.
The event is recalled both in books and at the historical site itself, Cheong'duk Palace in Seoul, with a monument. Queen Min's brutal murder — she was stabbed repeatedly, cut into pieces, and her body descrated and thrown into a fish pond — didn't shock the world powers as it should: with the sack and looting of Seoul at the same time and a suppression of journalists and news staff, the events were not known widely for decades. Ohmynews.com had its journalists find an amazing historical document on this tragedy which has finally been made public at this website.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200501/200501120024.html
Science and culture
Under the reign of the fourth emperor, King Sejong, the Joseon Dynasty sees the development of the Hangul script.
During the Joseon Dynasty, a centralized administrative system was installed based on Confucian yangban scholars who acted as the counsellors to the king, and made up most of the officer class of the imperial army. Scholarship on the Confucian classics expanded with an attending new moral system, as Buddhism's hold on land and its medieval cloistering of scholars were opened up to a new and more citified sophistication based on wider travels and knowledge.
The Joseon Dynasty also presided over two periods of great cultural growth, during which it developed the Joseon culture into a unique, graceful culture of a high standard creating the first Korean Tea Ceremony, Korean Gardens, and extensive encyclopaedias.
Many Korean inventions are from this period, such as the first Oriental sun dial and the world's first water-powered clock. The metal printing press invented during the Goryeo dynasty spread to Japan and China, which previously used the wood-block printing press, during the Joseon Dynasty. In addition, the royal dynasty built several new fortresses, trading harbors, and beautiful palaces.
Economy
The family today
Some elements of the Korean royal family, including the Crown Princes, moved to the United States to raise their families as expatriates within the very dangerous and insecure political climate of the 1950s. At the same time, there had earlier been forced marriages with the Japanese nobility which created controversial issue.
Some relatives of the Joseon Dynasty were encouraged to disperse for the sake of their own preservation, and are now American citizens today, living and working in the United States in the private sectors as ordinary citizens in the Pacific west coast. Others are living in other countries abroad again as ordinary citizens with no privileges. At the same time, providing their names are within the official family registries, they are able to reinstitute Korean citizenship at will.
The current Crown Prince Yi Seok within the context of the Republic of Korea
(Note that there has been debate here on succession issues, as in all monarchy based sites in the 20th century and now; there are still claims of Stuart succession invalidating Queen Elizabeth and her heirs; as well as similar battles fought on other websites; a link will be added on this forthcoming setting forth arguments on succession issues from a variety of historians and legalists.) (The discussion below is extraordinarily unbalanced, and blatantly wrong in a number of places. The Korean Crown Prince and Head of Household is Yi Ku, not his cousin Yi Seok. Yi Ku is the son of the previous Crown Prince, Yi Wu and his wife Yi Pangja. Yi Ku has not named a successor, so as yet there is no heir. While Yi Seok's efforts at cultural preservation are praiseworthy and worthwhile, his claims to be the heir are not really controversial - they're simply wrong. Reference: http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Korea/korea9.htm)
His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince Yi Seok, has after a long period of tribulation and patience, has finally regained his dignity and respect in keeping the Korean royal traditions alive in 2004.
This has surprised many in Korea who did not know that the traditions and values of the Korean Royal Family have indeed been reborn in the 21st century as a valuable link to both the past and the future of Korea and Koreans as a whole.
Increasingly articles in the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Korea Times, interviews on SBS, KBS, MBC, articles in many magazines and newspapers, and citations in the royal websites and databases throughout the world, finally recognized the actuality of a living Korean Crown Prince and his ceremonial role and duties.
Crown Prince Yi Seok, has with great effort worked to preserve the Korean traditions by travelling extensively through Korean and lecturing at schools, reminding the youth of today that indeed there are long lines of greatness in Korea and traditions that are essential to be preserved. He has participated in many public religious services of the national religion, and has played a constant and earnest role in trying to maintain the dignity of his country and his position throughout perhaps the worst times Korea had in its entire history - having suffered both WW2 as a youth, the Korean war as a teen, and also having served in the Vietnam war in action in a notedly aggressive elite Korean commando regiment - "The Tigers" - as an enlisted man. Returning to Korea after the Vietnam war, he found a need to develop a unique role in a society in which he did not exist.
A long period of time passed as he learned the new rules of a new society and struggled to accommodate a new world utterly different from the times in which he was born: a long difficult struggle that mirrored the very hard times all Koreans had in rediscovering their own inner dignity and their own national strength.
HIH the Crown Prince Yi Seok is head of the Yi family, and has a website that indicates what his current assumed duties are. HIH the Crown Prince is, as expected, now a private citizen of the Republic of Korea, who simply has a remarkable history, and as an educator, popular television series host, able musician, father, former soldier and proud Vietnam war veteran, keeper of the traditions, and historian of his family, sees his duties as a valuable contribution to Korean society.
Perhaps few people in the Republic have the ease of manner and the extensive understanding of all aspects of Korean society as HIH The Crown Prince Yi Seok; and few indeed have worked against the odds to maintain Korean traditions going back eight centuries in a way that makes them relevant and important to the next series of generations.
Increasingly he has taken a larger and more high profile role as keeper of those traditions as Korea has become a freer and more open society. And as an examplar of the persistence and strength of the Korean people who have finally triumphed after tremendous times of adversity. His life itself has mirrored in many ways the continued fight for duty and freedom that is uniquely that of the Korean people as a whole in the 20th century in a continued quest for a place in a sophisticated evolving complicated world.
The HIH Crown Prince Yi Seok is currently moving towards establishing a charitable foundation to preserve and continue Korean arts, and towards establishing scholarships in the arts both at home and abroad; and as well in the future to do work with the many Korean orphans at home who he holds dear to his heart, as well as those who have suffered through being homeless. He has concerned himself as well with maintaining essential traditions, and as a host for major historical recreations and events throughout presently the Republic of Korea.
The life of HIH the Crown Prince Yi Seok was made into a tv program on the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), and is available on their website but only in Korean as a realplayer or windows media movie several years ago. It is considered both a moving and difficult tribute to a man who has fought at great lengths to preserve the honesty of his beliefs, and to preserve a great heritage that was almost lost to the Korean people as a whole while all the time keeping in the public eye and the heart of the people.
Imperial Korean history, art, and architecture are currently represented in a series of museums and architectural sites throughout Korea. There have been no major travelling world shows of Imperial Korean antiquities or works of art as few indeed now remain in Korean hands in Korea. It's a matter of fact that one may see more Korean works of art, and pieces from the Imperial collections in the museums of Japan, than exist in either state or private hands in Korea. Cultural exchanges though are in the works.
Gyeongbok Palace is a world heritage site in Seoul, who is the traditional residence among many of the Korean Royal Family. The Gyeonbok Palace and its land and articles are owned entirely by the government of the Republic of Korea, as all other Imperial lands and sites.
The Korean royal family website is to appear in English in early 2005, and is currently available only in Korean at http://cafe.daum.net/epna or as well: http://www.royalcity.or.kr/
About references
The Joseon Dynasty recorded its history as Annals of Joseon Dynasty.
There is presently no official historian of the Korean royal family, and the Imperial records have ceased to be recorded since the Japanese invasions. Occasional references to the Korean Royal Family and its present charities and activities in the arts or in cultural preservation are found on websites on world royalty.
- Standard references used for this site include:
- A Cultural History of Modern Korea, Wannae Joe, ed. with intro. by Hongkyu A. Choe, Elizabeth NY, and Seoul Korea: Hollym, 2000.
- An Introduction to Korean Culture, ed. Koo & Nahm, Elizabeth NJ, and Seoul Korea: Hollym, 1998. 2nd edition.
Webography
Current Joseon history
Current articles on HIH the Crown Prince Yi Seok in English include:
- Wall Street Journal, "Last Korean Prince" (qv. WSJ, subscription required; Google search:"South Korea's last living prince".)
- Korean Royal News (website), at the wwww.Royalty.nu homepage.
- Korea Times, "Korean Prince Living Vagabond's Life Campaigns for Royal Respect", again a sensational article.
- Korea Times, "Last Chosun Prince to settle in Chonju", an article which represents current matters more accurately. 08-26-2004
- Yonhap News, "Last Prince of Joseon Dynasty Settles in Jeonju", an extremely accurate article on royal tourism initiatives in Korea.
- Washington Times, "Korean royalty seeks to restore ancestral pride", a sensational, overly dramatic and romanticized article.
There are several hundreds of other citations in Korean that will be appended in a subsequent hyperlinked entry.