KJC Korea
Journal Central

During the Shilla dynastic period, to say that only males exerted political power is not valid. Males did hold the majority of political power, but females also took roles in doing political activities. In fact during the Shilla Dynasty, it was common for females to hold some of the highest political positions. For example, in the case of a king being incapable of properly exerting power due to a reason such as young age, a woman such as the king’s mother have taken power in place of the king. Throughout the Shilla Dynasty, even as the political power of females decreased, females continued to share high power in the hierarchical system under the king. Females were granted official governorship posts and noble titleships. It’s important to understand that females being involved in highly influential political positions was unique only to the Shilla Dynasty. In fact, it was during the Shilla Dynasty that a Queen held power.

This study tried to find out the womon’s political power in Koryo dynasty. So specially this article analysed the political participation of king Chung-ryol(忠烈)’s wife, princess Je-guk-dae-jang(齊國大長公主). As for a preliminary step this study looked into the grounds of marriage conclusion between Koryo and Yuan. The next chapter, this article examined the change of Hu-bi-je(后妃制) in Koryu. Early period in Koryo a king gained many wives[polygyny] but the latter term monogamy were prevalent in royal familly. A queen come from Yuan became the only king’s legal wife(嫡妻) and she possessed the higher status than the other royal harems. Finally this study looked into the political participation of king Chung-ryol’s wife. Princess Je- guk-dae-jang(齊國大長公主) was the most fervor politician of all queens in Koryo dynasty. She was benefited of her interest in politics, the permission of king(her husband) and the influence of her maiden home. So she engaged in many political activities. But there was a limit. Her political activities only remained in wife’s assistance and remonstrances. In this point of view she wasn’t beyond woman’s limitation in pre-modern period.

The last Queen of Chosun Dynasty(Empress Myungsung) is one of the most famous women in the long Korean History. She married King Kojong in 1866 and died in 1895 by the barbarian assault of the Japanese soldiers and civillians just after the Sino-Japanese war. Her political power was paramount to anyone in the Royal palace except for the King Kojong for almost 30 years in the last part of 19th century. This paper focuses to research the political power and sacrifice of the last Queen of Chosun Dynasty(whose title was changed to Empress Myungsung by the royal decree in 1897). The writer uses royal letters of hers which have been collected in recent years from the offsprings of the Yeohung Min’s family and also uses other domestic and foreign materials. This paper concludes that Empress Myungsung’s role in the palace was integrated to support politically and diplomatically her husband, King Kojong(Empress Kojong in 1897). Even though she was so intelligent, smart and powerful in the palace court, she did not act without King Kojong’s authorization. However the viewpoint of historiography of Confucian scholar’s and Japanese colonial scholar’s has distorted her image as well as those of King Kojong and the famous regent Taewonkun. That has been the worst sacrifice of her since her tragic death in 1895. It also means the distortion of modern Korean History.

The era of modernity means, in political domain, the general spread of the sense of citizenship among whole people in a country. We can observe same phenomenon among Korean women in Korea during the Japanese rule. In fact, the process of nation-building was begun in the late 19th century Korea. In the beginning of the 20th century, modernity oriented reformers maintained including of Korean women to the subjects of the State. They noticed an importance of women’s role in the nation-building. And Korean women, traditionally excluded from political and social domain, could be included to the nation by some means. Korean women received education and they could be literate. And they also participated in social and economic activity. Finally, it could be possible to organize politically influential groups among Korean women. These phenomena contributed to change women’s identity. They were not simply confined to the role of house keeping as before. They came to have identity of political subject during nation-building process. Even the Korea were deprived of the political liberty by Japan, Korean women could get to know the value of citizenship via participation to nationalist struggle. This experience made them prepare nation-building after Korea’s Independence from Japan.

Two opinions exist regarding the characteristic of local governance system of Jagiso which is deeply concerned with proving its uniqueness. One opinion is that So including Jagiso was directly connected with the central authorities in terms of governance system as a separate administrative district from general Gunhyeon(郡縣), and the other opinion is that it was set up in the villages(村) of general Gunhyeon and thus, under the control of not the central authorities but Gunhyeon. As a result of reviewing the literatures and evidences in a critical manner, however, the former is deemed to be proper. Recently, an opinion is strongly rising that the headquarter of So(所) and the hereditary functionaries of So did not exist in So including Jagiso(瓷器所). However, seen from the inscription of Celadon Inkstone with ⌈Sinchuk(辛丑)⌋ inscription, there is no room for doubt that they existed in Jagiso. The headquarter of So consisted of the head and the vice head in the hereditary functionaries, Saho(司戶), Sabyeong(司兵) and Sachang(司倉) in order like general Gunhyeon. For Daeguso(大口所), a representative Jagiso, the members with family name Seo(徐) dominated the headquarter of So, successively holding official duties of the hereditary functionaries of So. In the Goryeo Dynasty, Jagiso had been run in multiple numbers at the early stage, while it had increasingly turned to Daeguso as the production and tribute payment of celadons were discontinued in Jagiso except Daeguso according to the government’s intention at the later stage. Such Jagiso maintained the system of So and paid the three kinds of taxes(三稅) to the government even if they lost the function as Jagiso.

This study is made to consider how the way of succession of memorial service was determined, through a family of Jeong, whose family origin was Cheongjoo in the late Chosun dynasty. Especially I observed the second way of succession of memorial service when the eldest son dies without sons. In this case there are two opposite systems with confrontation. One is that the second son succeeds to the right as a substitute of the first son and the other is that the adopted son of the first son after he dies succeeds to the memorial service. According to studies so far, it is generally said that the second son succeeded the memorial service in early Choson Dynasty but a son of the first son who was adopted after the second son dies succeeded the service in the late Chosun dynasty. In the case of the Jeong family, whose family origin was Cheongjoo, however the second son succeeded the memorial service even in the 18th century. Lawful normative, economical and social factors might be at work in this situation. That is, the system of succession of memorial service is not only determined by the normative factors but also by various fixed factors, so there was different proceedings depending on circumstances. Especially, like Jeong family which was famous and reputed, the community’s public opinion could affect the way of succession of the memorial service. Even though the succession of memorial service was regulated by laws, there was no formula in the way of succession of memorial service because it was performed in the private domain.