New Evaluation of Emperor Gojong of Joseon

 This is the story of Lee Tae-jin (57), a professor of Korean history at Seoul National University, who attempted to "review King Gojong" in his 1997 thesis "Criticism of King Gojong's cancerous theory." Professor Lee recently released a book titled "Re-examination of the reign of King Gojong," which has compiled research results. The Re-examination of the Gojong Era, consisting of a chief describing the overall flow of the history of the Gojong Dynasty and nine papers, is quite different from the general perception of history that the people have had so far. ▲Criticizing the theory of King Gojong's cancer, investigating the falsehood of the Gapsin Coup, and the truth of the dispatch of soldiers during the Imogunate ▲The establishment of the national flag, urban renovation, and the establishment of the Imperial Immunsa Temple. Of course, these contents contain the risk of being seen as a "glorification" of the refracted history at the time as much as a positive interpretation of modern Korean history. This is because criticism of King Gojong's anachronistic reform toward absolute monarchy ahead of the 20th century is still not easy among existing academia and the general public, such as an evaluation that contrasts the times facing each other with different Yeongjo and Jeongjo. Q: Why did you re-examine the reign of King Gojong? "Through this book, I wanted to provide a new framework for understanding the reign of King Gojong. The trend of modern history described from the perspective of the Sihye theory of Japanese aggression, such as Yangyo, closed country, open port, Gapsin Coupon, and Agwan Pacheon, has encouraged defeatist historical awareness among the people. In this situation, it is difficult to create a positive history, only deepening self-deprecation but self-disgusting beyond the level of reflection." - Gojong is viewed as a renaming monarch. What is the basis for this? "We bought about 40,000 Chinese books of 3,000 different kinds, including the establishment of the national flag and introductions to Western culture translated into Chinese characters, and tried to use them as modern conversation assets. Looking at the messages of foreign reporters, King Gojong's analysis of the overseas situation is by no means unknown to the world. An example is the fact that he accurately predicted the Russo-Japanese War and promoted neutral countries through arms purchase contracts at the time." -Was Gojong political power enough to overcome the upheaval? King Gojong's opposition to Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905 was adamant, according to the 'Korean special envoy's ambush submitted to the Japanese king. King Gojong is not supposed to respond to Japan's request to appoint a former minister of government authority, the first step for joining, and there is also a request to delay the decision only for two to three days through the Minister of the Palace. The core of King Gojong's request to Hirobumi Ito to "leave at least the form of diplomatic rights" was to leave a foreign ministry to appeal for overseas public opinion. Since then, efforts to internationally appeal for invalidation of the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905 have provided a glimpse of King Gojong's diplomatic strategy. King Gojong, as a monarch of a weak country, tried to protect independence through mutual checks by the powers of invasion. King Gojong's execution of Agwanpacheon Stream, which saw Japan, which won the Sino-Japanese War, dampened by Russian-led interference with the three countries, was a careful judgment in the worst situation, including the murder of civilians." Since King Gojong started his home in 1873, the port was opened in 1876, and then the enlightenment policy began in 1880. Although the king-centered flowering policy was a "wasteful year" for 15 years, from Imogunran in 1882 to Agwanpacheon, which moved to the Russian legation in 1896, was hindered by checks by foreign powers such as China and Japan, it steadily promoted the flowering policy. For this reason, I think the conventional interpretation of political history as the period of Min's ostracism is wrong." -From Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905 to his abdication, Gojong was simply a scarecrow. "No, in order to save our country, which has turned into a battleground of great powers such as the invasion of Japan, we secretly operated an information agency under the guise of a telecommunications company called Imperial Immunsa. On the surface, the agency served as a modern telecommunications company that publishes daily newspapers to the public and prints important national books, but on the inside, it served as a national intelligence agency. The agents mainly detected sympathy from high government officials and foreign diplomatic officials in Hansung, espionage by state criminals and foreigners, and anti-national activities by schools, religions, and social organizations. Among the contents of the regulations, there are 10 articles referring to Japanese people and Japanese institutions, so their activities were focused on preventing Japanese imperialism from invading the Korean Empire. In particular, it is presumed that King Gojong was in charge of the campaign to nullify the Eulsa Treaty before he was forced to abdicate." -During the Donghak Revolution, King Gojong claimed that he did not request the dispatch of the Qing army. "The dispatch of the Qing army was not voluntarily requested by King Gojong, who was frightened by the uprising of the peasant army, but by the coercion of Wei An Sky, who was stationed in Joseon in the wake of the Imogun's rebellion and interfered in domestic affairs. King Gojong was never in an anti-farm position at the time. King Gojong was respected and loved by the people, not hated. On the contrary, ministers criticized King Gojong." -The Gapsin Coup, which ended in power on the 3rd, was evaluated as an incident. What is the basis? The main provincial forces, consisting mainly of Hanseong aristocrats such as Kim Ok-kyun, Park Young-hyo, and Hong Sung-beom, may be the visionaries of enlightenment, but they recklessly pushed ahead with their lines and eventually put a big burden on the country. The meaning is good, but the method and process itself are already anti-reform." (Professor Lee revealed that the leading force, Kim Ok-kyun, helped King Gojong's letter to escort the king into the palace.) - Some of the independent association's pro-Japanese groups led the civil rights movement. The period during which King Gojong normalized the monarchy and attempted full-fledged reform was eight years when the Korean Empire was established the following year with the opportunity of the Agwanpacheon Stream and attempted the Gwangmu Reform. The civil rights movement, such as the independent association's opening of parliament, the public-private partnership, and the Japanese government instigated pro-Japanese group." "When the Korean Empire strongly showed the possibility of self-modernization through the Gwangmu Reform in 1897, Japan felt a sense of crisis and began to spread King Gojong's incompetence theory." After that, it was officially raised by the Japanese in the process of forcibly abdicating King Gojong in 1907, and after forced annexation in 1910, it mobilized writers and scholars in their own country to bury King Gojong's achievements. Now, it is necessary to reinstate King Gojong's modernization efforts and diplomatic strategies, which were deleted under the evaluation of incompetence."