Political
coup in Joseon in 1623
Gwanghaegun or Prince Gwanghae (Korean: 광해군; Hanja: 光海君; 14 June 1575 – 7 August 1641), personal name Yi Hon, was the 15th monarch of Joseon. The second son of King Seonjo, he was deposed in a coup d'état led by his nephew, Prince Neungyang (King Injo). As an overthrown king, he did not receive a temple name.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “Injo coup”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gwanghaegun or Prince Gwanghae (Korean: 광해군; Hanja: 光海君; 14 June 1575 – 7 August 1641), personal name Yi Hon, was the 15th monarch of Joseon. The second son of King Seonjo, he was deposed in a coup d'état led by his nephew, Prince Neungyang (King Injo). As an overthrown king, he did not receive a temple name.
Gwanghaegun was the second son of King Seonjo; he was born to Concubine Gong, a royal consort of the first senior rank, who died a year after his birth. He had one elder brother.
When Sengoku Japan, managed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, invaded Joseon in the Imjin War (1592–1598), he was installed as Crown Prince. When the king fled north to the border of the Ming, he established a branch court and fought defensive battles. Gwanghaegun acted as the de facto ruler of Joseon beginning in 1592, commanding battles and taking care of the reconstruction of the nation after the devastating wars in place of old and weak King Seonjo.
Although it conferred prestige on him, his position remained unstable. He had an elder but incompetent full-brother, Prince Imhae (임해군; 臨海君), and a younger but legitimate half-brother, Grand Prince Yeongchang (영창대군; 永昌大君), who was supported by the Lesser Northerners faction. Fortunately for Gwanghae, King Seonjo's abrupt death made it impossible for his favourite son, Yeongchang, to succeed to the throne.
Before King Seonjo died in 1608, he designated Gwanghae as his official successor and ordered his advisers to draft a royal decree. However, Yu Yeong-gyong of the Lesser Northerners faction hid the document and plotted to install Grand Prince Yeongchang as king, only to be found out by the head of the Great Northerners faction (대북; 大北), Chŏng Inhong of the Seosan Jeong clan. Yu was executed immediately.
After the incident, Gwanghae tried to bring officials from various political and regional backgrounds to his court, but his plan was interrupted by Greater Northerners, including Yi I-cheom and Chŏng Inhong. Then, Greater Northerners began to remove members of other political factions from the government, particularly the Lesser Northerners. In 1613, the Greater Northerners moved against Grand Prince Yeongchang; his maternal grandfather, Kim Je-nam, and his maternal uncles were found guilty of treason and executed, while Yeongchang was exiled and executed in 1614. At the same time, Greater Northerners suppressed the Lesser Northerners. In 1618, with the help of the kungnyŏ Kim Kaesi, Grand Prince Yeongchang's mother, Queen Inmok, was stripped of her title and imprisoned along with his younger half-sister, Princess Jeongmyeong. Gwanghae had no power to stop this even though he was the official head of the government.
Despite his poor reputation after his death, he was a talented and pragmatic politician. He endeavored to restore the country and sponsored the restoration of documents. As a part of reconstruction, he revised land ordinance and redistributed land to the people; he also ordered the rebuilding of Changdeokgung along with several other palaces. Additionally, he was responsible for reintroducing the hopae identification system after a long period of disuse.
In foreign affairs, he sought a balance between the Ming Empire and the Jurchen people. Since he realized Joseon was unable to compete with Manchu military power, he tried to maintain a friendly relationship with the Jurchens while the kingdom was still under the suzerainty of Ming, which angered the Ming and dogmatic Confucian Koreans. The critically worsened Manchu-Ming relationship forced him to send ten thousand soldiers to aid Ming in 1619. However, the Battle of Sarhū ended in Manchu's overwhelming victory. The Korean General Gang Hong-rip lost two-thirds of his troops and surrendered to Nurhaci. Gwanghaegun negotiated independently for peace with the Jurchen, and thereby avoided another war. He also restored diplomatic relations with Japan in 1609, reopening trade through the Treaty of Giyu with the Sō clan of Tsushima, and sent his ambassadors to Japan in 1617.
In the domestic sphere, Gwanghaegun implemented the Daedong law, which facilitated tax payment for his subjects. However, this law was implemented only in Gyeonggi Province, the largest granary zone at the time, and it took a century for it to be extended across the entire kingdom. He encouraged publication to accelerate reconstruction and restore the kingdom's former prosperity. Many books were written during his reign, including the medical book Donguibogam, and several historical records were rewritten.
In 1616, tobacco was first introduced to Joseon, and it soon became popular amongst the yangban.
On April 11, 1623, Gwanghaegun was deposed in a coup by the Westerners faction that was crucially justified by Queen Inmok who was freed from prison during the coup. The coup directed by Kim Yu took place at night, Gwanghaegun fled but was captured later. He was confined first on Ganghwa Island and then on Jeju Island, where he died in 1641. He does not have a royal mausoleum like the other Joseon rulers. His and Lady Ryu's remains were buried at a comparatively humble site in Namyangju in Gyeonggi Province. The Westerners faction installed Neungyanggun as the sixteenth king Injo who promulgated pro-Ming and anti-Manchu policies, which resulted in two subsequent Manchu invasions.
Gwanghaegun is one of only two deposed kings who were not restored and given a temple name (the other one being Yeonsangun).
He remains a polarizing figure among historians. Historian Oh Hang-nyeong strongly criticized the king, writing that he "practically used up the country's entire budget solely for the construction of palaces, his policies were flawed and moreover, he was absent in many of the cabinet meetings. Gwanghaegun failed to communicate with his servants and with his people." However, historian Lee Duk-il praised the king, did that he "indeed made some political errors, but during his reign, the famous oriental medical book 'Donguibogam' was published and he created the tax system 'Daedong law' that was enforced for the benefit of the people." Despite the controversy over the king's handling of domestic policies, most historians have a positive assessment of Gwanghae's acts regarding foreign affairs.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Injo coup”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.