Empress Taejo

Empress Taejo (: 태조황제, : 太祖皇帝) (15 May 1076 – 16 September 1161, reigned 4 January 1110 - 16 September 1161) was a Jeongmian empress who served as the founder and first ruler of the Kim dynasty.

She became the Empress Consort of Emperor Seongjo following his reunification of the country in 1091, and began to accrue a large amount of power following a stroke by the Emperor in 1002, making large decisions and eliminating her rivals. Following his death in 1110, she declared herself the first empress of the Kim dynasty.

During her fifty-one years as empress regnant, the third-longest of any Kim monarch, she oversaw the development of jeonggeul, consolidated and centralized imperial power, expanded the size of the empire to the south, and encouraged trade and scientific development throughout the empire.

Taejo has been noted for overseeing the development of jeonggeul early in her reign, as well for being one of the only females to hold the title of hwangje in Jeongmian history and the only female Sinju monarch to start her own dynasty. In the modern era, she has been the subject of numerous works of popular culture, being featured in various books, video games, and shows.

Names and titles
In Jeongmian history and literature, Empress Taejo was known by various names and titles. A difficulty in English translations from Sino-Korean is that English translations tend to specify gender (as in the case of "emperor" versus "empress" or "prince" versus "princess"); whereas, in, words such as hu (后, "sovereign", "prince", "queen") or hwangje (皇帝, "imperial supreme ruler", "royal deity") are of a.

"Empress"
Various titles have been translated into English as "empress", including "empress" in both the sense of and. Generally the emperor was male and his chief spouse was given a title such as Hwanghu (皇后), often translated as "empress". Empress Taejo served as both Empress Consort as Empress Hyohyeon and Empress Regnant as Empress Taejo.

Early life and background


Empress Taejo was born as Kim Hyohyeon on May 15, 1076 in Andong to Kim Dan-won of the Dongcheon Kim clan and Lady Eo of the Maheung Eo clan. Kim Dan-won, her father, came from a long line of prosperous military nobles and at the time was serving as the primary general to Lee Song-heon in his wars to reunify the country.

Due to the family's noble and wealthy status, she had several servants to perform daily tasks for her, allowing her a large amount of free time, much of which was spent on studying, encouraged by her father, which was highly unusual for the time. When not out fighting, he would personally instruct her on a variety of subjects and teach her Tianqian characters. It is believed that Kim Dan-won loved Hyohyeon especially and took special care of her as the only child of the family. At home, she possessed access to a trove of books regarding politics, government, morality, the military, and other topics. She had little interest in spending her time doing needlework, preparing tea, and other activities expected of women at the time. At the age of 14, she caught Emperor Seongjo's eye and was married to him following his announcement of a new Jeongmian dynasty, becoming Empress Hyohyeon.

Rise to power and empress consort
Her inability to perform many domestic tasks related to being Empress and the stillbirth of her first child in 1092 resulted in her falling from favor and the Emperor favoring various concubines and other consorts, although she remained the de jure main Empress consort of the Emperor. She was nearly demoted from being Empress after Consort Oh bore the Emperor a son in 1094, which Hyohyeon had failed to do so at the time. It was only due to the influence her father had with the Emperor and the imperial court that she was able to remain in her position. During this initial period as Empress Consort, she was reported to have suffered from immense stress and depression. During her time removed from the spotlight, however, she was able to continue on focusing on her hobbies of reading and studying as much of her responsibilities as Empress were reduced.

In late 1096, she bore the Emperor a son, Prince Lee Wang, the future Emperor Sindeok, which greatly improved her position at the court and among the royal family. Following the birth of her son, she and her allies at the court, including her father, began to engage in retaliation against those who had argued for the Empress' demotion for initially having been unable to bear a son. The officials Oh Heon-u and Nam Cheol were executed in 1098 after accusations of treason against the Emperor.

During the autumn of 1102, Emperor Seongjo had a stroke, and Hyohyeon requested that only she be allowed to tend to him, which was accepted. The Emperor remained weak throughout the rest of his life, and she grew increasingly influential in making governmental decisions, soon making most of the major decisions of government in the name of the Emperor. Although her highly influential father had died earlier in the spring of that year, she grew to wield immense influence and power on her own. While the Emperor was recovering from the immediate effects of his stroke, she accused his favored concubine, Consort Oh, of having not only cursed him with the stroke through witchcraft, but also of having cursed her father with his fatal illness as well. Hyohyeon then had her executed, while Consort Oh's son and Seonjo's firstborn Lee Jeong was sent into exile. Asserting her position as Empress, she forced numerous other rivals and suspected rivals into exile.

During this period, Empress Hyohyeon gave heavy support to the growing and reformist Sinsa, or New Scholar faction, led largely by Lee Taek, a young and handsome official whom she was engaged with in a romantic and sexual relationship, to much controversy. Members of other factions of the court were largely suppressed and the Sinsa grew increasingly in control of the imperial examination system and government ministries.

Starting from her time as consort, Taejo greatly promoted and advanced laws which raised the status and treatment of women in Jeongmi. Forced prostitution was outlawed, and several brothels were closed down during her reign. Women were allowed greater property, marriage, and divorce rights, and the death penalty was instituted for rape.

On January 4, 1110, Emperor Seongjo passed away suddenly while in decent health. Contemporary accounts from her rivals claim that after making multiple major government decisions on behalf of the Emperor, she grew power hungry enough that she poisoned the Emperor herself. However, the true circumstances of his death remain mysterious.

Early reign
Upon the death of Seongjo, Hyohyeon called for a twenty-seven day period of mourning, but also stated that rather than having power pass onto her son, she would rule as Empress Taejo of the Kim dynasty. This caused a deep amount of controversy, not only due to the declaration of a new dynasty, but also due to the fact that the Empress was a woman and seemed to be betraying her deceased husband. Many prominent and able officials resigned, including the Prime Minister.

Lee Taek was appointed as the new Prime Minister, a controversial move to even some members of the Sinsa faction. During this period, the Sinsa faction obtained complete control of the government, and numerous reforms and projects were undertaken. Among these were the development of, the payment of labor in cash as opposed to corvée labor, and direct government loans paid to farmers during the planting season.

A major issue of Taejo's early reign was regarding her succession. As the founder of a new dynasty, there was significant debate on whether the throne should pass onto her son Lee Wang or onto her nephew Kim Cheol. Several ministers argued that the passing of the throne should go to a Kim rather than a Lee, and for a period she seriously considered appointing Kim Cheol as her successor. However, after an incident in which Kim Cheol greatly embarrassed and enraged her, she instead had him exiled on the insistence of those who believed that Lee Wang should succeed the throne. However, it was decided that Lee Wang would take on a new name as Kim Yeongjong, with both his new surname and being taken from his mother's side.

Jeonggeul


Empress Taejo profoundly influenced the development of Jeongmian history with the introduction of jeonggeul. Before its creation, Chinese characters were used to write in Jeongmian, which was often difficult due to heavy grammatical differences. While early systems that attempted to phonetically transcribe Jeongmian through Chinese characters had existed early in the past, they were often complex and difficult to use.

In 1122, under the support of the Empress and the dominant Sinsa faction, the new alphabet was introduced. While it was not adopted for official usage, in quickly achieved popularity with women and writers of fiction. Jeonggeul faced fierce opposition from much of the country, who viewed Tianqian characters as the only legitimate writing system, and the only writing system suitable for higher-level, philosophical thought.

Later reign
Even in her advanced age, Taejo continued to maintain an interest in state affairs and the recruitment and promoting of talented officials. However, she began to heavily rely on the official Sil Cheol-in, whose Seongju Sil clan became increasingly powerful.

In 1054, she sent a squadron to capture Ilmyeong island, which was being used as a base by Resan pirates for raiding the Jeongmian coast. An Seong-dan, leader of the Ilmyeong pirates, was given official recognition as governor of the island in exchange for ceasing attacks on Jeongmi.

Death and burial
Taejo grew seriously in the winter of 1161, and remained bedridden for the rest of the year. During her illness, She died on the evening of 16 September, 1161, and was succeeded by her son, Emperor Sindeok. He had her interred in a joint burial alongside his father Emperor Seongjo.

Poetry
An educated woman, Empress Taejo wrote several works of poetry even as a young child.

Legacy and evaluation
Empress Taejo's long reign led to greater acceptance of future Jeongmian female leaders. Traditional accounts of her have been mixed, praising her for her abilities in managing the state, but also vilifying her for her ruthlessness and many of the actions she took in both obtaining and maintaining power.