By Mark Peterson
In continuing the theme I wrote on last week, that of unusual incidents recorded in the Sillok, the official history of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom, today I want to write about an unusual episode discovered in the Sillok by my colleague, Milan Hejtmanek, who retired recently from Seoul National University.
The story Milan tells is available on YouTube at the Academy of Korean Studies site called Societas Koreana. There, several scholars have recordings of important lectures they have given. It is similar to what some universities call the "Last Lecture" series, meaning not that it is really your last lecture, but it is the sum of much of a career of work distilled down to its most important parts and presented in an hour-long format. I have a lecture there: #61. Milan's is #58.
Milan's lecture is marvelous. He covers many important aspects of the Sillok ― the kind of record it was, its reliability, its compilation, its suppression by the Japanese in the early 20th century ― and in fact, the near total destruction of the record during the Japanese invasion of 1592-98 ― and its modern publication and even translation now available in modern Korean, and a new project of translating it into English.
Milan and I were students in grad school at Harvard some years ago ― I am 'seonbae' (his senior), he is 'hubae' (my junior). And he has always been a wonderful colleague who delights in discovery.
The incident I want to record here today is something that few scholars have found, and maybe Milan is the only one who has written or spoken about it. It concerns women who were given to the Ming court of China as part of the "Tribute Trade" with China.
The date is early Joseon, and the Ming court was more demanding than it later came to be, and was on the heels of the Mongol court that also traded in Korean women. In fact, one of the palace women that was sent to the Yuan court (the Mongol court of China) became the mother of the emperor and she was given great honors despite not being Chinese or Mongol.
The date was 1424, early Joseon and also early Ming. The story does not exist in any Chinese history, and is dramatic in that it was probably the last case of human sacrifice in China. But the record found its way into the Sillok through the most unusual set of circumstances.
The Ming emperor died. He was the Yongle Emperor, the third of the dynasty, and the most powerful (typically in a dynasty the third of fourth ruler is the most powerful ― King Sejong was the fourth king of Joseon, for example). He had a retinue of women numbering perhaps 1,000, but his favorites were his Korean women, sent from the third king of the Joseon court, King Taejong.
Two women were sisters, and they were not from a low-born families, but from one of the most prominent families of the 15th century, the Cheongju Han family. The older sister and younger sister of a powerful court official, Han Hwak (1400-59) were among the palace women that the emperor preferred. The older sister and a Lady Choe were among the 30 favorites who were selected to die to accompany the deceased emperor in death.
Lady Han as she was about to be hanged, just before the table on which she stood was kicked away, said, "Mommy, I am going, I am going." The "mommy" she called to was not her mother, but the older servant who had been sent to China to accompany her.
The night before she died, Lady Han met the new emperor, Hongxi, and begged him to let her dear old servant return to her homeland, Korea. The emperor, apparently in unusual sympathy for the soon-to-die, alien, woman, agreed. And thus Kim Huk, the servant to the emperor's courtesan, was able to return to Korea.
Her story was recorded in the Sillok. But, Milan reports it cannot be found anywhere else ― not in Korea, and not in China. The absence of the story in China probably reflects the fact that this was apparently the last of the cases of "setee," as it's called in some places ― killing of queens and palace women to attend the king when he dies. As such, it may have been an embarrassment, and was therefore suppressed and excluded from court records.
But there is its, hiding in the Korean Sillok. An unusual gem that reveals the appeal of Korean women in early Ming court, the relationship between China and Korea, the secrecy of certain events, and finally the revelation of the event.
Thank you, Milan, not only for this discovery, but for being such an excellent scholar of the Sillok and of Korean history.
Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.
 |
The story Milan tells is available on YouTube at the Academy of Korean Studies site called Societas Koreana. There, several scholars have recordings of important lectures they have given. It is similar to what some universities call the "Last Lecture" series, meaning not that it is really your last lecture, but it is the sum of much of a career of work distilled down to its most important parts and presented in an hour-long format. I have a lecture there: #61. Milan's is #58.
Milan's lecture is marvelous. He covers many important aspects of the Sillok ― the kind of record it was, its reliability, its compilation, its suppression by the Japanese in the early 20th century ― and in fact, the near total destruction of the record during the Japanese invasion of 1592-98 ― and its modern publication and even translation now available in modern Korean, and a new project of translating it into English.
Milan and I were students in grad school at Harvard some years ago ― I am 'seonbae' (his senior), he is 'hubae' (my junior). And he has always been a wonderful colleague who delights in discovery.
The incident I want to record here today is something that few scholars have found, and maybe Milan is the only one who has written or spoken about it. It concerns women who were given to the Ming court of China as part of the "Tribute Trade" with China.
The date is early Joseon, and the Ming court was more demanding than it later came to be, and was on the heels of the Mongol court that also traded in Korean women. In fact, one of the palace women that was sent to the Yuan court (the Mongol court of China) became the mother of the emperor and she was given great honors despite not being Chinese or Mongol.
The date was 1424, early Joseon and also early Ming. The story does not exist in any Chinese history, and is dramatic in that it was probably the last case of human sacrifice in China. But the record found its way into the Sillok through the most unusual set of circumstances.
The Ming emperor died. He was the Yongle Emperor, the third of the dynasty, and the most powerful (typically in a dynasty the third of fourth ruler is the most powerful ― King Sejong was the fourth king of Joseon, for example). He had a retinue of women numbering perhaps 1,000, but his favorites were his Korean women, sent from the third king of the Joseon court, King Taejong.
Two women were sisters, and they were not from a low-born families, but from one of the most prominent families of the 15th century, the Cheongju Han family. The older sister and younger sister of a powerful court official, Han Hwak (1400-59) were among the palace women that the emperor preferred. The older sister and a Lady Choe were among the 30 favorites who were selected to die to accompany the deceased emperor in death.
Lady Han as she was about to be hanged, just before the table on which she stood was kicked away, said, "Mommy, I am going, I am going." The "mommy" she called to was not her mother, but the older servant who had been sent to China to accompany her.
The night before she died, Lady Han met the new emperor, Hongxi, and begged him to let her dear old servant return to her homeland, Korea. The emperor, apparently in unusual sympathy for the soon-to-die, alien, woman, agreed. And thus Kim Huk, the servant to the emperor's courtesan, was able to return to Korea.
Her story was recorded in the Sillok. But, Milan reports it cannot be found anywhere else ― not in Korea, and not in China. The absence of the story in China probably reflects the fact that this was apparently the last of the cases of "setee," as it's called in some places ― killing of queens and palace women to attend the king when he dies. As such, it may have been an embarrassment, and was therefore suppressed and excluded from court records.
But there is its, hiding in the Korean Sillok. An unusual gem that reveals the appeal of Korean women in early Ming court, the relationship between China and Korea, the secrecy of certain events, and finally the revelation of the event.
Thank you, Milan, not only for this discovery, but for being such an excellent scholar of the Sillok and of Korean history.
Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.
![[INTERVIEW] Asia expected to be key driver of ESG growth: Deloitte ESG Partner](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/87802ead2db34304ae4b653f8982cbb4.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Lee Jun-hyuk unrecognizable in 'The Roundup: No Way Out'](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/77a9da6df7da4284adbee249a87307c1.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
