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| The palace in the winter of 1883/84. Robert Neff Collection |
By Robert Neff
It is said that history is written by the victors and their transgressions are forgotten or erased while those of the defeated are amplified or fabricated. An example of this may be the tale of Queen Jeheon and her son.
Queen Jeheon (also known as Yun) was the second wife of King Seongjong (r. 1469-1494). She was a stunningly beautiful woman, so it is quite reasonable to believe that her appearance was what first caught the Joseon monarch's attention. Not only was she beautiful but she was also seemingly intelligent and somewhat stubborn. Some have suggested that this stubbornness may have contributed to her eventual downfall but, if it did, it paled in comparison to her alleged insane jealousy.
It was not uncommon for the king to have several consorts and concubines to attend to his various needs and King Seongjong was no exception. When his first wife died at an early age, his attention fell upon Jeheon and she rose to the favored position of his primary wife. But, shortly after she gave birth to a son in 1476, the king's attention ― and affection ― wandered to a younger woman named Kwon.
This infuriated Jeheon. According to Edward B. Adams' "Through Gates of Seoul", the queen sought the dark powers of sorcery to do away with her rival. Despite the 1472 law banning mudangs (shamans) and Buddhists from entering the city, the queen managed to conspire with a shaman to remove Kwon permanently from the palace.
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| The solitude of the palace in the winter of 1883-84. Robert Neff Collection |
Following the shaman's instructions, "she obtained a bone from a grave site and secretly buried it beneath the king's bedroom." She then pretended to be possessed by an evil spirit and begged her husband to help her. The king, despite his aversion, agreed to allow a shaman to conduct a gut (a ritual) in the palace in an effort to alleviate his queen's suffering.
The shaman quickly arrived and, after much ceremony and chanting, went straight to the hidden bone and revealed it. This, proclaimed the shaman, was the source of the evil plaguing the queen.
"The astonished king asked who was responsible for it, whereupon the mudang, closing her eyes and whirling about, pointed out concubine Kwon. Though insisting that she was innocent, Kwon and her young son were banished from the palace, and [Yoon's] feigned illness suddenly vanished."
Apparently the king still had feelings for Kwon and continued to send messengers to her residence to check on her and her son's health. When the queen found out she was furious.
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| The audience hall of the palace in the winter of 1883-84. Robert Neff Collection |
In 1479, she sent two assassins to murder Kwon and her son. But the assassins were foiled by one of the king's servants. who had been instructed to bring the boy back to palace.
"In the courtyard of Kwon's home this servant discovered the two assassins and after a fierce fight drove them away with a walking staff. Bleeding profusely, he returned to Seoul and reported to the king, who now became even more insistent that Kwon and her son return to the palace. Shortly thereafter, while dining with the queen, the king told her his intention, whereupon she flew into a rage, threw a table of food over the king and scratched his face."
This was too much. Despite being the queen and the mother of the crown prince, her insolence in striking the king could not be overlooked and she was sent into exile.
One can imagine the queen probably did resort to Machiavellian schemes to remove her rivals in palace intrigue, but the tale of the mudang and the bone seems more like a later character assassination than a historical anecdote. Some modern historians believe the queen was removed because her strong will angered the younger king and his grandmother, Queen Jeonghee. The queen was a thorn that had to be removed.
On August 29, 1482, her fate was sealed when an official from the palace arrived at her place of exile and she was presented with a cup of sayak (poison made from monkshood or wolfsbane). Her death probably did not come quickly.
"As she lay dying, the blood-soaked handkerchief from her mouth was given to her mother as a remembrance that when [her son] became king he should avenge her death."
Evil begets evil, as we shall see tomorrow.
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