Min Yong-ik (閔泳翊, 1860 – 1914, Shanghai, China) was a Joseon politician. He first served as a moderate Enlightenment politician, but around the time of the Gapsin Coup he became a key figure in the Min clan's maternal-relative regime in the late Joseon period. He was from Gyeonggi Province and belonged to the family of Empress Myeongseong's birth family. His courtesy name was Uhong (遇鴻), and his art names were Unmi (雲楣) or Jungmi (竹楣), Wonjeong (園丁), and Cheonsimjukjae (千尋竹齋). His family seat was Yeoheung.
Life
Birth and Family Background
Min Yong-ik was born in 1860 as the only son of Min Tae-ho. His family rose to become a core power in central politics when the daughter of his seventh-generation ancestor Min Yu-jung was installed as the second queen consort of King Sukjong, but after his great-grandfather served as Minister of Rites, the family gradually lost its influence. When Min Yong-ik was born, Min Tae-ho was barely surviving on bean porridge while living in his younger brother's house.1 Heungseon Daewongun's principal wife, the Grand Lady of Yeoheung, existed, but she was distantly related to Min Tae-ho and Min Gyu-ho, and the Daewongun himself disliked the royal in-laws, so the family could not benefit much from this connection.
As a result, the family was so poor that when Min Tae-ho's father, Min Yong-ik's paternal grandfather, died, they could not afford a coffin and had to carry out the funeral by wrapping his body in a straw mat. The first sign of light for the struggling Min family appeared in 1866, when Min Yong-ik was seven years old, as the daughter of Min Chi-rok was installed as queen. Min Gyu-ho, Min Yong-ik's uncle, who had been one of the few successful candidates in the civil service examinations before the queen's installation, suddenly rose to the center of power, and in 1870 his father also passed the civil service examination and embarked on an official career, rising rapidly.1
Min Yong-ik spent his childhood as the descendant of a declined yangban family, but in his teens his status rose to that of a descendant of a powerful aristocratic family. In 1874, Min Seung-ho, the elder brother of Queen Min (Queen Min), was killed when a mysterious parcel delivered to his home exploded. Although he had been adopted, Min Seung-ho was born to Min Chi-gu and adopted by Min Chi-rok, and he was the only blood relative of Empress Myeongseong.
Head of the Min Political Family
Gojong posthumously gave Min Seung-ho the title Chungjeong. However, since Min Seung-ho had no son to succeed him, the queen decided to reject closer relatives and make Min Yong-ik, the son of Min Tae-ho who was a somewhat more distant relative, her adopted heir.2 Min Tae-ho opposed this, and his younger brother Min Gyu-ho threatened his elder brother: "How could we dare to disobey the will of Heaven (the queen's wishes)? Would it not be good to send a son as an adopted heir and share in wealth and honor together?" As a result, Min Tae-ho's son Min Yong-ik was adopted into the family of Min Seung-ho, and Min Gyu-ho subsequently became Minister of Personnel and Commander of the Military Affairs Office.2
When Min Seung-ho, who had been wielding power as the head of the Min royal in-laws, suddenly died in an explosion, people suspected Heungseon Daewongun. However, because Min Seung-ho and his son had died at the same time, members of the Min clan competed and schemed against one another to have their own sons designated as Min Seung-ho's adopted heir after his death. Yet the queen had already selected Min Yong-ik as her brother's posthumous adopted heir in advance as a precaution.1 Min Tae-ho insisted that, though they were relatives, he could not give away his only son as an adopted heir, but he was ultimately compelled to agree after repeated persuasion from Min Gyu-ho and the queen.1 Min Tae-ho lost his son from his arms but gained power in his grasp. The queen cherished Min Yong-ik, the only blood relative who would carry on the ancestral rites for her father. Although he was her nephew in terms of kinship, the age difference was only nine years, so she treated him as a close younger brother.1
Political Activities
Moderate Enlightenment Activities
During the reign of Gojong, after passing the civil service examination in 1877, he supported the Enlightenment policy of "Eastern Ways, Western Technology" and took responsibility for managing the Special Skills Troops (Byeolgigun). He served as Vice Minister of Personnel, Joint Chief of the Office of Military Affairs (1881), Senior Official of the Military Border Affairs Surveillance Office, and Assistant Minister of the Office of Foreign Affairs. During the Gapsin Coup of 1884, he was identified as a major figure of the Min royal in-laws, and his left face was slashed by a sword, his right ear was cut off, and he was struck by 33 sword wounds, but he survived thanks to treatment by Allen.
Diplomatic Activities
As Provisional Assistant Minister for Negotiating Commercial Affairs, he was dispatched to Tianjin to negotiate customs affairs. In May 1883, when Foote, the American minister to Korea (駐韓), took up his post in Joseon, the following July Gojong dispatched the Bobingsa (報聘使, Goodwill Mission) to the United States, when Min Yong-ik was 23 years old.1 Min Yong-ik became the chief envoy and plenipotentiary of the Bobingsa and led the delegation to visit the United States.3 After crossing the Pacific Ocean, starting from San Francisco, they traversed the American continent, and then in New York met with President Chester A. Arthur of the United States and delivered the royal letter. They toured various places, including Boston, and returned home by way of Europe.
He was a patron of the moderate Enlightenment faction, and in 1883 he also became Chief Director of the Hyesang Gongguk (惠商公局), an office that regulated Bobusang peddlers. In October 1884, when the Chin-gun Yeong (親軍營) was established, he served as Right Battalion Commander (右營使). He came into conflict with the pro-Japanese radical Enlightenment faction, and when Kim Ok-gyun and other radical Enlightenment leaders carried out the Gapsin Coup in 1884, he was the first to be struck by an assassin's sword and seriously wounded.4 He was rescued by the German Möllendorff, treated by the American doctor Allen, and narrowly recovered. He also once secretly dispatched assassins to kill Kim Ok-gyun and Seo Gwang-beom, who were in exile in Japan.
Exile and Death
Afterward, in 1885 he served as Vice Minister of the Military Affairs Office, Minister of War, Mayor of Hanseong, and Minister of Personnel, Justice, and Rites. In 1886, he opposed the Joseon government's pro-Russian, anti-Qing (親露拒淸) policy and secretly informed Yuan Shikai of it, but when his own position became awkward, he fled into exile in British Hong Kong.
Later he returned home, and in 1889 became Chief Commissioner of the Office of Royal Discipline (判義禁府事), and in 1894 Senior Official of the Hyesunggyeong (宣惠廳). When the Korean Empire was established, in 1898 he became a Councillor of the State Council (議政府 贊政). When the Eulsa Treaty was concluded in 1905, he became involved in a plot to depose Gojong and fled to Hong Kong. Even after hearing of the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, he did not return home. He stayed in Shanghai and died there in 1914.
Other
At one point, at the urging of Austria-Hungary, he also served as ambassador to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was skilled in running-cursive script and was also adept at ink orchid painting.
Family
- Paternal grandfather: Min Chi-sam (閔致三)
- Adoptive grandfather: Min Chi-rok (閔致祿, 1799 – 1858)
- Adoptive father: Min Seung-ho (閔升鎬, 1830 – 1874)
- Adoptive mother: daughter of Kim Jae-jeong (金在廷)
- Son: Min Jeong-sik (閔庭植, 1897 – 1952)
- Grandson: Min Byeong-hae (閔丙海, 1925 – 1945), missing
- Grandson: Min Byeong-ho (閔丙湖, 1926 – )
- Granddaughter: married Hong Gi-hyeon (洪基賢), of the Namyang clan
- Granddaughter: married Kim Gwang-il (金光日), of the Gwangsan clan
- Granddaughter: married Ko Seok-jun (高錫俊), of the Jeju clan
Works in which Min Yong-ik appears
References
- Annals of King Gojong (고종실록)
- Annals of King Sunjong (순종실록)
- Ilseongrok (일성록)
- History of the Gojong Era (고종시대사)
Footnotes