Park Du-eul (朴杜乙, 8 November 1907 – 3 January 2000) was the wife1 of Lee Byung-chul, founder of the Samsung Group. Her family seat was Suncheon.
Life
Park Du-eul was born on 28 November 1907 in Dalseong County, Daegu, in Korea under Japanese rule, as the fourth daughter of Park Gi-dong, a descendant of the martyred minister Park Paengnyeon. Owing to her father, a scholar in the Confucian tradition and a descendant of Park Paengnyeon, and her mother, who was known as "Mrs. Gyodong," Park Du-eul spent a strict childhood. She was reportedly pretty and generous, and was commonly called by the affectionate nickname "Duri." It is said that when she was fifteen, a monk who came to a temple to collect alms told her, "Young lady, you will meet a man who will either be a king or as wealthy as a king, and become the mistress of his inner household." If this anecdote is true, the monk's prediction came true. Park Du-eul later married Lee Byung-chul, the founder of Samsung, in 1926 at the age of 20.
Stories passed down
There are very few official records about Park Du-eul. This stands in contrast to the detailed accounts of her husband, Lee Byung-chul, which are available through his autobiography, novels, and memorial collections. In fact, it may be unsurprising, since the traditional life of a wife who supported her husband was so thoroughly that of a shadow. Even Lee Byung-chul reduced his mentions of Park Du-eul in his 286-page autobiography to just a few sentences.
My first impression of her was that she was a healthy woman. She bore three sons and five daughters, and for over half a century we have lived helping each other. My wife, too, was raised in a family that revered Confucianism and learned traditional feminine virtue, so she has devoted herself wholeheartedly to household affairs while avoiding outside activities as much as possible. She is well versed in etiquette, and our family's affairs, both large and small, are harmonious. To this day she has never once taken care to dress up or groom her appearance, and she is far from extravagant. I always feel grateful to my wife, who has never wavered in her discipline of self-cultivation, family management, and governance."
The most detailed record of Park Du-eul is in the book written by her eldest son, Lee Maeng-hee. Known as the "ill-fated crown prince" who ceded the succession of the Samsung Group to his younger brother Lee Kun-hee, he recorded stories about his mother in his 1993 memoir Stories Buried Away (묻어둔 이야기).
Although my father's family was said to be wealthy in the area of Uiryeong, if we compare them, my maternal relatives in Dalseong at the time seem to have been more prosperous landowners. In my childhood, I often heard my mother say, "When I came to my husband's family, the house was so small and they looked so poor." According to the elders of the family, the paternal side was also wealthy, close to owning 3,000 seok of land, and were Neo-Confucian scholars who even established a private academy, but there were talks that it was a "marriage that tilted to one side" because her maternal family's status was so high. In fact, it is said that when my mother came to her husband's family, she brought several servants, including a maid.
Family formation
Park Du-eul gave birth to her eldest daughter, Lee In-hee, in 1929, while her husband Lee Byung-chul was attending university, and went on to become the mother of three sons and five daughters. In his autobiography Hoam Jajeon, Lee Byung-chul recorded that he had four sons and six daughters. Of these, three sons and five daughters were born to him and Park Du-eul, and one son and one daughter were born to him and a Japanese wife.
Park Du-eul, who had married into the household of a wealthy family in Uiryeong as the youngest son's wife and had lived without difficulty while raising children, faced a hardship. Her husband quit university and spent his days idly drinking and gambling. The reason he left university was his health. At the end of the second semester of his first year, he contracted severe beriberi. When he entered his second year, he took a leave of absence and tried to recover his health, but there was no improvement at all. Eventually he gave up on his studies and returned home without contacting anyone beforehand.
After resting in his hometown, he soon regained his health, but now the problem was that he had nothing to do. Lee Byung-chul tried to soothe his empty heart by gambling with his friends. The gambling often continued until the middle of the night, and he would return home exhausted, so during this period Hoam was in despair. On that day too, he returned home late at night after playing bone-tile gambling. Lee Byung-chul, who was 26, was already the father of three children. The moment he looked at his children sleeping peacefully, all kinds of thoughts crossed his mind. He felt deep self-reproach that he had wasted so much time. "I must set an aspiration. Independence activism is good, and so is becoming an official, and so is starting a business. But saving the people from poverty is urgent." Lee Byung-chul resolved to stake his life on business, and he later looked back on that time like this:
"There can be no such thing as wasted time in anyone's life. Suppose an unemployed man spent ten years doing nothing and simply passed the time fishing. Whether those ten years were wasted or not depends on what that person does ten years later. While fishing, he must have felt something. Depending on how he accepts his unemployed life and how he endures it, his inner self will change greatly. Even if he spends his days in vain, something will remain. The problem lies not in spending time in vain, but in how he accepts it and turns it into a precious experience in the future."(From the biography of Hoam, "Life Is Like Flowing Water")
Family relations
- Father: Park Gi-dong (1885 – ?)
- Mother: Kim Mi-gwon (1882 – ?)
- Spouse: Lee Byung-chul (1910 – 1987)
- Eldest daughter: Lee In-hee (1929 – 2019)
- Son-in-law: Jo Un-hae (1925 – 2019)
- Grandson through daughter: Jo Dong-hyeok (1950 – )
- Grandson through daughter: Jo Dong-man (1953 – )
- Grandson through daughter: Jo Dong-gil (1955 – )
- Eldest son: Lee Maeng-hee (1931 – 2015)
- Daughter-in-law: Son Bok-nam (1933 – 2022)
- Second son: Lee Chang-hee (1933 – 1991)
- Grandson: Lee Jae-gwan (1963 – 2022)
- Grandson: Lee Jae-chan (1964 – 2010)
- Grandson: Lee Jae-won (1966 – )
- Granddaughter: Lee Hye-jin (1967 – )
- Second daughter: Lee Sook-hee (1935 – )
- Son-in-law: Gu Ja-hak (1930 – 2022)
- Grandson through daughter: Gu Bon-seong (1957 – )
- Granddaughter through daughter: Gu Mi-hyeon (1960 – )
- Granddaughter through daughter: Gu Myeong-jin (1964 – )
- Granddaughter through daughter: Gu Ji-eun (1967 – )
- Third daughter: Lee Sun-hee (1939 – )
- Former son-in-law: Kim Gyu (1934 – )
- Fourth daughter: Lee Deok-hee (1940 – )
- Son-in-law: Lee Jong-gi (1936 – 2006)
- Third son: Lee Kun-hee (1942 – 2020)
- Daughter-in-law: Hong Ra-hee (1945 – )
References
- "Women, Become Mentors of the World" (여성이여 세상의 멘토가 되라), by Heo Mun-myeong, featuring the founder's wife Park Du-eul, Olive M&B (30 September 2010, pp. 224–242)
Notes