명성황후 인식의 변화와 평가 = A Study on the Change of Evaluation and Recognition about Empress Myeongseong of Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

It has been over 100 years since Japanese brutally assassinated Empress Myeongseong. Korean had not known about the truth of her Japanese assassins due to the data distortion by Japanese historians before various documents and data were discovered.Recently interest about Empress Myeongseong has been increased but the systematicstudy about it has not been enforced comparatively.
Therefore, this study tried to examine Myeongseong objectively regarding domestic and international political conditions in the end of 19th century.
The future Queen and Empress Myeongseong's parents passed away when she was 9. She married to King Gojong when she was 16 in 1866. Even though she was from the powerless aristocratic clan, he was able to secretly from a powerful fraction against Daewon-gun as soon as she reached adulthood. She was engaged in recurrent power struggles with Daewon-gun. In the later 19th century, it was very dramatic era by the Western power and weakness of existing social and political system. While Daewon-gun tired to control over the country with isolation policy, Empress Myeongseong tried to be a politically active and open country. After Japanese-Chinese war, Japanese aristocrats favored an immediate invasion of Korea. There was intervetion from other powerful nations and her strong willed political power resulted in Japanese assassination. Japanese government was behind the assassination and enforced the distortion and negative evaluation about it. Therefore, Empress Myeongseong had been recognized negatively due to the distortion. However, the evaluation about her has been changed by a recent discovery and study by historians. In addition, the negative recognition about her has been changed by the verification of foreigners who met her. It was believed that her ambition made King Gojong powerless and she tried to control over the country. But it was found that King Gojong was not powerless and supported her. Her political activity was managed by King Gojong and she was a political representative for him and she helped him about the decision-making. She was once recognized as a greedy and wrong-willed lady due to the distortion and lack of data about her. But it was examined that she was a generous and wise lady by a new released data about her. Historical evaluation can change along with the flow of time. She was recognized by the Confucian's point of view. Now, she should be evaluated as an outstanding politician and diplomat.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 서언 = 2
• Ⅱ. 명성황후의 일생 = 5
• 1) 출신과 성장 과정 = 5
• 2) 대원군과의 대립관계 = 8
• 3) 乙未事變 = 13
• Ⅲ. 行錄을 통해 본 명성황후 = 34
• 1) 명성황후의 정권장악에 대한 재견해 = 34
• 2) 행록을 통해 본 고종의 명성황후에 대한 인식 = 39
• Ⅳ. 명성황후 인식의 변화 과정 = 45
• 1) 일본에서의 명성황후 시해사건에 대한 인식 = 45
• 2) 서구기록을 통해 본 명성황후 인식의 변화 = 53
• 3) 명성황후의 평가와 앞으로의 연구 방향 = 60
• Ⅵ. 결어 = 81
• Ⅶ. 참고문헌 = 85
• Abstract = 87