This week's second blog is going to be a long delayed second installment of Korean history, with a bit of cultural analysis mixed in.  Earlier in the term I wrote about the Silla Dynasty, which ruled for 1,000 years and was the first to unify the Korean peninsula under one rule.  Each of the students in our Introduction to Korean History course had to make a minimum 10 minute presentation on any topic about Korean history.  Mine was a breif comparison between a few things between Korean, Japanese and Chinese history.  One of the most interesting things I've learned in the term, which was part of my presentation, was that Silla was the only of the Three Kingdoms to have female rulers.  More to the point Silla is the only dynasty in Korean history to have women who ruled on their own.

This means that they weren't the wife of a king who died prematurely, or dowager queens.  They actually were chosen to succeed the previous ruler to the throne regardless of their gender.  First and foremost of the Silla queens (and pictured above) was Queen Seondeok, originally Princess Deokman.  The image is from a 2008-09 TV drama aired on MBS about her life, which attests to how important she is in Korean history. 

Her father King Jinpyeong had only daughters and Deokman was the eldest and according to legend the most capable for the role of monarch.  Notably she was said to have sharp perception borderlining on precognition; these may be legends based on actual events, later exaggerated to make them seem more grand.  In one case as a youth she saw a painting of a peony flower along with its seeds from China, and deduced that it while it was beautiful, it was a shame that it had no scent.  After taking the throne during a time of war with Baekje, she deduced the location of an enemy attack.  This came when a large number of white frogs were making a racket out by the Jade Gate pond during winter.  Seondeok took it as an omen that a large number of Baekje troops (the frogs) would attack from the northwest of Silla (white meant west in astronomy) in the Women's Valley (women favored the Jade Gate).  When she sent troops there, they captured 2,000 Baekje soldiers.

Not only does Seodeok stand out due to these legends, but also because of what she accomplished.  Under her rule the first astronomical observatory in the far east, Cheomseongdae, was constructed.  During her reign from 632-647 CE, she often found herself dealing with warfare of varying sorts - yet another war with Baekje to the west and an open rebellion against her rule at home.  Yet she still managed to oversee the construction of many Buddhist temples and strengthen diplomatic ties to China.  A main rebellion used 'female rulers cannot rule the country', and was crushed by the Queen's supporters; other rebellions occured but were also short lived.  To inspire the devotion of military men meant that she was certainly a fit ruler despite what later, more Confucian histories would say of her.

Interestingly she was succeeded to the throne by her cousin Jindeok, who herself was succeeded by the third and final queen of Silla.  Never would there be another series of female monarchs in Korea like this, or anywhere in eastern Asia for that matter.  Korea being today still culturally based on Confucian and neo-Confucian thought, they stand out even more as a reminder that things were not always that way.  So why is it that women were able to ascend to the throne in Korea?

Until the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) Buddhism and not Confucianism was the man philosophical influence on Korean thought.  This meant that men and women had more equal rights legally since the hierarchy of woman subordinate to husband and lower classes to lord is much more Confucianist.  Women could still divorce their husbands through the early Joseon period.  In Silla, where Buddhism was really big, it wasn't uncommon for women to take the head of a household.  So a woman as ruler was unprecedented at the national level but not that peculiar. 

 Learning this sort of thing is definitely something I couldn't do in the USA without some kind of narrowly focused course.  At the beginning of this semester one of my goals was to learn more about Korean history as opposed to the heavy Sino-Japanese focus offered in Asian history courses in America.  That at least has been accomplished, as I now have learned quite a lot about the early portions of Korea's long history.  My favorite kingdom has become Silla for all kinds of reasons, and these esteemed ladies are just another reason for thinking that way.