On the afternoon of September 29, 2006, an extraordinary event was held at the Hilton Hotel in Seoul, South Korea, where an elderly woman, surrounded by more than 50 descendants of the Lee dynasty of Korea, sat on a dragon chair symbolizing imperial power and held a coronation ceremony to officially announce the restoration of the Korean Empire.
The woman was elected queen by the Korean Imperial Family Association, represented the royal family to the outside world and had the power to appoint an heir, and a chief of staff and minister of culture were appointed on the spot. At the ceremony, the old woman shed tears of excitement.
This old woman is Lee Hae-won, and why he wants to restore the Korean Empire begins with the fall of the Lee Dynasty in Korea.
In 1392, Lee Sung-gyu replaced Goryeo to establish the Lee Dynasty of Joseon, which has since existed as a vassal state of China, and the Lee clan can only be called a king and not an emperor.
At the end of the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty was weakening and unable to control Korea, and the Korean royal family was unwilling to continue to use the title of King of Korea, which China had crowned, with the intention of placing china on an equal footing with China.
At that time, the independence movement in Korea was on the rise, and everyone from ministers to commoners hoped that Lee would be able to claim the title of emperor and thus improve the status of the country, and the Lee clan also hoped to improve national autonomy by calling the emperor to get rid of Japanese and Russian control.
In 1897, the Joseon Dynasty Emperor Gojong Lee Hee officially ascended the throne as emperor and changed the name of the country from Korea to Korea, and the Korean Empire was established. Subsequently, Gojong Lee Hee launched the Guangwu Reform, intending to change the backward appearance of Korea in order to achieve the goal of enriching the country and strengthening the army.
However, just changing the name of the country and changing the title of the king to emperor could not change the essence of the feudal dynasty, and the Guangwu reform did not achieve the purpose of enriching the country and strengthening the army, but on the contrary, Japan's aggression against Korea intensified.
In 1910, with the signing of the Treaty of Annexation between Japan and Korea, the Joseon Dynasty officially collapsed, and the Lee clan withdrew from the political arena.
The fate of the members of the Korean royal family later fluctuated several times, and during the reign of Syngman Rhee, the Korean royal family was hostile to Rhee, and all the property was confiscated, and the life of the royal family members was once very poor. After Park Chung-hee came to power, the life of the royal family improved.
Although the Joseon Dynasty no longer existed, the descendants of the royal family still gathered together to elect the head of the family and hold regular family gatherings.
In 2005, the head of the family, Li Jiu, died, and he originally designated his cousin as the next head of the family, but due to the blood problem, he was collectively opposed by the family members, and finally they unanimously elected Li Haiyuan as the new head of the family.
The reason why Li Haiyuan was elected was because Li Haiyuan was the granddaughter of Li Xi of Gojong, and she was also the eldest member of the surviving royal family, and Li Haiyuan herself repeatedly emphasized her orthodox status, claiming to be the last princess of the Joseon Dynasty.
Born in 1919, Li Haiyuan's grandfather was Gaozong Li Xi, and his father was Li Wei, the Prince of Yi, who graduated from Gyeonggi Girls' High School in 1936 and later married a man named Li Shenggui, with three sons and a daughter. During the Korean War, her husband Lee Seung-gyu was kidnapped and disappeared, and she grew up alone pulling her children.
Her eldest and third sons both moved to the United States, and in 1992, Li Haiyuan also came to live in the United States. In 2002, Lee returned to South Korea to live with her second son.
Li Haiyuan's life is not rich, she and her second son live in a rented apartment, for many years, they have been deeply involved in a land lawsuit, as long as they win the lawsuit, they can get a lot of wealth, but in the end it ended in defeat.
After becoming the head of the family, on the afternoon of September 29, 2006, at the Hilton Seoul Hotel, 88-year-old Lee Hae-won, surrounded by more than 50 members of the royal family, held a coronation ceremony to announce the restoration of the Korean Empire and call herself the "Empress of the Cultural Korean Empire".
At the coronation, Lee said: "I will do my best to rebuild the royal family that has been ruthlessly trampled by the Japanese and restore the royal family by reuniting them." ”
A royal spokesman said: "We do not want the material support of the government, our aim is to publicize the existence of the royal family and establish the history and traditions of our country." ”
Li Haiyuan's coronation activity has aroused widespread discussion among netizens, some people say that the restoration of the royal family is to re-establish a spiritual pillar for people, and some people say that it is a retrogression of history and a wrong behavior.
What is intriguing is that the South Korean government has not expressed any opinion from the beginning to the end, and the coronation event has not been interfered with by the government, nor has it been punished in any way.
First of all, Lee Hae-won's coronation activities do not violate the law, although it is said that the Korean Empire is restored, but this restoration is only lip service, in reality, Lee Hae-won did not have any subversive activities to overthrow the current regime, there was no act endangering national security.
It is just a gathering activity, two big words in words, and there is no actual illegal and criminal activity, so it is impossible to intervene within the scope of the law.
Secondly, the Korean people have a special affection for the Lee dynasty of Korea, although the Korean dynasty was decayed and degenerate at the end of the dynasty, but it still played a huge role in resisting the aggression of the great powers.
Since Japan's aggression and World War II independence, South Korean nationalist sentiment has continued to rise to this day, and Lee's Korea, as an important part of history, is generally sympathetic to members of the royal family, because the punishment of a small matter may cause people to be discussed.
Finally, what is the purpose of Li Haiyuan's coronation activity, and is it really to restore the feudal dynasty of the Korean Empire? I am afraid not, this restoration is more to commemorate history and refresh the sense of existence of the royal family of the Korean Empire.
Just a few months before the coronation, in early 2006, MBC Television's TV series "Palace" hit a hit, which was set in the fictional 21st-century constitutional monarchy of the Republic of Korea, and the protagonists were mainly members of the royal family.
The popularity of the palace has made people have a strong interest in the royal family, and there has even been a survey on the Internet whether to agree to restore the royal family, and as many as 54.4% of the respondents agree.
The full name of MBC TV is the Cultural Broadcasting Corporation, and Lee Hae-won calls herself the "Empress of the Cultural Korean Empire", plus the prefix of culture, Lee Hae-won is likely to rub the heat of MBC TV station, so as to refresh the sense of existence of the descendants of the Korean royal family.
Therefore, from a comprehensive point of view, this coronation activity has no practical significance, nor is it actually the activity of the restoration regime, but it is just a show of rubbing heat, so the South Korean government naturally does not bother to pay attention to them.
On February 8, 2020, Li Haiyuan passed away at the age of 103.
In the news of her death, only mentioning that she was the last princess of the Joseon Dynasty and the granddaughter of Gojong Lee Hee, there was no mention of the coronation in 2006, which was like a farce and had long been forgotten.