< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > begins</h1>
In March 1907, the earth rejuvenated.
Emperor Gojong Lee Hee (1852-1919) of the "Korean Empire" held a large-scale concubine selection event for his 10-year-old son Li Yu (1897-1970). There were more than 150 young girls of good age who applied for the recruitment, and Min Jia, the eldest daughter of the minister Min Yongdun, was "fortunate" to be selected.
Min Jiaquan (민갑완, 1897-1968), born on September 25, 1897 in the lunar calendar, also happened to be born on the same day, which seems to be a marriage deliberately arranged by heaven.
The year min jia was born was the year of her grandmother's flower armor, so it was named "Jia Quan".
It was also this year that Gojong was elevated to the "Korean Empire". In 1897, for Emperor Gaozong, it can be described as "three joys at the door".
However, the life of "A finished" is not perfect, and the identity of "Princess" has become a burden and a source of misfortune that she cannot shake off in her life.
Min Jiaquan as a girl (1897-1968)
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the worries of the "emperor"</h1>
The reason why Emperor Gaozong Li Xi was anxious to choose a concubine for his young son was because he felt that his "emperor" was doing more and more dirty, not only could not make decisions on political affairs, but also began to be unable to help himself in family affairs.
Since the signing of the Treaty of Maguan between China and Japan in April 1895, Korea has become Japan's "meat on the hook." In October, the Japanese ronin unscrupulously broke into the palace, tortured and killed his wife Consort Min (Empress Myeongseong, 1851-1895), and coerced Emperor Gaozong to depose her as a concubine. In 1897, under the inducement of the Japanese, Emperor Gojong changed the name of the country to "Korean Empire" and became an emperor who was independent of China and could sit on an equal footing with China, but he knew the weight of this "emperor" in his heart.
The incense is not strong, and it seems to be a common disease of the last dynasty.
Although Emperor Gaozong had 6 wives and concubines, there were only 3 adult princes. The Emperor's eldest son, Li Tu (1874-1926), was the only son of him and Consort Min, who was made crown prince during her lifetime, but was physically weak and unable to have children. The second prince, Li Wei (1877-1955), was bohemian and traveled overseas for many years, dismissing his throne. Only the third son, Li Yan, was clever and clever, and gave Li Xi, who was nearly 60 years old, a little comfort. Therefore, the heavy responsibility of inheriting the unification and continuing the bloodline of the Li clan fell on Li Yan.
Emperor Gojong Lee Hee of the "Korean Empire" (1852-1919)
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "emperor" who cannot protect his children</h1>
Less than 3 months after the end of the concubine selection, the trouble came. In June 1907, Emperor Gaozong offended Japan with the secret "Hague Envoy Incident" and was forced to abdicate and become the "Emperor Tai". The childless Li Tu was deliberately made the new emperor by the Japanese, emperor Junzong, which was also the last emperor of the Li Dynasty. As a "hostage", Li Yan was forcibly sent to Japan to study, and Itō Hirobumi, who captured Li Chaojiangshan, became the "Prince Taishi".
If you want to destroy your country, first destroy its seed.
Japan took great pains to cut the grass and roots of the Lee Dynasty in Korea.
A few years later, the Japanese trick was repeated, sending Emperor Gaozong's only daughter, the 13-year-old Lord Tokue Owong, to Japan to study and force him to marry the Japanese, resulting in the last lord of the house, mentally abnormal. The 2016 movie "Deok Hye Wong Lord" starring Sun Yizhen and Park Hae-il tells this tragic story.
The king, who was once admired by all people, faced with power, could not even protect his own children.
Ito Hirobumi and North Korea's "Crown Prince" Lee Yu
Emperor Gaozong's favorite Lord Dehui (1912-1989)
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the national vendetta of the "princess"</h1>
After her fiancé Li Yan was taken to Japan, what should Crown Princess Min Jia do?
She and her family chose to wait, and the wait was ten years.
It was not until 1917 that the 20-year-old Min Jiaquan waited for the news that Li Yan would be engaged to the Japanese woman Ibenza Miyako.
Min Jia heard it, like thunder, tears flowing down her face, and her grandmother died with hatred.
Min Jiaquan's existence is a potential threat to Japan's "internal unity" political marriage.
The Japanese forced their father, Min Yongdun, to break the marriage contract with the royal family and marry his daughter to someone else, preferably a Japanese.
In the Joseon dynasty of patriarchal society, it was shameful for women to remarry.
Out of pity and worry for his daughter, Min Yongdun was furious and vomited blood the following year, and died, supposedly poisoned by Lang, who was bribed by Japan.
The Min Yongdun family and the MingCheng empress family, both of which were mutilated by the Japanese.
Although Min Yongdun served as the Dprk minister to Britain in his early years and was well-informed, he could not break through the barriers of traditional thought and put an invisible shackle on his daughter.
Min Jia's memoirs: "The Engaged Daughter of Prince Ying, the Last Crown Prince of the Korean Empire"
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "crown prince" who "endures humiliation and steals life"</h1>
Three years later, on April 28, 1920, the Korean national newspaper Dongya Ilbo published the news of the wedding of Prince Lee Ofe and Ibeon Miya Fangzi, who was renamed "Lee Fangzi" (1901-1989), officially replacing Min Jiaquan as a princess.
The Japanese chose Imoto Miyakatako as princess, supposedly because Fangzi was a "stone girl" and had no fertility. But Japan's deliberations have also been miscalculated. Shortly after his marriage, Fang Zi gave birth to a son, named Li Jin, but he was poisoned and died before he was one year old. Eleven years later, in 1931, FangZi had another son, named Li Jiu (1931-2005). As an adult, Li Jiu married Julia Mullock (1928-2017), a Ukrainian-American, without heirs. The roots of the Lee royal family were thus severed.
East Asia Daily, April 28, 1920
Interestingly, under the report of the marriage news, the East Asia Daily meaningfully appended a brief message entitled "Min Yuxiu (who holds a marriage contract with His Highness Wang Shizi) in the funeral." Min Yuxiu is Min Jia's alias, and the East Asia Daily chose to expose the current situation of his fiancée in Li Yan's wedding date, which is really "ulterior motives"!! [Like]
Ignoring the korean ritual of keeping filial piety for three years, Li Yan held a big wedding during his father's funeral, and it was a big wedding with the Japanese. The Independent News, a newspaper of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai, criticized Li Yan more directly: "Prince Li Of England has no father and no country, and is a thief who is no different from a beast." ”
Li Yan endured humiliation and burden? Confessing to a thief as a father? Li Yan has been educated in Japan since he was 10 years old, and has long been assimilated by the Japanese. After graduating from The Japanese Army University, he became very popular in the military circles. After Japan's surrender, he said worriedly: "I am not Japanese, but it is difficult to say that I am a real Korean." I don't know if north Korea will accept me after liberation. "The two sides of the king of the fallen kingdom are unmistakable.
In May 1970, at the age of 73, Lee died in Seoul.
South Korea's KBS television station said of him: "His life is a symbol of the tragedy of the old royal family, a life of loneliness, patience and submission." The Korean people forgave the unfortunate prince, and his "luck" and "misfortune" were not up to him.
"Crown Prince" Li Yan and Japanese Lady Fangzi
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > 26 years of perseverance</h1>
More than 50 days after the wedding of Li Yan and the Japanese woman Fangzi, on June 7, 1920, Min Jia, who was burdened with family hatred and hatred, left her motherland and followed her uncle and brother into exile in Shanghai, China.
At that time, Shanghai was the seat of the Provisional Government of South Korea, and with the help of Kim Kyu-sik, the leader of the Korean independence movement, Min Jia was able to enter the American-run church school Santa Maria Girls' School and receive a Western education. However, the good times did not last long, and the Japanese consulate put pressure on the school, and the study path was interrupted.
Kim Kyu-sik persuaded her to engage in the anti-Japanese independence movement, but she refused on the grounds that "I only pray for the sacrifice of myself in exchange for the peace of all things (나 하나의 희생으로 만사가 평온하기를 바랄 뿐)." He did not want his status as a "princess" to be used and cause trouble to the royal family.
Until his return to China in 1946, during the long period of 26 years, Min Jia could only spend time reading and needlework. With tenacious endurance, she endured loneliness and loneliness that are unimaginable to ordinary people.
During this period, many people proposed to her, and it is said that Syngman Rhee, who later became the first president of the Republic of Korea, was also among them, but she refused one by one. She said, "Which woman in North Korea doesn't spend the rest of her life like this?" She wants to use her "chastity" to maintain the dignity of the "princess" and fight against the Japanese.
In Shanghai, Min Jiaquan dressed in Chinese clothes
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the lonely "princess"</h1>
On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered and the Korean Peninsula was restored. But the 48-year-old Min Jiaquan was not happy at all, and had no intention of returning to China. She did not have the courage to face the land that had scarred her.
Finally, under the bitter persuasion of his brother and Kim Jiu and other dignitaries of the Korean Provisional Government, he returned to Korea the following year.
After returning to China, Min Jia was lonely and miserable, and it was difficult to live a hard life. During the Korean War, he fled to his father's hometown of Cheongju to escape the war, and in 1952, when the war eased, he moved to Busan and lived in his brother's house until his old age.
In 1968, the 71-year-old Min Jia finished his last words: "I have never married in my life, so don't let me die in someone else's home,...... Even though I was destined to be lonely, I didn't like it... My birthday clothes, I put on the men's clothes of the former schoolchildren and cremated me. ”
Min Jia was engaged at the age of 10 until he left this world at the age of 71, and for 60 years, he never met his fiancé.
But with the shackles of the "princess", he spent a whole flower armor in loneliness.
Could it be that "A is finished" is already predestined?
"Min Jia Finish" in his later years
Min Jia's ashes
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > dying "proverbs"</h1>
After Min Jia's death, he left behind a memoir, "One Hundred Years of Hate".
In July 2014, when his nephew 민병휘 was published in a book entitled "The Engaged Daughter of Prince Ying, the Last Crown Prince of the Korean Empire", Min Jiaquan's story attracted more attention.
What does she hate?
She said in the book: "Ms. Fang Zi and I, both of us are victims of history, which is predestined. ”
She doesn't hate the Japanese woman who replaced her,
What she hated was the world.
The overlap between Japanese imperialism and patriarchal society caused her misfortune.
It wasn't until she was dying that she truly told her true thoughts.
In the next life, I don't want to be a woman again, but to be a man.
"Although the country is broken, it is good to have a home", just like his fiancé.
"Crown Prince" Li Yan "Family Portrait"
Min Jia's eldest nephew: 閔丙徽 (first from the right)