Lord Deok Hye-won (25 May 1912 – 21 April 1989) was the daughter of Lee Seon, the 26th king of the Lee dynasty of Joseon.
According to the rules of the Li Dynasty, the concubines born to the Middle Palace were princesses, and the daughters born out of the palace could only be called the lords. The lord of Dehui weng is the daughter of Li Zhen, who became the king of Taishang at the age of 60, and a palace maid who worked in the kitchen.
In many articles and film and television works about Lord Deok Hye-won, she is often described as a tragic figure who was devastated by mountains and rivers (the Lee Dynasty of Korea became a Japanese colony), endured humiliation and burdens to go to Tokyo as a hostage, and forced to become a mentally ill tragic figure.
Korean Movie "Deok Hye Wong"
Her father, Li Zhen, succeeded to the throne by chance, but this person had mediocre qualifications. Foreign writers who have seen him describe it this way: their hands are at a loss, they cannot calm down, and they have no sense of majesty. People are fine, but what others say is what it is. Weak character, lack of intellect, and weak will were his fatal wounds.
He had 10 wives and concubines, gave birth to 16 children, and survived only 6. Of the surviving children, the only concubine was made crown prince, but was born with an IQ disorder. Other sons, who later remained on the Korean Peninsula, were involved in the struggle for the throne, killed, and poisoned.
Lord Dehuion is his 60-year-old daughter and is extremely pampered. When she was born, Korea had become a Japanese colony, so she attended an aristocratic elementary school in Seoul and taught Japanese.
▲Li Zhen (center), Dehui (first from right)
In 1910, Deok Hye's half-brother Li Yan went to Japan to study, and then married the Japanese imperial family woman Fang Zi.
In 1919, Li Zhen, the King of Taishang, died.
Losing her father at the age of seven is very pitiful for a little girl. But in the chaotic world, she actually had a pretty good life, and even said to be quite lucky.
Before Korea became a Japanese colony, it was a vassal state of the Chinese Qing court. On the occasion of their submission to Japan, the Japanese side promised to treat the four Li Dynasty members with courtesy. According to his status, Dehui is not among the objects of courtesy, and enjoys substantial courtesy because he is favored by Li Zhen. In the palace, and because she has nothing to do with the throne, she can safely avoid political murder.
In 1925, at the age of 12, Deoke was sent to Japan to attend Gakuen Junior High School after graduating from elementary school. At that time and in modern times, this was a designated school for the children of the Japanese imperial family and nobles.
▲Before studying in Japan
Before leaving the country, Dehui's "emotional instability" disease attacked. This disease is what is often called "schizophrenia" in modern times. She has been sick since she was a child, up and down. Combined with the description of her father by foreign female writers and the slight congenital mental retardation of her eldest brother-in-law, Dehui's illness is more like family inheritance.
Dehui received Japanese language education from an early age, and after coming to Japan, there was no language barrier.
Leaving her mother and her homeland and leaving the familiar environment, although she was lonely and pitiful, at least in terms of material life and safety, her life was better than thousands of ordinary Koreans, and better than other women in the royal family.
For more than a decade, her half-brother Li Yan of Japan had married a noble daughter of the Japanese imperial family. The couple did not have children, and as soon as the younger sister Dehui arrived in Tokyo, she was taken to live with her brother and sister-in-law.
Modern version
In this way, Dehui began a 38-year long life as a princess of a vassal state. She lived in a grand mansion and attended a high school full of children of princes and nobles.
It should be said that although she is not on the list of "courtesies" promised by the Japanese, she has enjoyed the "decency" that princesses may not be able to enjoy.
In 1926, her brother, the emperor, who was born with a slight mental disability, died. In 1930, her birth mother Liang Guiren died. Both times she returned to North Korea for mourning, and successive changes caused her "old problems" to have a big attack, and she made all kinds of strange moves and resisted going to school.
Doctors diagnosed her with "early dementia," later known as schizophrenia.
When Dehui went to Japan, he would inevitably marry the Japanese imperial family and nobles like his brother Li Yan.
In 1931, her marriage was on the agenda.
The husband chosen by the Japanese for her was named Sobushi. When he was 15 years old, he succeeded to his uncle and then succeeded him as the lord of the Tsushima Province. But this aristocrat, the "expensive" component is not high enough, and has long been in the middle of the family.
The North Korean side was very dissatisfied, believing that the lord should marry a more noble royal man, and released a lot of negative news about Zong Wuzhi. Ordinary people who did not know the truth for many years thought that Deok Hye was going to marry an ugly-looking, low-status, and unsympathetic Japanese man.
In fact, Zong Wuzhi is a famous beautiful man.
Putting aside his family identity, Zong Wuzhi is a proper Confucian scholar, a social elite, and a knowledgeable dali.
He lost his father at an early age, and his life was not easy. After passing on to his uncle, he was eligible to attend Gakuin High School, and then was admitted to the University of Tokyo, Japan's highest institution of learning, majoring in English.
▲ Zong Wuzhi and Dehui in the newlywed Yan'er period
Halfway through the marriage, Dehui's schizophrenia suddenly flared up again. However, when she went with Zong Wuzhi to Tsushima in Kyushu, where the Zong family was rooted, she had a seizure in front of everyone.
Short, inherited family, coupled with a face plagued by mental illness. Dehui's appearance, even if it is polite, is not beautiful.
With Zong Wuzhi's personal conditions, it is completely possible to find a more suitable woman as a wife. Because as long as he agreed to marry Deok Hye, the Tsushima Province he inherited would receive a high subsidy from the government.
Faced with the onset of illness of his future wife, Zong Wuzhi eventually did not withdraw from marriage as the outside world speculated, but fulfilled his promise and married as planned.
▲Formal wedding
Dehui, who was newly married to Yan'er, was in a relatively stable condition. Xu is that both parties have a bumpy and complicated life, have a similar education, and the relationship between the two is harmonious after marriage, and the relationship is better than expected.
However, with the birth of the next year, postpartum depression led to another episode of Dehui's schizophrenia. That time, she didn't get better after a while, as she had done with each previous seizure, but it got worse and worse.
After the defeat of Japan, the imperial family was greatly transformed. Except for the concubines, the royal families were all reduced to commoners, and they could only support themselves, and their lives were difficult, and some of them were not as good as ordinary people with a skill. Zong Wuzhi relied on his knowledge to earn money to support his family, taking care of his sick wife Dehui and his young daughter, and the family depended on each other in hardship.
By 1946, Dehui's schizophrenia was so severe that he had to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.
In 1950, South Korean journalist Kim Yi-han went to Tokyo to interview Lee Yoo (he was the last prince of the Lee Dynasty) and stopped by to visit Lord Deok Hye-won in a mental hospital. Seeing Dehui's haggard face, empty eyes, where there was still a little bit of The shadow of Lord Li Chaoweng. He wrote an article and published it in a Korean newspaper, which caused an uproar.
South Koreans shouted to rescue the owner and return to China, but according to the relevant law, Deok Hye must divorce her husband Zong Wuzhi before he can return to China.
▲ The dowry of li dynasty at the time of Dehui's big wedding
Zong Wuzhi was caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, he did not want to divorce, did not want his wife to leave Japan, and his small family was completely dissolved; on the other hand, poverty made him unable to continue to pay for his wife's treatment, and the South Korean side promised to continue to treat Deok Hye after returning home.
In 1955, Zong Wuzhi agreed to divorce.
Public opinion supported her return to China, but the Syngman Rhee regime at the time saw her as an embarrassing presence. Acknowledging her identity as the lord of the Li Dynasty, he himself has become an unorthodox Li Dynasty.
As a result, it was not until Syngman Rhee stepped down that Deok Hye was able to return to Korea in 1962.
▲ After 38 years, Dehui returned to his hometown to settle down
Kim Il-han, the journalist who launched the deok hye-won movement back to China, and the people who supported the movement were satisfied, and their wishes were fulfilled.
Poor Dehui himself was completely unaware of what was happening outside. She didn't know she was divorced, she didn't know she was separated from her husband and daughter who were dependent on each other. Just as he went to Japan alone, he returned to China alone. It was only the moment she saw her young nurse that she had some reactions.
At the end of Japan, MunatakeShi wrote poems to express his thoughts and pain in his heart. With Deok Hye's only daughter, also suspected of suffering from mental illness, committed suicide.
At the same time that Dehui returned to China, he also lost his home. She could not be publicly recognized as a royal, and her name could only be given to her mother's surname, changed her name to Liang Deok-hye, and was admitted to a mental hospital in Seoul.
After staying in the mental hospital for seven years, he moved in with his sister-in-law Fangzi after being discharged from the hospital. Fang Zi and her husband Li Yan also returned to Korea, and after the death of her husband, the widowed Fang Zi and Dehui became close relatives who snuggled up to each other.
Zong Wuzhi, who divorced Dehui, later remarried and had three children. Dehui was a hurdle in his heart that he could never pass, and he had a premonition that his time was short, and Zong Wuzhi repeatedly asked the South Korean authorities to let him meet with Dehui, but he was not approved.
In 1985, Zong Wuzhi died.
In 1989, Dehui died.
Japan was separated, and the two never met again.