Korean Kings Family Tree

today I'm going to show you the family tree of Korean monarchs starting with the kingdom of Shilla continuing through the kingdoms of Goryeo and Choson and going all the way down to the 20th century Empire of Korea I'll be using my Asian royal family trees chart which can be purchased as a poster from my website useful charts calm on this chart the Korean monarchs are shown in blue and are located between the Chinese emperors shown in red and the Japanese Emperor's shown in yellow [Music] for the first six or seven hundred years of the Common Era the area we now call Korea was dominated by three separate kingdoms there was Goguryeo Bek J and Sheila and there was actually a fourth less dominant Kingdom here however in the 660 SCE the kingdom of Shilla was able to conquer the other kingdoms and unite Korea for the first time the king at that time was King moon mu and therefore we are going to start with him however I should probably point out these two queens up here they were among the last Shilla monarchs to reign prior to unification and like mu mu were members of the Kim dynasty although they come from different branches Queen Sun duck is well known as being the first female monarch in Korean history in the same century of course we get the first female monarch in Chinese history and earlier actually Japan had a female monarch as well so this time period is well known as having several reigning queens and empresses but back to Moon mu one mo United the Korean Peninsula with the help of the Tong dynasty which was a major power in the region at the time over there the Tong dynasty was presiding over a golden age in Chinese history but after Sheila emerged as the sole Korean Kingdom conflict between the Tong dynasty and Shilla began had the Tong dynasty been able to conquer Korea at this point Korean history might have gone in a very different direction it would have been mostly swallowed up by Chinese history we may not have gotten the unique Korean culture that we have today but Sheila held its ground and their line of Kings during this period continued now I'm not going to explain every King on the chart until I get down closer to the present but I'll hit the main highlights so we get a King song doc not to be confused with the earlier queen sondik the famous Bell of King song duck which weighs 19 tons is named after him eventually though the males in moon moose branch died out and King ya Gong was the last male line descendant of him he was assassinated and eventually the throne passes to a different branch of the dynasty via King Wang song that branch ruled over a hundred years but by the time we get to the Year 900 the Korean Peninsula had once again been divided into three kingdoms we therefore get what's called the later three kings period but that period was very short because pretty soon a new dominant kingdom came to unify and rule all of Korea the kingdom of Goryeo it is from this word Goryeo that the current name of the country Korea comes from the first king of goryeo was king day Joe he defeated the last king of Shilla and therefore the Wong dynasty became the new ruling dynasty the unification that occurred at this point is usually seen as being more complete than the unification that occurred under Shilla so from this point forward Korea was fully United for over a thousand years up until the division of North Korea and South Korea in 1948 whereas the kingdom of Shilla roughly corresponded with the Tong dynasty in China the kingdom of Goryeo roughly corresponded to the Song Dynasty in China it was generally speaking a golden age for Korea particularly for Buddhism however when we go down and get to this part of the tree we get an important change in terms of the power structure within the kingdom during the reign of King Louie gyeong there was a military coup in which certain leaders successfully replaced hua Chong with his brother Myeong Jong whom they used as a puppet King in fact the next four Kings were basically puppet kings as well with various military leaders holding the real power in particular the powerful Chow family this period of military dictatorship coincided with the first Shogunate in Japan a similar form of military run government but in the 12 hundreds Korea and the rest of Asia faced an even bigger problem the Mongol Empire the Mongols wreaked havoc in both China and Korea but although they were able to conquer China and establish the Yuan Dynasty they never did officially conquer Korea instead Korea was able to placate the Mongols by agreeing to certain terms and basically ended up becoming their vassal state instead one of the things you can see here is that one of the kings of Goryeo was forced to marry the daughter of the great Kublai Khan therefore the rest of the Korean kings in this dynasty are all descended from him as well as from the even greater Genghis Khan in fact a lot of the kings on the chart in this section here married Mongol wives as well eventually though several things occurred which eventually led to the demise of the Mongols and the birth of a new Korean kingdom first there was the Black Death which although it is thought to have begun in Asia we do not actually have a lot of information on how exactly it impacted countries like Korea but we do know that the red turban rebellions in China occurred around the same time and those eventually led to the Yuan Dynasty being replaced by the Ming Dynasty their king who was king of goryeo during this time and he ordered his top General to preemptively attack China knowing that such a move was unwise that general instead deposed King ooh and took control of the government placing the Kings ten-year-old son Chiang on the throne instead but a year later both father and son were fascinated and a distant relative was put on the throne instead but he had a short reign and was eventually deposed as well and instead that general became King instead he is known as King hey Joe of Chosun and at this point we get several important changes first of all the Yi dynasty was now the ruling house instead of the previous Wong dynasty second the kingdom itself was renamed we go from the kingdom of Goryeo to the kingdom of Chosun nowadays spelt with a J but on older maps you might see it spelled with a CH finally whereas Buddhism flourished during the Goryeo Kingdom the Chinese philosophy of Confucianism was promoted during the Chosun Kingdom now note that both the first king of the Goryeo kingdom and the first king of the Joseon Kingdom are both named King de Joe that's because Tojo means great ancestor so just be careful not to confuse the two King Day Joe of Chosun had eight sons but he was unsure which one he should appoint as his successor the son who would eventually become taejong was the most capable but the prime minister at the time convinced the king to appoint a different Sun instead the Prime Minister then conspired to have taejong killed but taejeong heard about the plot and had the prime minister killed instead as well as two of his own brothers the King was disheartened by all the infighting and immediately resigned naming this son as his successor but that king john jang ruled for only a few short years and then taejeong became king in the end anyway hey Jang was a harsh ruler and basically transformed the Kings role into that of an absolute monarch after eighteen years as king and after making lots of reforms he stepped aside and appointed his son the King that son became known as King Sejong and is generally considered the greatest king in Korean history he was successful in managing domestic affairs as well as Foreign Affairs on top of this he encouraged advances in science technology and education however the accomplishment he is most remembered for is the invention of the Korean alphabet called hangeul he invented the characters and writing system himself and to this day Hangul is considered by many linguists to be one of the most clever writing systems ever invented if you want a copy of this chart which not only explains the Korean writing system but also Japanese Chinese and every other major writing system used in the world today I also sell this as a poster Sejong was followed by his very ill son mu Jong who died just two years later say Jung's grandson Don Jong therefore became king but Don Jang was just a boy at the time and was overthrown and later killed by his uncle say Jo say Jo was followed by his son yeah Jong who died at age 20 after a very short reign and so the throne then passed to his nephew Seong gyeong who had a much longer reign during which time Chosun prospered we then get one of the least popular Kings in Korean history king Yan song goon who is known for all kinds of violent cruel and selfish acts eventually court officials conspired against him and removed him from power placing his brother Joon Jang on the throne instead Joon young proved to be a much better ruler but often ended up being controlled by other powerful individuals such as choe Quanzhou famous for his Confucian based reforms we then get a short reign by his son in Jung and then another son who was quite young and died without heirs so the throne then passes to a nephew who became King Sancho sanjo had a long reign but during that time Korea faced many problems including an invasion by Japan that lasted six years in the end with the help of Ming China Korea was able to hold off the Japanese and eventually they withdrew seongjo was followed by his son Juan hagwon who was eventually replaced in a coup by his nephew enjo during the reign of king injo Korea faced a new enemy by this point the Ming Dynasty was starting to fight with the Ching dynasty for control of China the Ching dynasty is sometimes referred to as the Manchu dynasty as they originated in Manchuria north of China proper eventually the Ching dynasty defeated and replaced the Ming Dynasty in China and they also managed to defeat the kingdom of Chosun in Korea however Korea did not become part of the Ching Empire instead it continued to exist as an independent kingdom but was basically a vassal state of the Ching dynasty which means it had to pay tribute to China and do whatever China wanted the upside of this is that Korea experienced a long period of peace that lasted about 200 years in fact during the long rains of king yeongjo and his grandson zhangzhou the country experienced a bit of a renaissance during this time European powers were of course starting to become important political players in East Asia as well however like Japan a Korea initially promoted a policy of remaining isolated from outside influences but this broke down in the mid 1800s eventually the male line of king yeongjo died out and the dynasty therefore had to look really far back in their lineage to find an heir the person that was next in line became king gojong and he ended up becoming the final king of Chosun he was a contemporary of the Japanese Emperor Meiji who famously reformed Japan into a modern industrial state with an advanced military initially during the reign of these two monarchs Korea and Japan started to trade somewhat peacefully but as Japan's economic interests in Korea grew it eventually led to war remember that officially Korea was still basically a vassal of the Chinese emperor so in 1894 Japan went to war against China primarily over Korea much of the fighting took place there as well in the end Japan won that war and Korea basically ended up as a vassal to Japan now instead of to China of course I'm using the term vassal quite loosely here since it was now free from China Korea actually declared itself to be its own Empire at this point so king gojong became emperor gojong but the Empire of Korea was short-lived after winning a nearby war against Russia Japan took on the official role of protector of Korea they forged gojong to abdicate and replaced him with his son soon-jong but that didn't last long and in 1910 Japan officially annexed Korea meaning that Korea became part of the Japanese Empire it remained part of Japan until the end of World War two then shortly after that it divided into North and South Korea both Republic's which is the situation that we have today now as is my custom at the end of these videos let's quickly discuss who would be king of Korea today if they decided to reinstate their monarchy there are actually many descendants of emperor gojong alive today however the person who is generally considered to be the current head of the house is named yi sulk he is the son of yi kong who was a younger brother of the last emperor of korea so that makes him a grandson of emperor gojong Sauk is currently 77 and has no sons he therefore recently named an American citizen of Korean descent named Andrew Lee as his successor I'm not quite sure how andrew lee is related to the e dynasty so if anyone knows maybe you can tell us in the comments so there you have it a history of the Korean monarchy from King moon mu all the way down to the future king pretender andrew lee again if you're looking for a copy of this poster you can head over to my website useful charts comm if you find history genealogy and monarchies interesting be sure to subscribe to the channel if you check the playlists you'll find that I have videos covering the family trees of famous dynasties from all over the world and to see what else I'm up to follow me on Twitter or Instagram thanks for watching

Channel: UsefulCharts

Views: 534,501

Keywords: kingdom of silla, kingdom of joseon, kingdom of goryeo, goryeo dynasty, joseon dynasty, gorgyeo dynasty family tree, joseon dynasty family tree, Sejong the Great, Sejong the Great family tree, king sejong family tree, Queen Seondeok, Queen Seondeok family tree, korean history, korean monarchy, empire of korea, asian history, asian family tree, korean family tree

Id: gdP-U4sEcD4

Length: 17min 18sec (1038 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 06 2019