IMPORTANT ANTIQUE KING YEONGJO OF JOSEON DYNASTY PORTRAIT PAINTING OLD KOREAN

Description: RARE AND MASTERFUL ANTIQUE KOREAN JOSEON DYNASTY MIXED MEDIA WATERCOLOR PORTRAIT PAINTING. THIS WORK DEPICTS THE MONARCH WITH REGAL ELEGANCE. HE WEARS A SAMO, THE BLACK SILK HAT OF A HIGH-RANKING COURT OFFICIAL WITH ITS WING-LIKE PROTRUSION OF WOVEN HORSEHAIR. THE ARTIST HAS CAPTURED THE PATTERN CREATED WHEN TWO LAYERS OF FINE MESH OVERLAP. UNLIKE WIDE-BRIMMED HATS WORN BY ALL MEMBERS OF THE UPPER CLASSES, THE SAMO WAS RESERVED FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT COURTIERS. HIS FACIAL EXPRESSION REFLECTS A SENSE OF WISDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY BEFITTING A RULER. THE OVERALL COMPOSITION IS A TESTAMENT TO THE ARTISTRY OF THE TIME, BLENDING REALISM WITH SYMBOLIC ELEMENTS TO IMMORTALIZE TGE KING IN A TIMELESS AND MAJESTIC PORTRAIT. THIS IS A KOREAN MASTERPIECE. ACQUIRED FROM AN AFFLUENT ESTATE IN LOS ANGELES. THIS PAINTING IS SIGNED IN THE LOWER LEFTHAND CORNER. PERHAPS YOU RECOGNIZE THE ARTIST? THE CONDITION IS EXCELLENT. MILD SCRATCHES TO THE FRAME. MUSEUM QUALITY. DIMENSIONS INCLUDING THE FRAME: 50” H x 38” W Yeongjo (Korean: 영조; 31 October 1694 – 22 April 1776), personal name Yi Geum (Korean: 이금, Hanja: 李昑), was the 21st monarch of the Korean Joseon dynasty. He was the second son of King Sukjong by his concubine, Royal Noble Consort Suk of the Haeju Choe clan. Before ascending to power, he was known as Prince Yeoning (연잉군; 延礽君). His life was characterized by political infighting and resentment due to his biological mother's low-born origins. In 1720, a few months after the accession of his older half-brother, Yi Yun (posthumously called King Gyeongjong), as the 20th King, Yeoning became the Crown Prince. This induced a significant controversy between the political factions. Nevertheless, four years later, at the death of Gyeongjong, he ascended to the throne. In 1720, King Sukjong died, and Crown Prince Yi Yun, Sukjong's eldest son, ascended to the throne as King Gyeongjong at 33. Before he died in 1720, Sukjong supposedly told Yi I-myeong to name Prince Yeoning as Gyeongjong's heir, but in the absence of a historiographer or scribe, no record exists. At this time, the Noron faction unsuccessfully tried to pressure the new king to step down in favor of his younger half-brother. A few months after Gyeongjong's enthronement, Prince Yeoning was installed as Crown Prince Brother (Wangseje; 왕세제, 王世弟). This aggravated the power struggle and led to the Shinim literati purge of 1721. The Noron sent petitions to the king to no effect. At the same time, the opposing Soron faction used this to their advantage — claiming the Noron were trying to usurp power and subsequently getting their rival faction removed from several offices. Members of the Soron faction then devised a plan to assassinate Yeoning under the pretense of hunting for a white fox said to be haunting the palace. Still, he sought shelter with his adoptive mother, Queen Dowager Hyesun. Afterward, he told the king that he would instead go and live as a commoner. On 11 October 1724, King Gyeongjong died. The Soron accused Yeoning of being involved in his brother's death due to the earlier attempt of the Noron faction to have him placed on the throne. Many historians, however, now believe that he could have died from food poisoning caused by contaminated seafood, as he displayed symptoms of the illness. Homer Hulbert described this in his book The History of Korea, where he said, "But we may well doubt the truth of the rumor, for nothing that is told of that brother indicates that he would commit such an act, and in the second place a man who will eat shrimps in mid-summer, that have been brought 30 miles from the sea without ice might expect to die".[1] On 16 October 1724, Prince Yeoning ascended the throne as King Yeongjo, the 21st ruler of Joseon. Yeongjo's reign lasted nearly 52 years and was marked by his persistent efforts to reform the taxation system and minimize and reconcile the factional fighting under his Tangpyeong policy (탕평; 蕩平; lit. Magnificent Harmony). His reign was also marked by the highly controversial execution of his only son, Crown Prince Sado, in 1762. Despite this controversy, Yeongjo's reign has earned a positive reputation in Korean history due to his sincere efforts to rule by Confucian ethics. He was a profoundly Confucian monarch and is said to have had a greater knowledge of the classics than his officials. During the reigns of Yeongjo and his grandson Jeongjo, Confucianization was at its height, as well as the economic recovery from the wars of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. His rulership has been called one of the most brilliant reigns in Joseon's history. Yeongjo worried deeply for his people. The Annals of the Joseon dynasty record that one day in the 4th year of his reign, King Yeongjo woke up to the sound of early morning rain and said to his courtiers: Oh dear! We have had floods, drought, and famines for the past four years because of my lack of virtue, and this year we even went through an unprecedented revolt by a traitor named Yi In-jwa. How can my poor people manage their livelihood under such hardship? There is an old saying, 'War is always followed by a lean year.' Fortunately, however, we haven’t had a big famine for the past two years, and we pin our hopes on a good harvest this year. Yet I am still nervous because, while the season for harvesting is around the corner, there is no way of knowing if there will be a flood or drought before then. Nobody knows whether a cold rain will pour suddenly and flood the fields awaiting harvest. My lack of goodness might bring upon us such awful things as I fail to win the sympathy of heaven. How can I earn the sympathy of the heavens if I do not self-reflect and make efforts myself? I should start by reflecting on myself. As he worried that rain would ruin the harvest and force his unfortunate people to starve, the king ordered his courtiers to reduce the taxes and decrease the number of dishes in his meals. One early morning 25 years later (1753), the continuous rain reminded Yeongjo of the flood during the 4th year of his reign, when he had eaten less food: Oh! Floods and droughts happen because I lack virtue. I am much older than that year, but how can my compassion for the people and will to work hard for them be less than back then?". Yet again, he ordered fewer dishes on his dining table. People around him described him as an articulate, bright, benevolent, and kind monarch. He was penetrating in observation and quick in comprehension. Yi In-was Rebellion After the ascension of King Yeongjo to the throne, the position of the Noron faction was restored, and a coalition of the radical faction of the Namin and the excluded Soron faction instigated the rebellion under the pretext of protecting King Gyeongjong. Yeongjo pursued a policy of equal recruitment, believing that factional strife was detrimental to the country's development.[6] In response, the radical faction of the Soron group justified their rebellion by raising suspicions about the circumstances of King Gyeongjong's death and claiming that King Yeongjo was not the legitimate heir of King Sukjong, thereby securing their power. The rebellion began on March 15th when their leader, Yi In-jwa, captured Cheongju Castle. The rebel forces, marching toward Hanyang (present-day Seoul), were defeated by the royal army, and the support from the Yeong and Honam regions was also suppressed by local forces, leading to the suppression of the rebellion and execution of Yi In-jwa and his family. Realizing the detrimental effect on state administration of the factional strife, Yeongjo attempted to end it as soon as he ascended the throne. He reinstated the short-lived universal military service tax and then went beyond the palace gates to solicit the opinions of officials, literati (scholars), soldiers, and peasants. Yeongjo reduced the military service tax by half and ordered the variance to be supplemented by taxes on fisheries, salt, vessels, and an additional land tax. He also regularized the financial system of state revenues and expenses by adopting an accounting system. His realistic policies allowed payment of taxes on grain from the remote mountainous areas of Gyeongsang Province to the nearby port, with payment in cotton or cash for grain. The circulation of currency was encouraged by increasing coin casting. Yeongjo's concern for improving the peasant's life manifested in his eagerness to educate the people by distributing essential books in the Korean script (Hangul), including the Book of Agriculture. The pluviometer was again manufactured in quantity and distributed to local administration offices, and extensive public work projects were undertaken. Yeongjo upgraded the commoners' posterity status, opening another possibility for upward social mobility and inevitable change. His policies were intended to reassert the Confucian monarchy and a humanistic rule, but they could not stem the tide of social change that resulted. Mercantile activities rapidly increased in volume. The accumulation of capital through monopoly and wholesales expanded through guild organizations, and many merchants were centered in Hanseong. The traditional division of government-chartered shops, the licensed tribute goods suppliers, and the small shopkeepers in the alleys and streets were integrated and woven into a monopoly and wholesale system. Regardless of status, many yangban aristocrats and commoners engaged in merchant activities. Thus, Hanseong made great strides as a commercial and industrial city in the 18th century. The popular demand for handicrafts and goods such as knives, horse hair hats, dining tables, and brassware was ever-increasing. Restrictions on wearing the horse hair hat, originally denoting yangban status, virtually disappeared. Even bootlegging of books became commercialized as competition developed among the well-to-do yangban who engaged in the publication of collected literary works by their renowned ancestors. This also led to the printing popular fiction and poetry. The people especially appreciated satire and social criticism. One example is the Chunhyangjeon (Tales of Chunghyang) about the fidelity of the gisaeng's daughter, which was widely read as a satire aimed to expose the greed and snobbery of government officials. Anti-corruption The King is also renowned for having treasured Park Mun-su, whom he appointed as a secret royal inspector (Amhaengeosa; 암행어사). Park, who had earned great merit in putting down Yi In-jwa's rebellion in 1728, went around the nation arresting corrupt local officers in the name of the King. Catholicism Yeongjo was the first to take action against Roman Catholic activities in the country. By the 18th century, Catholicism was beginning to acquire a following, especially in the Gangwon and Hwanghae provinces. In 1758, Yeongjo officially outlawed Catholicism as an evil practice. Crown Prince Sado The only significantly dismal incident during Yeongjo's reign was the death of his son, Crown Prince Sado. History indicates Sado suffered from mental illness, randomly killing people in the palace and raping palace maids. Because Yeongjo could not execute his son without also implicating his daughter-in-law and grandson, he ordered Sado to climb into a wooden rice chest on a hot July day in 1762. After two days, King Yeongjo had the chest containing Sado tied with rope covered with grass and moved to the upper palace. Sado responded from inside the chest until the night of the seventh day; the chest was opened, and he was pronounced dead on the eighth day.[9] During the 19th century, there were rumors that Crown Prince Sado had not been mentally ill but had been victimized by a court plot. This, however, is contradicted by both the memoirs written by Sado's widow and the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty. To preserve the legitimacy of Sado's son as his heir, Yeongjo decreed that the boy be registered as the son of the deceased Crown Prince Hyojang and Crown Princess Consort Hyosun. Death Yeongjo had lived with poor health for much of his life and was even infected with parasitic worms. Because of this, he took many precautions to stay healthy, which some speculate may have contributed to his death at a relatively old age. Fourteen years after Crown Prince Sado's death, his son and Yeongjo's grandson, Yi San (posthumously King Jeongjo), became King. The early part of the new King's years were marked by political intrigues and fear of court officials who were afraid that he would seek revenge on them for petitioning the punishment that caused the death of his father, Crown Prince Sado. Yeongjo is buried with his second wife, Queen Jeongsun, in the royal tomb of Wonneung (원릉, 元陵) in Guri, Gyeonggi Province.

Price: 10000 USD

Location: Pasadena, California

End Time: 2024-09-13T01:04:36.000Z

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