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This book addresses King Chŏngjo as an absolute ruler. In contrast to previous assumptions, the late 18th-century Korean monarchs were not in fact weak and ineffective but were in the process of building an absolutist polity. This book takes a comparative perspective, placing Chŏngjo in context with other Korean kings along with contemporary rulers both Chinese and European. It situates King Chŏngjo in the world of 18th-century Korea and in the larger early modern world of absolutist monarchs and discusses the impact of his father’s execution on his own legitimacy as ruler, explores his attempts to wrest control of political discourse from the Confucian aristocracy, investigates his struggle for political power with divisive hereditary factions, examines his institutional and military reforms, and finally discusses his kingship in a larger crosscultural context, concluding with an assessment of his reign.
The introduction situates early modern Korea in the debate on the usefulness of “early modernity” as a larger periodization for the study of global history and then discusses the concept of absolutism and its shift in meaning from older ancien régime concepts to its contested use in contemporary discussions of royal power. Chapter 1 lays the groundwork of 18th-century Korea and examines Chŏngjo’s legitimacy issues arising from the death of his father. It addresses both his personal grief at his father’s tragic end and his Machiavellian willingness to play on the sympathy generated by that tragedy for political ends. Chapter 2 deals with political philosophy, as Chŏngjo struggled with the aristocracy over the proper interpretation of Confucian ideology. Chapter 3 addresses how Chŏngjo dealt with the various power groups at court, especially his handling of the major political factions and his subtle refinement of his predecessor’s “Policy of Impartiality” to place the king in the role of ultimate arbiter in the land.
Chapter 4 looks at Chŏngjo’s efforts to institute a system to perpetuate royal power. After briefly examining his struggles with the bureaucracy over a key government position, it investigates his creation of two new administrative organs to strengthen royal power: first, a system to train future administrators in his own particular throne-centered interpretation of Confucianism, and second, a locus of power outside the traditional bureaucratic ladder, the Royal Library. Chapter 5 addresses Chŏngjo’s military reforms. I find that, after gutting the established military organizations, the king set up a new army under the command of his personally-selected governor in the city of Suwŏn, headquartered at the newly-constructed Illustrious Fortress, a massive complex whose ostensible purpose was merely to protect his father’s grave and that still stands as a tourist attraction in Seoul today. Chapter 6 evaluates the king as an absolute ruler as compared to his rough contemporaries: the Qianlong Emperor in China and Louis the XIV in France. It concludes that, according to the definition of “absolute ruler” discussed in the Introduction, Chŏngjo was as much an absolute ruler as these contemporaries, which strengthens the case for an early modern world in the 17th and 18th centuries. The seventh chapter concludes the book with an assessment of Chŏngjo’s reign. He was largely successful in creating space for royal autonomy during his lifetime but was largely unsuccessful in perpetuating that power into the 19th century.