Suk-bin Choe


Royal Noble Consort Suk of the Haeju Choi clan was one of the best known royal concubines of King Sukjong of Joseon.

Biography

Early life

The future Royal Noble Consort Suk was born in 1670 on the sixth day of the eleventh lunar month in the eleventh year of the reign of Hyeonjong of Joseon. She was the younger daughter of Choi Hyo-won and Lady Hong of Namyang. She had one older brother, Choi Dong-hu, who married Lady An of Sunheung, and one older sister who married Seo Jeon.

Palace maid

She entered the palace at the age of 7. She belonged to the "cheonmin" class which was the lowest class during the Joseon Dynasty.
How she and the King had their first encounter is unknown. The most accepted version is that she was a "musuri", i.e. a water maid, in the palace, i.e. a palace slave, during the time when Queen Inhyeon was deposed and exiled, and the concubine, Jang Hui-Bin, had acquired the status of queen. One night, Choi Suk Bin was praying for Queen Inhyeon's well being when King Sukjong of Joseon, who was returning to the palace from a trip, overheard her and was moved by her words. The book 수문록 authored by Yi Mun Jeong describes the events that led to the execution of Jang Hui-Bin. The author who lived during Sukjong's time, recorded the encounter as follows:

Royal consort

Favored by the King, in the fourth lunar month of the nineteenth year of King Sukjong's reign, she became Sukjong's concubine with the rank of Suk-won, after giving birth to a prince who died young. In 1694, during the twentieth year of Sukjong's reign, she was elevated to the rank of Suk-ui after giving birth to a son, Prince Yeoning. In 1695, she was again elevated to the rank of Gwi-in. In 1698, she gave birth to another prince who died in childbirth. In 1699, she was again promoted to the rank of Bin, with the adjective Suk, meaning "pure."
Lady Choi openly supported Queen Inhyeon and was against Jang Hui-bin, who history had described as an evil and cruel woman. By 1693, the King was growing disillusioned with Jang Hui-bin and the Southerner faction. In 1694, King Sukjong brought back Queen Inhyeon and demoted Jang to Hui-bin. In 1701, Queen Inhyeon died of unknown causes; some historiographers believe she was poisoned, but this is unconfirmed. According to one version, Sukjong found Jang Hui-bin in her room with a Korean shaman, making merry over having caused the Queen's death through black magic. Another interpretation based on a vague passage of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty states that it was Choe Suk-bin who told the King that sorcery had been used to try to bring harm to the Queen. Under the title, Queen's Will, it is written:
This could mean that Choe was merely delivering the queen's last words. Yet, rumor in the palace was that Jang Hui-Bin had been using a Shaman to curse Queen Inhyeon. According to Min Chin-won, Queen Inhyeon came to know about these rumors, and in the Annals of Joseon recorded in 1701, Min Chin-won and Min Chin-hu informed King Sukjong of Jang Hui-Bin's sorcery claiming that in doing so they were in compliance with Queen Inhyeon's last request to them before dying.
However, regardless of how the King came to know about this, he decided to look into the matter and discovered the truth behind the rumors that Jang Hui-bin had built a shamanist altar within her quarters, where effigies with the name of Inhyeon were found. Later, her ladies-in-waiting declared that she had ordered them to shoot arrows at a portrait of Queen Inhyeon three times at day, and had buried dead animals under the Queen's garden palace. Despite the many pleas of the Southerner Party to pardon her, King Sukjong felt her conduct was so wicked, and in 1701 ordered that she and all the others involved should die by poison. After sentencing her, King Sukjong passed a law forbidding a concubine with the rank of "bin" to become Queen.
A misunderstanding exists that Choi Suk-bin was the next on line to become Queen, but this had no basis. The next to become Queen was Royal Noble Consort Yeong of the Kim clan. In addition other concubine, Royal Noble Consort Myeong of the Miryang Park clan, daughter of the Yangban class, gave birth to a prince in 1699 and was probably more suited for the title of Queen after Royal Noble Consort Yeong of Kim Clan. Choi Suk-bin's lower class status as a Musuri was an impediment to her becoming a Queen as the Confucian society was ruled by a class system. We can clearly see this in the life of King Yeongjo who was threatened in the beginning of his rule partially because of his mother's class. Later when his rulership was firmly established, he considered it a personal insult if his mother's background as a slave was mentioned.

Controversy of rank

Her only surviving son was Prince Yeoning, who was known to be a child prodigy and became one of the greatest kings in Joseon. King Sukjong was very proud of his son with Lady Choi and his treatment of him tended towards the lavish. But because Yeongjo had been born from a low-born concubine, the officials who were born in noble houses and had noble wives maintained a condescending view of the Prince and his mother, and were quick to lecture Sukjong on frugality and modesty; however, the King ignored them. In 1704, the King celebrated the wedding of Prince Yeoning with a grand and lavish party, but again, the ministries complained about the excessive favoritism the King showed to the Prince. Later the same year, the King gave his winter house, Ihyeon Palace, as a gift to Choi Suk-bin.
Although Yeongjo in his adulthood was very sensible about the origins of his mother, one cannot deny the deep love he had for his birth mother, Choe Suk-bin. His reverence for his mother had no limit. He wrote her many poems and said in one of them:
Yeongjo fought at court to have his mother Choi Suk-bin recognized as a public mother, but she was like other concubines—mothers of Kings but regarded as a "private mother of the King". But Yeongjo wanted to change that and have her as his "public mother"; however, the officials were opposed to making her a public parent as this meant the ministers would have to honor her and gave the King the right to visit her tomb often as a part of his royal ceremonies.
During the time he was fighting this, there are two interesting accounts of his feelings about this situation. In 1739, the day before the scheduled visit to Choi Suk-bin's tomb, dissatisfied with the protocols that the Board of Rites had drawn up, he censured two officials who were directly responsible for them. The Sillok explains the measure:
On another occasion, the King was leaving her tomb for the Palace. About to mount the palanquin, he instead summoned the Minister of Military Affairs, Kim Songung. Breaking into sobs, he said:
In the end, he got what he wanted and Choe Suk-bin was made Yeongjo's public mother.

Timeline

In 1699-1702, Royal Noble Consort Suk-bin of Choi clan was the principal benefactor of the Gakhwangjeon Hall in Hwaeomsa temple.
In 1703, Queen Inwon adopted Prince Yeoning Geum, who was known to be her favorite and whom she regarded as her own son.
In 1704, the Annals of Joseon stated that for Yeoning Geum's marriage, the King ordered a very expensive wedding. The nobles complained about the expensive cost of the wedding.
In 1704, the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty state that Sukjong bestowed Choi Suk-bin Inhyeon Palace, which she later conferred to his son to consummate his marriage in 1711. It is said it was a large and spacious building located in Seoul.
In 1711, when Queen Inwon came down with smallpox, Choi ordered the gungnyeo to go out of the palace and look for remedies among the commoners to save the queen, who in the end survived.
In 1716, Choi Suk-bin was taken out of the palace while ill. Later that same year, Sukjong received a message from Yeoning Geum informing him that his mother's health had worsened and asking for more medical help.
In 1717, Sukjong retired from politics and allowed his son, the Crown Prince, to take care over most of the affairs of the government.

Death

In 1718, the Royal Noble Consort Choi Suk-bin died at the age of 49 in Inhyeon Palace. That same year, Sukjong declared the Crown Prince Gyeongjong as regent, who ruled in his stead.
In her memorial tablet, under the description of her character it is written:
Sukjong died in 1720, supposedly after telling Yi Yi-myoung to name Prince Yeoning as Gyeongjong's heir.
When her son became king, Yeongjo set up a Jesil to grieve over her death near her grave as a display of his deep filial piety. in addition to building tablet houses on the four spots around her grave, he also erected gravestones, the contents of which were written by him in her memory. Her memorial tablet was enshrined in the Sukbinmyo, later called Yuksangmyo, and Chilgung, the place which houses the ancestral tablets of seven royal concubines, all of whom were birth mothers of Kings that never achieved the status of a Queen.
Choi was given the posthumous title "Lady Hwagyeong, Royal Noble Consort Suk of the Choe clan". She was raised to the posthumous titles of Hwa-gyong in 1753, and was again elevated to Hwi-deok and An-sun.

Family

Ancestors

Royal Noble Consort Suk bore King Sukjong three sons: