In the early history of Korea, women were given the opportunity to rein as queens in their own right. Queen Seondeok (606 – 647 AD), for example, reigned as Queen Regnant of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, from 632 to 647 AD and apparently wielded enough power to encourage a renaissance in thought, literature, and the arts in her kingdom.

The lives of the Women life took a different turn during Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910) as the country adapted neo-Confucianism. However, although the cultural focus have shifted to the men at this time, it was clear that women still held important roles in society. Many prominent positions traditionally held by women since early Korea survived and, through a provision made in 1392 by king Taejo, installed as a system of central and local government offices. Apart from the term ginyeo (singing woman) or kisaeng, which originated from the era of the Three Kingdom (57 BC – 668 AD), there was another class of ladies called gungnyeo (palace women), short for gungjung yeogwan (a lady officer of the royal court) who includes court ladies and matrons. They were first recorded in the History of Goryeo, the main surviving history of Korea’s Goryeo dynasty (918–1392 AD).

Journey to the Palace: Introducing the Female Leaders of the Palace

Before we look into the roles and duties of the gungnyeo, it is useful to understand the ladies whom they served and the demands being put on them. One might be tempted to imagine a queen who spends most of her days indulgently served by hundreds of maids. However, the role of the queen was not made for an average woman. Any affairs concerning the women in the palace falls under the responsibility of the queen. She held supreme authority of naeoemyeongbu (court ladies and aristocratic spouses), a body in charge of the palace women’s general affairs as well as organizing ceremonies for the female members of the royal family. Naeoemyeongbu was further divided into two separate courts – naemyeongbu (the inner court) which consisted of the royal concubines, crown princess, the crown prince’s concubines, and oemyeongbu (the outer court)which was made of the princesses, the dowager queens, the children of the crown prince, the wives of other royalties, and the wives of the government officials.

The queen would gain her status through the appointment of her husband, usually the crown prince, as the king. Before this appointment, the future queen’s status was  wangsejabin (royal successor of the consort) as the wife of the crown prince. The selection process to become a wangsejabin was already very rigorous, starting with the release of marriage prohibition for the whole country so that suitable candidates to be picked among the young girls of suitable age from the yangban (noble class), presumably without the worry of the suitable girl being wedded in a hurry to another bachelor. To be considered as a candidate, the girl should not be a person within the eight cousins of the crown prince, both her parents must also still be alive at the time of her candidacy and her family must never be associated with any case of misconduct e.g. treason at present or in the past. Of course, on top of these more general requirements, the candidate must possess a pleasant appearance and the virtues befitting a future queen.

After undergoing the long selection process, the girl’s duty did not end after being picked to be the crown prince’s consort. The consort-elect would then undergo a series of intensive training on palace etiquette and her duties as the future queen before she was ready to marry the crown prince. When her husband became the king, she would then become a wangbi (queen consort), the most important woman in the royal household and a role model for all the women in the country. Thus, even before her entry to the Royal Palace, the queen needed to be above reproach.

If the queen could not bear a son to inherit the throne, the king’s future successor could be appointed from the children of the king from his hugung (royal concubine). Whether or not she was able to bear a crown prince, the queen was given the authority to become a mother to the concubines’ children and the right to choose to adopt the sons of concubines as her own. If the son ascended the throne later after the king died, the queen would be given the title daebi (queen dowager). She would then be given the responsibility to become the regent in the king’s place if the new king happened to be too young to rule on his own. If a son of a concubine was chosen to be the crown prince, the birth mother would be appointed to the highest rank for the royal concubine, bin. The bin (1st senior ranking concubine) and the kwi-in (1st junior ranking concubine) had the authority to make decisions alongside the queen, making them the closest advisers to the queen.

The Who’s Who of the Palace Women: The Many Different Roles of the Gungnyeo

In the rule of king Uijong of Goryeo (1127 – 1173), the roles of the gungnyeo were divided into sanggung (the women who managed the palace), sangchim (the women who managed the beddings and the sewing in the palace) and sangsik (the women who managed the food). The gungyeo also included female musicians called yeoak. Unlike the kisaeng who acted as a hostesses and entertainers at parties and bars, yeoak were especially trained to perform at special events or ceremonies of the kingdom. If a kisaeng was managed by the Kisaeng House in which she regularly perform, a yeoak was managed directly by the government.

The appointment of gungnyeo usually occurred once every ten years and the process of the appointment itself could take up to one year consisting of rigorous selection process which considers the candidate’s virginity, family line, appearance and character. Although the method of appointing gungnyeo and their social status differed from time to time, they were generally chosen from among female slaves of the governing class instead of from daughters of the sangmin (commoners). While this restriction on class applied to the common gungnyeo, the appointment of those in who would be closely waiting on the king and queen was different. The standard to choose a jimil nain (assisant of the inner court), for example, was so high that candidates were usually recruited through personal connections. As common gungnyeo entered the palace as trainees at the age of twelve to thirteen, or six to thirteen for those who would be trained in sewing and embroidery, jimil nain entered there at the age of four to eight years old.

The nain (assistants) were divided into many different departments inside the palace. Jimil nain directly served the king and the queen as well as protecting them from any harm. Chimbang nain were the seamstresses who made royal clothes and accessories for the royal families. Subang nain were the ladies responsible for any kind of embroidery from the royal clothing to the palace decorations. Sesugan attended the king and queen’s hygiene requirements from bath, cleaning, to toilets and spitting bowl while Jeonsik were the court ladies who attended the royalties with their hair washing, combing, and make ups.

In matters of food, Sojubang nain were the ladies who were responsible for food preparations. Naesojubang specialized in daily meal preparations and oesojubang prepared food for banquets with the help of any special cooks from outside of the palace especially commissioned to help with the food preparation. Jeonchan served food and entertained the guests in national ceremonies.

There were also ladies who specialized in maintaining the general warmth and comfort of the palace. The bochigeo was responsible for making fires and maintaining the heat for the quarters while the deungchokbang was responsible for lighting candles and lanterns in the palace.

Of all the court ladies, the sanggung (palace matron) held the highest rank. The sanggung would act as the palace managers. They were responsible for the management of properties and had a political power in their own right. They would also act as inspectors and had the power to punish the gungnyeo who broke the palace rules. The sanggung are the only gungnyeo who were assigned their own servants. The maid servants who would also act as their seamstresses or housemaids were called Gaksimi.

The uinyeo (medicine women) were associated with the royal infirmary or naeuiwon and the public clinics. They were chosen among the lower class women or female slaves to be trained in simple medicine skills while running errands for the physicians and served as midwives. They were also equipped in general education, were taught to read various books to promote virtuous character as they dealt with the lives of human beings.

The female physicians were the rare gungnyeo who were allowed to work outside the palace to lend their medicine skills for any crime investigations which related to women. In the reign of Yeonsangun (1476 – 1506) in the Joseon Dynasty, the female physicians also served as uigi (medical entertainers), where they attended the officials’ parties and entertained the guests alongside the kisaeng. Acting out the role as both nurse and courtesan earned them the nickname yakbang kisaeng (medicine room entertainers).

The lowest position in this by no means comprehensive list of jobs for women in the palace is the musuri, the women who carried out odd jobs, usually came from slave background. They daily tasks included drawing water and distributing firewood for the palace quarters. 

Romance and Scandal of the Palace Women

As all of the gungnyeo belonged to the king, they were not allowed to marry or associate themselves with other men. Any gungnyeo who brought a love scandal would be immediately beheaded. If the gungnyeo was pregnant, she was beheaded as soon as she gave birth to her baby, and the baby would become a slave. In the Joseon Dynasty, the Royal Noble Consort Sun, the second daughter-in-law of king Sejong the Great (1397 – 1450) fell in love with a gungnyeo named So-ssang who was also a member of the lowest class of slaves. Although this may have been an issue that fell under the jurisdiction of the queen as it was in regards to two women, according to court records from 1436, Consort Sun had committed a crime of touching someone who belonged to the king. She also committed another crime of sending leftover food from palace meals to her hometown and received a visit from her kinsman after her father’s death without notifying the crown prince, which showed a lack of regard for the general good of the palace men and women. Therefore, she was disinherited and evicted from the palace by the king after his extensive consultation with various palace officials. However, the decree for her dismissal excluded any mention of her sleeping with her maid.

The Gungnyeos were to stay in the palace for the rest of their lives, only to leave immediately before they took their last breath. If a gungnyeo died in the palace, her remains would be secretly cremated. A gungnyeo was obliged to leave the palace as soon as she became old or ill. Other reasons to release gungnyeo from the palace include the illness of their their superior or when a drought happened and a certain number of gungnyeo needed to be released in appeasement of the natural calamity. However, even the gungnyeos who had been released were still regarded as the king’s property. They were therefore still very much restricted in their actions, prohibited from marrying and would be harshly punished if they violated these rules. Thus the gungnyeos lived completely isolated from outside life even when they no longer served the palace.

The Naehun (Instructions for women), compiled by Queen Sohye (1437–1504) in 1475 seeks to carve out a place for women in society where they could act as agents of their own destiny. Although Queen Sohye saw women’s roles as being very different from men’s, and largely supportive of the men in their family, she never described that role as inferior. While setting out the proper rules and virtues to which women should conform and the domestic tasks they should perform, she saw the women as active agents in advising their husbands, educating children and contributing to their country. Therefore, she emphasizes the need for educating women. Indeed the work shows that women of her time could still take part in literate discourse, a tradition which continued at least into the sixteenth century.