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Inbin Kim

concubine of King Seonjo (1555 - 1613)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ6855022 ↗
Source-derived summary

Inbin Kim (Korean: 인빈 김씨; Hanja: 仁嬪 金氏; 31 March 1555 – 30 November 1613), or Concubine In, of the Suwon Kim clan, was a consort of Seonjo of Joseon and the biological grandmother of King Injo.

Life

Early life

Lady Kim was born in the Suwon Kim clan as the daughter of Kim Han-u (김한우) and his wife. Her maternal grandfather was of the royal Jeonju Yi clan as a descendant of Grand Prince Hyoryŏng, King Taejong's second son; this made Lady Kim a distant cousin of King Seonjo. Her elder sister's daughter later became Sowon Shin, a relatively low-ranked consort of Gwanghaegun.

Royal consort

Concubine Gyeong, one of Lady Kim's cousins, who was a consort of King Myeongjong, raised her in the palace. Lady Kim caught the eye of King Seonjo's adoptive mother, Queen Insun, who recommended her to the king as a consort. In 1573, Lady Kim was appointed as a royal consort of the junior fourth rank (숙원; 淑媛; sugwon), the lowest rank of the king's consorts. She was promoted in the following years, finally rising in 1604 to the senior first rank (빈; 嬪; pin), with the honorific title in (인; 仁), meaning "benevolence".

During her time spent in the palace, she gave birth to four sons and five daughters; her first son died young. The king favoured her second son, Prince Shinseong, hoping to make him crown prince.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Inbin Kim” as concubine of King Seonjo (1555 - 1613). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Inbin, concubine and King.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1555, 1613, 1573, 1604—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1555-01-01, 1555-03-31—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Inbin, concubine and King providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Inbin Kim”, the useful work is to connect “concubine of King Seonjo (1555 - 1613)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6855022. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1555, 1613, 1573 and 1604.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
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  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Inbin Kim”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Inbin Kim primary sources, Inbin Kim archive and Inbin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Inbin Kim”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Inbin Kim” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.