Sunjong of Korea
The 2nd emperor of the Korean Empire. (1874–1926)
Sunjong (Korean: 순종; Hanja: 純宗; 25 March 1874 – 25 April 1926), personal name Yi Cheok, also known as the Yunghui Emperor, was the last Korean monarch. He ascended to the throne upon the forced abdication of his father, Emperor Gojong. Hence, Sunjong has been characterized by historians as being a powerless puppet ruler of the Japanese, reigning for just three years before Korea was officially annexed in 1910.
Biography
Crown Prince of Korea
Sunjong was the second son of Emperor Gojong and Empress Myeongseong. When he turned two years old in 1876, Sunjong was proclaimed the Crown Prince of Joseon. In 1882, he married a woman of the Yeoheung Min clan (later Empress Sunmyeonghyo). She died at the age of 31 on 5 November 1904 due to a severe depression, after trying to protect her mother-in-law (Empress Myeongseong, also a member of the Yeoheung Min clan) from her assassination on 8 October 1895 by the Japanese military.
When his father proclaimed Korea as an Empire in 1897, Sunjong was appointed as the Crown Prince of Imperial Korea on 12 October 1897. On 29 June 1898, he was appointed as the Field Marshal of the Imperial Korean Army. Sunjong remarried again 3 years later to the daughter of Yoon Taek-young, Yun Jeung-sun of the Haepyeong Yun clan, who was 20 years younger than him, on 11 December 1906, and she became Crown Princess Consort Yun (later Empress Sunjeong).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Sunjong of Korea” as the 2nd emperor of the Korean Empire. (1874–1926). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as the 2nd emperor of the Korean Empire. (1874–1926). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q334111. VIAF identifies the subject as 6421264. The Library of Congress control number is n86133499. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1874, 1926, 1910 and 1876.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. 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
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sunjong of Korea”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sunjong of Korea primary sources, Sunjong of Korea archive and Sunjong research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sunjong of Korea”?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sunjong of Korea” 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.