Park Gyu-su 박규수
Right State Councillor
In office 19 January 1874 ? 4 November 1874
Preceded by	Han Gye-won
Succeeded by	Kim Byeong-guk
Personal details
Born	( 1807-10-27 ) 27 October 1807 Gahoe-dong , Hanseong , Joseon
Died	9 February 1877 (1877-02-09) (aged 69) Suwon-gun, Gyeonggi Province , Joseon
Spouse	Lady Yi of the Yeonan Yi clan (沿岸 李氏)
Relations	Park Jon-chae (father) Lady Yu (mother)
Children	Park Je-eung
Korean name
Hangul	박규수
Hanja	朴 珪 壽
Revised Romanization	Bak Gyusu
McCune?Reischauer	Pak Kyusu

Bak Gyusu ( Korean :  박규수 ; 1807–1877) was a scholar-bureaucrat , teacher, politician, and a diplomat of the Joseon period. He was known as a pioneer of the enlightenment group. Bak Gyusu was the grandson of Park Ji-won , the great Silhak scholar of the Joseon. He was also known by the names of Hwanjae ( 桓齋 ; ?齋 ), Hwanjae ( 桓齋 ; 桓齋 ), Heonjae ( 憲裁 ; 獻齋 ), and Hwanjaegeosa ( 桓齋擧事 ; ?齋居士 ).

Biography [ edit ]

In 1827, Bak Gyusu met Crown Prince Hyomyeong who quickly became a trusted friend. The Crown Prince would often ask Gyusu for his thoughts on delicate political and social issues. When the Crown Prince died three years later at the age of 20, Gyusu fell into a deep state of mourning. Due to this, Gyusu isolated himself from the outside world for twenty years. ^[1]

In 1848, he successfully passed the Gwageo civil service exam, a test required for government work. Doing well on this test allowed Bak Gyusu to acquire a well-paid job early on. Later in his life, Gyusu became a mentor for a Korean politician Pak Yung-hio during the mid-1870s. Gyusu decided to instruct Pak Yung-hio in his ways of enlightened thinking after he took initiative and sought the politician out. ^[2] Gyusu's ideas influenced many throughout Korea, the most notable being the Korean reformist Kim Okgyun , who went on to incorporate foreign sciences and technologies into Korea in an attempt to strengthen it against further military advances by the rapidly technologically developing Meiji Japan . ^[3]

During the period of King Gojong 's reign, the Queen actively supported him. Queen Sinjeong had been the wife of Crown Prince Hyomyeong, who was posthumously named King Munjo . Bak Gyusu was the governor of Pyongan province when the General Sherman incident occurred, an event commonly cited as a factor important to the end of Korean isolationism in the 19th century. On the 9th of July 1866, the General Sherman entered the Keupsa Gate without permission. Gyusu gave the General Sherman 's crew a warning to depart from Joseon. The ship's crew ignored his warning and captured the messenger adjutant-general Yi Hyon-Ik, a subordinate of Bak Gyusu. Gyusu was present during the rescue of Yi and the destruction of the General Sherman on the 24th of July 1866. In 1872 Bak Gyusu was made the Joseon Chief Envoy to the court of the Tongzhi Emperor . ^[4]

Known works [ edit ]

• Hwanjaejip(환재집 ?齋集)
• Hwanjaejikgye(桓齋直系 ?齋織啓)
• Hwanjaesyugye(桓齋水系 ?齋繡啓)
• Geogajapbokgo(巨加雜卜고 居家雜服攷)
• Sanggodohoimunuirye(上告도회문儀禮 尙古圖會文儀例)
• Jangammungo(長岩文庫 莊菴文稿)
• Hwanjaeyugo(桓齋遺稿 ?齋遺稿)

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

• Daehwan, Noh. "The Eclectic Development of Neo-Confucianism and Statecraft from the 18th to the 19th Century," Korea Journal (Winter 2003).
• Kang, Jae-eun and Suzanne Lee. (2006). The Land of Scholars: Two Thousand Years of Korean Confucianism. Paramus, New Jersey: Homa & Sekey Books. ISBN   978-1-931-90737-8 ; OCLC 60931394

External links [ edit ]

• Bak Gyusu (in Korean)
• "西洋 오랑캐가 中國 文明에 感化될 것이니…" 프레시안 2010.04.09 (in Korean)
• “韓國 첫 開化思想家 오경석 아닌 박규수” 文化日報 2011.03.10 (in Korean)
• 이 男子, 네 가지로 모든 걸 解決했다 (in Korean)