Yeongeunmun Gate
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| Yeongeunmun Gate | |
|---|---|
| Hangul: |
영은문
|
| Hanja: | |
| Revised Romanization: | Yeongeunmun |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Yŏngŭnmun |
The Yeongeunmun Gate was a gate located in Seoul, present-day South Korea. It was built to welcome a Chinese envoy to Korea in 1407. In front of the gate, when Korean king met a Chinese envoy, the king had to kneel on the ground and hit his head 9 times on the ground, known as Kowtow, to show his allegiance to Chinese emperor. It is said that the gate was the symbol of prevailing submissive diplomatic policy towards China.
Korea had been a vassal state of Qing Dynasty for hundreds years after the Second Manchu invasion of Korea. In 1895, Japan defeated the Dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War which is occurred by Japan to release Korea. Japan made Treaty of Shimonoseki with the Qing dynasty and made the dynasty admit the independence of Korea. As a result, Korea became an independent country, pulled down the Gate, and built a new gate at the same place called the Independence Gate for the symbol of its independence.
There is the Samjeondo Monument in Seoul, Korea, and it describes the situation that a Korean king knelt on the ground and met a Chinese envoy after the Second Manchu invasion of Korea.
