National anthem of the Korean Empire

The "Patriotic Hymn of the Korean Empire" (Hangul: 대한제국 애국가; Hanja: 大韓帝國 愛國歌; literally "Korean Empire Aegukga") was the national anthem of the Korean Empire, used in the early 20th century. It was the first national anthem of a unified Korean state.

History

The anthem was first commissioned by Emperor Gojong in 1901 and presented to the Korean court on 1 July 1902, by German composer Franz Eckert, who was the director of the Korean Empire's military band at the time.^[2] It was published in Germany in five different languages (Korean, German, English, Chinese, and French) and performed for the first time on 9 September 1902, during Emperor Gojong's birthday ceremony.^[3]

The imminent demise of the Korean Empire's independence, however, meant that the anthem did not become widely available. With the signing of the Eulsa Treaty in 1905, the Korean Empire was well on its way towards annexation by the Empire of Japan. During Japanese colonial rule, the anthem was banned.

Lyrics (monarchist version)

It was the original version made for Gojong Emperor.^[4] However, several other versions of the monarchist anthem had also existed.^[5]

(note: "Baedal" (배달, 倍達) was an obsolete name used for Korea in colonial Japanese times, usually referring to the kingdom of Gojoseon.)

Lyrics (Republican version)

The republican lyrics were re-discovered on 13 August 2004, by curator Lee Dong-guk of the Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum.^[6] The surviving specimen was a copy kept by the Korean-American Club of Honolulu-Wahiawa and published in 1910 under the title Korean old national hymn in English and 죠션국가 in Korean.^[6][7][8]

The discovery came as a surprise even in South Korea, where the existence of the republican lyrics was unknown until then. The finding was later reported in the mass media and has since then been performed by various K-pop artists. Hawaii has been a source for various pre-Japanese annexation heritage investigations by South Korea since many Korean Empire citizens emigrated to Hawaii before the Japanese annexation. One recent incident involved a Korean Empire émigré descendant donating a very rare 100-plus-year-old original passport issued by the Korean Empire to South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun during his visit to Hawaii.

The republican lyrics are:

In the romanisation, ‹:› indicates length marks for singing that appear in the source; ˉ marks vowels that would have been pronounced as long vowels when not singing. While the copy appearing in the source () appears markedly newer than the 1900s and calls the anthem the “Joseon national anthem” (죠션 국가) instead of “Patriotic song of the Korean Empire” (大韓帝國愛國歌) as one would expect from a 1900s original, it clearly shows pre-1933 orthography (reproduced here) that was not used after the 1940s.

See also

• Aegukga
• Aegukka

References