The Three Houses of Andong

The ancient city of Andong in North Gyeongsang was once the classical center of Confucianism and home to some of the most powerful and influential noble families of Korea's past. Best known among them are perhaps the Andong Kims whose clan in the 19th century was so powerful it alone dominated the seat of power.

But many distinguished scholars and aristocrats have called Andong their home. The ancient city was also home to the Andong Kwons and Andong Jangs. The three Andong clans have a long interconnected history going back to the Koryo dynasty. Also among the noble clans were the Poongsan branch of the Yoo clan, the Jinbo Lees and the Gosung Lees.

A recent article in the JoongAng Daily revisits the city of Andong and traces the three Andong clans back in time to their historical origins. According to the piece, "while Andong was one of the key cities during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), a trip to the historic city reveals that the city gained political and cultural significance in the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392). It was in the Goryeo period that Andong produced key political and cultural figures and in effect became the second capital city of the kingdom."

Consequently, to understand the history of Andong, one must go back in time to the late Silla Dynasty (57 B.C.E - 935 C.E.) to the declining days of Korea's first unified kingdom (Actually, not quite unified; Balhae in Manchuria remained a separate Korean kingdom following the peninsula's unification under Silla in 676 C.E).

"With Silla’s power on the wane, Wang Geon (877-943), later Taejo of Goryeo, and Kyeon Hwon (ca. 867-936) were struggling for power. The clash came to a peak in 930 at the famous Battle of Byungsan, in current day Andong. Wang Geon eventually won the battle, depriving Kyeon of his once-powerful forces.

"Wang Geon’s victory in Byungsan had a lot to do with his allies in the region - Kim Sung-pyeong, Kwon Haeng and Jang Jung-pil. When Wang Geon assumed leadership of Goryeo, which succeeded Silla, he rewarded the three men by recognizing them as the heads of three Andong clans - Andong Kim, Andong Kwon and Andong Jang. It was the start of Andong’s place among the elite and was the first time the city gained recognition."

And in this way, the three Andongs were recognized during the power struggle that came to fore when the "later three kingdoms of Korea" (892-936) struggled once again for supremacy.

Following the birth of the Joseon dynasty in 1392 after 400 years of Koryo rule, Andong became a center of neo-Confucian learning and produced many Confucian scholars. Among them was one Toe-gye Yi Hwang (1501-70) (also known as Korea's Chu-tzu) who established the great Confucian academy Dosan Seowon. During this period, unsurprisingly, the noble families of Andong played influential roles within Korean political circles.

Today, the Dosan Seowon as well as the Hahoe Folk Village are well known Andong tourist sites.

In memory of the founders of the three Andong clans, JoongAng tells us that the Taesamyo Confucian Shrine, Gyeongbuk Memorial No. 15, in Andong was established. As they have done in the past, and even now, the descendants of the three families take turns caring for the shrine and a live-in guide is available to show visitors around today.

Although not well-known for its monasteries, Buddhist relics can also be found in Andong.

"Three of the country’s five brick pagodas are located in the Andong area. These pagodas are commonly found in China but are quite rare in Korea, where stone pagodas are more common. The stacked bricks created more space inside the pagoda for safekeeping of cremated remains and other important items. The cremated remains of the Buddha were said to have been kept in this manner. While Buddhist pagodas are usually placed on temple grounds in mountainous regions, it is unclear why so many brick pagodas exist in Andong.

"The seven-story Sinse-dong pagoda, which is National Treasure No. 16, is particularly notable. At 16.8 meters (55 feet), it is the tallest of its kind in Korea.

"The pagoda is located next to Imcheonggak Pavilion, Treasure No. 182. Imcheonggak was a sprawling 99-room hanok (traditional house) overlooking the Nakdong River. The locale is considered myeongdang (an ideal place) under the theory of divination based on topography known as poongsu."


Tour Andong's website says the seven-story Sinse-dong pagoda is Korea's oldest and largest stone pagoda. It was originally built during the 8th century during the United Silla kingdom and is located on the estate of the head house of the Goseong Lee family.

After the 16th century, Andong's influence began to subside concomitant with the city's principal families. It wasn't until the early 19th century when Andong's power surged once more with the rise of the Andong Kim clan after a marriage of the local Kim family with the royal house of Yi.


Government by in-law families during the late Joseon

According to Ki-Baik Lee in A New History of Korea, "upon the death of [king] Chongjo in 1800 and the accession of Sunjo, a boy of just ten years, the power of the royal in-law family completely dominated the authority of the throne, and the era of so-called in-law government (sedo chongchi) began. As Sunjo's father-in-law, Ki Cho-sun of the Andong Kim clan was able to concentrate political power almost entirely in his own hands, and in consequence many of his close clansmen rose rapidly to occupy vital positions in the government.

"Subsequently the Andong Kim for a time had to yield their predominant position to another formidable in-law lineage, the Pungyang Cho clan. This was because the mother of Honjong (1834-1849), Sunjo's grandson and successor, was a daughter of Cho Man-yong, a leading Pungyang Cho figure. The Pungyang Cho thus held sway during much of Hongjong's reign, Cho In-yong (Cho Man-yong's younger brother)
becoming chief state councillor and many of his clansmen securing appointments to important posts. But power once again reverted to the Andong Kim after the accession of Cholchong (1849-1863), since his queen was the daughter of Andong Kim Mun-gun kinsmen Kim Hung-gun and Kim Chwa-gun now came in turn to head the officialdom as whose close chief state councillor.

"In this situation the dynasty survived as that of the Yi royal house in name only, its authority overwhelmed by the power exercised by the Andong Kim. The fact that there were those in the royal house who attacked the Andong Kim only to be sent into banishment, or charged with treason and executed, bespeaks where real power lay. How insignificant, then, was the power of the other yangban houses! A force that might challenge the Andong Kim simply was not tolerated.

"A time now had come when political power no longer was allocated among all yangban, or even among those in the Old Doctrine faction, nor was it seized by the winner of a factional struggle. At this point in the latter half of the nineteenth century the political arena was dominated by a single royal in-law sub-lineage."

Korea in decline

But the period in which the Andong clan controlled the seat of power occured at a lowpoint in Korean history. The aftermath of the Japanese invasions in the late 16th century (Imjin Wars) and Manchu invasions in the middle of the 17th left Joseon in a debilitated state. Joseon Korea would never again reach the heights of the 15th century when Sejong, the inventor of Korea's native alphabet (Hangul), was king. The fall of China to the "northern barbarians" was also a disaster, tantamount to the "disintegration of civilization".

This was a period when Korea found itself alone as the last bastion of Confucian orthodoxy and "true civilization". This was a period when distrust and mistrust for foreigners came to the fore. And it was a period when Korea came to be known as the Hermit Kingdom to those in the West who first came in contact with Joseon.

In describing 19th century Korea, a Korea in decline and "rent by political squabbling", Bruce Cumings, author of Korea’s Place In The Sun wrote, "Foreigners found the dynasty near its lowest point in four centuries. Through much of the nineteenth century Korea had no strong king, only a succession of child kings and weaklings. Queen dowagers and their clans (especially the Andong Kims) controlled the government and dominated the court behind the scenes. Sunjo was but ten years old when he became king in 1800; Honjong, who came to the throne in 1834, at the age of eight, died suddenly fifteen years later, and Dowager Queen Kim, fifty-nine years old, picked the third son of Prince Chon-gye to be the king. He was nineteen years old and had no accomplishments of note; royal messengers dragged him back to Seoul from where they found him, behind a cow and plow on Kanghwa Island, and made him the twenty-fifth Choson [Joseon] dynasty king, Cholchong. As Gale [James Scarth] commented, he was someone with whom Dowager Queen Kim 'might play as a college girl does with her tennis ball.' Thus were born 'contests between queens, clan fights, palace intrigues, all of which lent themselves to Korea’s speedy downfall.' "