The Joseon Royal Family Females: Changes in the Causes of their Death, and Places where they died - Examination of the Royal Concubines -

What was the average life span for the females in the Joseon Royal family? It is a question that has never been adequately addressed before. So, attempted in this article is to devise an answer to that question, based on various records both public and private in nature, like the ones generated by the government, or sources left by civilians in the form of biographies and epitaphs, either on tombstones or buried inside graves. Hopefully, not only the average lifespan of the Joseon Royal family females, but also the diseases they suffered and places where they died -which seems to have changed from palatial residences(宮家) to private homes(私家)-, will all be revealed by this approach. Total of 136 females, including 46 Queens, 48 Royal concubines, and additional 42 concubines whose cases lack sufficient information, among total of 221 females of the Joseon Royal family, have been inspected for this study.BR Analysis of primary data concerning these females suggests that the average lifespan of a Queen was 51.08 years, while that of the 48 Royal concubines was 56.6 years. The number of Royal family females who survived the age of 60 was 55, which occupies 40.44% of the entire group. Their average lifespan is apparently longer than that of the Yangban household females, probably due to their better living conditions, and a supreme medical environment, filled with excellent medicine and skillful doctors at the Nae-Euiweon office.BR In the meantime, there seems to have been several reasons behind their deaths, such as natural causes(age), diseases, political executions and accidents. Diseases which haunted them also included illness associated with childbirth, infectious diseases such as smallpox, or other ailments like asthma, stroke, abscess and sudden death, etc. One of the most frequent factors that led to their deaths was puerperalism, while mental illness and depression - which we frequently encounter in the modern society as well - were also fatal to the Royal family females’ health.BR Survey of 75 examples of the Royal concubines’ death shows palatial residences and private homes as the most common places where they met their deaths. And interestingly, beginning with the time period between 1549(4th year of King Myeongjong’s reign) and 1565(same king’s 20th year), cases of Royal concubines dying at palatial residences are no longer to be found. The reason seems to have been because the sitting king’s father’s concubines had to leave their original living space, and also because the concubines themselves came to believe that they no longer had to grow old and die in palaces. This looks like a result of their weakening faith in Buddhism, due to the ever strengthening influence of Confucian morality, and a social atmosphere that demanded it.