“For centuries, the scholar-officials of the Andong Kim clan held the writing brush and governed from ancestral pavilions. But when Japanese imperial aggression murdered their queen, forced the abandonment of traditional dress, and extinguished national sovereignty, these same Confucian masters laid aside their books, drew ancestral swords, and marched into the mountains as commanders of the Righteous Armies.”

1. The Eulmi Incident (1895) and the Call of Cheoksa Wijik

In October 1895, Japanese assassins stormed Gyeongbokgung Palace, brutally murdered Queen Myeongseong (Empress Myeongseong), and burned her body. Weeks later, the pro-Japanese cabinet enacted the Short Hair Ordinance (Danbaryeong / 斷髮令), ordering all Korean men to sever their traditional topknots (*Sangtu*).

In Neo-Confucian morality, cutting one's hair—bequeathed intact by one's parents—was considered a monstrous violation of filial piety (*Hyo*), while the murder of the Queen was an unforgivable treason against the state (*Chung*).

Rooted in the unyielding moral ethos of Cheong-eum Kim Sang-heon, who had refused submission to the Qing Manchus two centuries earlier, elder scholars of the Andong Kim clan issued righteous manifestos (*Gyeokmun*, 檄文) calling all loyal subjects to armed insurrection:

“Our national mother has been slain by foreign blades, and the sacred laws of our ancestors are trodden in the dust. Rather than live as shorn beasts under foreign chains, let us die with honor as righteous spirits of the Korean realm!”

2. The Eulmi Uibyeong: The Uprising in Andong and Yeongnam (1895–1896)

In the cradle city of Andong, Confucian masters mobilized the entire regional lineage network. Scholar-gentlemen emptied their family granaries, melted down bronze ancestral tableware to forge musket balls, and gathered thousands of peasant volunteers, hunters, and rural scholars.

Prominent lineage figures such as Kim Do-hwa (金道和) and Kim Ha-rak (金夏洛) organized the Andong Uijin (Andong Righteous Division). Establishing headquarters in the rugged granite gorges of Mount Cheongnyang and Mount Sobaek, they launched coordinated ambushes against Japanese telegraph construction battalions and imperial garrisons throughout Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces.

The Defense of Icheon and the Heroism of Commander Kim Ha-rak

In 1896, Commander Kim Ha-rak led a unified righteous division of over 2,000 men at the Battle of Icheon. Armed only with antiquated matchlocks and spears, Kim's forces held off modern Japanese army battalions armed with Murata repeating rifles for three days.

Severely wounded during a riverbank engagement in Yeongdeok, Kim Ha-rak refused capture. Fastening heavy rocks to his scholar robes, he cast himself into the sea, shouting defiance to the last.

3. The Jeongmi Uibyeong (1907) and Modern Guerilla Warfare

When imperial Japan forcibly disbanded the Korean Imperial Army in August 1907 following the secret Hague Peace Conference mission of King Gojong, dismissed imperial soldiers brought modern rifles and tactical discipline into the Righteous Armies.

Across Chungcheong Province (particularly Hongseong and Boryeong), the Shin Andong Kim lineages under figures like Kim Jwa-jin secretly financed underground arms procurement networks, channeling resources to the Thirteen Provinces Allied Righteous Army (*Sibsamdo Chang-ui-gun*) for the 1908 march on Seoul.

4. The Bridge from Confucian Uibyeong to Manchurian Liberation Armies

Following Japan's scorched-earth “Southern Korea Pacification Campaign” of 1909, surviving Righteous Army commanders withdrew northward across the Yalu and Tumen rivers into Manchuria and the Russian Maritime Province.

This migration formed the direct operational and ideological link to the modern armed independence movement:

  • The moral imperative of Confucian resistance (*Ui*, 義) evolved into modern democratic nationalism.
  • The financial wealth of patriotic Andong Kim estates was systematically transferred to establish military academies in Gando.
  • The guerrilla doctrines forged on Mount Sobaek laid the tactical foundation for General Kim Jwa-jin's triumph at the Battle of Cheongsanri in 1920.

5. Historical Significance and Eternal Honor

The Righteous Armies of the Andong Kim shattered the colonial myth that Korea's aristocratic yangban class was merely parasitic or complacent. In the supreme hour of national crisis, they proved that true nobility is defined by the willingness to sacrifice wealth, estate, and life for the sovereign freedom of the people.