Seondeok reigned as Queen of Shilla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, from 632 to 647. She was Shilla's twenty-seventh ruler, and its first reigning queen.
[edit] Selection as Heiress
Seondeok's father was King Jinpyeong of Shilla. Having no sons, he selected Seondeok as his heir. This was not surprising for many reasons. One was that women in this period already had a certain degree of influence as advisors, dowager queens, and regents. Throughout the kingdom, women were heads of families since matrilineal lines of descent existed alongside patrilineal ones. The Confucian model, which placed women in a subordinate position within the family, was not to have a major impact in Korea until the mid Goryeo period in the fifteenth century. During the Shilla kingdom, women's status remained relatively high.
There were other reasons, as well, that led the king to favor Seondeok. Early in her life she had displayed an unusually quick mind. One story tells of the time the king received a box of peony seeds from the emperor of China accompanied by a painting of what the flowers looked like. Looking at the picture, seven year old Seondeok remarked that while the flower was pretty it was too bad that it did not smell. "If it did, there would be butterflies and bees around the flower in the painting." Her observation about the peonies' lack of smell proved correct, one illustration among many of her intelligence, and thus ability to rule.
In 634, Seondeok became the sole ruler of Silla, and ruled until 647. She was the first of three female rulers of the kingdom, and was immediately succeeded by her cousin Jindeok, who ruled until 654.
Seondeok's reign was a violent one; rebellions and fighting in the neighboring kingdom of Baekje filled her days. Yet, in her fourteen years as queen of Korea, her wit was to her advantage. She kept the kingdom together and extended its ties to China, sending scholars to learn from that august kingdom. Like Tang's Empress Wu Zetian, she was drawn to Buddhism and presided over the completion of Buddhist temples. She built the "Tower of the Moon and Stars," or Cheomseongdae, considered the first observatory in the Far East. The tower still stands in the old Silla capital of Gyeongju, South Korea.
