father of the Korean king Kojong.

As regent from 1864 to 1873, Taewŏn-gun inaugurated a far-ranging reform program to strengthen the central administration; he modernized and increased its armies and rationalized the administration. Opposed to any concessions to Japan or the West, Taewŏn-gun, though out of power, helped organize the anti-Japanese outbreak in 1882. Considered a troublemaker, he was then kidnapped and taken to China for three years. By the time he returned, his power and many of his reforms had been eliminated.