Koryoan Realm

**Motto**"Illuminate Heaven and Earth"광명천지 (光明天地)

 **Anthem**"Patriotic Anthem"애국가 (愛國歌)

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The **Koryoan Realm** (Hangul: 명한연방; Hanja: 明韓聯邦) is an East Asian micronation that adopts Neo-Confucianism as its official religion in the context of a federal parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. The Realm is freely formed by people, regardless of ethnicity, who identify with the history, culture, language, customs, and traditions of the Joseon Kingdom and its successor, the Korean Empire (1392-1910), whom they believe to be the last true Confucian macronation in the "Sojunghwa" ideological tradition. Members of the Koryoan Realm, not without controversy, consider their Realm to be "a global model of sagely and virtuous government".

## Etymology

“명한연방”, the name of "Koryoan Realm" in Hangul, literally means "Luminous Han Federation”'; “Han” (Hangul: 한; Hanja: 韓) being a common name of three ancient states in first century BC Korea meaning "primacy", as well as the name the Korean Empire adopted for itself. In contradistinction to the Korean Empire, whose Hangul name "대한제국" literally means "Great Korean Empire", the Constituent Assembly has decided to remove the character "great" (Hangul: 대; Hanja: 大) from the Realm's official name in reflection of its status as a micronation.

Citizens of the Realm are known as "Koryoans", a term, like “Koreans”, is derived from "Goryeo" (Hangul: 고려; Hanja: 高麗) the name of several historical Korean states. Invoking Confucian classics, the Koryoan Realm asserts for itself such honorifics as “Realm of Humaneness and Righteousness” (Hangul: 인의지방; Hanja: 仁義之邦), “Realm of Propriety and Etiquette” (Hangul: 예의지방; Hanja: 禮儀之邦) and “Nation of Noble Character” (Hangul: 군자지국; Hanja: 君子之國).

## History

Citizens of the Koryoan Realm generally do not consider their Realm to be a new entity; rather, they claim it to be the micronational continuation of the inactive Korean Empire, founded by the Gwangmu Emperor, which was considered by Koryoans to be unlawfully occupied by Japanese colonial rule in 1910, but whose succession to the orthodox Way of Confucianism and imperial orthodoxy of the Far East had remained intact, and yet become dormant.

The authorities of the Koryoan Realm hold that, following Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, territory it annexed from the Korean Empire should have been returned to that Empire first. Whether the Confucian imperial monarchy should be revived, and in what form, or abolished, should have been decided by the people of Korea. Yet, the Empire was ignored by the United States and Soviet Union outright, which proceeded to impose secularised forms of republican governments onto the two parts of the Korean Peninsula, in complete disregard of centuries of Confucian religious and monarchical traditions of Korea.

Given the practical impossibility of restoring a Confucian macronational confessional state, individuals who identified themselves as spiritual remnants of the Korean Empire gathered between June and August 2023 in a Constituent Assembly that resolved to resurrect that Empire—the model Confucian state—as a micronation in order to continue the monarchical lineage and orthodox succession to the Way, and that conserves that Empire’s history, culture, tradition, and customs, within the framework of a modern federal constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. Citizens of the Realm hail from all ethnicities across the world, coalescing into a new "Koryoan" ethnic group.

The Realm pursues a pragmatic policy towards the Korean Peninsula. It lays no claim over territory controlled by North Korea and South Korea and recognises these member-states of the United Nations as legitimate states whose sovereignty should be respected, notwithstanding the fact that they govern much of the territory ruled previously by the Korean Empire.

Koryoans mainly see their Realm as a spiritual refuge for all whose creed is orthodox Confucianism or traditional East Asian values, and as a beacon for the propagation and restoration of the Confucian social order in the future. The establishment of the Realm has also been seen by some of its members as a project of experimental political science to generate practical insights on how Confucianism, one of the oldest and most influential philosophical, political, and religious traditions of the world, but also one that has been unduly under-rated since the 20th century, can be of any relevance to rectifying the problems of, and improving on, modern models of liberal democracy, nowadays characterized by populism, excessive individualism, consumerism, environmental degradation, the disintegration of marriages and families, the rapid drop of birth rates, and the rise of intrusive nanny states.

The Constituent Assembly of the Koryoan Realm was officially established on June 1, 2023, charged with the responsibility to adopt a new Constitution to replace the over-centralizing Constitution of the Korean Empire of 1899. The new Constitution draws on diverse sources including Confucian, Neo-Confucian, and Korean Confucian moral texts, international human rights law, the Constitution of Imperial Korea, the 1476 Gyeongguk Daejeon (Hangul: 경국대전; Hanja: 經國大典), and the Grand Plan (Hangul: 홍범; Hanja: 洪範) of Gija, a sagely monarch believed to be a forerunner of Confucianism and thought to have lorded over Ancient Joseon in the 11th Century BC.

On August 12, 2023, the Constituent Assembly proclaimed by public acclamation its convenor Yi Yuryak (Hangul: 이유략; Hanja: 李儒略) of the New Yi clan (Hangul: 신 이씨; Hanja: 新李氏) as Emperor, and Yi's spouse, Won Soyong (Hangul: 원소용; Hanja: 元昭容), as Empress Consort. Yi chose "Seongchi" (Hangul: 성치; Hanja: 聖治), taken from the chapter bearing the same name from the Confucian Classic of Filial Piety, as his regnal name; Seongchi literally means "sagely governance".

The reigning House of Later Yi, though not biologically related to the House of Yi that historically reigned the Korean Empire, unilaterally considers that House as its dynastic predecessor and confers on it special respect and ritual precedence. The Constituent Assembly also elected Members of the House of Representatives of the Central Assembly, which in turn elected one of their own, Baek Byeongheon (Hangul: 백병헌; Hanja: 白秉憲), formerly Chair of the Constituent Assembly, as Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief. Baek officially took office on 17 August 2023, on which the Constitution was promulgated.

## Government and Politics

The Constitution describes the Koryoan Realm as a crowned republic founded on the sagely doctrines of Confucianism, harmonised with contemporary universal principles of democracy, liberty, the rule of law, and constitutionalism. The Realm adopts a federal structure, under which its eight states share power with federal institutions such as His Majesty's Government, the Emperor-in-Central Assembly, the Supreme Court of Justice, and the Constitutional Court.

The Emperor, whose full title is **"By the Grace of God, Emperor of the Koryoans, Defender of the Way"** (Hangul: 황천상제의 은총으로의, 명한연방황제, 왕도 수호자), is a figurehead head of state. He is deprived of all powers to veto legislative bills, Cabinet decisions, judicial rulings, and appointments to the courts, the Office of Prosecutions, and the Commission of Vigilance.

Rather, the Emperor's role is simply to foster unity among Koryoans through being a role model in virtuous behaviour for the populace, performing charitable works and Confucian rituals; and promoting the history, culture, traditions, and customs of the Realm to an international audience. The Emperor is advised by a Privy Council consisting of the heads of the executive, legislative, judicial, and superintendent branches of the federal government, which gathers to discuss all matters relating to the imperial household and the monarch’s discharge of his constitutional duties. The Seongchi Emperor (Hangul: 성치제; Hanja: 聖治帝) (r. 2023-) has thus far maintained impartiality and non-partisanship in the public sphere.

The Phoenix Throne, a physical chair sat upon by the Emperor during ceremonies, is sometimes used rhetorically to denote the monarchy in a metonymic sense. The publicly anticipated enthronement ceremony, also understood by some as the coronation of Emperor Seongchi and Empress Soyong, likely rich in traditional vestments and Confucian rituals, is expected to take place either at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.

Sovereign legislative authority is vested in the Emperor-in-Central Assembly, a technical term referring to the Emperor promulgating laws with the advice and consent of the Central Assembly. Because the Emperor has no power to veto bills and resolutions passed by the Central Assembly, this effectively means that supreme law-making power is being placed in the hands of the Central Assembly, which consists of two chambers, the upper chamber being the House of States, which has no meaningful power over federal bills not affecting inter-state relations, and a far more powerful lower chamber, the popularly-elected House of Representatives.

Effective executive power is vested in a **Chief State Counselor of the Realm** (Hangul: 영의정대신; Hanja: 領議政大臣), commonly known as the Prime Minister, who commands a majority in the House of Representatives of the Central Assembly, heads the federal government, known officially as His Majesty's Government, and serves as commander-in-chief of the security forces of the Realm. The Prime Minister can appoint and dismiss Secretaries of the Realm of the Cabinet at will.

However, in principle, it is possible for backbenchers, not only the Opposition, to pass a vote of no-confidence against the Prime Minister or any Secretary of the Realm, which will automatically result in the latter's lost of office.

Despite noticeable similarities between the Koryoan political system and the Westminster model, the Hangul and Hanja names of Koryoan federal institutions evince significant continuity with those of Imperial Korea, which, in turn, were heavily inspired by those of the Ming Dynasty of China, the last Han Chinese dynasty of that country. In line with Neo-Confucian doctrine, literati-officials in the public service within His Majesty's Government (Hangul: 어좌정부; Hanja: 御座政府), literati-judges within the Constitutional Court (Hangul: 사헌재판소; Hanja: 司憲裁判所) and the Supreme Court of Justice (Hangul: 평리대법원; Hanja: 平理大法院), literati-procurators within the Office of Prosecutions (Hangul: 검찰청; Hanja: 檢察院), and literati-censors within the Commission of Vigilance (Hangul: 사간원; Hanja: 司諫院) are tasked with the responsibility to check and balance excesses of the popularly elected Central Assembly (Hangul: 중추회의; Hanja: 中樞議會) and the indirectly elected His Majesty's Government, so that the latter two institutions would not deviate from the Constitution, as well as the constitutionalised Confucian doctrine of the mean.

Following the example of the Korean Empire, the Koryoan Realm considers itself to a spiritual successor of the Ming Empire's Confucian etiquette during ceremonies, attire, learning and orthodoxy, which in turn could ultimately be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, under which Confucius and Mencius lived.

### Political parties

Baek Byeongheon, a Founding Father of the Koryoan Realm and the incumbent Prime Minister, leads the centre-right Constitutionalists, which currently controls all seats in the Central Assembly. The other major party in the Realm, the Confucian Social Union, takes a more populist position, but has yet gained substantial electoral support.

입헌당 (立憲黨)
유교사회연합 (儒教社會聯盟)

## Administrative Divisions

Leaving aside the de jure claim of the Koryoan Realm over Nogdundo, a 32-square-kilometer island of the Joseon Kingdom, and later the Korean Empire, unlawfully ceded by the Manchus to the Russian Empire in 1860 without the permission of the Gwangmu emperor, the Koryoan Realm primarily exercises personal, rather than territorial jurisdiction over its citizens. Therefore, the eight states of the Realm, namely, New Gyeonggi, New Gangwon, New Gyeongsang, New Chungcheong, New Jeolla, New Pyongan, New Hamgyong, New Hwanghae, and the capital, New Hanseong, primarily refer to people, namely, their members, instead of actual territories; therefore each of these jurisdictions can be described as "mobile". Currently, all citizens are affiliated with the federally affiliated but devolved New Gyeonggi, of which the capital New Hanseong is part. With the exception of New Gyeonggi, all remaining seven states are highly autonomous in matters not reserved by the Constitution to federal institutions, which are responsible for foreign affairs, defence, immigration, the common market, and so on.

## Foreign and Defense Policy

The fundamental defense and foreign policy of the Koryoan Realm is, according to its Constitution, to respect international law, promote peace, and prohibit the invasion of other jurisdictions. Nonetheless, if the federal government of the Realm judges that the Realm is being threatened by foreign aggression, it would strictly enforce the ancient Confucian military doctrine of Jon-hwang-yang-i (‘Revere the Emperor and Expel the Barbarians’) until victory is attained.

## Economy

The Realm is constitutionally required to adopt an "effortless" or non-interventionist style of governance, keeping laws at a minimum, taxes at a low level, and trade policy always free and open, while encouraging societal associations, clans, and families to take up greater responsibility in ordering their own affairs, including the cultivation of moral virtues and providing social services and assistance to citizens.

## Culture

Koryoan identity is defined not by blood but by cultural identification and recognition. Koryoans are prideful of Joseon's traditional attire, their inheritance of the Confucian orthodoxy of the Way through Ming China, the last of all "civilised" imperial dynasties of East Asia, which was conquered by whom they the Koryoans, like their Joseon forebearers, regarded as the “barbaric” Manchurians, according to the Confucian doctrine of Hua-Yi distinction.

Since the Manchurian Empire refused to wholly abandon its "barbaric" ways, such as the mandatory order that males of all
ethnicities must shave bald their foreheads and wear long pigtails behind their heads, and wear nomadic dress, its emperors, on the Koryoan view, could not be regarded as legitimate successors to the orthodox lineage of Han, Tang, Song, and Ming emperors. The Koryoan Realm considers the Korean Empire to be a rump state of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644/1662), from which it received the mandate of heaven. Consequently, the culture of the Korean Empire inherited by the Koryoan Realm is deeply influenced by traditional Korean culture and by the cultural achievements of the Ming, which included lacquers, new genres of novels, porcelains, paintings, and textiles of high sophistication.

Hangul is an official language of the Realm, though, as in the Joseon Kingdom, official legal and policy documents are written in the classic Chinese script, known as Hanja. English remains the most widely spoken language.