Director of the Postal Administration, pioneer of modern postal service and leader of the Gapsin Coup
| Life | 1855 ~ 1884 |
| Era | 조선 말기 |
| Clan | 남양 홍씨 |
Hong Yeong-sik (洪英植, 1855–1884) was a late Joseon official and reformist politician who launched Korea's modern postal service. His courtesy name was Jungyuk, his pen name Geumseok and his posthumous title Chungmin; he belonged to the Danghong line of the Namyang Hong. The son of Chief State Councillor Hong Sun-mok, he was born in Seoul and studied under Park Gyu-su (grandson of Park Ji-won), the interpreter O Gyeong-seok and Yu Hong-gi, developing reformist ideas with Kim Ok-gyun, Bak Yeong-hyo and Seo Gwang-beom.
He passed the civil examination in 1873. In 1881 he visited Japan with the gentlemen's observation mission, reporting on the Japanese army and taking special interest in the postal system. In 1883 he went to the United States as vice-envoy of the mission led by Min Yeong-ik, met President Chester Arthur, toured post and telegraph offices in New York, and on his return urged the king to open a postal service.
When the Postal Administration was founded in April 1884 he became its director, and that November modern mail service began between Seoul and Incheon. Korea's first postage stamps, the Munwi stamps, were issued at this time.
On 4 December 1884, using the banquet celebrating the opening of the post office, he launched the Gapsin Coup with Kim Ok-gyun and was named Right State Councillor in the new government, but Qing troops crushed the coup within three days. He stayed to guard King Gojong to the end with Bak Yeong-gyo and was killed by Qing soldiers; his father Hong Sun-mok took his own life. Rehabilitated in 1894 and later stripped again, he was posthumously named chief scholar of the Gyujanggak in 1910. His tomb in Yeoju is a designated local heritage site.
His confiscated house in Seoul became the site of Jejungwon, the first Western-style hospital. Percival Lowell, the American who guided the 1883 mission, dedicated a memorial passage to him in the preface of his 1885 book Chosön, the Land of the Morning Calm.