Queen consort of King Sejong; mother of Kings Munjong and Sejo
| Life | 1395 ~ 1446 |
| Era | 조선 초 |
| Clan | 청송 심씨 |
Queen Soheon (昭憲王后, 1395–1446) was the consort of King Sejong, fourth king of Joseon, and belonged to the Cheongsong Sim clan. She was the granddaughter of Sim Deok-bu and the eldest daughter of Chief State Councillor Sim On; her mother was a daughter of An Cheon-bo of the Sunheung An clan. Her full posthumous title is Seonin Jeseong Soheon Wanghu.
She married Prince Chungnyeong, Yi Do, in 1408 and was titled Princess Consort Gyeongsuk, then Lady of Samhan in 1417. When her husband became crown prince the following year she was invested as Crown Princess Gyeongbin, and when he took the throne that same year she became queen with the title Queen Gong. In 1432 the court dropped such honorific titles as unprecedented and she was simply styled Queen.
Soon after Sejong's accession in 1418 her father Sim On and uncle Sim Jeong lost their lives in a political purge and her mother and relatives were made government slaves. Calls to depose her were rejected in recognition of her virtues, and in 1426 her mother was reportedly removed from the slave register and her rank restored.
She bore Sejong eight sons — Munjong, Sejo and the Grand Princes Anpyeong, Imyeong, Gwangpyeong, Geumseong, Pyeongwon and Yeongeung — and two daughters, Princesses Jeongso and Jeong-ui. After losing her mother and two sons in 1444–45 she turned deeply to Buddhism, and she died in 1446 at the residence of Grand Prince Suyang. Suyang's Korean-script life of the Buddha, the Seokbo Sangjeol, is known to have been compiled at Sejong's command to pray for her soul.
First buried in the precincts of Heolleung, she was later moved to Yeongneung, Sejong's tomb, in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province. The gazetteer Dongguk Yeoji Seungnam records that Cheongsong was raised to a county in 1419 as the queen's ancestral home, and clan sources say she sent officials to plant pines on Bogwangsan, site of the founder's tomb, and had the district guard it.
She is buried with King Sejong at Yeongneung in Sejongdaewang-myeon, Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province.
She bore eight sons, including Munjong, Sejo and Grand Princes Anpyeong and Geumseong, and two daughters.