In the Goryeo Dynasty, Empress Dowager Sasuk[思肅], the wife of Emperor Sunjong[宣宗], and Empress Dowager Kongyeh[恭睿], the wife of Emperor Injong[仁宗], have many in common each other in various aspects, but their lives are very different. Empress Dowager Sasuk is a figure that lived right after the Munjong[明宗] era when the system was reorganized and culture was burgeoning whereas Empress Kongyeh was in a position of Empress in the Injong and Myungjong era when the Confucian rituals were established, and the Confucianism became a main political idea of the Goryeo Dynasty. Therefore, one shows a typical pattern of Empress Dowager of the early Goryeo Dynasty, and the other may be a representative of Empress Dowager who lived in the era of transformation, and as a matter of fact, they were treated differently in their time. Empress Dowager Sasuk became Empress when a precedent of the wife of Munjong, in which Empress is treated as equal to Empeor in funeral rites, was accepted. Moreover, her son was sick and weak, so she had to rule the kingdom behind the veil. Therefore, those who lived in that time and who lived after that time remembered that she directly commanded the court for three years. In short, Empress Dowager Sasuk was a ‘Empress Dowager’ that had the most political power and was officially treated with exceptional respect.
However, Empress Dowager Kongyeh had to go through various hardships as Empress Dowager although her life as an woman was in peace. As she had a different idea with her husband about succession, her own son doubted her thinking. In addition, she had to keep worrying about the safety of her sons and daughters when a group of generals launched and succeed a coup. Furthermore, in her era, people started to adopt an argument that Empress should not be treated as equal to Emperor in rituals, and even Empress’s father should not be respected and be remained as a vassal of Emperor. Of course, the status of Empress Dowager, which had been maintained for a long time, could not be gone in a day, so she officially held a high status in rituals.