Combine the sadism of Game of Throne’s King Joffrey and Ramsay “The Bastard” Bolton with Robert Baratheon’s appetites, and you have Prince Yeonsan.
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NOTES
Previously on The Joseon Dynasty…
- The horny and prodigious King Seongjong
- First wife (Queen Gonghye) dies
- Concubine Lady Yun is elevated to queen
- Pisses off Seongjeong’s mom Queen Mother Insu and her allies and the Sarim faction
- Seongjeong’s mom conspires with concubines Jeong So-yong and Eom So-yong
- During dinner, a jealous Queen Yun scratched the king’s face.
- Queen Yun banished then brought back and forced to drink poison. (1482)
- Vomited blood on her white garments
- Asked her mother to give her blood stained cloth to her son
- “Someday my son will repay me.”
1494-1506 10 Yeonsangun → Psycho slut obsessed with mom’s death
- Not to be confused with the county in North Korea
- Possibly believed his stepmother was his birth mother
- Hated learning while growing up
- Killed Jo Sa-seo, one of his tutors
- King Seongjong dies (1494)
- Annals of Seongjong
- Recorded poltergeists and a woman ghost who talks and eats right before Yeonsangun’s crowning
- Early days of reign
- Helped the poor
- Strengthened national defense in response to pirates
- Possibly the first king to use a sort of toothbrush
- Had toothaches, like his predecessors
- Possibly the most artistically inclined of Joseon kings
- No Sasin and Buddhist funeral rites
- National Confuciam Academy
- No pleaded leniency on rivals
- Rivalry between Merit-subjects and Scholar-officials
- Regional rivalry
- Yun Tangro
- Brought in an entertainer and took her as his concubine during king’s mourning period
- Anti-No-Sasin scholars protested this.
- Merit-subjects defended, since Yun had royal blood
- Hint of the brewing Rivalry to come
- No no longer plead leniency
- Also, Yeonsan took every bit of friction as a personal challenge to his absolute power
- (1498) Literati Purge (Muo-sawha)
- Rivalry between Kim Ilson (scholar) and Yi Geukdon (merit subject)
- Kim wrote shit about Yi in history of King Seongjong about playing with prostitutes during Sejo’s mourning period
- Yi was later assigned historiographer and saw what Kim wrote
- Saw poem Kim Jongjik (Kim Ilson’s mentor) wrote about assassination of Xiang Yu
- Kim Ilson noted it in the margins as an allegory of Danjong’s death (considered treason)
- Because Yeonsan was direct descendant of Sejo
- Used it to accuse all scholar elites
- Saw poem Kim Jongjik (Kim Ilson’s mentor) wrote about assassination of Xiang Yu
- (July) Yu Jagwang, et al, accused (the dead) Kim Jongjik of high treason
- Prince Yeonsan ordered interrogation of those involved in draft of royal history containing the poem
- Wanted to get rid of scholars anyway
- 32 officials punished
- Kim Ilson and two others executed by dismemberment
- 2 beheaded
- 19 banished to remote places and sold into slavery
- 4 expelled from office (including Yi Geukdon for not reporting it sooner)
- 4 demoted
- Body of Kim Jongjik hacked to pieces
- Prince Yeonsan ordered interrogation of those involved in draft of royal history containing the poem
- Scholars still remonstrated about merit-subject corruption
- Yeonsan was so aggressive that some scholar-officials and merit-subjects formed alliances just for survival
- Split into loyalist and anti-loyalist factions
- Rivalry between Kim Ilson (scholar) and Yi Geukdon (merit subject)
- Yim Sahong & Yu Jagwang → Serious opportunists with grudges
- Switched sides to get revenge on rivals
- Serious grudges
- Yim Sahong
- Early on, rose high
- (1477) He and Yu falsely accused Chief Royal Secretary Hyeon Seokgyu of provoking dispute
- Ousted Hyeon and was promoted
- Impeached by scholar officials for false accusation
- Banished to Uiju
- Son sold into slavery because once studied under Kim Jongjik (Purge of 1498)
- Back (1503)
- Yu Jagwang
- Also banished. To Dongrae.
- Rehabilitated (1486)
- (1504) Literati Purge “Gapja-sahwa”
- Background
- Yim Sahong brings up the death of Yeonsan’s mother
- There is one theory that Prince Yeonsan thought that his stepmother was his birth mother
- Yeonsan orders an investigation on the execution of his mother
- Prince Yeonsan upset to hear the truth about his mother’s death
- Tried to elevate his mother’s title and rehabilitate her reputation
- Reprimanded officials’ indifference
- No Sasin suggested elevating his mother’s status
- Sarim officials objected, leading more to Prince Yeonsan’s hatred
- Seongjong demanded to speaking of Queen Yun for 100 years
- Hated those involved with his mother’s death
- Dislike of insolent and defiant scholars
- Combined into an overall hatred of conservative scholars
- (Sept 1503) punishment of high official
- Minister of Rites Yi Sejwa accidentally spilled wine on Yeonsan’s robes at a state banquet
- Immediately dismissed and banished
- On surface, Yeonsan saw it as a slight against his authority
- In reality, Yi Sejwa was the guy who delivered the poison to his mother
- Yeonsan rebuked scholars for not rebuking Yi Sejwa
- Demoted them
- (Sept 1503) punishment of high official
- Yim Sahong brings up the death of Yeonsan’s mother
- Killed or dismissed all those associated with Yi Sejwa
- Forced Yi Sejwa to commit suicide by hanging
- Took serious revenge
- 2 of his father’s concubines Jeong So-yong and Eom So-yong → beat to death (March 20)
- Bodies soaked in jeotgal and left out to rot
- Rebuked his grandmother (Great Queen Mother Insu) and pushed her to the ground → shocked to death
- Many officials on both sides executed
- Those who were already dead were exhumed and mutilated
- Hundreds executed, banished, enslaved, dismissed
- Relatives
- 2 of his father’s concubines Jeong So-yong and Eom So-yong → beat to death (March 20)
- Next took aim at scholar elite → purge, purge, purge
- Yim Sa-hong promoted
- Background
- Tyrannical Rule of Prince Yeonsan
- Lived a life of abuse and depravity
- Scholar elite
- Abolished Gyeongyeon (royal study session)
- Suspended advisor and supervisory role of the Samsa (three royal agencies)
- Confucian students couldn’t discuss politics
- Closed National Confucian Academy
- Forced everyone out
- Use the Ming guesthouse as school building
- Closed down the Royal Academy (Seonggyeonggwan) and Wongak-sa Temple and other temples and turned them into stables and his personal pleasure house
- Forced 1,000 women (and horses) all around the peninsula to be his private “entertainers”
- Despite this, it’s said that he didn’t have many children with his concubines. Not as fertile as his father.
- Demolished a large area of the city to turn into his personal hunting ground
- 20,000 homeless
- Forced labor to build these projects
- Scholar elite
- The Office of Censors protested (it was their job) → abolished
- Abolished Hongmungwan (advised king of Confucian teachings)
- Ordered ministers to wear a sign that read
“A mouth is a door that brings in disaster; a tongue is a sword that cuts off a head. A body will be in peace as long as its mouth is closed and its tongue is deep within.” - Chief Eunuch Kim Cheo-sun
- Served three kings
- Begged Prince Yeonsan to stop
- Yeonshot shot him with arrows and cut off his limbs
- Punished his relatives up to seven times removed
- Disgusted officials stepped down, claiming illness
- Yeonsan orders punishment to any official who steps down because of illness
- Jang Nok-su
- Servant of Prince Je-an
- After giving birth, learned to sing and dance and became a gisaeng
- Could sing without moving her lips (ventriloquist?)
- Although in her 30s, looked like she was 16
- Yeonsan heard her singing and took her has his concubine
- Jang treated Yeonsan like a baby
- Oedipus complex?
- Soothing him like a child
- Yeonsan begging her for affection like a mother
- No matter how angry he was, he’d laugh with joy when seeing Jang Nok-su
- When Yeonsan found a woman he wanted, he’d get Jang Nok-su and an official to find out who her husband was and have him stay while he had his way with her for days
- Yeonsan did what she willed
- Her brother-in-law Kim Hyo-son given an official post
- Destroyed her palace house to build a bigger one
- Grabbed back land and slaves from Taejo’s merit subjects
- To refill the treasure depleted by his lifestyle
- Much resistance
- Banned Hangeul
- Posters mocking him were written in Hangeul
- Aided by brothers-in-law and opportunistic Yim and Yu
- Opposition grew more and more
- (Sept 1506) Coup
- Alliance but mostly led by merit-subjects
- Because scholars were depleted from two purges
- Prince Yeonsan rode out at dawn, dressed as a civilian
- Tried to hide in a house
- Arrested by a soldier who followed him
- Banished Yeonsan to Ganghwa Island
- Killed all concubines
- Jang Nok-su beheaded. Crowds threw rocks at her corpse’s genitalia.
- Where Seoul City Hall Plaza is now
- Jang Nok-su beheaded. Crowds threw rocks at her corpse’s genitalia.
- Killed all four young sons
- Was mocked
- Caught a fever and died a miserable death in exile one week later (Nov 1506, 31 years old)
- Killed all concubines
- Got rid of all loyalists and anyone related to Yeonsan’s brothers-in-law
- Replaced Yeonsan with his half brother Jinseong (18 years old)
- Became King Jungjong
- Lived a life of abuse and depravity
- Aftermath
- Mausoleum on Ganghwa Island
- (Dec 1512) Flood damaged it
- (1513) Moved to what is now Banghak-dong, Dobong-gu, Seoul
- No decorations except a stone that says Yeonsangun Jimyo
- So despised, he has no temple name
- Name was used to chastise future kings. “You don’t want to be a Yeonsangun, do you?”
- Question: Was he really that bad, or did his enemies write the history? Or did they write it to help justify deposing him?
- COUNTERPOINT Re: Destroying all the houses
- The houses were illegal
- He built new shelters for them and made sure it was done in the spring
- COUNTERPOINT Re: Destroying all the houses
- Mausoleum on Ganghwa Island
- Notable media
- The King and the Clown 왕의 남자 (2005)
- The Treacherous 간신 (2015)
