Ch 10 - Political Turmoil

Both Right ... Both Wrong

King Chungjong reigned over a highly volatile political landscape characterized by frequent and often bitter political battles among the High State Councilors, Chungjong's Merit Subjects and the Samsa. Cho Kwang-jo, a zealous proponent of Neo-Confucianism and a favored advisor of the king, set off a long and acrimonious controversy in Seoul over the proper role of the censoring bodies in government. Cho and the "men of 1519" instituted a number of practical social reforms and became the focus of a mounting government crisis.

Right up to the moment of the nearly bloodless coup that put the young Prince Yok on the Phoenix throne, he had no influential following personally loyal to him. Having bypassed the normal line of succession, he had no "marriage-kin" whose interests coincided with his own. As a result, King Chungjong became a creature of those who placed him in power. The situation demanded that the young monarch move quickly to strengthen his insecure position on the throne. True to royal tradition, his first act as king was to reward those men to whom he owed his crown. The "Three Great Generals," samdaejong, who led the coup, Pak Won-jong, Song Hui-an, and Yu Sun-jong, received promotions to the High State Council. Chungjong next created a Merit Subject roster that included some one hundred seventeen names and designated some two hundred Minor Merit Subjects.

King Chungjong faced the problem of accommodating three distinct groups in his new government, each with ample grounds for enmity and distrust. First, there were Chungjong's own Merit Subjects, men whose record of support for Yonsangun's reign left them vulnerable to attack from the Samsa. Next were those who survived the purges of 1498 and 1504, including their relatives, and who were now free to return to politics. The purges not only cost this group two to eight years government seniority, but they placed those who profited from the purges in positions of authority above them. Finally, there were the minor government office holders, men who escaped punishment in the earlier purges and whose path to higher office was now blocked by the weightier claims of the other two groups.

The political landscape in Seoul between 1506 and 1515 was highly volatile, characterized by frequent and often bitter political battles. The High State Councilors and Chungjong's Merit Subjects faced recurrent attacks from the Samsa. Almost immediately after its creation, the Office of the Censor-General criticized the king's Merit Subjects roster by claiming that some of the sons and younger brothers were enrolled solely because of their fathers and older brothers. Furthermore, come of those enrolled, "... did nothing but come in the evening and participate in the congratulation ceremonies." The king ignored the criticism and the censoring bodies did not press the issue.

The first concern of Chungjong's new reign was to punish the "evildoers" under Yonsangun. In the great palace "housecleaning" that took place, over one hundred people, including harem figures, eunuchs, royal physicians and their relatives and slaves, who were associated with Yonsangun's brutal purges were sentenced either to beheading and confiscation of property or to forced resettlement along Choson's far borderlands. Because the purge of 1504 was Yonsangun's responsibility, few high ranking officials from the preceding reign suffered serious treatment as a result of their actions or conduct. None were executed and only one was banished. The few high officials who might have been charged with criminal behavior in connection with the purge of 1498 were already dead. The only officials who had played a significant role in the purge had died in the coup that enthroned Chungjong. Finally, those of Yonsangun's officials who survived his reign were the very men who put Chungjong on the throne.

The early years of Chungjong's reign were marked by contentious battles between the censoring bodies and the upper levels of the bureaucracy, particularly the High State Councilors. in early 1508, while debates over the issuance of excessive rewards to Chungjong's Merit Subjects was still underway, Minister of Punishments Song Hui-an, one of the Three Great Generals, openly criticized the Censorate's methods. He charged Censorate scrutiny of the qualifications of office holders was based solely on untruths or of past misdeeds and asked King Chungjong to consider this fact when making his decisions. Offended by such comments, Censorate officials tendered their resignation. When the king refused to accept the resignations, the Censorate attacked Minister Song, charging he should be prosecuted for the crime of "repressing the Censorate." Chungjong refused to comply.

Three years later, after Song Hui-an had been elevated to the post of Third State Councilor, the Censorate and Song Hui-an tangled once again. The Censorate responded to an appeal for counsel with a request that three State Councilors, all Prime Merit Subjects, be removed from their posts. During the ensuing debate, the Censorate charged Councilor Song had claimed that, "literati mores are contemptuous of constituted authority." After Song convincingly denied the allegation, the king handed the Censorate personnel over to the State Tribunal, transferred the Inspector-General and the Censor-General to inactive duty, and demoted the rest of the body. Within two years, Song Hui-an quickly rose to the post of Chief State Councilor, Choson's highest political office.

Song Chil succeeded Song Hui-an as Chief State Councilor in 1513, and almost immediately came under attack from the Office of the Censor General for lapses in personal and official decorum. The OCG claimed that Song and four high officials under his office were unfit to hold office. The Office of the Inspector General joined in the attack by alleging that Song had personally supervised the construction of a new house while in mourning for his father, that he had illegally acquired lands in P'yong'an Province, and that he had accepted bribes. After repeatedly refusing to heed the Censorate's arguments, King Chungjong finally relented to demands that Song Chil be removed from his post as Chief State Councilor.

In the period between 1506 and 1515, no fewer than five plots, actual or alleged, were made against the throne of the young king or his highest officials. In each case the conspirators were either banished or executed. Into this turbulent environment stepped Cho Kwang-jo, who in the short span of four years set the stage for another government purge. While living in P'yong'an, sixteen-year-old Cho became a follower of Kim Koengp'il, the foremost disciple of Kim Chong-jik. Cho quickly immersed himself completely in the study of the Classics, particularly the Zhu Xi texts, and thus joined the direct line of the Neo-Confucian orthodoxy in Choson.

Cho graduated first in his class in the Literary Licentiate examination held in 1510, and five years later was appointed to his first government post, a Junior Sixth Rank position as Overseer of the Paper Manufactory. Cho felt that, "To gain office by virtue of groundless repute is not the same as qualifying via the examinations." In August of that year, King Chungjong held a civil examination on the occasion of a royal visit to the National Confucian Academy. Cho passed that examination in second place and was appointed Librarian of the National Academy. Shortly thereafter, he received an appointment to the Censorate as a Fourth Censor. Almost immediately he ignited the smoldering embers of one of the greatest controversies of the day.

Shortly after his enthronement in 1506, Chungjong's leading Merit Subjects and other high government officials strongly recommended that he remove his first consort, Lady Sin, from the palace. The men feared that as daughter of Second State Councilor Sin Su-gun and a niece of Yonsangun's queen, her investiture as queen would raise suspicions and could jeopardize his reign. The young king agreed and Lady Sin was sent from the palace. When Queen Changgyong died giving birth to her first son, later to become King Injong, and before her successor could be selected, King Chungjong issued a royal appeal for counsel on the matter. Kim Chong and Pak Sang, two local magistrates from Cholla Province, responded with a startling proposal.

Kim and Pak argued that by ousting the blameless Lady Sin he had committed the most grievous sort of breach of moral rectitude. They claimed the Three Great Generals coerced him into this action because they had killed Lady Sin's father and feared possible retribution by his daughter. Not even their meritorious services to the throne could obscure the monstrousness of their crime. Kim and Pak argued the Three Great Generals should be posthumously stripped of all offices and titles and Lady Sin should be restored to her rightful position. King Chungjong was not at all pleased with this turn of events.

Since the Kim-Pak memorial was issued under the theoretically inviolate cloak of a response to an appeal for counsel, the king initially decided to take no action against the two men. The Censorate however, felt entirely different. Censor-General Yi Haeng, with fresh memories of Yonsangun's revenge for the death of Lady Yun, feared the potential for a repeat occurrence by a vengeful Lady Sin. He demanded that Kim Chong and Pak Sang be arrested and a judicial inquiry be held into the motives behind their proposal. King Chungjong summoned the High State Councilors and Six Board minsters to discuss the growing controversy.

Minister of Personnel An Tang deplored the inherent violation of the freedom of criticism and censure in Yi Haeng's proposal. He wondered aloud if Kim and Pak were prosecuted, who would ever again even think of offering frank advice to the king. In explaining the Censorate's error to the king, Minister An was merely expressing in strong terms the very complaint being voiced by many others. Although he believed the Censorate's position was wrong, he stopped short of actually criticizing the act of demanding prosecution of Kim and Pak. Instead, he censured Chungjong for his lack of discrimination in passing judgement on the matter. The group unanimously condemned the "reckless irresponsibility" and "blatant error" of Kim and Pak's language and noted that under normal circumstances charging both men with a serious crime would have been automatic. However, to prosecute the two men for speaking in response to an appeal for counsel from the king would "exceed the bounds of propriety" and restrict the freedom to criticize. In the end, the advisory group recommended that instead of punishing the two men, the fallacy of their position should be made widely known.

The united opposition of the king's senior government officials failed to persuade King Chungjong, who chose to accept the Censorate's opinion. Speculating that Kim and Pak would probably wish to reinstate Lady Sin even if Queen Changgyong had not died, he brushed aside further protests and ordered Kim and Pak imprisoned, interrogated, then banished. In all the objections to preferring criminal charges against Kim and Pak, both before and after their sentencing, not a single word was uttered denouncing the Censorate's error in insisting on punishment.

The Kim-Pak controversy touched on a striking anomaly in Yi the government. By calling for the prosecution of Kim Chong and Pak Sang in total disregard for the principle of freedom of criticism and censure, the Censorate, long the zealous guardian of the principle of free opposition, had pressed for an action that would have actually suppressed criticism. The High State Councilors, often accused of trying to restrain the freedom to criticize, led the majority of the bureaucracy in defense of the principle of free opposition. There the matter might have ended, except for Cho Kwang-jo's coincidental appointment to the Censorate in the post of Fourth Censor.

In pressing for punishment of Kim Chong and Pak Sang, Censor-General Yi Haeng had actually made a serious tactical error and Cho Kwang-jo moved quickly to take advantage. Immediately after assuming his new duties, Cho attacked his colleagues in the Censorate for "leading the king into unrighteousness" and demanded the king discharge the officials responsible. King Chungjong ignored the request at first, but Cho persisted in trying to persuade the king that instead of punishing Kim and Pak, he should merely transfer the offending Censorate officials. After the High State Councilors threw their support behind Cho, King Chungjong finally relented in the fall of 1515 and agreed to transfer the officials in question.

Looking for some way to mend the growing split in government, Second Counselor Kim Al-lo led the Office of Special Counselors in proposing an ingenious face-saving formula which came to be known as the "both right both wrong theory." The OSC proposal stated,

"The words of Kim Chong and Pak Sang were grossly in error, but on the ground that charging them with crime would constitute a restriction of the principle of remonstrance, from the very outset we asked that crime not be charged. However, the former Censorate asked that crime be charged solely out of concern for the larger interest of the state, and for this reason neither did we hold them to be wrong. Hence, although it is right that ... [those present Censorate officials] speak out now on behalf of the principle of remonstrance, for them to hold the former Censorate to be wrong is wrong. And that it is right that ... [the minority of the present Censorate] should hold the former Censorate to be right, but for them to hold Cho Kwang-jo to be wrong is wrong."

King Chungjong reacted to the proposal by naming another new Censorate. When the OSC sided with Cho Kwang-jo's position and the OIG began defending the "both right both wrong theory," Chungjong appointed yet another Censorate. The king's action radically altered the impact of the Kim-Pak memorial and opened the door to a long and acrimonious controversy over the proper role of the censoring bodies in government. OSC First Counselor Yi Haeng, the prime trigger for the Kim-Pak controversy, soon became the object of hate and derision and resigned his post in October 1516. In less than a year however, Yi was returned to government service in the position of Inspector-General, an appointment that quickly brought matters to a head. Based on vague charges that Yi Haeng's cunning and deceit made him unfit for office, his OIG colleagues and some officials from the OCG jointly requested the king revoke his appointment and promotion in rank. Faced with the dilemma of either transferring officials from the Censorate or transferring Yi, King Chungjong decided that Yi Haeng had to go.

Chungjong's senior State Councilors rose to Yi Haeng's defense, flatly asserting that his detractor's allegations were wrong. The battle was quickly joined in earnest. Utterly astonished that Yi Haeng could be impeached and ousted from office on such tenuous charges, Fourth State Councilor Kim Chon argued that whenever the views of the highest officials differ from those of the Censorate, Censorate officials immediately focus on that difference and condemn it. He questioned how one could take his own viewpoint as a standard and censure anyone who did not conform to it. Yi Song-on, the Magistrate of Suwon, lamented the fact that whenever the Censorate was challenged by someone with a divergent view or a different approach, they labeled the person as an obstructionist or questioned his moral character.

"Thus, first quickly sowing seeds of doubt and uncertainty, in the end they attack an opponent on the basis of some vague and undemonstrable allegation of evil, making it impossible for him to raise his head again. In consequence, men all have drawn back in trepidation and do not say openly what is in their minds. . ."

Magistrate Yi Song-on further stated that the Censorate always discussed its positions and acted on the basis of private caucus, thereby presuming to act as a political authority. Such behavior would be bad enough to cause turmoil, he claimed, but there is even greater danger when such political authority is taken on by a private caucus.

"In discussing an issue Yi Haeng does not tailor his views to what others want to hear. Because of this he ran afoul of the prevailing climate of opinion and in the end acquired a name for evil. When recently he was downgraded, many of the officialdom ... beat their breast and gave vent even to tears, but not one man moved staunchly to his defense. If Yi Haeng truly is a man who would do grave injury to the state hen let him be punished for this crime."

Yi Song-on's remarks drew a violent reaction from the Censorate, which asserted he had confused right and wrong and driven a wedge into the ranks of the government. They asked that he be severely punished. King Chungjong claimed that Censorate officials had proven themselves to be the divisive force by their memorial on disharmony in the government. With the unanimous backing of his highest officials, Chungjong removed the Censorate officials, restored Yi Haeng's rank promotion and appointed him Third Minister of Taxation.

Following in footsteps of their predecessors, the new Censorate officials picked up the fallen gauntlet. They refused to obey a royal command to officiate at an examination and attacked the high officials who had endorsed the transfer of their predecessors. They forced the removal of new Censorate appointees with opposing views and incessantly demanded that the king rescind Yi Haeng's appointment. They also demanded he banish Magistrate Yi Song-on and publicly acknowledge his own error of transferring the former Censorate. The OSC stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Censorate in its struggle and, at times, criticized it for timidity in pressing the attack.

Yi Haeng worked quietly in the wings over the next two years, finally retiring from government to his country home. King Chungjong never acceded to the Censorate's demands to openly admit his error in transferring the previous Censorate. Although the censoring bodies had been checked just short of their objective, there were still many targets of opportunity and they had lost little momentum.

King Chungjong always held the Confucian arts in high esteem and was deeply committed to building an enlightened civil administration. He placed the greatest reliance on Cho Kwang-jo who quickly earned appointments to a series of ever more influential positions. . Deeply conscious of royal protocol, Cho made it his mission to extol the king's virtue and promote the flourishing of Confucianism. Cho never refrained from candidly speaking his mind and his conversations in the king's presence were as unfailingly respectful and devoted as if he were standing before Heaven itself.

The frontier territory in Hamgyondo Province was a dangerous place in the spring of 1518, threatened by growing unrest among Jurchen tribes in the region. King Chungjong, with the unanimous support of his High State Councilors and the military, decided to mount a surprise attack against a particular Jurchen leader who had been violating Choson's northeastern border for years. They believed that a punishing surprise attack would discourage others from following his example. On the day of the expedition's scheduled departure, the king and his ministers gathered for the formal send-off of General Yi Chi-bang and his army. First Counselor Cho Kwang-jo stunned the gathering when he stated the planned campaign was dishonorable. He argued that it "grossly violates the proper ethic of the sovereign in defending against the barbarian" and would bring disgrace to Choson and injure its prestige. "This is akin to the crafty schemes of a sneak-thief," he said, "it is not the way of a sovereign in defending against barbarian peoples. In my heart I feel shame at this."

The king immediately reopened the impending military action to discussion and a raucous debate ensued among those in attendance quickly clamored to protest. The war had already been decided upon, they claimed, and should not be canceled on the word of a single man. Minister of War Yu Tam-nyon, who had intimate knowledge of frontier conditions, strongly urged the king to continue the attack. The vehement and sarcastic objections of his high officials could not alter the inevitable. King Chungjong called off the expedition. Such was the measure of the king's regard for Cho Kwang-jo.

In 1519, thirty-seven-year-old Cho Kwang-jo secured an appointment as Junior Second Rank Inspector-General in the OIG and served a concurrent post as Special Mentor to the Crown Prince. The reform-minded Cho, with the strong backing of Third State Councilor An Tang, proposed and secured enactment for a much simplified state "examination for the learned and virtuous," the Recommendation Examination. Once approved, this examination became a vehicle through which Cho an his group effectively "packed" the government by appointing their supporters among the rural literati to prestigious government positions. By mid-1519, at the height of their power, Cho's faction occupied five of the seventeen OSC duty posts and three of the eleven Censorate positions, and they also could boast of the Headmaster of the National Academy and a Royal Secretary. The increased power and size of Cho's Neo-Confucian faction meant that from then on, no institution or senior official felt safe from their attacks.

The "men of 1519" attempted to rapidly effect a radical program of institutional and human engineering. By mid-year they had made considerable progress, both in realizing certain features of their program and in preparing the ground for presentation of what remained. They eased the burden on the provinces by doubling the provincial governor's term of office from one to two years. They also established a new mode of local self-government based on the spirit of basic Confucian justice for all and mutual assistance in time of need. The so-called "village code" system was an attempt to place important responsibility for social order and well-being in the hands of the local populace. While the "men of 1519" were responsible for a number of practical social reforms, they were also responsible for a mounting government crisis. Their reform program had generated a great deal of hostility and resistance from other segments of Seoul's power elite. It was in this setting they decided to launch their most audacious campaign to date, an attempt to obliterate the meritorious service records of the men responsible for King Chungjong's enthronement. The effort would mark their undoing.