The tyrant of the Joseon dynasty
Anna Čapková
Born on the 23rd of November 1476 in the Joseon dynasty's Korea, Yeonsangun of Joseon was the tenth ruler of this dynasty. He is well known for his extremely violent nature. He is notorious for launching two bloody purges, capturing women to serve as entertainers and by using important educational institutions as a pleasure ground.
His mother, lady Yun, was a concubine of his father King Seongjong. But when the queen died, the king was urged to find a second wife, since he had no heir. Lady Yun was chosen as his second wife for her great beauty. She gave birth to Yeonsangun few months later.
But lady Yun was not a good wife. She was very jealous of other concubines and even went as far as poisoning one of them. One day, in the middle of a tantrum, she attacked the kind and left some scratch marks on his body. That was the last straw that broke the camel's back. She was ordered to commit suicide by drinking poison soon after.
The prince grew up believing that he was the son of his father's third wife. In 1495, when he was only nineteen years old, he became the king of Korea. During the first years he seemed like a great king. He was a good administrator, strengthened the national defence and aided the poor. But time to time, he showed some signs of violence. He even killed on of his tutors.
Eventually he learned the truth about his real mother, and he wanted to restore her titles and position. But government officials from the Sarim faction (a powerful faction of literati) were against this. So, he had to find a way to get rid of them. In 1498 one of the Sarim members included a paragraph in the royal records criticising an important historical event. This gave the kind a reason to execute him and many others of the Sarim faction. This is now known as the First Literati Purge.
After one of his ministers showed him a piece of clothing that was supposed to be stained by his mother's blood, the king murdered two of his father's concubines for taking part in her death. He also pushed his grandmother in the middle of an argument. He also sentences many people to death who had anything to do with the death of his mother. His mother was also posthumously honored as Queen Jeheon. He even punished some important people at the royal court simply for not preventing the execution. He even had a grave opened so he could cut the head of a corpse of the politicians. This is known as the Second Literati Purge.
During his reign, he also closed many important educational institutions and turned them into personal pleasure grounds. Girls from all over the country were captured and forced to serve there and other people were forced into involuntary labour to work on these twisted projects.
Many people mocked him for this, which only let to him supressing the freedom of speech and banning hangul (Korean writing system). When the chief Eunuch tried to convince him to stop, he punished him by personally cutting his limps of and shooting arrows on him.
After twelve years on the throne, he was finally replaced by his younger brother, when a coup was planned against him. He was sent into exile where he died after few months, his for sons were also forced to drink poison and end their lives.