earticle

영어

The report of Jeong Yeo-Rip's treason plot to the authorities in 1589 came from the Hwanghae-do province, not from the Jeolla-do province where he lived. The reason was that in the Hwanghae-do province Westerners(Seoin) outnumbered Easterners(Dongin), and that the Song Ik-Pil brothers resorted to trickery, who were degraded to a low rank of servant and secluded there by the Dongin. Therefore, the incident was not the plain plot of the treason, but the massacre from the fabricated
plot of treason on Jeong Yeo-Rip, where Jeong Cheol and Song Ik-Pil took the lead in purging the Dongin.
There is an opinion that Jeong Yeo-Rip's treason plot was real, but I think that the analysis of the related evidences shows that the contention was illogical, so it was a pure fabrication. The plot began from Yang Cheon-Hoe's memorial to the throne at Jeong Cheol's instigation, and escalated to the massacre with Jeong Jip's written statement, Nakan's scholar Son Hung-Bok's statement and Jeong Am-Su's memorial to the throne. Most of the concerned men were tortured to death before the
conclusion of the judgement. The investigation was to get rid of the political rivals and the mortal enemies, not to find out the truth of the affair.
King Sonjo have to share the responsibility with the Dongin for the deterioration of the situation, because he passively dealt with the plot, to leave Jeong Cheol in full charge of the judgement. It was not long before he dismissed Jeong Cheol of his office and deported him, to the result of the establishment of the Dongin government. This was to heighten the dependence of the factions upon the king himself.
And the incident occurred at the early stage of the factional strife in the Joseon political scene. In this light, the disadvantages, not the advantages, of the faction politics should be examined a little more. According to the current theory of the faction politics, the political history of the late Joseon have been explained by the way of the symmetrical dichotomy, such as Padang or Bungdang. But the theory cannot explain the political scene after the conflict of the Dongin and the Seoin.
The massacre of 1589 left many wrong heritages. Factional strife became hereditary, and the diversity of the thought was more suppressed, and the Dongin began to diverge into the Namin and the Bukin. Moreover the incident became a precedent of the intrigue and the murder to purge political rivals, and to seize the political power.
Finally it was not real that the incident had an unfavorable influence upon the Jeolla-do province. There were no disadvantages against the hometown of Jeong Yeo-Rip from the government, which in turn proves the fabrication of his treason plot.