At this time there was silver money in Koryŭ in the form of little bottle-shaped pieces of silver, but it was much adulterated by an alloy of copper. The king gave thirty of these bottles and the officials contributed a number more; and with them a silver image of Confucius was made, indicating a slight reaction against Buddhism.
1322 the emperor, being deceived by the lying representations of the king’s cousin who wished to secure the throne of Koryŭ, ordered the king to Peking. The latter was glad to go, but was obliged to get away secretly by night for fear of being prevented by his officials. When he got to Peking the emperor took away his royal seal and ordered him to remain there, which he doubtless was nothing loath to do. The officials of Koryŭ joined in a letter begging the emperor to send him back, but without success, till in 1324 the emperor died and his successor proclaimed a general amnesty, of which the aged ex-king took advantage to return to Peking from his place of banishment in the north. The king and Queen returned to Koryŭ in the following year. No sooner were they settled in their palace again than they went on a pleasure trip to the Han River; but the trip ended disastrously for while away on the journey the Queen was confined and died in giving birth to a son. This shows to what extremes the passion for the chase led the court.
Chapter IX.
Horrible excesses.... a royal desperado.... martial implements proscribed.... another scapegrace.... general suffering.... taxes increased.... emperor furious.... a general cleaning out.... the kings.... beginning of the great Japanese depredations.... king supplanted.... a memorial.... omens of the fall of the dynasty.... Buddhism ascendent.... a traitor falls.... costly festival.... trouble in China.... the rising Ming power.... restiveness under the Mongol yoke.... Yi Whan-jo appears upon the stage.... genealogy.... place of origin.... Mongol adherents try to make trouble.... Mongol power opposed.... coinage.... a new capital.... divination.... first mention of founder of present dynasty.... alarming Japanese raids....“the mighty fallen”.... a curious spectacle....“Red Head robbers”.... they invade Koryŭ.... a council.... P‘yŭng-yang taken.... panic at the capital “Red Heads” beaten.... king favors a Mongol pretender.... the dreaded Japanese.... king removes to Han-yang.
With the year 1329 begins a series of events that almost baffles description. The worst excesses of Rome in her decline could not have shown more horrible scenes than those which made the Koryŭ dynasty a by-word for succeeding generations. The king’s cousin, who was king of Mukden, was always slandering him to the emperor, for he was itching for the crown of Koryŭ himself. Meanwhile the king was building[Meanwhile the king was building] “mountains” and pleasure-houses without end and his hunters were his favorites by day and the courtezans his boon companions by night. His son was in Peking learning the ways of the Mongol court and preparing to prove as abandoned a character as his father. In 1331, at the request of the king, the Emperor made the young man king. The cares of office seem to have interfered with his debaucheries. The prince’s name was Chung, posthumous title Ch‘ung-hyé. He was sent to Song-do and his father called to Peking. This was well, for the young man hated his father intensely. No sooner had he assumed the reins of power then he ran to ten times the excess of riot that even his father had done. The whole of his newly acquired power was applied to the gratification of his depraved appetites and within a year so outrageous were his excesses that the emperor had to recall him in disgrace to Peking and send back the father to administer the government. This added fuel to the son’s hatred of his father.
The reinstated king continued his old courses and added to his former record another desperate crime, in that he frequently stopped a marriage ceremony and forcibly carried away the bride to become a member of his harem. It was a marvel that the people did not rise and drive such a villain from the country. When he made a trip to Peking in 1336 the emperor made him carry his son back to Koryŭ. He was such a desperate scapegrace that Peking itself was not large enough to hold him.
The following year the emperor promulgated a singular order and one whose cause it is difficult to imagine. It was to the effect that all swords, bows and other martial implements be put away from all Koryŭ houses and that no one be allowed to ride a horse; but all must go afoot. This may have been a precautionary measure to prevent the acquiring of skill in the use of weapons or in horsemanship, so as to render less probable the future use of such acquirements in an attack upon China.
At last, in 1340, the king died and it looked as if the desperate character who for one short year had played fast and loose with Koryŭ royalty would become king. A courtier, Cho Chŭk, surrounded the palace with soldiers with a view to assassinating the young man who had not yet received investiture from the emperor, and at the same time a message was sent to the deceased king’s cousin, the king of Mukden, summoning him to Song-do. The young Prince, bad as he was, had a considerable following, and a desperate fight ensued in which he was wounded in the shoulder. But Cho Chŭk’s forces were routed and he himself caught and beheaded. The emperor learning of this through the Prince’s enemies, called him to Peking and took him to task for killing Cho Chŭk, the friend of the king of Muk-den; but the facts soon came out, and the Prince was exhonerated[exhonerated] and sent back to Song-do, having been invested with the royal insignia. Unlike his father and grand-father, he did not marry a Mongol Princess but took as his Queen a Koryŭ woman. He likewise took a large number of concubines. Not content with this he had illicit commerce with two of his father’s wives. The almost incredible statement is made in the records that on one occasion, feigning drunkenness[drunkenness], he entered the harem of his dead father and had the women seized and violated them. They tried to escape to China but he prevented them from securing horses for the purpose. His profligate life was the curse of the country. Nothing was too horrible, too unnatural, too beastly for him to do, if it afforded him amusement. He sent 20,000 pieces of cloth together with gold and silver to purchase many things of foreign manufacture, but what these were we are not informed. One of his amusements was the throwing of wooden balls at a mark but when this lost piquancy he substituted men for the target and frequently engaged in this truly humane[humane] pastime. General distress prevailed. Many died of starvation and many ran away to distant places and many became monks in order to escape the king’s tyranny. Sons cut off their hair and sold it in order to secure food for aged parents. The prisons were full to overflowing. Suicide was a thing of daily occurence[occurence].
The king sent to Kang-neung to levy a tax on ginseng, but as none could be found the messenger levied on the well-to-do gentlemen of the place and this was so successful that the king widened the scope of his operations and made it as hard to live in the country as at the capital. Everything that could possibly be taxed was put on the roll of his exactions. No form of industry but was crushed to the ground by his unmitigated greed. When amusements failed he tried all sorts of experiments to awaken new sensations. He would go out and beat the drum, to the sound of which the workmen were building the palace. This building had iron doors, windows and roof. If the king’s pander heard of a beautiful slave anywhere she was seized and brought to this palace which was also her prison and where she spent her time in weaving in company with many other women who had been similarly “honored.” Often by night the king would wander about the city and enter any man’s house and violate any of its inmates.
When this all came to the ears of the emperor he was furious. An envoy was sent to Song-do with orders to bring the wretch bound to Peking. The king came out to meet this envoy but the Mongol raised his foot and gave the wretch a kick that sent him sprawling[sprawling] on the ground. He was then bound and locked up and after things had been put in some sort of shape in the capital the king was carried away to Peking to answer to the emperor. Many of the king’s intimates were killed and many fled for their lives. A hundred and twenty concubines were liberated and sent to their homes.