In 1409 the Japanese, Wŭn-do-jin, was sent to the Korean court to present the respects of the Japanese sovereign.
The kings of Koryŭ had set aside large tracts of land in Whang-hă Province for hunting purposes. These by order of king T‘ă-jong were now restored to the people and they were ordered to cultivate them. In 1413 the land suffered from a severe drought and the courtiers all advised that the monks and the female exorcists and fortune-tellers be called upon to pray for rain; but the king replied, “Buddhism is an empty religion and the exorcists and fortune-tellers are a worthless lot. If I were only a better ruler Heaven would not refuse us rain.” He thereupon ordered all the sorceresses, fortune-tellers, exorcists and geomancers to deliver up the books of their craft to the government and a great fire was made with them in front of the palace.
King T‘ă-jong’s great sorrow was his son the Crown Prince, Yang-yŭng. This young man was dissolute and worthless. He would not pursue the studies prescribed by his tutors but spent his time in hunting, gambling and in less reputable pursuits. The people cried out against him and made it known that it was not their will that he should reign over them. The father saw the justice of the complaint and the young man was banished to Kwang-ju and the fourth son, Prince Ch‘ung-nyŭng, was proclaimed heir to the throne.
King T‘ă-jong retired in 1419 in favor of this son Ch‘ung-nyŭng who is known by the posthumous title Se-jong Chang-hŭn Tă-wang.
T‘ă-jong had been a radical reformer and worked a revolution in Korean life similar to that which Cromwell effected in England. His greatness is exhibited in three ways. (1) He was the first king who dared to break away utterly from customs whose only sanction was their antiquity. (2) He was wise enough not to force all these radical reforms at once, but spread them over a period of nearly two decades. (3) He recognised that a king is the servant of the people. It may be in place here to call attention to a peculiar custom of the east. We refer to the custom of surrendering the throne to a successor before one’s death. The benefits of this custom are soon cited. The retiring sovereign becomes the tutor of the incoming one. The young ruler has the benefit of his practical suggestions and of his immense influence. He thus does away with much of the danger of revolution or rebellion which so often accompanies a change or rulers. If the new king proves inefficient or otherwise unsatisfactory it is possible, through the father’s influence, to effect a change. In other words the young ruler is on trial and he undergoes a probation that is salutary for him and for the people as well. It also helps greatly in perpetuating a policy, for in such a case the father, knowing that his son is to assume the reins of government while he still lives, takes greater pains to initiate him into the secrets of government and in forming in his mind settled principles which, while they may not always perpetuate the same policy, at least ensure an easy gradation from one policy to another. This perhaps was the crowning feat of T‘ă-jong’s greatness. He knew enough to stop while his success was at its height and spend some years in teaching his successor how to achieve even a greater success. Let us see how these principles worked in the case of this new king.
The young king began in a modest way by consulting with his father in regard to all matters of importance. The retired king had taken up his quarters in the “Lotus Pond District” where he was at all times accessible to the young king and where he took cognizance of much of the public business. The new ruler was characterized by great evenness of temper, great astuteness and untiring diligence. He is said to have risen each morning at dawn.
He ordered the making of musical instruments, including metal drums and triangles. Under his supervision a clypsehydra[clypsehydra] was made and a work on astronomy was published. It is said that with his own hand he prepared works on “The five rules of conduct,” “The duties of King, Father and Husband,” “Good Government and Peace,” and a work on military tactics. The custom of collecting rare flowers and plants and growing them in the palace enclosure was done away and it was decreed that no more of the public money should be squandered in that way. He built a little straw thatched cottage beside the palace and compelled the officials to attend him there in council. He put a stop to the evil practice of letting concubines and eunuchs meddle with state affairs, for when one of his concubines asked him to give one of her relatives official position he promptly banished her from the palace.
In the second year of his reign, 1420, the king showed his partiality for literature and literary pursuits by founding a college to which he invited thirteen of the finest scholars that the kingdom could furnish, and there they gave themselves up to the pursuit of letters. In the early summer the dreaded Japanese again began their ravages on the coasts of Korea. Landing at Pi-in, Ch‘ung-ch‘ŭng Province, they easily overcame the local forces and marched northward along the coast into Whang-hă Province. They there informed the Korean generals that they did not want to ravage Korea but that they were seeking a way into China. They lacked provisions and promised to go immediately if the Koreans would give them enough rice for their sustenance, until they should cross the border into China. Forty bags of rice were given to them, but when the king learned of it he was displeased and said, “When they return we must destroy them.” The southern provinces were put into a state of defense and Gen. Yi Chong-mu was put at the head of a punitive expedition. It is said that a fleet of 227 war vessels and an army of 107,285 men rendezvoused at Ma-san Harbor. They were provided with two month’s rations. This powerful flotilla sailed away and soon reached the island of Tsushima. There it burned 129 Japanese boats and 1939 houses. Over a hundred Japanese were killed, twenty-one prisoners were taken and 131 Chinese and eight Korean captives were liberated. The fleet then sailed toward Japan and arrived at Ni-ro harbor. There, the records say, they lost 120 men and so abandoned the enterprise. This is good evidence that the numbers of the army are overestimated, for a loss of a hundred and twenty men from such an immense force would not have caused an abandonment of the expedition.
The emperor sent a messenger asking for the four jewels that are supposed to come from the bodies of good monks when they are incinerated.
These were said to be kept at Heung-ch‘ŭn monastery at Song-do. King Se-jong replied that there were no such jewels in the peninsula. He ordered the discontinuance of the custom of building monasteries at the graves of kings, and the people were commanded not to pray to Buddha in behalf of the king. The great expense incurred in providing for the huge stone that covered the sarcophagus of a king made him change the custom and it was decreed that thereafter four smaller ones should be used instead of the one great one.