Hand in hand with the king’s prejudice against the use of wine went a similar prejudice against mining, so that not only did he peremptorily forbid the mining of silver at Au-byŭn but hearing that copper was being mined near the same place he sent and put a stop to it.
In 1727 the heir apparent died and was given the posthumous title of Hyo-jang Se-ja. Two years later another incipient rebellion broke out in the south having as its object the placing of Ha Keui, a relative of the king, on the throne. It is said that with him died several hundred more of the doomed Soron party.
The next thirty-two years were crowded full of reforms and their mere enumeration throws much light on the social and economic conditions of the time.
A map was made of the northern boundary and a fortress was built at Un-du; the law was promulgated that the grandson of a slave woman should be free; on account of drought the king ordered the making of numerous reservoirs in which to store water for irrigation, and a commission was appointed with headquarters at Seoul, under whose supervision these reservoirs were built; the king had a new model of the solar system made, to replace the one destroyed by the Japanese during the invasion; at last China amended that clause in her history which stated that Kwang-hă was a good man and that In-jong Tă-wang had usurped the throne, and the king presented one of the corrected copies at the ancestral temple; the cruel form of torture, which consisted in tying the ankles together and then twisting a stout stick between the bones, was done away; a granary was built on the eastern coast, to be stocked with grain each year by the people of Kyŭng-sang Province, for use in case of famine in the northern province of Ham-gyŭng; the king claimed that the scarcity of rice was due to the fact that so much of it was used in the making of wine and again threatened to kill anyone who should make, sell or use that beverage; in fact he placed detectives all about Seoul, along the main roads, whose business it was to smell of the breath of everyone whose face or gait indicated indulgence in the flowing bowl!
A boatload of men belonging to the overthrown Ming dynasty appeared on the southern coast and asked aid in an attempt to wrest again the scepter from the Manchus, but they were politely refused; the king abolished that form of punishment which consisted in applying red hot irons to the limbs; he built the Chung-sŭng, or inner wall at P’yŭng-yang in order to cut off the view of a kyu-bong or “spying peak,” which in Korea is supposed to bring bad luck. Any place from which may be seen the top of a mountain peak just peeping above the summit of a nearer mountain is considered unfit for a burial or building site.
About the year 1733 famines were so frequent that the king appointed a bureau of agriculture and appointed inspectors for each of the provinces to help in securing good irrigation; a man named Yi Keui-ha invented a war chariot with swords or spears extending out from the hubs of the wheels on either side. He was rewarded with a generalship. The king established a special detective force differing from the ordinary detective force in being more secret in its operations and in holding greater powers. The rules for its guidance were as follows, and they throw light upon existing conditions.
(1) After careful investigation they may close up any prefectural office and send the prefect to Seoul for trial.
(2) This does not apply to prefectures where animals are being reared for use in ancestral sacrifices.
(3) In order to maintain their incognito they shall not demand food for nothing at the country inns but shall pay the regular prices.
(4) For the same reason they shall not stop long in the same place.