Book V 349his two sons, Wang U and his two sons, and Wang Kang, Wang Sŭngbo,
Wang Sŭnggwi,^18 as well as others. They said, “Yesterday we jointly sub-
mitted a memorial to the king requesting that the members of the Wang clan
be eliminated. Since we failed to obtain the king’s permission, how about
submitting another memorial, making a request to allow us to eliminate
Wang Kang, Wang Sŭngbo, and Wang Sŭnggwi?” Kwŏn Munŭi and others
said, “If you want to eliminate the Wang clan, you must insist on elimi-
nating them all. Why do you single out Wang Kang and the others?”^19 For
making a remark such as this, Munŭi and others were impeached.
12th Day (Imo)
The king paid a visit to Such’ang Palace. He had an official who supervised
the construction of the semicircular chemise (ongsŏng) of Sŏsomun Gate^20
exiled to the military garrison in Ongjin^21 because the walls were tilting
and in danger of collapse.
The king ordered the officials of all ranks, both civil and military, to pro-
vide workers for the construction of the walls of the capital in accordance
with their ranks.13th Day (Kyemi)
An Ch’ŏsŏn, the navy deputy commander (sugun ch’ŏm ch’ŏmchŏlchesa) of
Kyŏngsang Province, beheaded twelve Japanese pirates and submitted their
heads to the king along with the weapons he had captured. The king
bestowed royal wine (kung’on) and silk upon him.14th Day (Kapsin)
The king, together with the queen, paid a visit to Yŏnbok Monastery and
watched the Dharma assembly for the worship of Manjusri.- Though these people were the members of the Koryŏ Wang clan, they assisted T’aejo
and became merit subjects, except for Wang Sŭngbo. T’aejo wanted to save them, but they
were eventually executed in 1394, when the purge of the Koryŏ Wang clan occurred. - T’aejo was reluctant to eliminate some of the Wang clan members, including Wang
Kang and Wang Sŭngbo, because he was indebted to their help during his struggle. However,
the speaker here wants to eliminate the Wang clan as a whole. Knowing that this was contrary
to the king’s wishes, the Censorate impeached the officials involved in the above discussion. - This refers to the one in Kaesŏng, not in Hanyang.
- A district in Hwanghae Province.