Book VI 403
From this day forward, Kaesŏng Magistracy should be much stricter in
enforcing the rules of society and at the same time publicize its policy by
posting public notices to prevent people from any further wrongful conduct.
If there is anyone who continues to act lawlessly as before, his neighbors or
village head should report this to the ward (pu) concerned, and the ward in
turn should report to Kaesŏng Magistracy so that disciplinary action can be
taken against the man. One who witnesses a lawbreaker and yet fails to
report to the authorities will be punished by the same law that the law-
breaker is subject to. Those among the chief officials in charge of Kaesŏng
Magistracy and the five wards in it who receive the reports and yet fail to
take action should also be punished according to the law.” The king fol-
lowed the advice.
16th Day (Kapsin)
Hwang Yŏnggi, Chinese imperial envoy, and his retinue returned to China.
The king had them deliver his memorial to the emperor and saw them off at
Yŏngbinwan Guesthouse. His memorial read as follows:
“On the twenty- fifth day of the fourth month of the twenty- seventh year
(1394) of Hongwu, imperial envoy Hwang Yŏnggi and others arrived with
the emperor’s written prayer (ch’ungmun) offered to the spirits of seas and
mountains and rivers, and the gist of the prayer was as follows: ‘The one
named so- and- so [Yi Sŏnggye], who is the son of Yi Inim,^3 an official of
Koryŏ, now called so- and- so, secretly or sometimes publicly sent out his
people to spy on our borders. His men committed wrongdoings by inducing
our soldiers to kill or lure our residents in the coastal regions. Since he
caused such disturbances, I wished to raise an army immediately to chastise
him but refrained from acting hastily because my large army, once crossing
the border, would certainly harm numerous lives.
‘Besides, Koryŏ is surrounded by sea on three sides and mountains on one
side. Its land, being rugged, stretches out several thousand li and therefore
- The statement that T’aejo was the son of Yi Inim was indisputably wrong. T’aejo’s
father is Yi Chach’un, not Yi Inim. Inim, as a matter of fact, was an adversary of T’aejo. The
Chosŏn Korea endeavored to correct this erroneous record of T’aejo’s ancestry, which was
perpetuated through the Veritable Records of the Ming Dyansty (Ming Shihlu) and the
Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty (Daming Huidian), whenever it sent envoys to China;
however, the correction was finally made two hundred years later in 1584, in the seventeenth
year of King Sŏnjo.
