410 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
*
Im Kŏryun and Yi Kunp’il returned. At first, as the Chief Military
Commission of Five Armies (Wujun dudufu) put pressure on us by sending
a letter saying to repatriate their people allegedly living as captives in our
country, we sent them our people whose names sounded similar to those on
their list. Now they were released and returned home by the order of the
Chinese emperor.27th Day (Ŭlmi)
Yi Kyŏnsil, Kang Pojŏng, Kim Yong, and others returned. When they vis-
ited China, they had an audience with the emperor. The emperor returned
them to Korea after asking some questions about things related to our
border.The king gave his instruction to the Privy Council: “I had already decided
on Muak as the site of the new capital after having over ten ministers per-
sonally inspect it. However, Yu Hanu and Yi Yangdal, officials of the
Astronomical and Meteorological Observatory, say that Muak is not the
right place for the capital as far as their expert knowledge is concerned. No
affairs of state can be more important than this, and yet officials are divided
over the matter. I want the ministers and the officials of the Directorate of
Astronomy who visited the site of the new capital last time to discuss the
matter again and report the result to me.”
Kwŏn Chunghwa, chief director of the State Finance Commission and
Kim Sahyŏng, right chancellor, wrote down the opinions of a number of
ministers and the officials of the Directorate of Astronomy and made a
report to the king: “Everyone is against the idea.” The king said, “Let them
look for another good place.”29th Day (Chŏngyu)
The king dispatched Min Che, grand academician of the Office of Royal
Decrees and State Records, to the Northeast Region and had him offer sac-
rifices to the royal tombs of the king’s immediate ancestors going back four
generations.