Book VII 499imperial guards searched their bags and found them out, they reported it to
the emperor. Greatly surprised by the report, the emperor expelled all
Korean eunuchs in his court.
The king sent Kim Ŭlsang, chamberlain of the Court of Royal Sacrifices,
to China with his memorial to the emperor and requested the emperor to
punish the wrongdoings of Hwang Yŏnggi and others.^4013th Day (Ŭlsa)
Censor Han Sanghwan and others spoke to the king about the essential steps
for strengthening military forces and increasing the reserve of provisions:
“We request that the sinecure posts for officials and women be abolished,
and that will prevent the government stipends from being wasted. No more
lands should be granted to the Buddhist temples except those already
granted. Providing lands to minor merit subjects should be also stopped,
and hereafter the practice of paying condolences with rice should be com-
pletely prohibited so that the state can be ready for any kind of unexpected
troubles.”15th Day (Chŏngmi)
Kim Hŭisŏn, governor of Right Kyŏnggi Province, made a report to the Privy
Council: “Yi Che, a former deputy commander and a resident of Kyodong,
- The Chinese envoys who visited Korea as imperial envoys were originally Koreans,
and they often acted arrogantly. For that reason, some of them were hated by the officials in the
Korean court. However, the reason the Chosŏn government requested the punishment of
Hwang Yŏnggi perhaps had little to do with personal resentment against him. Though Hwang
often visited the Chosŏn court and carried the imperial messages that so profoundly disturbed
the king and his officials, being originally a Korean, he tried to be of help in solving the prob-
lems between the two countries. In appreciation, T’aejo appointed Hwang’s father discussant
of the Security Council. In the Annals of King T’aejo, Hwang’s name appears in relation to the
wrongful record in the Veritable Records of Emperor Taizu concerning the T’aejo’s genealogy.
In 1390, during the second year of King Kongyang’s reign, Yun I and Yi Ch’o secretly went
over to China and falsely accused T’aejo. They said that Yi (T’aejo), after seizing power, drove
out the former kings and killed various officials. In their accusation, they described T’aejo as
the son of Yi Inim, a powerful minister of the Koryŏ court. As the accusation proved to be a
slander, the Ming government forgave T’aejo; however, for some unknown reason, the mistake
related to the name of T’aejo’s father was not corrected. Since this mistake concerned the
legitimacy of the royal family of Chosŏn, the government of Chosŏn was anxious to straighten
it out, but it took almost two hundred years to finally solve the problem.