808 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
that indicates that he was unaware that there existed certain words to be
avoided in recent years. How would he dare hide insulting words in the
memorial on purpose?
“Kwak Haeryong is quite illiterate, but since he speaks a little Chinese, I
had him escort Cho Sŏ to the Ming capital. How could I want him to gather
intelligence on your domestic situation? If I indeed carried out such things,
how could the spirits of heaven and earth forgive me?
“The three officials mentioned in the depositions, Yun Su, Yun Kyu, and
Kong Pu, do not speak Chinese at all. Though they know how to read and
write some literary Chinese, they were not learned enough to write the
memorial and therefore never participated in the process of drafting it. Their
names were mentioned [in the depositions] only because they were the col-
leagues of Cho Sŏ working in the same office.
“Having received your letter and instruction, I dare not delay sending the
officials to the Ming capital. I have no choice but to make them explain
themselves individually at your court. I sincerely request Your Honor to
intercede with the emperor on their behalf and thereby do a favor to a man
in a distant place.”The authorities discovered that Pak Ha, former magistrate of Hoeyang, had
personally appropriated 4 sŏk of the grain provisions meant for the con-
struction workers while supervising the construction of the National Shrine
of Confucius. The Office of the Inspector-General requested that Pak Ha be
stripped of his appointment and punished according to law. Then the king
instructed that he only be deprived of his appointment and the grain that he
took for himself.When monk Sagŭn of Hŭngbok Monastery was discovered to have drunk
alcohol, the Office of the Inspector-General requested that he be made to
return to secular life and serve in the army.Ŏ Maengyu, magistrate of Yŏnan, was discovered to have taken a bribe
from a man in his district. Consequently, he was deprived of his appoint-
ment and interrogated.The Office of the Inspector-General impeached Yu Yang again, saying,
“Previously, Yu Yang, though guilty, was ordered to be released on bail
because of illness, without being sentenced. Having already recovered from