정조 후반 순조 초반 정치세력과 정국의 동향 - 정조 16년(1792)~순조 6년(1806)을 중심으로 -

Abstract

In his 12th year in the throne, King Jeongjo appointed individuals from three different parties(Noron, Soron, Namin) to the seat of the Three Ministers. In the next year he moved the grave of his father(the late Crown prince Sado) to the Suweon area, built a new town around it the year after that, and had a son in the same year. With the issue concerning his successor finally resolved, appeals requesting the restoration of Sado’s honor began to be submitted again to the king. Most representative examples of such requests were the Manin-so(萬人疏) appeal submitted from the Yeongnam region’s Namin figures in the 16th year of Jeongjo’s reign, and the Namhak-so(南學疏) appeal raised by the Soron faction members the same year. In the past, immediately after Jeongjo’s enthronement(the Byeongshin-year), a political controversy had formed when Soron and Namin figures submitted relatively same requests, and king Jeongjo had to punish them with charges that they hurt the king’s leadership as well as its stability it should maintain. The punishment was called ‘the Ruling of the Byeongshin-year(Byeongshin Cheobun, 丙申處分)’ and a Myeong’eui-rok annal was published. In his 16th year, The punishment was called ‘the Ruling of the Imja-year(Imja Cheobun, 壬子處分)’, Jeongjo wanted to clarify that the said incident was not caused by the enthronement itself, and was a controversy whose seeds were actually sown during the “Purge of the Imo-year(Imo Hwabyeon, 壬午禍變).” This was essentially an intentional act of putting Noron figures and Soron figures at odds with each other, thus enabling to king to control them both and maintain order in the government. A quintessential display of leadership based upon the strategy of “Controling fire with fire” or “Managing both, and resolving both.” In his 17th year, Jeongjo demanded that Noron and Soron members – who were still clinging on to the Cause of the Shin/Im years(辛壬義理) - should acknowledge the fact that the Cause of the Imo-year(壬午義理) and the goal of Myeong’eui-rok indeed shared the same sentiment and goals. He also issued a wide pardon for all the individuals and houses that had fallen after being implicated in the aforementioned political incidents, and gave them permission to apply for a seat inside the government. Members of both Noron and Soron parties were divided, between a group which strongly opposed Jeongjo’s such stance, and a group which recognized its sincerity. Chae Je-gong, who was from the Southerner party revealed the Geumdeung text which supposedly contained former king Yeongjo’s intentions, and that was when the controversy began to tone down. Meanwhile, Jeong Dong-jun(鄭東浚), who was from the Soron party and was also one of Jeongjo’s most trusted advisors, was punished for opposing Jeongjo’s agenda too strongly. In his 19th year, Jeongjo traveled to Hwaseong, attended a banquet commemorating his mother’s 60th birthday, and the next year punished Soron figures Seong Deog-wu and Jeong Ho-in for being affiliated with Hong Su-yeong and Hong Nag-im, who were Noron figures as well as in-laws to the royal family. This kind of a political maneuver was facing an arena which was filled with all kind of people connected to each other via friendship, kinship and clans, academic partnership, and political sharing of fates. In order to navigate through all them, he had to develop and nurture new political factions through which he could exact his own leadership. Yet Jeongjo died in June that year, and when Queen Jeongsun began to oversee the government, changes continued. In the first year of King Sunjo’s reign, the Byeok-pa sect engineered a purge, and expelled the Southerner members claiming they embraced Western (Christian, 西學) studies in the “Shin’yu-year purge(‘辛酉迫害’),” and drove out the Pungsan Hong House (an in-law house, aligned with the Noron party) as well as Eun’eon-gun, member of the royal family, in the “Shin’yu-year incarceration(‘辛酉獄事’).” Only in the 6th year of Sunjo’s reign, when the Byeok-pa sect collapsed, the Shi-pa sects regained control of the government. This enabled people armed with the agenda to reenter the government and have their honor restored.