고려말 염흥방의 정치활동과 사상의 변화

Abstract

In this article, among all the newcomer literate-officials who armed themselves with knowledge of Neo-Confucianism during the latter half period of the Goryeo dynasty, a person named Yeom Heung Bang will be examined. He was a person who studied Neo-Confucianism, and in the process he gained substantial political power and then subsequently fell from grace. In the 16th year of King Gongmin-wang's reign, the Seonggyun-gwan school was reconstructed. Yeom led the project, and was instrumental in securing the budget for running the school. At this point, Yeom, alongside Lee Saek and Jeong Do Jeon, studied Neo-Confucianism, and engaged himself in politics aiming for a series of national reforms. Lee Saek praised the frugal nature of Yeom's life, and his caring for the people. Yeom loved all things from the past, engaged himself in character building exercises, and tried to maintain his sincerity and care for all things. He also utterly despised persons who for their own interest harassed other people by illegally foraging their property, and maintained a position that good fortune should be shared with every living being in the world, even with little animals like fishes or turtles. Yeom served as the Jigonggeo overseer for the national examination three times, and oversaw the selection of applicants. From the national examinations that were held and overseen by him in 1374(23rd year of Gongmin-wang's reign), 1380(6th year of U-wang's reign) and 1386(U-wang's 12th year), total of 105 applicants were selected for governmental appointments. Yeom also tried to solidify not only the personal relationships but also the political alliances between the Confucian scholars, through various kinds of meetings, unions and practices such as the Jwaju-Munsaeng-jae/座主門生制 practice(displaying the customary relationship between an applicant and its mentor), the Dongnyeon-hwae/同年會 gatherings(meeting of people in the same age bracket), Yongdu-hwae/龍頭會 or Yeongchin-yeon/榮親讌 occasions, which were all related to the national examination. Yet this kind of relationships were neither philosophy-based(ideological) ones nor chosen independently by one's own will in the first place. They were rather ‘given’ relationships. So those relationships were difficult to maintain, and vulnerable to exterior variables. Many of the people who were executed alongside Yeom in the 14th year of King U-wang's reign under the charge of committing wrong doings and evading the law, were personal relatives to each other(members of the so-called ‘Jokdang/族黨’ party). This shows that personal relationships formed by or based upon the national examination were not established as a firm component of the political environment at the time. Yeom had once been sent to exile in the first year of U-wang's reign, because he raised objection to the decision to welcome the emissary from the Northern Yuan dynasty. That incident apparently made him very nervous about the status of his own political power. So he arranged a marriage between his house and the house of Im Gyeon Mi, who at the moment were in power. Yeom agreed with the opinions of Lee In Im and Im Gyeon Mi, and relentlessly pursued political power with Lee Seong Rim/李成林. As Yeom continued to pursue power, and established a formidable presence in the center of the government, he became more and more content with the current status of the country, and Jeong Do Jeon and others who had been close to Yeom during Gongmin-wang's reign became considerably indifferent of Yeom's stances and actions. Lee Saek as well had maintained a close relationship with Yeom in the past, yet came to criticise Yeom's pursuit of taxing the poor people with Lee Seong Rim, and criticise Yeom's actions as they were hurting the country. The politics of U-wang's reign was led by Lee In Im and Choi Yeong. Choi was controlling the army, and loathed the idea of abusing power and corruption. On the other hand, others including Im Gyeon Mi and Yeom tried to keep Choi in check, and also secure some military power. Yet their attempts failed because of the military forces under Choi's command, King U-wang's stance of supporting Choi, and the unclear position of Lee In Im. As a result, it was Im Gyeon Mi and others who were eliminated by King U-wang and Choi. The King and Choi were well aware of the political shortcomings of Im and Yeom. In the end, Yeom was executed with Im after being implicated in a political scandal in which he was charged of illegally stealing Jo Ban's land. Yeom was a Neo-Confucianist, yet facing the discrepancy between his own original political aspirations and the complex nature of the real life politics, he chose to pursue more realistic interests in his favor, sided with persons in power, and gave up his own efforts for national reforms. He was an official who had originally studied Neo-Confucianism and maintained the idea of changing and running the world in a fashion that conformed to the ideals of Neo-Confucianism. Then he chose to ally with power, and chose to lead a life of compromise and corruption. In that regard, he displayed yet another side of the people who had initially embraced Neo-Confucianism.