Yeongjo’s Quest for Balance: Ending Factional Fury | Fall of Joseon 15

After the Noron and Soron slaughter of 1721–22, Joseon lay fractured. When Prince Yeoning ascended as King Yeongjo, he resolved to break the cycle. Through calculated pardons, strategic reshuffles, Confucian exhortations against in-group politics, and reforms of the powerful Ministry of Personnel and private schools, Yeongjo pursued an uneasy peace. Yet rival camps continued scheming even as he sought “Impartiality.” This episode unpacks Yeongjo’s high-stakes gambit to tame factionalism and why, despite his best efforts, Joseon’s scholar-officials remained as divided as ever.

       

 

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Noron vs. Soron: The 1721–22 Purges That Shook Joseon

Introduction
After King Sukjong’s death in June 1720, the throne passed to his Soron-supported heir, King Gyeongjong. Though Soron had the king’s ear, Noron controlled the State Council. What followed was one of Joseon’s bloodiest power struggles: a series of purges, coups, and counter-coups that nearly destroyed the Noron faction—and set the stage for Prince Yeoning’s eventual rise as King Yeongjo.

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1. Noron Consolidates Power under Gyeongjong

• June 1720: Gyeongjong ascends; retains Noron Chief Councilors even as he appoints Soron leader Jo Taegu as Third State Councilor.
• August 1721: Noron pressures the ailing king to name his Soron-backed nephew, Prince Yeoning, as heir. When Gyeongjong resists, Noron’s influence only grows.

2. Soron’s Machiavellian Counterstrike

• Late 1721: Radical Soron officials impeach four leading Noron ministers on flimsy charges.
• Government shake-up: Gyeongjong, amid factional chaos, exiles the impeached Noron leaders, installs more Sorons in top posts—and even rumors swirl that he sanctioned assassination attempts on Prince Yeoning.

3. The Bloody Purge of 1722

• March 1722: Opportunist Mok Horyong, a serial faction-jumper, accuses 13 Noron officials of conspiring against Gyeongjong.
• Fabricated “evidence” fuels a savage crackdown:
  • 20 Noron elites executed
  • 30 beaten to death
  • 13 family members hanged, 9 forced to suicide
  • 173 others suffer collective punishment
• Even the king quipped that he was “relieved the kingdom still stands.”

4. Soron’s Mitosis: Junso vs. Wanso

• Post-purge: Soron itself splinters into radical Junso and moderate Wanso factions—though the lines remain blurry.
• Soron holds power until Gyeongjong’s death in 1724, but factionalism only deepens.

5. “Righting the Wrongs” and the Road to Yeongjo

• 1724: Crown Prince Yeoning becomes King Yeongjo. Despite Noron’s past support, he hesitates to purge Soron outright.
• He banishes extremist Junso leaders to remote posts, restores honor to some Noron martyrs, and proclaims a doctrine of “balance and impartiality.”
• Yeongjo’s early reign insists on anti-factionalism, but the cycle of purges, exiles, and uprisings—such as the 1728 Musin Rebellion—proves that tangpyeong (“equilibrium politics”) is easier said than done.

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Conclusion
The 1721–22 Noron purges reveal how personal ambition and ideological fury eclipsed Confucian ethics in late-Joseon politics. Yet from these ashes, Prince Yeoning would emerge—weaponizing both mercy and ruthlessness—to become King Yeongjo and reshape Korea’s factional landscape for decades.