Suppression of Speech and Learning
He also closed Seonggyeongwan, the royal university, and converted it to his pleasure grounds, for which young girls and horses were gathered from the whole Korean Peninsula. He demolished a large residential area and evicted many residents to build hunting grounds. He also forced people into involuntary labor to build another pleasure ground. Many commoners mocked and insulted the king with posters written in hangul. This provoked the anger of Yeonsangun, and he banned the use of hangul.
When ministers protested his actions, he abolished the Office of Censors (whose function was to criticize inappropriate actions or policies of the king) and Hongmoongwan (library and research center that advised the king with Confucian teachings). He ordered his ministers to wear a sign that read: "A mouth is a door that brings in disaster; a tongue is a sword that cuts off a head. A body will be in peace as long as its mouth is closed and its tongue is deep within." (口是禍之門 舌是斬身刀 閉口深藏舌 安身處處牢). When the chief eunuch Kim Cheo-sun, who served three kings, entreated Yeonsangun to change his ways, the latter killed him by shooting arrows and personally cutting off his limbs, and punished his relatives down to the 7th degree. When Yeonsangun asked the royal secretaries whether such punishment was appropriate, they didn't dare to say otherwise. He also exiled a minister of rites for spilling a drink that he had poured.
Many people were afraid of his despotic rule and their voices were quelled, in stark contrast to the liberal era of his father.
Read more about this topic: Yeonsangun Of Joseon
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