Eulsa Purge
When the boy king Myeongjong came to the throne, his maternal uncle Yun Won-hyeong (the “Lesser Yun”) destroyed Yun Im (the “Greater Yun”) and the scholars around him — the fourth literati purge.
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The brothers of Jungjong’s two queens split into the “Greater Yun” (Yun Im), backing Injong, and the “Lesser Yun” (Yun Won-hyeong), backing Myeongjong. When Injong died after eight months and the twelve-year-old Myeongjong succeeded, his mother Queen Munjeong ruled as regent and Yun Won-hyeong had Yun Im’s faction and allied scholars killed for treason. The Yangjae Station wall-poster affair of 1547 drove out the rest.
Government decayed amid the in-law struggle. Queen Munjeong revived Buddhism through the monk Bou, restoring the monastic examination. In Hwanghae Province the outlaw Im Kkeok-jeong, of butcher birth, raided government offices from Mount Guwol for three years until his capture in 1562; the court historian wrote that banditry came from magistrates’ extortion, and extortion from ministers who were not honest.