Person1536 – 1593

Jeong Cheol (Songgang)

Also called: Songgang

Master of gasa verse who wrote the Gwandong byeolgok and Samiingok; as a Westerner he ran the Jeong Yeo-rip treason inquiry

A leading Westerner, he took charge of the inquiry after the Jeong Yeo-rip treason case of 1589 and harshly punished Yi Bal and other Easterners (the Gichuk Purge). In 1591 his proposal to name Gwanghaegun crown prince angered Seonjo and he was exiled, and the question of how to punish him split the Easterners into Southerners and Northerners. His gasa such as the Gwandong byeolgok, written as governor of Gangwon, and the Samiingok and Sok-miingok, and sijo such as the Hunminga make him a master of Korean-language verse.

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1 related event

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1589 – 1591Jeong Yeo-rip Treason Case and the Gichuk Purgeleader
Accused of plotting rebellion, the Easterner Jeong Yeo-rip took his own life, and the purge led by the Westerner Jeong Cheol struck down some thousand Easterners.

People who appear alongside

King Seonjo1552 – 1608
Fourteenth king of Joseon; fled to Uiju and asked Ming for help
Jeong Yeo-rip1589
Easterner from Jeonju who formed the Daedonggye; accused of treason, he killed himself, setting off the purge of 1589

Themes this person appears in

Factional Politics in Joseon1498 – 1863
From the literati purges to in-law government — how Sarim factions moved from coexistence and checks to purges and one-faction rule, then through Tangpyeong to the dominance of a few clans
JeonjuAD 685 – 1894
From Wansanju, capital of Later Baekje, to the ancestral seat of the Joseon royal house — where the Annals were saved and the Donghak army took the fortress