Volta
Person1607 – 1689

Song Si-yeol

Leader of the Westerners (later the Noron), adviser to Hyojong’s northern campaign plan and chief voice in the mourning-rite disputes; forced to take poison in 1689

A disciple of Kim Jang-saeng, heir to Yi I's school. He won Hyojong's trust and planned the northern expedition with him. In the mourning rite disputes he led the Westerner position, insisting that the royal house follow the same rites as scholar-officials. When the Westerners split, he became leader of the Noron (Old Doctrine). Opposing the naming of Consort Jang's son as heir in 1689, he was exiled to Jeju in the Gisa hwanguk and was made to drink poison at Jeongeup on the way back to the capital.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

3 related events

  1. 1
    1649 – 1659Hyojong’s Northern Expedition Planparticipant

    Hyojong, once a hostage in Qing, expanded the Eoyeongcheong army and recruited Song Si-yeol and others to prepare a campaign against the Qing; the plan died with him.

  2. 2
    1659 – 1674Mourning Rite Disputesparticipant

    Twice, on the deaths of Hyojong and his queen, the Westerners and Southerners clashed over how long the dowager queen should wear mourning; the Westerners won in 1659, the Southerners in 1674.

  3. 3
    1680 – 1694Sukjong’s Changes of Power (Hwanguk)related figure

    Three times Sukjong replaced the ruling faction wholesale (1680, 1689, 1694); along the way the Westerners split into the Noron and Soron.

People who appear alongside

  • Hyojong1619 – 1659

    Seventeenth king of Joseon; a former hostage in Qing who planned a northern campaign and sent troops against Russia

  • Hyeonjong1641 – 1674

    Eighteenth king of Joseon, born in Shenyang where his father Hyojong was a hostage; both mourning-rite disputes took place in his reign

  • Heo Mok1595 – 1682

    Southerner scholar who opposed Song Si-yeol in the mourning-rite disputes, stressing Hyojong’s legitimacy as king

  • Sukjong1661 – 1720

    Nineteenth king of Joseon, who used factional reversals to strengthen the throne

  • Heo Jeok1610 – 1680

    Southerner chief state councillor who had the Sangpyeong tongbo coin minted for general use; ousted and executed in the 1680 change of power

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

  • Ming, Qing and Edo Japan1500 – 1800

    The age when the Ming, shaken by northern raiders, southern pirates and the silver economy, fell to Li Zicheng’s rebels, and the Manchu Qing reached its greatest extent and prosperity under Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong — as Japan was unified out of the Warring States into the Edo shogunate’s bakuhan order and closed country, and Joseon, after two great wars, met its neighbours through embassies to Edo and the Northern Learning

  • Reformation and Absolutism1517 – 1796

    From Luther’s Ninety-five Theses to Catherine the Great — the wars of religion of a divided Christendom ended at Westphalia, and absolute monarchs armed with divine right, standing armies, bureaucracies and mercantilism, followed by the enlightened despots of eastern Europe, contended for the balance of power among sovereign states