Jeong Misu

Jeong Misu (鄭眉壽, 1456 – 15th day of the 4th lunar month, 1512) was a civil official of Joseon. He was a maternal grandson of Munjong and the son of Yeongyangwi Jeong Jong and Princess Gyeonghye.

Life

He was born in 1456 (2nd year of Sejo). His clan seat was Haeju, and his courtesy name was Gisu (耆叟). His father was Jeong Jong, who was enfeoffed as Yeongyangwi, and his mother was Princess Gyeonghye, the legitimate daughter of Munjong. At the time of Jeong Misu's birth, his father Jeong Jong had rebelled against Sejo and was in exile in Gwangju (光州), so Jeong Misu was born in Gwangju. When he was two years old, his maternal uncle Danjong died after receiving a death sentence by poison in Yeongwol.

After his father Jeong Jong was executed, in 1462 (8th year of Sejo), when he was seven, he came to the capital with his mother by royal decree. Ordinarily, the families of traitors were to be implicated under the Great Ming Code, but by special decree of Sejo, Princess Gyeonghye and Jeong Misu were exempted from implication, and both had their ranks fully restored.¹ Afterward, in 1473 (4th year of Seongjong), he began his official career as a junior official of the Donnyeongbu. At that time, many people opposed his appointment on the grounds that he was the son of a traitor,²³ but Queen Jeonghui, who was then conducting a regency and was the queen of Sejo, quelled the opposition by citing Sejo's last instructions.⁴ Meanwhile, on the 30th day of the 12th lunar month of that year, his mother Princess Gyeonghye died. At that time, Jeong Misu, who was 16, devoted himself to caring for her during her illness: he always tasted her medicine first, did not take off his clothes, and even personally tasted her excrement.